Back to School Shopping- Top Ten Highschool Supplies List |

School is just around the corner and back to school shopping is in high gear. As you prepare to send your high school student back into the classroom, buying school supplies is probably tops on your list. While you are clipping coupons, and scouring the stores for the best bargains for back to school supplies such as backpacks, pens, and binders, there are some things your high school student doesn't need. These items can save the average family thousands of dollars or more when taken off the highschool supplies list. This is great news during a down economy. As you begin preparing your child to go back to school here are the ten items you won't need to buy this year for your student.

Top ten items your high school student does not need for back to school supplies:

1. A car- many high school students have the illusion that the most essential item for their back to school supplies is personal transportation. If you believe this please refer to item #4 below.
2. A credit card- The US financial crisis should be enough of a wake up call to parents everywhere that kids and credit cards are not a necessary paring. Make this the year that you cut up the cards (yours and theirs).
3. Cell phones (with unlimited texting of course)-from middle school to junior senior high school --students now consider this standard on their back to school supply list. Every year teachers have the unpleasant task of confiscating these items as students use them to cheat on tests, and text during lectures. Certainly an essential school supply in the minds of some kids, however, feel free to scratch this from your high school supply list.
4. Designer clothes- If you are the parent who believes your child needs to spend $2000 or more on a back to school wardrobe, you can consider yourself the victim of the "real housewives reality syndrome". Forget about spending your money on school shopping and consider spending it on some solid therapy sessions on self-esteem and good parenting skills.
5. Sharpie markers, spray paint, stickers, post office labels- In days gone by, you used to label your kids underwear when they went to summer camp, and their gym shorts at school. Now, however, some kids feel the insecure need to label more than underwear and gym clothes. Writing their name on their desk, the side of B-hall, the cafeteria tables, or the flagpole in front of school. My question is, if labeling your clothes was a deterrent to losing an item, where does your kid think his desk is going to go? Leave the marking items at home, they are not on the junior senior high school list of essential supplies.
6. Cosmetics for the class room- every high school girl feels that makeup is an essential back to school supply. It may be true that your high school student will use mascara and lip gloss more than pens and paper during class, however, they are not on the required back to school supply list. Furthermore, the smell of nail polish and acetone during advanced Algebra could be considered a biological hazard to all those eager young minds who are still trying to understand what "x" really has to do with "y".
7. Playing cards, dice, mini skateboards, paper goalie footballs- not essential back to school supplies. Perhaps in the mind of your student these are more essential than a book and binder (to break their boredom during a non-essential 20-minute lesson on US History), they are not, however, on the list of top ten high school supplies.
8. Teen magazines, fashion magazines, gossip magazines- While these publications will probably engage your student in more reading than they will participate in all semester during English Literature class, these magazines are also not on the top ten back to school supplies list.
9. Electronic devices for games and music- your child may tell you that their music appreciation class requires an iPod and the art class will study the 3D art of games- remember, they probably cut the music and art departments from your kids high school so that alone should clue you in that these devices are not on the top ten list of high school supplies.
10. Weapons of any kind including mace, screwdrivers, chains, files, pipes, nunchucks, brass knuckles, tire irons, swords, jewelry with sharp points, long pinky fingernails, bullying tactics, and all "mean girl" actions. None of these are on the list of high school "must haves".

While you shop for school supplies this year, take comfort in the fact that these items can get scratched from the budget and the essential back to school shopping list. Cutting these items from your highschool supplies lists can potentially save you a boatload this school year.