{"id":20980,"date":"2024-07-31T09:21:43","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T08:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ccpc.ie\/consumers\/?p=20980"},"modified":"2024-07-31T09:21:43","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T08:21:43","slug":"a-savings-ace-your-back-to-school-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ccpc.inventise.ie\/consumers\/2024\/07\/31\/a-savings-ace-your-back-to-school-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"A+ savings: Ace your back-to-school budget"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your children might not want to think about going back to school in September, but for parents, it\u2019s never too early to get to grips with the costs involved. Planning early may mean you can avoid nasty surprises when the new school year rolls around. Using a <a href=\"https:\/\/ccpc.inventise.ie\/consumers\/money-tools\/budget-planner\/\">budget planner<\/a> like our one can help.<\/p>\n<h2>Know the costs<\/h2>\n<p>Make sure you know what costs are involved. Some of the costs you can expect include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Uniforms<\/li>\n<li>Books<\/li>\n<li>Devices, like tablets and laptops<\/li>\n<li>A voluntary contribution<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Uniforms<\/h2>\n<p>It is up to each individual school to decide on the type of uniform required, if any. You can save money by buying second hand, or by shopping around. The Department of Education has sent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tui.ie\/_fileupload\/cl0032_2017.pdf\">guidance to schools<\/a> advising them that only \u201ciron on\u201d or \u201csew on\u201d crests should be used, so you shouldn\u2019t be expected to buy unforms with crests, which are often only available from one supplier and can be more expensive.<\/p>\n<h2>Books<\/h2>\n<p>From September 2024, all Junior Cycle (1<sup>st<\/sup>, 2<sup>nd<\/sup> and 3<sup>rd<\/sup> year) children will have their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.ie\/pdf\/?file=https:\/\/assets.gov.ie\/286441\/2caaccc0-411a-437a-bf38-ad5c1ab6a310.pdf#page=null\">books provided free of charge<\/a>. Free schoolbooks are already available for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.ie\/en\/publication\/933a9-primary-schoolbooks-scheme\/?referrer=https:\/\/www.gov.ie\/en\/publication\/933a9-free-primary-schoolbooks-scheme\/\">primary school children<\/a>. These schemes do not apply to children in private, fee-paying schools.<\/p>\n<p>If you still need to buy books, you can save by buying second hand.<\/p>\n<h2>Devices<\/h2>\n<p>More and more school activities are done on laptops or tablets, and many schools require parents to buy a particular model, sometimes as part of a bundle that include specific programmes. However, the Department of Education\u2019s guidance on school costs says that generic (not branded) products should be used wherever possible.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/ccpc.inventise.ie\/business\/how-much-does-it-cost-to-send-a-child-to-school-in-ireland\/\">recent survey<\/a> carried out by the CCPC found that the average price paid by parents for a device was around \u20ac500. Worryingly, many parents did not realise that they had to buy a device for their child until after school started back.<\/p>\n<p>If you must buy a new device, shop around to find the best deal. And if you need to buy on credit, remember that not all credit options are the same. Whenever possible, avoid credit products that may come with high interest rates and additional fees.<\/p>\n<h2>Voluntary contribution<\/h2>\n<p>Many schools ask parents to make a voluntary contribution each year. This money is then used by the school for things like classroom materials, school trips, or other items that are not covered by the grant the school gets from the Department of Education.<\/p>\n<p>There is nothing to stop a school from asking you to make a voluntary contribution. However, they shouldn\u2019t present the payment as anything other than voluntary. In other words, they cannot make you pay the voluntary payment. If you want to pay it but can\u2019t afford to pay it all in one go, to the school and see if they can accept the payment in instalments.<\/p>\n<h2>Help is available<\/h2>\n<p>You should check if you are entitled to the <a href=\"https:\/\/services.mywelfare.ie\/en\/sales-pages\/back-to-school-clothing-and-footwear-allowance\/\">Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance<\/a>. This is a yearly payment to families on certain social welfare payments (including the Working Family Payment). Your Community Welfare Officer may help you with some once off costs. Finally, you can always talk to the school to see if they have options available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your children might not want to think about going back to school in September, but for parents, it\u2019s never too early to get to grips with the costs involved. Planning early may mean you can avoid nasty surprises when the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":20982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[184,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-money","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A+ savings: Ace your back-to-school budget - CCPC Consumers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission is an independent statutory body that enforces competition and consumer protection law in Ireland\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A+ savings: Ace your back-to-school budget - 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