Back to school: 5 tips to optimize school expenses

The face-to-face classes They will return this 2022 and, as usual, the first months of the year are complicated for parents, since they must cover their children’s school expenses.

Many of them seek to manage the money saved or borrowed, which will be destined for the purchase of supplies, tuition fees, uniforms and more.

In this context, Jorge Carrillo Acosta, professor and finance expert at Pacífico Business School, offers some suggestions to optimize our resources.

Make a list of all expenses and put them in order

List, with as much detail as possible, all the payments that you must make in this school campaign, and then prioritize them in order of importance, placing the most urgent expenses first.

For example, the first things on the list should be pensions, school textbooks and uniforms, to leave at the end some things that we could reuse from previous years, such as the backpack, the lunch box or some supplies.

This will allow you to have a guide of the order in which everything should be canceled, so as not to risk spending money on the least relevant.

Respect the destination of the borrowed money

If you requested financing to cover school expenses, it is not advisable to use it for other issues, since it can cause you to end up lacking the money, and that some expense is left unpaid. This would harm your family and also your finances, as you will probably have to resort to last-minute loans, which are usually the most expensive.

Look for the best options in advance

Although some expenses cannot be changed, such as tuition and pensions, it is possible to save on other items, such as the purchase of uniforms and school supplies.

This will be achieved if we take the time to look for the best price alternatives, without sacrificing quality.

As much as there is enough money, saving on these purchases will always be the best, so that we have enough money and, if possible, have more than enough.

Organize with other parents and buy in volume

If you know the parents of your children’s school friends well, it may be a good option to make school purchases together, since it will allow you to obtain discounts for purchasing several units of the same product.

Even if you organize ahead of time, you could team up and split purchases, thereby achieving ‘wholesale’ prices.

For example, a group of parents can purchase uniforms; another group, of books, and another, of school supplies.

Don’t buy more than you need

Sometimes, parents get excited when doing school shopping, which leads to buying unnecessary products or additional amounts, such as an extra polo shirt, another notebook ‘just in case’, an extra book, etc.

Remember that it is important to make smart purchases, without spending inappropriately.