Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 15, 1994 TAG: 9408150008
SECTION: MONEY PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As school approaches, students need, or demand, new wardrobes of the latest fashions and fads. And while education is free, the costs of fees and other special charges will add up - especially for the family with more than one child in classes.
Jean Vandergrift, Roanoke County home economics agent, said there is one break for besieged parents this year. Those with children in public schools won't have to pay book fees, saving what had been a big cost.
Vandergrift's advice is to do the minimum amount of shopping before school begins, despite what all of the advertising is telling you.
Elementary and middle schools will send home with their students lists of supplies that the youngsters are expected to have. Wait for this list, Vandergrift said, and then buy only the items that appear on it.
Even if there is no list, she said, it will do no harm to wait a day or two into the school year before buying notebooks, pencils and such. You'll have a better idea of the things your students will need.
When it comes to clothing and supplies, Vandergrift said, watch the newspaper ads for sales. Many items you need will be priced as promotions, she said, and you can perhaps save $5 to $10 per student by such comparison shopping and using promotional items.
The guideline of the Virginia Tech Cooperative Extension Service is that a family should spend from 6 percent to 12 percent of take-home pay - not gross wages - for clothing. That should cover the entire family for a full year.
If a family budgets 12 percent for everyone's clothing, she said, that represents 1 percent of take-home pay a month. And, Vandergrift said, that covers August and September, when students go back to school.
August and September are hot months, Vandergrift said. That means you should send children back to school in summer clothes, not their new duds, she said.
That should give the wise parent time to plan for fall and winter wardrobes and to watch the sales, she said. And it will give your children time to get to school and determine what latest fads in clothing their peers are wearing. All too often, she said, clothing purchased too early in the school year ends up hanging unworn in the closet.
There's one big exception - shoes. Vandergrift said all the kids are wearing tennis shoes, so you know this in advance. Let them buy shoes for the school year now, she said, "and appease them."
Putting consumable items on a credit account is a bad idea, Vandergrift said. Credit lines should represent no more than 12 percent to 15 percent of a family's take-home pay, she said, and back-to-school items should be no more than 2 percentage points of that amount. Even that much is ill- advised if the family has other debts such as a car payment.
Vandergrift urged families to buy school lunches, however. That outlay may seem like a lot, she said, but school lunches are one of the best bargains around.
Virginia Garretson, president of Consumer Credit Counseling in Roanoke, said the agency's phones, which are relatively quiet in the summer, start ringing again about this time of year. The reason, she said, is back-to-school costs and fees.
The agency, which is supported by local businesses, helps people work through their credit problems.
It's not unusual, she said, for families to spend $300 to $400 per child to get them back to school. Of that amount, she said, many families spend $150 to $200 a child for clothing "they think they have to have."
When buying clothing, she said, remember that you will need money for school when classes begin.
In Roanoke, she said, fees for ninth- and 10th-graders are $34.67 for dues, postage, gym clothing, locker fees and towel fees.
This drops to $22.50 in the 11th grade when gym fees are dropped. But 12th-graders must pay $32.50 because of senior costs.
This doesn't include optional insurance or the cost of field trips, she said.
Any student driving to school must pay $6.50 for a parking permit, plus insurance and gasoline.
Garretson said parents also must pay in the range of $10 to $30 for supplies.
There is one cost that may actually drop for parents of younger children, however.
Vandergrift said parents may save the costs of baby-sitting fees that they paid during the summer. Back-to-school fees, she said, cover child care during school hours.
by CNB