Start Preparing for Back to School
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If you haven’t started preparing already for Back to School thats ok your here now and I am going to set you up to be ready for those costs when they start arriving.
As always we are going to start with a list. Who doesn’t need an excuse for a list?
Back to School Supplies List
Start with the most ovbious, School fees, Books, Uniforms, coats, Track suits, backpack, etc…..
Now look at that list and see if there is anything you can cross off it. School bags, does it really need to be replaced or are we doing it because all the kids will have new bags. If the bag from last year is not suitable fair enough but usually you can get up to 4 years out of a good quality bag. Same with pencil cases and lunch boxes.
The Back to School Budget
From here we are going to start building the Back to School Budget. Each item listed comes with an associated cost. We would like to try estimate these costs as close as we can. Looking back on last year is a great place to start. Books can be a hard one but things like uniforms, coats, bags are easier to estimate. Total everything up. Once you have this number you divide by the amount of weeks till the end of July/mid August. This is how much we aim to put aside each week to meet these costs. Using savings trackers can be fun and motivating so I have a FREE Back to School saving tracker available for you to use.
Start Preparing your Back to school Plan
You have your budget but you dont have the money to buy everything now. But over the next few weeks you will, so setting up a plan is a near guarentted way of buying everything on the list without going into panic mode.
Beside the list we are now going to include dates. School fees usually come in first. So adjancet to school fees we are going to write in May. Next up Books, asign the next few weeks money to this. Contuine down throught the list. By the time you have finished you will know what the budget is been allocated to for that week/month and you should be all prepared come the start of school term.
Preparing your application for the Back to School Allowance
This is a very expensive time of year with people on low incomes struggling to prepar their children for school. The goverment do have an allowance available to help with the cost of uniforms and footwear. Anyone in receipt of social welfare could receive this allowance automaticly but if you don’t you need to apply. You can start applying from Jun and closing date for applicates is 30th Sept on mywelfare.ie
Weekly Income Limits for Back to School Allowance
The income Limit is increased by €50 for each additional child.
This allowance is also means tested so the following deduction are taken into account
Rates of Back to School Allowance
For children aged between 4 – 11, you reveive €160 per eligible child and for children between 12-22(must be in education) you reveive €285. *Note for 2023 there will be an increase. 4-11 will receive €260 and 12-22 €385.
*for full details please visit Revenues Website
Preparing a year in Advance for Back to School
School costs come up all throughout the year and its always “Mammy, I need €2” or its the school trip. Its never ending. I wanted to be more prepared for these costs. So I set up a cash envelope sinking fund to cover these expenses. I tracked all the costs for the year and for 2 girls in primary it was costing around €60 a month. So this is now a constance cash envelope in our Household Budget. If you want to learn more about cash stuffing you might like this blog
