Dr. Richard Stephens
In our pervious article we looked at Back to School Debt and what alternatives you could take to honour your obligations. In this week’s article, we will look at Budgeting as it can play an integral role in escaping an overwhelming Back to School Debt.
A budget doesn’t have to be a difficult task, though there may be a number of things that you will need to deliberate and include. However, below are some techniques to help you with executing your budget for back to school.
Previously I wrote about making an arrangement for school fees, if you were having challenges you should have by now spoken with the school’s administration and have an arrangement in place, as mentioned previously “schools are not insensitive as they may appear”.
Alternative for lunch
Packing lunch isn’t such a bad idea. It does help you to save where you can from having to buy lunch. When you pack your child’s lunch you get a chance to guarantee good nutrition including their choice of lunch. A sandwich or two go/goes a far way.
Alternative for transportation
Car pooling or car sharing can save you big bucks, making arrangements with your neighbours or friends to pool your resources to get your children to school, can be a win, win situation. That is to say, for example, you this month and another parent the next month, this can cut your school fuel or transportation cost in half for the year.
Extra curriculum activities
Extra or co-curricula activities such as dancing, music, debate, karate and so on are those that fall outside the regular curriculum or program of the school. Arrangements can be made for payments on a weekly basis instead of the lump sum initially. Unpredictable cases may arise where your child may not be in attendance for the entire programme, thus it may prove quiet difficult to get back funds for non attendance.
Break time
This time is a highly important part of school life. The purchasing of snacks at the local supermarket would be more economical than the children purchasing them from the vendors outside the school yard.
These are just a few technical tips in getting around back to school difficulties. Therefore make your back to school budget an annual practice. Keep track of this year’s expenses to help figure out the budget for next year.
