BACK TO SCHOOL GUIDE: AN EARLY START

By now most parents would have received a package from their child/children’s school containing vouchers for school fees and booklists. Most would have concluded, and rightly so, that caring for children is costly as almost all their needs require money. So how do you cope, by carefully reviewing your expenses and income and prioritising your expenditure, in other word, by creating a budget. The Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) advises that you start with this month’s budget, if you have not already begun your process of review.

By allocating some of July’s salary for school expenses parents will be able to take advantage of sales on: fabric for uniforms; school supplies; and text books. Parents will also be able to buy from old textbook stocks, which will cost less than buying from new stocks in and near to September.

Even if you don’t heed our advice and decide to wait until the week before school begins use the list below to reduce your cost.

Make & Arrange a list
Parents should resist the urge to grab the booklist and go shopping; instead a careful review should be conducted of the child’s:

1. Booklist
2. Uniforms
3. Shoes
4. School Supplies (pens, pencils, notebooks etc)

Doing this will help you eliminate waste, you may discover your child has 2 unused notebooks and a pack of pencils, and will help you to better organise and plan your expenditure. When you organise your list you can then consult with friends, relatives or even other parents from your child’s class and arrange to buy some items such as, material for uniform and pens, in bulk. You will also be better able to plan how you go shopping, comparison shop, select your locations and save.

Look at your options
Now that you have organised yourself and know which items it is likely that you will need start asking around. See if a relative, friend, church brother/sister etc have items that you need which you can Borrow. If they seem opposed to lending then ask them about Rental first and then Purchase after. Another option is to rent on your child’s schoolbook rental programme.

Comparison Shop
If you find there is no alternative (Borrowing/Rental) then shop around for the best purchase price you can find. Look out for Used books and Book Exchange Deals. Ask students who just finished that grade to sell their books at a Reduced cost.

If you have access to the internet you should visit online bookstores such as Barnes and Noble. These not only provide you with options such as hard or soft covers that may not be available, but usually have access to larger quantities and tend to have several specials. The cost of shipping may not be as high as you think, as duty is charged on what you actually paid and not the value of the book. Our checks reveal that it is sometimes cheaper to buy online and ship to Jamaica than to buy the book here.

Finally use the CAC’s Annual text Book Survey to guide your decision about what to buy where. The findings from the 2003 survey will be available in August. Findings from previous years are available at our head office or on our website; although the prices may be out dated they can give a trend as to where prices have been consistently better in previous years.

Tell us what issues you want addressed

Send e-mail to: cacjam@infochan.com or star@gleaner.com

Write to us at: 1B Holborn Road, Kingston 10 Or call us at: 926-1650-2 or toll free 1-888-991-4470, ask for our Information Desk