SEATTLE - Before you dole out hundreds of dollars filling the classroom supply shopping lists provided by your school, take a look around the house. Chances are that ruler, pencil sharpener, three-ring binder and scissors are still with you, just hiding in a drawer somewhere.
Buying new each year costs time, money and anxiety. We found a sixth-grade classroom supply list from a Seattle school and set out to buy each item.
Here we go:
- Two packages of 200 sheets of white line college ruled paper.
- One package of loose leaf graph paper.
- One 5-subject spiral notebook.
- One large three ring binder.
- One 1/4 inch three ring binder.
- Two 1-subject spiral notebooks.
- One package of 8 dividers for binder.
- Four packages of blue or black pens.
- One package of red correcting pens.
- Four packages of No. 2 pencils.
- One personal non-electric pencil sharpener.
- One box of markers
- One box of colored pencils
- Two highlighters
- Two black markers
- One large pink pearl eraser
- One ruler
- One pair of scissors
- Three large glue sticks
- One supply box
- Two packs of 3x3 post-it notes
- Two packs of 3x5 ruled index cards
- One hole-punched pencil pouch for the binder
Grand total: $62.22, and that doesn't include the cost of back to school clothes or lunch supplies.
"The average American spends $600 a year on school supplies," said King County EcoConsumer Tom Watson. Watson said there are some places to save money. He suggests you find reusable items from last year, replace individual lunch drinks with reusable jugs filled from bulk juices or the water tap, reusable and easy to clean sandwich wraps and a reusable lunch box or bag.
He said there a lot of eco-friendly products out there you can buy, but the friendliest method is still reusing existing products.
