Parents are bowled over by the skyrocketing expenses of school supplies: 'Absolutely insane'

While the ongoing cost-of-living crisis torments even those who live alone, we can only imagine what families with one or more kids go through. Many on the internet talk about the surging prices of groceries and real estate, but the yearly school supplies for kids are silently draining incomes too. As schools are starting to open, parents are going crazy over shopping for school supplies. Moms on TikTok are baffled by the soaring costs of stationery and school essentials and they are sharing their receipts in disbelief.

Christy (@cramer.crew), who calls herself a "baseball mom," revealed how much she paid for her children's back-to-school shopping and it's sure to raise eyebrows. Having been recommended Target as the most cost-effective place to shop for school supplies, the mom bought several stationery items from the store. It included crayons, notebooks, folders, pens and other school essentials which amounted to $170.23. "Absolutely insane. Insane," exclaimed Christy. A few in the comments asked if the mom expected "underpaid" teachers to provide these supplies and some even pointed out that $170 for two kids seemed reasonable.

However, Christy clarified that she was simply pointing out the effects of inflation. "Compared to previous years, my issue is with inflation, not the list or teachers," she confirmed in the comments section. "The supplies themselves were cheap. When it came to wipes, towels and all the jazz, that’s what made my total go up," said @l.s.p.1. "Girl same! I took all three girls and spent $360! Now some of that was clothes, but not a lot and I still had to go back and spend another $60 on supplies," chimed in @suzanne_girlmom. "Our school has us order supplies through a company so we don't have to shop and for my second-grader, it came out to $190 just for ONE kid!! I still had to buy for my kindergartener so I’m going to Target," added @courtneyh_21.

Harlee, who goes by @addi_archers_mommy on TikTok, also had the same perspective while shopping for school supplies. "I just spent about $100 on my first grader’s school supplies and they wouldn’t even let me buy anything fun," the mom stated. She shared the plethora of essentials she bought for her first-grader and was so dejected at how she couldn't shop for fun stationery items. Especially, the plain red and blue folders made her "sad" because she found it boring to buy such "disgusting" stuff suggested by the school. 

Adding to this, another mom and a registered nurse, Noel (@noel.cannon on TikTok), sarcastically pointed out the insanity of school supplies expenses. "Kissing my paycheck goodbye to school supplies," Noel mentioned in her video's caption. The mom of four had two separate lists of school supplies to shop for her third and fifth-grade kids. As the stationery gradually filled up the shopping cart, the text overlay read, "Goodbye paycheck." Little did we expect that shopping for even simple school supplies would reflect the current status of the staggering economy.

You can follow Christy (@cramer.crew), Harlee (@addi_archers_mommy) and Nurse Noel (@noel.cannon) on TikTok for more motherhood, parenting and lifestyle content.