Sprout School Supplies - worth it?

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I just bought mine through Sprout. I have no idea if my school uses it for a fund raiser or not, I am thrilled to have it done and sent to the school. It makes my life easier. I have one child and both my husband and I work in good paying jobs. Could I save money by going to Target? Sure, but is saving $10, maybe $20, worth digging through the piles of stuff to find what the teacher wants? Nope.

There are times I will worry about saving cash and then there are times I worry about convenience. This is a convenience issue for me.


Finding crayons, paper, and other supplies at a regular store is really not hard and you don’t have to dig through stuff. Lol.


When my oldest started kindergarten, I looked for the items and it was enjoyable even.

I had another kid so now have 3 kids. One click to sprout for both my elementary kids. Easy peasy.

I don’t work and still love the convenience. I’m sure if I found the 25cent crayons and the Kleenex from Walmart, it could definitely be cheaper but that would take time.
Anonymous
I've done the comparison and it's only slightly cheaper to buy at Target or Walmart. I mean, I suppose you could make it much cheaper if you went to multiple stores and only bought on sale, but that takes a lot of time (and you have to carry a bag of supplies to school on the first day) and I would rather pay a little extra to have the box delivered to my child's classroom on the first day.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I just bought mine through Sprout. I have no idea if my school uses it for a fund raiser or not, I am thrilled to have it done and sent to the school. It makes my life easier. I have one child and both my husband and I work in good paying jobs. Could I save money by going to Target? Sure, but is saving $10, maybe $20, worth digging through the piles of stuff to find what the teacher wants? Nope.

There are times I will worry about saving cash and then there are times I worry about convenience. This is a convenience issue for me.


Finding crayons, paper, and other supplies at a regular store is really not hard and you don’t have to dig through stuff. Lol.


When my oldest started kindergarten, I looked for the items and it was enjoyable even.

I had another kid so now have 3 kids. One click to sprout for both my elementary kids. Easy peasy.

I don’t work and still love the convenience. I’m sure if I found the 25cent crayons and the Kleenex from Walmart, it could definitely be cheaper but that would take time.


Its always the I have 3-4 kids and cannot be bothered.....
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I've done the comparison and it's only slightly cheaper to buy at Target or Walmart. I mean, I suppose you could make it much cheaper if you went to multiple stores and only bought on sale, but that takes a lot of time (and you have to carry a bag of supplies to school on the first day) and I would rather pay a little extra to have the box delivered to my child's classroom on the first day.


We drop off supplies at open house, not first day.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I've done the comparison and it's only slightly cheaper to buy at Target or Walmart. I mean, I suppose you could make it much cheaper if you went to multiple stores and only bought on sale, but that takes a lot of time (and you have to carry a bag of supplies to school on the first day) and I would rather pay a little extra to have the box delivered to my child's classroom on the first day.


We drop off supplies at open house, not first day.


I think you're missing my point.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I just bought mine through Sprout. I have no idea if my school uses it for a fund raiser or not, I am thrilled to have it done and sent to the school. It makes my life easier. I have one child and both my husband and I work in good paying jobs. Could I save money by going to Target? Sure, but is saving $10, maybe $20, worth digging through the piles of stuff to find what the teacher wants? Nope.

There are times I will worry about saving cash and then there are times I worry about convenience. This is a convenience issue for me.


Finding crayons, paper, and other supplies at a regular store is really not hard and you don’t have to dig through stuff. Lol.


When my oldest started kindergarten, I looked for the items and it was enjoyable even.

I had another kid so now have 3 kids. One click to sprout for both my elementary kids. Easy peasy.

I don’t work and still love the convenience. I’m sure if I found the 25cent crayons and the Kleenex from Walmart, it could definitely be cheaper but that would take time.


Its always the I have 3-4 kids and cannot be bothered.....


Why do you care what other people do? OP asked a question, people are answering if they think it's worth it or not. I personally think that yes, it's worth it. And you clearly don't, and that's fine. If my 6 year old can understand that different families have different priorities or different rules, then why can't you?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I used sprout one year, but then had to wait in this huge long line to pick up the box. I have decided not to use it again. Why can't they just deliver it to the teacher's themselves? It was poorly done. Also the stuff in the sprout box kind of rips you off (ex 35 clorox wipes in a box instead of 200). AND environmentally, do we really need new scissors, new headphones etc if the ones from last year are ok?


The only supplies we received back this year were the headphones.
Anonymous
Some years our boxes have been incomplete or teachers wanted extra things at the last minute anyway, so we never use it any more.
As others said, you can use amazon or target for convenience online too.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I was able to get our supplies for less than half the cost using target.com. They even autofilled the list.


What do you mean by autofilled the list?

You select your school from the drop down menu and click add to cart. It was 5 minutes total online shopping after I made a couple substitutions
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I was able to get our supplies for less than half the cost using target.com. They even autofilled the list.


What do you mean by autofilled the list?

You select your school from the drop down menu and click add to cart. It was 5 minutes total online shopping after I made a couple substitutions


Wow Great Tip! My school hasn't been populated yet and Sprout Ends July 1st....So I have a couple weeks to wait Thanks!
Anonymous
I’ve been buying it myself for more than 8 years. It is at least 2/3 more expensive than if you did it on your own, including buying all name brand items while doing it on your own. You have the list MONTHS ahead of time so the, “I’m too busy...,” is crap. Also, teachers generally don’t even pick the name brand so the person who said her teacher friends want certain brands - that’s not true. I’ve filled out the form for this many times and we aren’t picking the brands. I prefer Ticonderoga and Crayola, but this year our supplier (Staples) has their generic brand inserted in the lists for most items. We do care about folder colors because we will tell the kids to get their blue folders to get ready for science, but not the shade of the colors.



Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I’ve been buying it myself for more than 8 years. It is at least 2/3 more expensive than if you did it on your own, including buying all name brand items while doing it on your own. You have the list MONTHS ahead of time so the, “I’m too busy...,” is crap. Also, teachers generally don’t even pick the name brand so the person who said her teacher friends want certain brands - that’s not true. I’ve filled out the form for this many times and we aren’t picking the brands. I prefer Ticonderoga and Crayola, but this year our supplier (Staples) has their generic brand inserted in the lists for most items. We do care about folder colors because we will tell the kids to get their blue folders to get ready for science, but not the shade of the colors.





Well, every school is different. I was the person who coordinated the supply list from the teachers and Sprout. We had many classes that were adamant they wanted a name brand, even if it costs mores Such as Elmer glue sticks over teh generics, Expo dry erase versus the generics, name brand storage bags because the generics never sealed properly...
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:No. The schools have plenty of supplies, for one thing, and should only be asking for what is needed. Find out what your child needs and re-use folders, notebooks, etc for the next year.



We haven't received any supplies back.

I like Sprout. I'm paying an up charge for the convenience and for not having to store the rest of a multipack until next year. Totally worth it to me. I get that not everyone feels that way but I glad the option exists.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I’ve been buying it myself for more than 8 years. It is at least 2/3 more expensive than if you did it on your own, including buying all name brand items while doing it on your own. You have the list MONTHS ahead of time so the, “I’m too busy...,” is crap. Also, teachers generally don’t even pick the name brand so the person who said her teacher friends want certain brands - that’s not true. I’ve filled out the form for this many times and we aren’t picking the brands. I prefer Ticonderoga and Crayola, but this year our supplier (Staples) has their generic brand inserted in the lists for most items. We do care about folder colors because we will tell the kids to get their blue folders to get ready for science, but not the shade of the colors.





Well, every school is different. I was the person who coordinated the supply list from the teachers and Sprout. We had many classes that were adamant they wanted a name brand, even if it costs mores Such as Elmer glue sticks over teh generics, Expo dry erase versus the generics, name brand storage bags because the generics never sealed properly...


If the teachers want expensive expo dry erase markers, they can pay for them with their own money, same with generic storage bags... the cheap ones work perfectly fine for us and if they are good enough for us, that's what they get.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:No. The schools have plenty of supplies, for one thing, and should only be asking for what is needed. Find out what your child needs and re-use folders, notebooks, etc for the next year.



We haven't received any supplies back.

I like Sprout. I'm paying an up charge for the convenience and for not having to store the rest of a multipack until next year. Totally worth it to me. I get that not everyone feels that way but I glad the option exists.


Ask for them back if they are individual supplies. I always ask for them back. I send my child in with extra bags to bring home the stuff and tell him to bring everything home. Usually he does.
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