If you wanted to know the total cost of schooling in the public system from kindy to year 12, then take a deep breath because new figures estimate it’s around $70,000 on average in Australia.
A new report by the Australian Scholarships Group, which helps parents save for their child’s education, also predicts that Victoria will eventually become the country’s most expensive state for public schooling.
While a government education is small in comparison to the estimated $490,000 average cost of private schooling nation-wide, the public systems is still 25 per cent higher than it was a decade ago.
To help you out with some money saving tips ahead of that looming back to school date, our friends at the Femeconomy, with help from Officeworks and SugarMamma TV’s Canna Campbell have some tips to share in the blog post below. Enjoy!
Make a list
Having a shopping list will not only help you stay organised and prepared, it will also keep you focused so that you only buy what you need instead of the newest, most exciting products.
Check what you already own
Go through your home and see what items on your list you already own. This may take a while but it will force you to get organised and will stop you from wasting money by doubling up. Consider what you could get your hands on from family and friends too, hand me downs are a great option to save costs!
Free school list service
Officeworks also has a free School List Service where you can upload your kids’ Back to School list online or drop it off in-store, and they will gather all the products for you and package it up, so all you need to do is swing by your local store and collect it. This saves you from purchasing any unnecessary items or succumbing to pester power.
Use Officeworks match-and-save offer
Officeworks have a Parents Price Promise, which means if you find an identical stocked item on a quoted school list at a lower price, Officeworks will beat it by 20%. When comparing school lists, a family of three who shops at Officeworks can save approximately $300 on their back to school shop.
Focus on quality
If something looks poorly made or won’t survive your kid’s wear and tear regime, simply don’t buy it.
Femeconomy’s back-to-school approved brands – which are brands that employ more than 30 per cent women in senior leadership positions.
- Big W
- Coles
- David Jones
- HP
- JB Hi-Fi
- Kmart
- Officeworks
- Target
- Woolworths
