Mindless Fodder

To all you moms out there. I love back-2-school shopping. I loved getting new stuff as a kid and I love taking my girls to get their supplies. Last week was my date with Haylie and thats what we did. Yesterday was my date with Savannah and we went supply shopping. However......I don't know how many school districts offer this "special". We got a list at the end of the school year last year with an order form from EPI who offer to get the supplies for you and custom pack them depending on the grade your student is in. What a bunch of hokey. For instance: My first grader had a list of 17 items. EPI wanted to charge me $29. Spending just 30 minutes at Wal-Mart for all this stuff cost me $19.76. So for another $9.24 they would have given me a box and plastic wrap that I'd just throw away. Again, my fourth grader had a list of 27 items. EPI cost: $35. Same 30 minutes at Wal-Mart cost me $25.06. Instead of throwing $9.94 away on a box and plastic (which would buy three kids meals at Chic-Fil-A) I got out of the house, spent quality time with my daughters while teaching them the virtues of smart spending. Side note: the order form states that the supply packs are sold at the "school's cost" - yeah right.