I'm a bit late for making this thread since my parents began seeing back-to school-ads last week, but oh well. This made me wonder what most people would say.

How soon before you start school do/did you buy new school supplies? People who have already graduated from school can also answer this question, or parents that have to buy school supplies for their kids. Also, how soon before your school year starts do you begin seeing back-to-school ads?

My school used to give me a list of supplies I would need for the following year so I'd be able to buy all my supplies 2-3 weeks before I start school. However, my school doesn't do that anymore so 2-3 weeks in advance, I can buy the basic necessities I know I'll need like folders. But I won't be able to buy everything else I need until my teachers tell me what I need for their classes. So I have to wait until the first day of school or sometimes later :/

I start seeing back-to-school ads at the beginning of July every year, so about a month and a half before my school year begins, I have to deal with those ads.

When I always had like a new school term or a new upgraded class to go to. I always told my mother what I needed. And when I used to go shopping for school. I enjoyed it a lot because of the things I got. Like pencils pen, rubbers books and more. Its a shame that well school happens to come and go and when you get older. You'll miss that part of it.

Eniitan : I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it! I can never enjoy shopping much unless I'm shopping with/for friends. I can also enjoy it if I'm shopping for myself and if it's something besides school supplies

I think I will miss back-to-school shopping after I graduate high school though. I'll miss school in general a lot because I've really enjoyed high school and made many new friends there that I plan on keeping.

We save the lists from each year and shop based on that. They don't change very much or at all. We start collecting supplies in early June. I'm almost done with this year list and still have time to get whatever has changed when they put up the new list.

Pacman+Mariofan : Yeah.....I mean most people will. I can understand why it really wasn't really fun for most people to do. But you may enjoy it more when shopping with yourself for that. It will be either the one thing that they would miss or not. Not everyone was happy when school was back. While some others were in a way. Ready to learn something new and what that 1 year adventure would hold for them.

Kilian : Oh, that's a smart idea My family and I always throw away the old lists which is probably why we struggle to think of what I'll most likely need for my classes, especially my elective classes. It's nice that you're almost done shopping already, I like getting things out of the way especially shopping.

Eniitan : Yeah, sometimes I kind of enjoy shopping for my own school supplies but I don't refuse to shop otherwise. Eventually I'll have to do a lot of shopping myself to provide for me and my future family (and maybe even have to shop for my parents once in a while). I'm one of those weird people that gets excited for school every year because it gives me more to do and it's easier to talk to my friends often during the school year!

Pacman+Mariofan : That's awesome to hear pac. I do hope when you do go back to school and this will be in Sept I am sure? That you will have a blast that you would do most of the time. Or when you actually do. I love to enjoy my own shopping weather its for baking or not. It gives me that sense of freedom in a way.

Nope, we're poor, so we buy them near when school starts because there's a possibility we have more money that way. I also think it's better to do that since there's a possibility that those school supplies you buy early can be worn out before school even starts.

Eniitan : Thank you! I have never gone to school starting in September even though I think that's when it should start. I always start school a little while after the middle of August so I already have only a month left of summer vacation I'm confident that I'll have a great time and if my friends don't end up in my classes I can try to make new friends as long as I'm careful.

Lexatom : Sorry to hear that. That's a good idea and now I'm more glad that I usually buy them close to the start of my school year. Yeah, you never know what can happen to your school supplies. Most of my folders don't last the entire school year because they become entirely ripped!

Pacman+Mariofan : Oh wow....sorry to say your school has holiday odd times. I thought you would start anew in Sept? Wow schools are really different in the usa and I guess I have to remember that somehow. :/

No, I was always the guy who put things off until the very last minute, if not just being late altogether. 

In Elementary and Middle School, when my parents would still help with that kind of thing, then yea, it would always be bought with plenty of time in advance. My mom and I would always make sure to buy everything I would need ahead of time so we didn't have to worry about it when school actually started. My mom actually works for the same school district I went to as a Nurse, so she would get busy with work at the exact same time I started going back to school. It was a lot easier on her to get it all done with plenty of time to spare, especially considering I was always in sports and stuff after school as well. 

Once I was in High School and responsible for myself, I almost never bought anything ahead of time. I'd wait to see what the class would require of me, then do the absolute bare minimum to get by. Half the time I wouldn't even get what they wanted me to, and just made do with whatever I had at the time. My teachers didn't exactly like it, but at the same time, they couldn't force me to do it either. It's not like many High School classes require much besides a notebook, binder, and pen / pencil anyway. Even if they did, the school had alternative options for families that couldn't afford to get said supplies on their own, so I generally just used whatever they had that was free. It's not like I couldn't afford it or anything, I just didn't care enough at the time to pay for it with my own money. So much for my parents trying to teach me to be responsible, huh?

Huh. Back when I was in high school or even before that, my parents would immediately start buying school supplies like 1-3 months before school even starts (they force me to come and I tell them what I need). The funny thing is, my high school would only tell us what supplies we need at the first day of school. But my parents are organized and cautious about everything.

My high school was honestly stupid when it comes for them asking supplies though. My English and Math teachers for example would ask for extremely specific things like a RED portfolio (and yes, it MUST be red ) and maybe force us to have a binder as well. And also a red folder. Then me and my parents have to go and buy more school stuff again (at the last second) because of that. If you don't have the supplies on time (and they give only 1-2 days for it), you lose 5% in class participation.

But what happens at the end? We never actually use the red portfolio or folder at all. We all just end up writing notes and stuff on our own notebooks. Waste of my time and money to buy it. But the teachers would grade it as 15% of your grade if you don't bring the portfolio, folder, and/or binder (and it has to be the stupid color they want). Also, the binder has to be organized in a specific ways with specific sections. Yikes, I'm glad I skipped a year of my dumb high school. 

Now in college, they tell us we only need specific text books a few months before the semester starts. 

Mynamescox44 : Oh, that's pretty ironic XD I tend to only feel like buying school supplies when the school year starts and I don't always end up having all the supplies I need either. Sometimes we don't even use some of the supplies the teachers told us we needed.

Mohammedroxx3 : Your high school was (and likely still is) very particular about their school supplies! I've had similar experiences before but not quite that bad. My school doesn't tell us until the first day of school to tell us what supplies we need either. The teachers expect us to have our supplies right away but I don't think we lose points for not having them until the 2nd week of school. My school also makes everyone organize their binders in specific sections and you have to have actual tab dividers labeled with specific names for each section. It's pretty tedious. But at least it helps me keep all my papers for when I need to cram a lot of studying in before exams. Usually we only get our exam study guides not even a week before the exams.

My health teacher in 10th grade was the kind of teacher who calls out people in front of the whole class when they're doing something wrong. So when he told us what supplies we needed I didn't want to be the one he yelled at for not having certain supplies. He told us we needed a folder and a notebook for his class, but we never used the notebook at all because all of our notes were guided notes!

I usually buy my school supplies 4-3 days before the first day of school. How lazy of me . Yes, I know the saying, the sooner the better, but it's just laziness dominates me. My school starts on the 6th of September, so I have plenty of time left~

When I was in school, I never really got school supplies

Mostly because I didnt need them from being cyber schooled. That and the fact that I never took notes and wrote anything down. Anything that was "writen down" for later use, was a screen shot or opened in a word document. My mother had tried to get me multiple notebooks to start writing in, but I never actually used them. The most I ever get every year is new ink for the printer.

But If I were to, I would get them whenever it's on sale. Because sales are the best

When I was a kid, my mom usually plans it all out and go shopping for school supplies a week before class.

Currently though (College)? I just buy them on first day of class, right before the bell rings (around 30 minutes beforehand). I just need some fillers, a pen and some yellow papers anyway. The school store is also just a few walks away.

I try to get supplies for school about a week in advance before the year starts. With high school and college, I am not able to get a specific list of the materials I need until I received the syllabus from the teacher the day that class started. Most of it was fairly common sense items ranging anywhere from composition notebooks to two inch binders and highlighters. I remember back in elementary school when a list of supplies for the next year was sent in the mail along with the last report card of the current year. They could also be accessed and downloaded on the school website at any time. 

Most of the time I really don't have to go out to the store for supplies unless it is for really specific things because I have a large stock of notebooks, pencils, paper, folders, etc. at the house. I'm thankful for that because otherwise I would have to go out to the store a week or two before class starts, and it is always a zoo by that time. So for the most part, I don't buy school supplies early on because I generally have to wait until the school year starts for me to receive my supply list anyway. 

Yeah, my mom took me shopping literally after the first day of school, though I guess we were already out doing something else and she figured we would just get that out of the way while we were out of the house. Usually I get the shopping done in the first week or two though, so I'm still always fairly early.

I used to buy them mid-august because otherwise I'd end up losing them lol.

Most of the time I'd just re-use most of what I had the previous year anyway.

Razor-987 : I find it odd that after elementary school, teachers no longer send you lists of school supplies in advance. Maybe it's because you can pick some of your classes and the school schedules take a while to be finished.

It's really convenient to have such a large amount of school supplies My house has a lot in a big cupboard in my sister's room. However my house never has enough because my sister, brother, and I all need many supplies each year. We usually can't re-use supplies from the previous year since they end up in bad condition or they're half-used notebooks :/