The back-to-school shop is upon Australians again, dreaded by parents and loved by enthusiastic children.
With the cost of living continuing to hurt families, the start of the school year is the perfect time to save on essentials.
Guardian Australia has compiled major school costs across primary and secondary sectors and looked at what is on offer from the various retailers to explain how to best get bang for your buck before term one.
Technology
Many schools now have Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies in place, requiring students to provide their own laptops or tablets from year 7.
Officeworks’ portal allows parents to search options specific to their school’s requirements by value, ranging from $247 for the Lenovo 11.6 Chromebook to $1,447 for the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 – a dual laptop and tablet.
Good value and BYOD-recommended laptops include the $344 Acer Aspire 128GB laptop and the $347 Asus 15.6 Chromebook.
Officeworks says it will beat any eligible lower priced identical stocked item by 5% – so shop around at alternate technology suppliers such as JB Hi-Fi to see if you can land a bargain. For its part, JB Hi-Fi says it will enthusiastically match the price of an identically stocked competitor product. As of the time this was written, Chromebooks were going as cheap as $149 at the supplier.
If you’re happy to go secondhand, many online websites also trade in refurbished devices and old laptops. At Cash Converters, Chromebooks are on offer for as low as $50, while Reebelo, Recompute and Reboot It are also good options for cheap MacBooks and established brands – with warranty options.
Uniforms
Buying crisp new uniforms can be extremely costly. But luckily, it’s rarely required.
Most schools have secondhand uniform shops or school social pages where families sell clothes and accessories much cheaper than retail price.
If you’ve got older children, passing outgrown items down to younger years is another great option that also avoids waste.
There are also options to find similar school-appropriate clothing at a cheaper cost. At official suppliers such as Lowes, black pants, shirts or sport shorts often cost between $50 and $100. But at KMart, school clothes cost between $3.50 for tops and $25 for school shoes in a range of colours and styles, with similar prices at Target.
At Big W, the school range is less than $10 for individual items under its current back-to-school sale. Some polo shirts are as low as $2.50 – less than the price of a coffee.
Books and stationery
The yearly stationery list, often arranged via major suppliers such as Campion, provides an easy way to buy textbooks and other essential items in the one spot. But if you’ve got more time, cheaper options are available.
A maths set, ruler, pack of highlighters and pencils will set you back $5 at Kmart compared with more than $15 with Campion.
Broken down by item, a 35gm Bostik Blu stick is $4.50 via Campion’s order sheet, but it’s just $1.50 for a UHU Magic Blue Glue stick at Big W.
At Officeworks, a five-pack of 2B pencils is as low as $0.55 and Keji coloured pencils are $0.99 for a 12 pack, while Campion charges $6.45 for coloured Fabers.
For lunch boxes and water bottles, take a look at Kmart, which has 1L bottles on offer from 75c and clearance lunch bags for just $2. Backpacks can be bought from $5, slightly cheaper than Big W and Target.
Notebooks at Kmart are as cheap as20 cents and document wallets are just 50 cents.
Officeworks are also a good option for USB sticks, ranging from $4. They also stock headsets from $5 for basic options to funky designs that won’t break your budget.
And don’t forget secondhand for the annual shop and more expensive textbooks. While some editions may be new for 2024, others can be bought from secondhand bookshops, Facebook groups or the local op-shop.
Transport
States and territories have subsidies in place that either fully cover student public transportation or make it significantly cheaper.
New South Wales school students are entitled to free public transport if they live further than walking distance from their school, and subsidised public transport even if they live within a specified minimum distance, while Queensland, the ACT and Western Australia also have free schemes for eligible students under the school transport assistance scheme.
In Victoria and South Australia, school students are eligible for a pass which is 50% of a full fare, providing unlimited travel for full or half-year periods. Some jurisdictions, including Tasmania and the Northern Territory, also have travelling allowances for students living a certain distance from school.
If you’re farther than walking or cycling distance, try a carpool and share the load. You might even make new friends.
