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Back to school is expensive! The kids all seemed to have grown over the summer. Too much good food I guess. So they all needed new pants, new shoes, new underwear that fit! Then there is the mile long list of supplies that are NOT (but you feel like they are) mandatory...paper, pencils, pens, notebooks, binders, dividers, kleenex, hand sanitizer, baby wipes, dry erase markers, highlighters, even reams of copy paper for the class. And then, just when you think you've finished drawing on your savings account, you go to registration. I don't know if things have changed, but there is no such thing as free public education anymore. Each of my children had fees, just to be able to go to school. There were activity fees, book rental fees, locker fees, gym locker fees, generic "registration" fees, and even a few voluntary fees like PTA and yearbook (which we skipped because we no longer had any money left!) Jeez, I'm going to stop feeding these kids to make up for sending them back to school! Oh, that reminds me, I have to put money in their school lunch accounts so they don't starve. :)