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DEL.ICIO.USMoney-saving tips for back-to-school
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Life was a lot simpler when my parents prepared me to go back to school. Cheaper, too. We’d make a family trip to Dew Orr Department Store in Arkadelphia, Ark., and buy $5-a-pair bluejeans as well as shirts for about the same price.
Mr. Orr gave away a pocket knife with the purchase. My guess is that not many stores these days offer knives as back-to-school shopping bonuses.
Instead, there are a bewildering number of items touted in advertisements aimed at the back-to-school crowd. If you believed all of them, you’d need to sell your house and car to buy “essentials” such as an iPod, digital camera and GPS locator.
My goal today is to offer some sensible advice when it comes to technology for your back-to-school kids. I’m going to limit this to middle school and high school students. College-age students offer different challenges.
We’ll start with something I wouldn’t buy, at least as an item to take to school — a laptop computer. The life span of that computer would be somewhere between that of a housefly and a daffodil. If it doesn’t get stolen, it’ll get broken. There may be families and schools where that advice doesn’t apply. If you’re in that boat, congratulations and say hello to all the folks in Mayberry for me.
That said, we still need to talk about computers. If you don’t have a separate computer for a student in this age group, it’s time to think about making that purchase. It can be a stay-at-home laptop or a desktop. There’s a good argument, since it isn’t going to be carried to school, for a desktop computer. You’ll get more for your money that way.
Even in households that already have two computers, a separate computer for your student can save a lot of heartbreak. When homework needs to be done, your student won’t be pushing you off your own computer just when you’re doing something vital … like killing space aliens or browsing the menu at a favorite restaurant.
I browsed through some of the computers from Dell and Gateway, and even the least expensive computers would do a fine job as a student computer. Just make sure you get at least 512 megabytes of RAM, even on a bottom-of-the-line machine.
If you don’t have a home network, you’ll need to start shopping for one. Much of what your future Einstein will be doing will involve research on the Web as well as sending e-mails about the new girl with red hair.
Even if you have a nice inkjet printer at home, you can save some serious money by considering adding a black-and-white laser printer. You’ll spend $200 or so. But the cost of each page printed will be just a fraction of what it costs with an inkjet printer. Anyone who has ever bought replacement inkjet cartridges can understand why. Students tend to print out a lot of their work — much more than the average home user — and a laser printer will pay for itself in a year or two.
I’d add a flash drive memory card to the back-to-school list, too. For $40 or $50 you can get one that plugs into the USB port of your computer and serves as a portable storage device — like a hard disk to go. Since I recommend against carting a laptop to most public schools, the flash drive will be a handy way to transport projects from school to home and vice versa. They’re pretty near indestructible. I’ve used one that had accidentally ended up in the washing machine.
Now let’s move to a few areas where you need to do research, as well as some critical thinking about your own children. Take cellular phones for instance — they can be a lifeline in a time of emergency as well as a distraction. Check your school’s policy on cellphones. Often they can be carried but not used during school hours. Make sure both you and your student understand and obey the school policy.
Another cloudy area is calculators. I’d suggest buying the very cheapest calculator as a starter. Some math and science classes, even at the middle school level, will require or suggest a more expensive scientific calculator. Wait until you know the specific requirement before spending a lot on a calculator.
I’d love to hear from parents who have suggestions about high-tech items for school. In my family, there is just one student left and she is 25 years old and wears $100 bluejeans.
If you know a good place to buy $5 bluejeans, I’d sure like to hear about it.
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Comments
By East cobb redneck
August 4, 2006 02:11 PM | Link to this
1 gig USB flash drive $24.99 @ Micro Center, great deal. $5.00 jeans sorry, I found them for $10.00 @ K-mart. Laptops are great because they can also go to college with you kid, Best buy has some good deals for less than $500.00 and that includes a CD writer and DVD ROM. Happy shopping, thankfully I only have one out of 3 left in school.
By Cletus Snow
August 4, 2006 03:01 PM | Link to this
For clothes & shoes, big trouble kids are specific about brands & colors. Hi Tech = tigerdirect.com
By Shannon, M.Div.
August 4, 2006 04:14 PM | Link to this
For the record, I would not purchase a laptop for a high school student expecting that she or he can then take it to college (unless s/he is a senior, and probably not even then). Technology just changes too quickly… Vista is about to come out… and laptops are notoriously difficult (abd often impossible) to upgrade. Colleges also sometimes have specific requirements to connect to their networks—certain network cards, for instance, and the laptops must often run a college’s proprietary software. Finally, a laptop purchased for a high school sophomore now would be nearly seven years old by the time (s)he graduates from college, presuming no years off or repeated. A six year old laptop won’t do the trick for a college senior, so if you buy too young, anticipate buying again in a few years.
By Della
August 5, 2006 10:55 AM | Link to this
My best advice is do not buy more than you need. Generally, upgrades become cheaper the longer you wait. I agree that 512Mb is the minimum memory required nowadays. Look at how much space is used on your old hard drive to help decide what size to get in the next computer. Try to wait until after the back-to-school blitz for two reasons: 1. You will know better what you need; 2. It will be cheaper. (This is relevant to technology, clothes, lunchboxes, almost everything.)
Sign up for the affinity cards at the office supply stores for monthly discounts.
EBay is good for some supplies like pens, backpacks, etc. Even paper and pencils can be a good deal if you search by distance and pick the items up from the seller rather than paying for shipping. Before bidding, ask the seller if they allow pick ups. Some, for very good reason, will insist on shipping.
Old HP LaserJet office printers such as the LaserJet 5 or 2000 series are a wonderful way to save money on printing. They are cheap to buy, built for harsh environments so they are nearly bulletproof compared to home quality printers, parts and service information is readily available, and there are several authorized service centers around that can clean and adjust and repair them. And you can’t beat the cost of toner. I get about 7,000 or 8,000 pages printed for about $50 compared to perhaps a few hundred pages for the same money for inkjet.
By Zoe
August 6, 2006 06:47 PM | Link to this
Bought a Brother HL 2040 Laser Printer at BJs for $109.99 BJs has an online $30 rebate AND Brother has a mail in rebate for $20 (I found it online, the form isn’t available at BJs)
Also saved the tax money- so we saved almost $59 on a nice little laser printer.
By Bill
August 6, 2006 09:21 PM | Link to this
Wow Zoe, if you had saved any more money on the laser printer the store would have had to pay you. Great job. Pretty good review from CNet here too.
By Della
August 7, 2006 09:20 AM | Link to this
When you shop for printers, see how much the ink or toner costs and how many pages you’ll get out of a cartridge. Carrot Ink (www.carrotink.com) used to post a huge list of printers with quality ratings and the cost to print per page with OEM and aftermarket replacement cartridges. It was amazing, even among brands, how that cost could vary. Even if they don’t have that list up, you can look up the capacity and cost of each cartridge on their site.
I would also check the printers User Ratings on www.cnet.com. Editors’ and real life users’ opinions can vary widely.
Regarding jeans, I have somewhat expensive taste in jeans and buy my $70 jeans on eBay for $10, usually. I suggest you go out and try on the ones you like, then look for the size, brand, and style on eBay. Look for New in the item specifics and make sure the shipping charges are not outrageous. Otherwise, check the closeout stores after the back-to-school rush and before Christmas shopping starts.