Mum shares thrift tips
Australia’s biggest family cuts back-to-school costs by budgeting
ALL parents know the stress of preparing children to head back to school every year.
There is back to school shopping which is always expensive, making sure old uniforms still fit, and having to think about preparing nutritious lunches your kids will actually eat.
It is a lot for any parent. But one mum, Jeni Bonell aka Toowoomba’s supermum needs to be a little more prepared than most as she has 16 children.
The Bonells are Australia’s largest family, and ahead of the back-to-school rush Mrs Bonell spoke with Weekend Sunrise about how she prepares for the busy time of year.
She and her husband Ray Bonell know they have to be very organised if they want to save money and make heading back to school as stress-free as possible.
The pair’s children are: Jesse, 29, Brooke, 27, Claire, 24, Natalie, 23, Karl, 21, Sam, 20, Cameron,18, Sabrina, 17, Tim, 15, Brandon, 13, Eve, 12, Nate, 11, Rachel, 9, Eric, 8, Damian, 7, and Katie, 4.
While eight of the children have graduated, Mrs Bonell still has eight children to prepare for school and if anyone knows how to slash school costs it’s her.
Australian parents are set to spend more than $1 billion on uniforms and shoes in 2019, according to the Back to School 2019 report, conducted by YouGov Galaxy on behalf of Big W.
It works out to be $476 per child.
Mrs Bonell said that figure did not come as a surprise.
“Back to school is a really expensive time and hard on the budget, so I would believe that figure,” she said.
She said she had begun preparing last year and said her top tip was to write a list and set a budget.
“We like to keep an eye on any sales so we can stock up on items for back to school. We also try to go through books that we’ve already got to see if we can re-use anything,” she said.
“We’ve got to save, save, save.
“There is nothing wrong with buying generic or cheaper brands. We did most of our shopping at Big W and did exactly that.”
She said if they were items that could be personalised such as school books, parents could decorate them quite cheaply.
Other tips include comparing prices online and in-store, look for big ticket items in the post-Christmas sales, buy items that offer the best bang for your buck, label everything and buy an extra hat.
She also suggests opening a savings account to easily prepare for the following year.