Tuesday, September 1, 2009

School Shopping

So today I decided that since Ella starts school in a week I should probably go out and buy the things on her school supply list. The list was nice and short and I figured Wal-Mart would be the perfect place to go since I needed a couple other things too. But oh how wrong I was. This shopping trip alone has almost convinced me that Ella needs to be homeschooled. Let me show you how things went. Here is the list and how I fared:

1 Box Ziplock bags - managed to finally find these next to the toilet paper, picked out the cheapest ones only to have them ring up wrong at the register.

3-4 Large Glue Sticks - They only had packs of six. Guess we'll have extras to keep at home.

2 Containers of Sanitized Baby Wipes - Now, do they mean anti-bacterial wipes or baby wipes? These are two different things. I'm starting to get the feeling that the person who made this list is not the brightest crayon in the box. So I grabbed the anti-bacterial wipes since I'm more concerned about the germs at school than their baby-soft butts.

4 Boxes 8-pack Crayons - We had to go to the back of the store to the seasonal section to find these. They weren't with the other art and office supplies. But we found them and they were only $.78, so we're doing good.

1 8-pack Scented Markers - Scented? Really? We're encouraging our kids to sniff markers? There were plenty of Sharpie markers in all shapes and sizes to be had in the store, but I"m pretty sure that's not the kind of scent they were going for. There were no Kindergarten level markers anywhere. None. There weren't even any empty space where they should have been. I would've settled for washable rather than scented, but no such luck. There were blendable markers, mini-markers, sparkle markers, but no plain ole marker markers. Sigh.

Facial tissues - This one was easy enough once I found them (across the aisle from the elusive Ziplocks).

1 Bottle Hand Sanitizer - There wasn't a single one in the entire store. I am at Wal-Mart, right? The king of the large middle of the aisle stacks of things like hand sanitizer? But there wasn't one. You'd think that with school coming up they would have stocked up on things like this, and markers. But I guess that's asking a bit much. I was starting to get more than a little frustrated at this point. Wal-Mart was supposed to be my one-stop shopping locale, but I'm being hindered on all sides!!

1 Plain White T-shirt - Anyone want to split a 5 pack of boys undershirts? Because that's pretty much your only choice if you need a plain shirt. I didn't buy them. I figured I'll go to Goodwill and buy whatever they have, plain white or not. It's just going to get messed up with art projects anyways, so who cares if it's white or not. Sheesh.

So that was the school list. I managed to get 5 of the 8 things. Then for the things I needed. Saline. They didn't have any of the double packs on the shelf, so I was forced to buy the much more expensive single pack. Much more expensive. Urgh. And milk. There was one carton of milk left. That's it. And it was whole milk, which we don't drink. And it was waaaay more expensive than I normally pay. So no milk for me.

I was pretty riled up by now. Add to all this trying to contain my kids the whole time we're shopping and I'm about ready to start crying in anger. Yes, I have anger management problems. I know. So I finally give up and checked out (where I discovered the overpriced Ziplocks but was too frustrated to do anything about it). I wandered outside to find it was raining. Went down the wrong aisle to find my car. Finally found the car to find that the doofus who had been parked next to me felt I needed two new spots of white paint on the side of my car along with a fresh new dent. Seriously? I'm beyond all emotion at this point. I wouldn't have been surprised if I'd been hit by an airplane on the way home.

So yeah. If this is what school shopping is like every year, that homeschooling thing may just be the answer.

6 comments:

Amy said...

Thanks for your venting. It makes my day seem a little better now. I have only been home long enough to shower and snarf down a sandwich today. Doctors appointments, preschool, school pick-up, drop-off, exercising, trip to the scout store, pick-up antibiotic from store (Walmart too) - always a frustration! It seems never ending and now we're off to my sister-in-laws wedding.

Hope the rest of school prep is easier!

Dasha said...

That list isn't too bad. But, it is hard to find all at one stop. Last year for Spencer, the list was insanely long. I blogged about it and felt much better. It's good to have an outlet, right? Anyway, I could not believe the amount of stuff on that list. It was for the class not just for my kid. And the pack of 8 crayons? Well they got 24 because they were cheaper and if they don't like well...they can suck it, haha! And that's the whole reason I homeschool. No, not really, there's waaay more to it than that. But seriously though, those lists get pretty ridiculous. Good luck with the rest of the school year!

Lucy said...

I swear my school is exercising the "spreading the wealth" philosophy. Why would my daughter need to bring THREE boxes of tissues? I mean she won't use an entire box of tissues in a year let alone THREE. And my son's teacher, requested DRY ERASE markers... sure they have those little white boards by their desks. Um. No. I went to the school to see that the teacher was stockpiling them for her own white board... say what, use chalk it's cheaper... sorry to rant on your blog, needless to say you are NOT the only one.

Julene said...

Ok, this is why you shop as things are on sale. Crayons were .01 at Office max this week. And Albies has plain white tee's for $1. I am assuming they are for art shirts. I think your first problem was going to Walmart. They jack up the prices on school stuff and my walmart is always out of something, ALWAYS! Sorry you had such a bad time, but I did give you the cheap deals when you called. Oh and the dollar store has sanitizer, wipes and baggies.

Julene said...

Oh and have you priced homeschooling books, they are way more than public schools.

Monique said...

Just think... YOU don't have to do the curriculum. bleh. Scented Markers? Are they for real? I mean, really??? That's psycho. We don't have a school list at all. That is kinda nice, but then I looked forward to school shopping every year with my mom. My mom on the other hand... was a bit on edge. Now I know why.