Filling the kids' backpacks for the start of classes empties their wallets: this school year begins with
sharp increases in the prices of supplies and other school supplies
.
Parents become experts in price comparison and, in certain cases, true savers.
How much does it cost to buy a backpack and fill it with the most basic supplies?
Following the parents' routine,
Clarín
scoured the streets and bookstore websites to estimate budgets.
During the last few weeks, cases of users reporting the prices and savings that can be achieved if one goes to the Once area have gone viral on different social networks.
Backpacks from
17 thousand pesos to 60 thousand
, depending on the sizes, the prints and, above all, if they have a stroller.
Another issue is if the place where prices are searched is on the web, in sites like Alot or Librerías Levalle.
There, a backpack with a stroller can exceed
100 thousand pesos
, while more modest and smaller backpacks do not go below 30 thousand, although they are the most purchased and there is almost no
stock
available.
Some cartridge cases cost just a few pesos less, which in some cases reach $
22,000
in their most basic and smallest versions
.
In Once, it is possible to get some more modest ones for less than half, sometimes for seven or eight times less money.
Mercado Libre also allows you to save, although not as markedly.
Backpacks range from 17 thousand to 60 thousand pesos in Once.
Photo Juano Tesone
Time to fill the holster.
A normal, common pen averages a thousand pesos in those places, six times more than in Once or in wholesale bookstores in the City.
The box of ten or twelve colored pencils costs more than six thousand pesos in the cheapest cases.
If the boy has a two- or three-story holster, common to see and difficult to fill today, the budget can skyrocket.
Boxes of 24 pencils cost around ten thousand, if they are second brands.
In these cases, walking through Once can save at least a quarter of the budget.
A black Bic
pencil
costs 500 pesos per unit in these chains, and a flimsy plastic pencil sharpener costs approximately 150 pesos.
If you want a metallic, more durable one, you have to spend around a thousand pesos.
Another thousand pesos, at least, costs a pen corrector;
and another thousand more the famous plasticola.
Six coloring fibers range between 1,200 and 1,500 pesos, both in these bookstore chains, in Mercado Libre and in Once.
Filling the holster this year became very difficult.
Photo Juano Tesone
Notebooks category, extremely important.
There is hardly any stock on the Alot or Librerías Levalle websites, and you have to wait in long lines to get them in Once, but a 48-sheet hardcover notebook costs 2,500 pesos in the first places, 700 pesos less in Once, always in the case of second or third brands.
Opting for recognized brands (Rivadavia or Éxito) increases the budget twice, wherever you buy.
In the case of students who attend secondary school, where not only notebooks but folders are requested, the values are different and greater.
A box of 48 sheets for folder N°3 – the most common size –, which is used to get by, costs two thousand pesos on average.
A box of
480 traditional sheets costs $15,000
in Alot or Levalle, and if you want reinforced margins you can double the budget, if you are looking for top brands.
At Once, you can get these same boxes for almost half the price.
In any case, parents should, in all cases, shop around to find affordable prices.
Only by jumping from page to page, from place to place, from street to street can you save your wallet and thus be able to cover the fees, in the case of those who choose private schools, or food for the children's recess.
MG