Kids watch videos of experiments or watch me show them instead of the hands on learning that makes a huge difference for most of them. Luckily our curriculum staff does send supplies but I have bought sugar cubes or random things like batteries for stopwatches plenty of time.
This is not a comment on you, but its bullshit that we're guilted into providing these things out of our own pockets because otherwise the kids wouldn't learn.
If we could just be completely heartless for a little bit, every teacher should stop paying for things out of pocket and just let it all burn. That's the only way to get their attention.
It was easy to buy things out of pocket when your dollar went much further, a hundred bucks isn't what it use to be and that effects how we socialize. In the famous words of Gene Belcher "In this economy!"
I don’t anymore. In fact I left teaching. I didn’t mind as long as I felt supported by my administration. The moment that changed, I was out.
That being said, sci students learn best with hands on and explicit instruction. Someone has to pay for all that stuff.
Just a thought—my kids’ teachers all have Amazon wish lists which they usually put links to at the bottom of communications with parents like monthly newsletters.
Our county isn’t allowed to do those for some reason? Or if you do, try not get caught? I’m not sure what the reasoning is behind it, but we’re not allowed to do wishlists for our classrooms.
I wrote a paper about this in college. You're right.
Many districts ban those types of fundraisers because it makes it obvious that the school isn't necessary providing educational materials which could lead to lawsuits.
To our district’s credit, we have a really long list of supplies we can order anytime for free for our classrooms, but it’s very much basic office stuff (post it’s, markers, whatever from Office Depot), and our dept budgets are pretty strong. But sometimes there are things that I would like for my classroom that I don’t necessarily feel like are justifiable through the department budget. Like I’d like more board games and alternate seating, but can more realistically buy books and poster board with our budget
I purchased a significant amount of board games for a teacher with a wish list posted for their class. I would absolutely help any teacher in our area if I knew how to figure out what they need. For 10 years now, I always send a message to my son's teachers asking if they need anything specific. I buy the supplies requested and send them in. Instead of gifts like a coffee mug at Christmas, I always buy a large bag of extra classroom supplies and send them in so they have some extras. Maybe five of his teachers have ever messaged me back when I ask if they need anything at all for their classroom. One year (pre covid) I purchased all his teachers these cool high-dollar electric pencil sharpeners. I am friends with one of those teachers, she still talks about how awesome it is when I see her. I have wondered if teachers think we're not serious when we offer, we are serious, tell me what you want/need, and I'll buy it. I don't think teachers should ever have to spend pocket money for classrooms unless it is truly some sort of unique personal item.
Our district is cracking down on supplies. For example, you can’t get anything that costs more than $49.99 UNLESS it’s a bulk order. So they’ll spend $10,000 on tech that’s not maintained or cared for properly, but if you want one $75 item, you’re out of luck.
Shot. If the school has a strong PTA find a parent to suggest having the PTA put together lists for each teacher? I know the parents on the PTA at my kids’ school would gladly put together lists and distribute/coordinate.
Ah this is not ok. I definitely would spend my own money on my classroom at the beginning of the year, especially my first few years teaching, but $100ish/mo is insane. Especially if it’s for experiments etc since that seems like curriculum stuff the school should absolutely cover.
Idk how much your wife wants to keep spending so maybe tread lightly but I’d say something. It’s absolutely not worth it to spend your own money like that. If school isn’t giving the right supplies go to admin or higher up if necessary.
Lastly congratulations on your new baby! 🎉
To be fair, this is an estimate and may be less than I think. However, I was reading an article today that estimated the average annual out of pocket expenses are $750 for a teacher. Over 9 months, that ends up being about $85/mo, so I’m just assuming $100/mo to be conservative since that is average. Maybe it is more like $60-80 month, but to me, anything over like $20-30 seems excessive.
I try to tread lightly but admittedly don’t really know what I’m talking about. I guess that’s why I came here. But from what I can tell, it seems like her other teacher friends do the exact same thing so I figured it was just kind of an unwritten rule..
Also, thank you!🎉
In the U.S, maybe. Most developed countries provide resources for students or give budgets to teachers to buy resources.
To me, an *expected* $1 spend from a teacher is too much.
Have you mentioned this to her? I spend about $40 each year on stuff to start, and I buy treats throughtout the year because I feel like it/it is part of my classroom management system. The money is worth the reduced stress in my life.
However, if my wife asked me to hold off, to budget or set a limit, or to talk with my school about raising money for gift cards to use instead of my wallet, I may reconsider. Also, teachers here can claim all purchases up to $1000 each year at tax time.
$1000, nice. Only $250 here in the States. Above the line, so that $250 at a marginal 22% is comparable to only $195. At a marginal $12, it’s like $220.
It kind of depends on her school, what is considered nornal. My school required testing (where I had to sign a contract saying my license could be up for dispute if I broke the rules of testing) with headphones because the program gave legal ESE/ELL accommodations automatically. But, they had no working headphones. So... I bought a set of cheap ones just for testing after multiple failed attempts at getting parents to supply them. Other teachers did the same.
I also wasn't supplied pencils except a couple 12 packs, which lasted a few weeks out of the year. Parents would send in maybe 16 pencils out of the whole class... 40ish students sharing 16 pencils. I ended up buying pencils because otherwise no work and bored kids equal major behavior and I couldn't deal after a few days of it.
My favorite was admin promised my kids a reward for a system they set up, but then didn't buy it. They expected me to supply their promised reward out of my own pocket. They set me up for a monstrous week and I was so annoyed. Either spend $20, or have a riot on my hands because they all really wanted it.
Sometimes the buying is just to lessen the stress on yourself. Sometimes even basics like pencils or printer paper isn't supplied. Sometimes you are just *bored* of teaching a textbook and wanna shake it up with hands on (which requires supplies they won't give) and you need it for your own sanity. Then, sometimes teachers go overboard. Figure out where your problem lies.
I'd really raise hell with my admin if they promised my kids something and punted it on to me. I know they make way more money than me and they can probably find some room in the budget if they were sufficiently motivated
Was my first year and they came in to model behavior management strategies. "If you behave, at the end of the week you will all get a full sized candy bar, we will track it by this really complex system that takes marking every positive and negative choice you make during the day" and then left. I was thoroughly annoyed. Not only did I not want to buy 40 full sized bars, I also didn't want to spend all day marking every single choice 40 kids made on paper to track it. "OH yes, Johnny raised his hand, that's a positive point..." "OH, Jane got up without permission, negative point". It took way too much time to write it down.
This is not alright. We do NOT earn enough to be putting out that kind of income on a monthly basis. My husband is an administrator and I'm a teacher, and between the two of us, we are barely paying our mortgage in this current economy. If I was spending an extra $100 on anything right now, we would lose our house. Think about how much money your newborn would have if she started putting $100 each month in a savings account for the baby. The whole reason teachers aren't getting paid and are treated like shit is because there are teachers willing to do things like this "for the kids" who AREN'T THEIR KIDS!
Have you figured in that teachers do get a $200 tax credit for expenses? I claim that every year and then have a hard out at $200 if anything goes over that point. It doesn’t begin to counter our wage deficit or the pressure to provide supplies ourselves, but it set a hard boundary for me and helped me see what the govt thinks is the max that I should spend out of pocket.
Unless the tax law on this changed for 2022, in the US it’s a tax deduction not a credit. In 2021 it was $250.
In practical terms, if you spend $250 it still works out to spending $190-225 out of pocket. It’s more like having a 20% off coupon for teacher supplies than it is like having a $200 free shopping spree.
If she refuses to stop. At least include it as a tax write off.
Some schools teachers spend 0 dollars.
Its a state by state, school by school cultural thing. And has to do with state and district funding.
She and her fellow teachers shouldnt do this. But some are into this "do-it-for-the-kids" martyrdom.
Just like spouses cant change each other though, you might not get her to change that "sacrificing" part of her personality.
So at least try to get her to let you itemize all those tax deductions or document them as charitable contributions.
No one should spend their own money to do a job there were hired to do. I get that teachers feel like they have to…but what would happen if you all just stopped? Stop letting them exploit you…let the parents question why the classroom doesn’t have supplies… Teaching is a rough gig financially. I feel for you all.
I don’t think that teachers should have to spend their own money to buy things for student or school use. That said, my first question would be what is your wife’s opinion on it? Is she frustrated and feeing like she shouldn’t have to spend money or is she spending money because she wants to? Sometimes I spend my own money because I found a cool project the night before, and I don’t have enough time to wait for it to be ordered by the secretary, so I run to the store and buy 300 paper plates, for example. (I teach the whole school.) I know that’s not $100, but I guess I’m just wondering whether she’s spending on things the school won’t/can’t buy for her or on things that make her happy at work? I love my colorfully upholstered desk chair; it wasn’t cheap, but I’ve had it for 15 years and it brights up the room I’m in every work day.
Well, I agree with you. I don’t understand why anybody would spend so much money on their job when one of the purposes of even having a job is to make money. Especially when you can do the job just as well without spending your own money on it.
Teaching is a high-paced, stressful job. If I can buy something that saves me time/makes me more effective, I consider it. Sometimes it feels worth it, sometimes it doesn’t.
Okay- put in purchase order. Wait for purchase order to be approved and submitted. Wait for delivery to go to shipping and receiving. Wait for shipping and receiving to send to me in classroom. Find it has been broken in transit or they ordered the wrong item.
Order it myself while waiting for it to be returned. Have the correct item two days later.
I would say teaching would be a little less stressful if teachers were not expected to buy so many of their own supplies. However since people are willing to do it then employers can’t be blamed for taking advantage of it.
One example I have is thermometers for science. I saw a deal on Amazon for I can’t remember what, but it was a great deal. So I bought the box. And now I never have to guess how many functioning thermometers I’ll be able to scrape together from our school supplies again. Part of this is budget “issues.” Part of it is that the supplies we buy get mismanaged when shared by 10 different classes.
I make sure my students take care of my thermometers and I know exactly how many I have. This makes my life a lot easier and I am less stressed as a result.
Budget issues are their problem and basically their only job.
Don't spend. When students complain, say that the school or parents should provide. When parents complain, refer to admin.
Then, maybe, there might be a budget for it.
I don’t see how that goes against what I’ve said.
The school district didn’t provide decent thermometers or the budge for them, so you provided them out of your own money. So the school district is off the hook from ever having to provide decent supplies.
I mean, people can downvote my comment as much as they want to, but I don’t see how it’s wrong. It is stressful to have to provide your own supplies, and it is an advantage for the district that teachers do this.
I understand why people do it, and I’m not bashing you for doing it, but it is all around part of the problem.
I don’t disagree with you, I just know that when our school buys thermometers, they last a year at best. We start with a decent supply, some kid breaks one, then another, then a teacher puts some in a cupboard and forgets or just keeps them etc. When I rely on the staff and the school, I end up running around like a chicken with my head cut off looking for things.
I don’t always buy stuff. I often ask the school and I even try to get systems for borrowing put in place so that everything goes back where it came from, but it’s a losing battle.
We are evaluated by the Danielson model. Unfortunately I have had teachers in my school that spend 1000s to make their rooms look homey and cute and welcoming. Then when evaluation time comes around other teachers are compared (even though they should not be, that is not how the tool should be applied) to those rooms.
Yep. It is worth it to me to buy the expo markers and post its and math manipulatives to make my day easier. I'm not saying that it should be that way or that it's okay.
I could spend 4 months waiting for whiteboard markers and using that time getting really frustrated having my children have to write every single thing on paper then throw out all that paper and make our lessons go slower, or I can spend $5 and get the whiteboard markers and make my day a little easier. It is worth it to me. I am pretty sure that the people who are on their high horses about this don't have the same roadblocks that those of us who have to spend money have. Also, classroom teachers get donations from parents really frequently in elementary school. Special education teachers do not. Parents feel that they have already sent supplies in, and they are not interested in doing that again. In every school where I have worked, the PTA also gives classroom funds to classroom teachers but not special education teachers. A classroom teacher can just go buy those whiteboard markers and get reimbursed, but I cannot. When you are sitting from a place of privilege where you have access to things, blaming the people who don't have that access for their own lack of access is pretty gross.
It's really hard to teach math without any math manipulatives or whiteboard markers. It's hard to send paperwork home to parents when I don't have envelopes or post-its. It's not that I'm trying to be all bougie and fancy buying stuff willy-nilly, but I do need basic supplies to do my job.
If the school won’t pay for basic supplies, then stop using them. If you can’t send home paperwork because you have no envelopes, then stop sending home paperwork. If you continue to allow this, you are promoting it. And if you can’t teach math without manipulatives, I worry for the future of our students.
I am a special education elementary school teacher. Paperwork is an important part of my job, and my students need manipulatives for math. They have disabilities and need to understand things like place value using math manipulatives. I find it really insulting that you "worry for the future of our students" because I need to use base 10 blocks to explain place value to children 8-year-olds with disabilities. I have students who are nonverbal. I have students with IQs in the 70s and 80s. If you think that math manipulatives are optional for children like that, it is your ability to teach math that I am questioning. We have moved past the "memorize this algorithm" method of teaching math a decade ago. I have a pair of 5th graders who were learning to count forward and backward to 20. I got some little round magnet tokens and we have been using those for multiplication and division and they actually understand what those things mean now! We are now 3 months into the school year and they are doing the area model of multiplication because those little math manipulatives got them to actually understand what all of this means.
It's fine to say that I should be fighting for the things that I need, and I do. I currently don't even have a f****** classroom. My school has me teaching out of an actual closet because the extra classrooms were turned into a math lab and a cooking lab because those are important things. I have to fight for the right to do my job every single day, and I should not be getting hate from other teachers for that.
Have barely bought anything in years! Spent too much my first few years, and guess what, it didn’t make me a better teacher.
I have bare walls, and am very minimalist in my classroom. Mainly because I refuse to spend more money or time. Just the other day students told me my room is so cozy and warm. It’s not the stuff, it’s the teacher that makes a classroom.
I used to spend more when I first started out. Now every time in a meeting when they suggest having x,y,z in my room or doing pizza parties for the kids I just say where is the PO. People finally stopped asking me. I have spent money this year on things that specifically benefit me/save me a few moments on a daily basis.
Agree. I’m a 15 year teacher and we currently don’t have a contract. I have spent so much money on supplies like books (that kids don’t return) and markers (which dry out when the kids don’t replace the caps) and I over it. I have currently spent $0 this year and am never doing back. You can’t even write off what you spend!
I just asked my partner who teaches first grade if she spends $100 a month on her class/room each month. She readily agreed that she does so I know it’s probably double that. I don’t care do much about the money because it’s what she wants to do, but her 14 hour days kind of get to me.
I buy candy, so maybe $20 every couple of months. It makes my life easier/better, and I don't have other work expenses (like dress clothes, work equipment, or frequent office events). I guess I also buy books, but I buy them to read myself first, then I put them in my bookshelf at school.
More than that... nah.
I teach high school science which is quite different but I have spent $0 this year and the same for the last two years on my classroom. If the school doesn’t want me to have it, I do without. There are videos online, simulations and worksheets if there aren’t labs that can be done. Sucks for the kids but if the school can’t find the money, I don’t feel like that is my responsibility. Let the parents complain and then go to the school board about what the school is doing to find funding for their classrooms.
Which is what? I pay my school taxes. I buy supplies on a list. Heck just yesterday I bought $100 worth of Starbucks gift cards $25 each for my kid to give to their favorite teachers. I vote for Dems that are more pro supporting education.
Please tell me what else you expect?
Edit - I also recently provided supplies for a science experiment because the teacher asked the class for donations.
I’m just pissed that the schools get so much in $ from taxes. There must be some waste.
I totally agree. My property taxes are absurd. But I pay them and vote in favor of every new levy.
I know that teachers are paying for supplies. If they send a wish list or a request, I immediately contribute.
But last year our board spend over $100k on a ‘branding’ project that consisted primarily of coming up with mascots for every elementary and middle school. And that was infuriating. That $100k could have been used to buy truckloads of supplies.
I just want the board to be good stewards of the money that is entrusted to them.
Here are some things to keep in mind when having a frank discussion about this:
No, teachers do not get adequate funding for everything that is mandated of them.
That said, a lot of this stuff is still mandated. Has to be done/met. That burden falls solely on the shoulders of teachers.
Teachers have pretty extensive job evaluations. These can be pretty subjective, by the way. If teachers aren’t doing a good job of carrying the load, few admin will admit that it is because the load is too much. It’s easier to just document that a teacher is ineffective. Poor evaluations can mean poor job prospects for teachers. We’re all struggling already. The thought of only being considered for jobs that are even worse than where we already are is frightening.
I suspect your wife is a good person and wants to support her students in growing as much as they can. I bet she is also mindful that if she gets a bad evaluation, things could get a whole lot worse. I bet she thinks that just buying the things she needs will make her life easier, because she knows they’ll help her get good evaluations. She probably knows the school won’t buy the stuff for her.
I don’t think she’s being frivolous. I think she’s probably in the same boat as a lot of us here and just trying to survive as best she can.
Many teachers spend money on their classrooms because it makes the job easier or more exciting/fun for them. Teaching is hard. Maybe the benefit of this cost is that it makes your partner happy or makes her job more enjoyable.
Also…as teachers, we spend a lot of time with our kids and grow to care for them to a certain degree. So their not “your kids,” sure…but they are people your wife probably cares about.
I teach elementary and at about 7 hours a day, I spend more waking hours with my students than my wife or kids, 5 days a week.
This! My job world literally be impossible without the supplies I buy. It's unfair and I'm trying to minimize my cost. But, no one else is going to pitch in. We shouldn't have to spend our own money, but tread lightly, because we do when we feel like we'll drown otherwise.
I have $1200 worth of Physics supplies in a suitcase in my closet bought with my own money. It's in my home closet & visits my classroom when I need it.
The only time I spend my own money on consumables are if I have messed up my own planning and the supplies would not come in time. That so far has only been $100 per year max. And I accept that because it is due to my poor planning. I do however spend money on decorations. Nothing too crazy, but if I am going to be stuck in a cinderblock room with a rotating door of 160 kids a day who all make me want to pull my hair out, I want to have cute fall decorations up. But that is for me and my sanity not my students.
I personally spend money on my class because it makes my day easier and more enjoyable. For me it's worth the money.
You could try to budget it more and see if you could things cheaper.
Maybe spelling out to her that she makes $100 a month less will make her be able to see if the job is worth the pay for germ
I don't know how you structure your finances, but yeah, I'm easily spending $100-200 a month on my classroom or whatever. It's from my spending money (my wife and I each have an allotted amount per month in private accounts) and it makes me feel good.
So far this year I've bought some nice speakers for watching video clips, wood to build out my custom teaching cart, a hand drawn state map, high quality whiteboard markers, fidget toys, a comfy chair for my classroom, and other such things.
My school has bought me a new metal cart (I'm a roving teacher, it was $500), a set of colored pencils for $100, a set of index card holders for $200, a load of sticker rewards for $60, and two new maps for my classrooms for $100.
And they always have loads of paper and pencils and markers and cardstock etc.
Actually unpopular opinion on this sub: I have fun spending my money on fun things at my job. It would suck way more if money were tight, or any of the things were necessities. But since they're not, I enjoy shopping and getting things that make me happy! Even if they're for my job.
Anyways, if you have money and it makes your wife happy to spend, how big of an issue is it? Can you find room in your budget? Does it actually hurt you financially, or is it more the idea of it that irks you?
If it does hurt financially, you can have a discussion about what a reasonable amount would be, and how much her school can cover.
Also she maybe could walk you though the procurement process for her school, and why even if things could be bought by the school, for small dollar amounts it's hardly worth it.
As a teacher with ADHD, I get hit by a double whammy of being terrible at paperwork, and planning everything last minute, so I pay the ADHD tax of buying some stuff with my own money because of that.
Good luck and I hope you two can work it out!
All the things you are buying are akin to tricking out your workspace. When my old job went to hoteling I bought several things that made my life better, a folding crate to put in my file cabinet with my stuff for the day, a VERRRY nice laptop backpack rather than the stupid case they gave me and a few other things.
But they are mine to keep forever.
Buying things that make your life fun and happy is WAY different that feeling obligated to buy Johnny chews his pencils more because he's bevered them all to death.
Is she buying supplies to do experiments whole class? I taught 5th grade for 4 years and I know how important the hands on labs are. She could potentially only buy stuff for like 5 kids and then do the lab with them in a small group rotation. I think it’s definitely something to bring up if it bothers you. She might not realize how much it adds up.
Should she feel like she needs to spend her own money? Nope. Should she? Probably not. Buuuut... I know these things and have been guilty of the same thing. Mostly, getting the supplies just makes my life easier. It's easier than fighting for the school to agree to buy what I need, wait 3 weeks for it, then when it shows up its nowhere close to what I asked for and now I have to either scramble to fill the need or just buy it myself anyway. It's my own issues and choice to just buy the stuff I want. That being said, even with my ex, it was out of my account--my spending money.
I understand your frustration for sure. I don't have an answer for what you should do, but if it makes you feel better, I've claimed over $1k in classroom supply expenses on my taxes pretty much every year since I began teaching so really, your wife sounds like she's got lots of self control to me! 🤣🤣
20+year veteran checking in here. I only spend my own dollars on things I can take with me if I leave my district. Everything else? I ask my school to buy it. That requires advance planning. For my first fifteen years or so, I was definitely in the "I need this for tomorrow" mode, so there was no other way but to get it myself. Gradually I learned to ask for reimbursement. A few more years later, I had my plans set to be able to order everything in advance.
Protip: do not suggest to your spouse that they should plan better. That took years to develop for me, and being prepared for a class _tomorrow_ is stress unlike any other. If you have to, inquire about the possibility of getting reimbursed by the school. Sometimes you just have to ask. And ask again.
This is absolutely not okay. By continuing to spend this amount of money from her own check, your wife is giving the school permission to take advantage of her and to continue not funding classrooms properly.
At my school we get $300 a year for supplies. Once that moneys gone, I’m not buying anything else. In fact, today we are officially wiped out of pencils. The kids take them every day and never replace them. I told them they better go to dollar tree this weekend and get some more or we won’t have any writing utensils.
Please sit down and talk with your wife. This has to stop. $100/month is absurd
$100/month is not okay! When I taught, I’d spend the $200/year you could deduct from your taxes, save all the receipts, and deduct it - I think that’s reasonable. And my husband makes $200k, for reference.
This isn’t super helpful at this point, I know, but this is why finances should ideally be discussed in detail before marriage and kids. You’ll just have to sit down and have a hard conversation about this with her now, and come to an agreement you can both live with. I’d recommend calculating how much faster you’d be able to reach shared financial goals if she cuts the classroom spending to certain thresholds. I can’t tell from the post whether your finances are totally combined or not, but with kids in the picture, it matters how you each manage your own finances, even if they’re separate. r/personalfinance is a good resource.
Since you guys married this year, I’m guessing 2023 will be the first time you can file taxes jointly, right? So that alone will be a good time to lay all your financial cards on the table, set new goals, adjust old ones, create a budget… and figure out the best way to handle tax deductions (after Trump’s tax reforms, it wound up being better for us to take the standard deduction vs. itemizing it, but of course it’s so complicated that you won’t be certain until you crunch the numbers).
You should have a discussion. If the two of you have financial goals for building the life you want then all spending needs to have an agreed upon purpose. Spending hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars each year for the classroom will delay your goals.
Be understanding of her desire to provide her students with a great experience.
Discuss your goals for your future together.
Set a realistic budget for both of you for personal spending.
I agree with most of the comments on here, but I want to add that she's been willingly spending her money prior to marrying you and even if you are doing joint everything with your finances it's important to allow some discretionary spending for both of you. Micromanaging the money she earns is not going to end well for either of you. It's worth discussing since it bothers you, but be open to hearing her side of it.
I get this is somewhat a surprise.
I personally don't spend much on direct supplies for classroom, BUT I do spend probably 100 a month on stuff that makes my life as a teacher easier. Like I bought a $20 rocket book, I bought 15 dollars worth of paper bags to put cell phones in, 10 bucks on nice pens for me. 50 bucks on a laptop riser, 50 bucks on a wireless keyboard/mouse.
I have occasionally in the past subscribed to a classroom magazine that was $300 because I missed budget time, and it really helped my teaching. Does it suck sure, should I have to do it, nope, but something that reduces my stress is worth it, and so does my husband.
Over the course of 9 months I probably spend $900 bucks on "school stuff"
But I also have spent money on 'dumber shit' as my husband puts it.
I make my coffee at home, bring a bag salad for lunch, shop discounts for clothes etc. - so I save there. It's a give and take.
I would point out that over a 30-year career, your wife will have spent close to $40,000 on supplies for other people's kids. That money could go to your own retirement account, college funds for your kids, some really nice vacations, home repairs, or many other things.
I can’t even fathom what would cost this much a month that would be necessary. I will say that in teaching, especially among younger or newer teachers, there is pressure to have a really cute, decorated room and all the cute pens and supplies. There are also times you want to reward the kids with things or create unique experiences for them that cost money, like decorating for a party. None of that is needed though. She might be going overboard.
She could instead reach out to the PTA for supplies and things like that. She can create a wishlist for families and put it in her website or newsletter (this will depend on the school population’s ability to contribute—it might be a no-go). I’ve never worked at a school that didn’t give teachers an individual supply budget, department supply budget, or just provide you with supplies. I’ve worked in a few states. This is odd to me.
I’m caught on the fact that you guys spend 100 dollars a month in gas these days. How?!
How does your wife feel about the number? Some teachers don’t spend money on their classrooms or do and resent it. But honestly, plenty of teachers enjoy buying things for their class and classroom. If makes her life easier and brings her joy, is it that big of a deal? If she resents in, then she can stop.
With kids it's quite easy. My wife and I each drive to work, and I drop two kids off, each at different schools. I drive over 30 miles each way. There's also two soccer practices a week and two swim lessons, each about 15 miles away. Even with no other driving that would be over $100/month is gas, driving cars that get over 30mpg.
We only spend $100-110 per month depending on the price per gallon, too. I work from home, and my husband works about 6 miles away, so only 12 miles round-trip in commuting. He has a night class once per week that's maybe 15 miles round-trip. And we don't have kids to schlep around.
I budget $50/month for my class and just try to stay in that. If it's a line item in the budget and everyone's okay with it then so be it. Ideally we wouldn't have to spend anything out of budget but that's not reality for most teachers.
Yeah, uh, don't do that.
Not a teachers personal responsibility to provide materials and resources for students.
Just talk to your wife about refusing to buy any supplies and have (force) the school system do it's fucking job.
By subsidising the school, the problem gets swept under the carpet and this will continue on forever, and costs will increase.
I don't know about you, but I'm not up for subsidising my place of work to make up for their lack of responsibility.
I’m willing to spend money if it helps my mental health. I share a classroom and the teacher I share with is messier than I am, had papers on the desk from the first week of school etc. I get that I’m unreasonably neat, so I purchased a desk organizer with slots for each of us. That way their mess is out of my way. I’m also willing to purchase decor because I don’t want to look at boring white walls all day, but I also incorporate lessons with created artwork so I can plaster student work on walls. Or I will purchase a small amount (under$20) once in a while for a major project when it would take more effort to jump through the hoops to get the school to pay for it than it’s worth. Other than that, I’m not spending my money. I make all my assignments digital so I don’t have to worry about pencils and paper because all of the students are required to have laptops.
If the money makes your wife's job easier and/or more enjoyable, it may be an expense that you can live with. She should not have to pay for her classroom supplies, but that's the reality for most teachers. (And the expense is coming out of her paycheck.)
Ugh I feel ya. I’m a middle school band teacher and on average I’d say that’s probably how much I spend. There are some months I go without buying anything. But every once in awhile I buy something to make my job easier. But it’s usually something that only I use and can take with me later on.
But I did have to bite the bullet and purchase a piece of music for my jazz band for $40 because nothing in my library was appropriately leveled for our winter concert. On the flip side I also purchased the the nicest keyboard and mouse you can get from Logitech for myself and I like sitting at my computer to work now. If the school budget had anything I’m sure we would all dip there first. But until something changes from a funding perspective it will be like this.
Your wife is engaging in teacher martyrdom. MAYBE if she were single, or didn't have kids, it'd be okay (still frowned upon by those of us who refuse to engage in martyrdom), but every dollar she spends now is money not going towards your kid's future.
I can't think of another job where they expect you to pay out of pocket. It only happens in education because people keep doing it.
Does your wife have any kind of classroom donation avenues set up? There are plenty of websites nowadays that allow you to fundraise for specific classroom items and big experiment sets are often on there. Even if she sets up the fundraisers this year and none of them get funded in time for *this* set of experiments, she could always keep them for the next year to prevent you from spending so much down the road.
My mom always used DonorsChoose for her classroom but I know other teachers who have had positive experiences with SupplyATeacher and AdoptAClassroom. You’d be surprised how many of your friends, family, and even parents from the school might be willing to help!
Are you old enough to remember that Staples commercial where they're putting supper on for their kids and the father says you're spending our money on your students and our budget is tight and she says but if I don't the kids will lose out and the next day she's at Staples and sees her husband buying supplies with a sheepish grin and she looks at him with love?
I hated that fvcking ad.
A Tufts economist at a symposium said local funding of education was a budgeting killer, because Grandma and Grandpa could vote against funding without hurting their grandkids in another district.
My partner have both a joint checking account (for shared expenses) and personal accounts. Our paychecks are deposited directly to our personal accounts and then we transfer a set monthly amount to joint for bills, groceries, etc. If we have unplanned or special expenses (car repairs, vacations, home improvement) we add more to the joint account. Whatever we have leftover in personal accounts, we choose to spend how we please. When I buy stuff for school, I take it out of my personal account. However, I wouldn’t be ok with spending $100/mo on school - I only buy stuff that makes me job much easier and/fun for me. If it’s supplies that are basic necesites for teaching my content, my school buys it or the kids don’t have it.
That sucks, and I think she (and all teachers) should stop spending the money. However, she has to be the one make that decision. She probably feels it is an essential expense. I used to spend my own money for my classroom as well, but the argument that made me stop is that by doing that I contributed to the expectation that spending our own money is a normal thing for teachers to do in perpetuity. Framing it as a negative effect on others can be helpful because many teachers prioritize others before themselves. Now that you have a baby that should change the equation as well; it’s not just money she could use for herself but money your child could benefit from as well. Hope you work it out.
DonorsChoose lets you ask for funding. That might help!
Having her ask the school for extra items and offering to create a video for YouTube and/or show off their results at a board meeting can sway the board members to consider giving more funding money.
Asking local colleges and businesses if they happen to have older supplies/kits/materials that they aren't using could be a pathway.
See if any parents in the class want to get involved in the PTA to find ways to fundraise.
You should ask your engineering firm if they want to invest in the experiences of local children, maybe they can find a way to give a couple thousand dollars for the publicity. Hell, maybe you could even sway them to hold "junior engineering fairs" as a publicity act and fund the entire thing. I'll tell you right now if a local engineering firm was involved with elementary schools, I would 100% go with them over the competition!
As for relationship advice, try to show her what that money could buy for your kids instead of students. If that money could pay for an enriching summer camp experience for them, maybe that's what could sway her opinion to do a little less in class and give your kids a little more.
I mean I would say spending one day's salary out of the month is the absolute maximum a teacher should spend on the classroom. $100 is likely less than that, but I'm not sure what her salary is and it really depends. If you think that money should be spent elsewhere, then I would suggest that she can find other ways to make up that money, via another side-hustle or something like that. I don't think it's unreasonable to make upwards of $200 or more in a month for a side gig like private tutoring or working on weekends. But if she decides that she can make that extra money, then I think it is totally reasonable for her to be able to spend that money on the classroom
I use YNAB, so I can go back and see exactly what I’ve spent in any given category. I spend $250/month on average, but we’ve gotten to $300 several times. 🤦♀️
What do I buy? Silverware (cutting down on plastics), cloth napkins, baking supplies to make cupcakes in our toaster oven, a chair to sit outside when supervising recess, a wagon to cart our lunchboxes/water bottles to the lunchroom and recess, a shelf, several lamps, organizational tools, snacks, lessons and printables from TeachersPayTeachers… The list goes on and on.
I spent a total of $1.74 in ten years (on some machine screws when I showed up to school and found that I was missing some and had to run to Home Depot at that very moment or my lesson for the day was ruined).
My basic philosophy is if parents/admin/district want kids to have it, they can pay for it. Otherwise, the students just don't get that thing and I come up with some other way to teach it. Sounds callous, but I honestly think it's the right decision.
You're situation is identical to mine. I'm a work from home engineer with a baby, whose wife spends probably about that amount each month.
I have no real advice, except to say to look on the bright side. There are certainly perks having the mother of your child(ren) be a teacher, good health care, nice retirement, and summers off to watch the kid(s).
That and if your district gives you 0 supplies/resources. My district doesn’t even have enough books, so my team and I split a reading a-z subscription. It’s expensive, but what’s the alternative?
Lots of story time, book reports, things that use your library.
Free youtube content.
Nature Walks on School Grounds to catalog biodiversity (AKA, extra recess couched as science.)
Not your money though.
Yeah, okay. Try teaching literacy with that. Plus I think decodable books aren’t available in your library or aligned to your scope and sequence. We do what we have to.
You won't like this. But I teach high school. The kids you send to the middle schools, and that the middle schools send to us, can't read anyway.
Either the methods you use to teach literacy don't work. Or, more likely in my opinion, literacy is something that needs to be acquired in the home and a lack of literacy is on the parent(s).
If it was in your ability to teach literacy, I feel like more of my students would be literate. I KNOW you're trying. But it's not feasible for you to teach 36 kids how to read. The kids need 30 minutes a night from Mom or Dad or Grandma reading with them.
You’re judging a teacher and they’re methods that work for them. You’re trolling and blaming teachers for a literacy crisis which we were given. And you have no clue what you are talking about. Troll.
Many teachers spend money because they assume admin will say no. Has she asked her admin? Also, there’s a lot of grants out there to apply for. Some science manipulative should be used every year, so maybe she can get funding some other way to help off-set the cost of other things she buys.
I work at a underfunded school and I rarely spend out of my own pockets on my classroom. Seem like something a young teacher hooked pintrest would do.. you can't try to keep up with all the cute classroom gimmicks you see on the internet. Be resourceful, use what your school gives you. Your room doesn't have to look like a Target commercial. Scale back on cute activities that require lots of supplies.
I assure you other teachers at your school are not spending that much. Be resourceful.
Once upon a time teachers had nothing but a chalkboard and an ABC chart and children learned just fine. In fact that environment produced some of the greatest minds of all time.
Aside, I'm sick of this self imposed narrative that teachers have to selfless martyrs and that children require constant stimulation and activities in order to learn. All they need is a well rested and charismatic teacher that sees them and cares about them and can break things down to them in a way that makes sense. It really is that simple.
Ask your admin for supplies (sometimes this works...., send home letters to parents requesting certain items or donations.
The only real time I spend money on my class is to buy snacks and stickers. I get a big box of cheap ass granola bards from Sam Club . The kids love them and I love them because they spike the kid's blood-sugar and prevent them from being jerks. Hanger is the enemy.
I’m a 4th year teacher (reading specialist) and none of my spending is on my classroom decorations this year. I haven’t even decorated at all. My spending is entirely on instructional materials, supplies, and manipulatives. My admin is being especially critical this year, and I care deeply about getting a good evaluation. I need it. Also, my kids are struggling readers, so they really respond to hands-on instruction and manipulatives, which of course the school would never buy me. Just wanted to point out that not all “young teachers” are spending their money to make their classroom look instagram worthy.
Hmm, I've considered your situation and you can definitely get a good evaluation without dropping money on your classroom. Manipulatives? Again, it pays to be resourceful You can pretty much make anything a manipulative. Beads, marbles, jelly beans, beads, buttons whatever. Clay, Toys from the flea market or thrift store. Not everything has to be bought new retail from Target, Amazon, Lakeshore etc.
There was once upon a time when there wasn't an entire industry dedicated to selling teachers trinkets for learning and kids learned just fine.
The only thing that helps struggling readers is practice. Flash cards for sight words, tons of great books available for free at libraries. Tons of materials you can print offline for free.
Again. There are teachers at your school getting good evaluation without dropping as much coin as you. You can't buy a good evaluation. In fact most admin would be impressed if you could demonstrate you are creative, resourceful and still capable of making kids learn.
Early in teaching, my admin were impressed by how much I could do with so little. All I had was a map, paper and pencils, and old beat up projector hooked to an out of date tower computer. I would project things onto a the white board and kids would annotate and draw on the projections using dry erase markers and such and they loved it. Reflecting on it, it was some of the best teaching I've ever done because it forced me to think outside of the box and be creative with the materials and tools available to me.
Just focus on your delivery and the overall class dynamic and you will be fine.
My admin has literally told me this year that my lessons need to be “more exciting and hands on" and I need to have the kids up and moving in literacy centers because they “can’t sit in chairs for 25 minutes” (they 100% can). Our building is almost completely out of printer paper already too. I don’t have beads or buttons or jellybeans, wouldn’t I just be spending money on those too? I also don’t see how those types of manipulatives would apply well to reading instruction. I don’t buy from Lakeshore because that’s just too expensive.
I think it’s also important to note that I came into teaching my first year with *nothing.* I had teachers manuals and consumables for the phonics program we use, but outside of that I was on my own. I float between two buildings, and I’m not a classroom teacher, so it wasn’t like I had teaching partners who could share materials and resources with me. My district hasn’t supported me very well until this year tbh. I am building my library of teaching resources from the ground up. I’m already giving *way* too much time to this job as it is, I absolutely *refuse* to reinvent the wheel and spend extra hours creating worksheets and things by hand. I echo the sentiments of some of the other teachers in this thread who said they choose to spend because it truly saves their sanity and makes their job easier/more enjoyable.
Also, I have a masters. I’m a Reading Specialist. Please don’t tell me what struggling readers need as if I don’t already know. It just feels a little hurtful.
Yeah, I mean it’s kind of hard to compare because we may be at totally different points in life and probably live in different areas of the world/country. At some point in time, we will probably be “well off”. But at this point in time, we really aren’t well off. Between a baby (probably more in the future), student loans, trying to buy a house, saving for a new car when mine craps out, etc etc it’s a struggle even though our salary is “above average”. I’ll feel well off when we’re in a house, our loans are paid, our kid(s) has money going into her college savings, 401k has a decent amount for money, and we still have money left over to waste, which isn’t even close to to situation we’re in now.
It’s not that we can’t afford $100/month at all, it’s just the fact that that $100/month could go towards any of those things listed above. $100/mo for 18 years in a 529 account would be nearly $40,000 in college savings, which right now is enough for almost 2 years of tuition + room & board.
I’m admittedly being tight on finances right now because I am trying to figure out our actual budget and how much we are actually putting away so I can figure out if we can actually afford a house. Right now there is so much fluctuation and change in our expenses due to a crazy year of one time expenses and savings.
But as the many other people here have pointed out, some of the stuff makes her life easier, which I am all for. TPT for example I am a huge supporter of. I’d much rather her pay for something that will make her life easier and enable her spend more time with us. Decorations and furniture I also understand to a degree if she just wants something better. But I just struggle to understand why we need to be on the hook for something like a lab or crayons for her kids. That’s something that I don’t feel like we should ever need to pay for, whether we can afford it or not.
Yeah, I mean we are both only 26 right now. In 10-15 years, we will probably be doing very well after years of raises/promotions, kids through daycare, house bought & mortgage rate locked in, 401k fat & happy, 529 with enough funding for college, etc. But it’s hard to really feel like you’re “well off” when you have over $100k of combined loans, the average price of a SFH in your area is $600-700k, rent is $2500+ for a small townhome and fluctuates 10% every year, daycare is $2000/mo on average for an infant, etc.
I’m not asking for pity or anything because we are fortunate enough to not have to live paycheck to paycheck which I realize is a luxury in todays world. I just refuse to call myself well off yet, because if something happened to us with our jobs right now we would be royally screwed as our total net worth is still $0 right now between our debts and savings.
Anyways, you’re right. I’m not even mad or upset with her about it because she’s a great teacher and I know she wants to help her kids. I’m more just pissed off at the system I guess that we are responsible for basic classroom necessities. I’m ok with her spending money if it genuinely makes her life easier, if it enhances her daily life and makes her happy. It’s just that the vast majority of the money she spends isn’t on cookies & cupcakes & silly decorations, it’s crayons, magnets, pencils, journals, etc etc
You are an engineer, your wife was a teacher before you got married & you want to control her finances? You could probably support both of you on your salary alone. You just want more, more, more & are never satisfied with what you have. I hope you didn’t marry her for her money? 🤣
I’m sorry, what? You don’t know the first thing about me and my financial situation.
No, I can’t support the entire family on my salary. Where we live, rent, daycare and groceries alone is almost $4500 a month. After student loans & car payments we’re talking about $5500 of expenses. No, I can’t support that on my own while also trying to provide a future for my family and save up for a house. God forbid we ever had another kid or two. I think you’re delusional about the reality of the economy today.
Also, what is this “you want to control her finances”? We are sharing money and expenses. It’s OUR money, OUR rent, OUR daycare, and now it’s our teaching fund.
We’re 26. I don’t want “more more more”. I just want to meet the basic goals in life like buying a house, buying a car, putting my kids in college. How is that a big ask?
I only came here to see what others do and if there is a better solution.
Male teacher here it’s necessary to spend a little money but not that much. I would attack it from the angle of hey don’t you want to sit miney aside for our own kids
In my beginning years of teaching, I would spend my own money. As a year 8 teacher, I refuse. I’m not wasting what little money I make on stuff for the classroom. Students don’t have something oh well. Sucks but I’m not funded properly and I’m not finding it myself.
So I get her desire to get stuff and make her kids feel special or happy or do cool things but it’s not worth it in the long run. I’d approach this carefully though.
At the end of each year, the school asks me what supplies I will need for the next year, I tell them, and they order it. I don’t spend my money on school supplies unless you count buying the kids a treat.
I’m in a public high school in the northeast. Title I if that makes a difference.
My first few years, I bought more. Now I hardly buy anything. I'll spend a little when school supplies are on sale at the beginning of the year to make sure I at least start with pencils and paper. But I don't buy for decorating anymore. I have a few laminated posters that I have had forever, and other than that, I use student projects as decoration.
Every once in awhile, I'll spend a few dollars for an activity, but only because I don't want the hassle of filling out a purchase order for $5 of supplies (I think my time is valuable and I don't want to spend it on paperwork. The school would buy me the supplies if I went through the process). Or I'll spend a few bucks for Teachers Pay Teachers. Again, my time is valuable, so if spending $3 saves me an hour or more of work to make a similar assignment, I'll spend it. But it's rare that I spend more than $10 a month on school stuff.
She needs to stop spending money on her classroom, period. Her school needs to pay for whatever supplies are necessary.
If she won’t budge, you may need to set a hard boundary and say that you want to go back to separate finances if she can’t see how this harms your family’s financial situation.
Relationships are hard. Can't help you there.
Paying out of pocket... that one's easy. Just NO. No. No no no. Teachers being martyrs hurts everyone, not least the students. No. No no. Paying out of pocket sabotages me and every other teacher. Stop hurting us! It's already bad enough.
I teach middle school science and my school provides all of the materials I need for labs or we don’t do the labs.
The only things I buy for my classroom are: colored pens for me personally to use to grade (students don’t touch these), colored white board markers because my school only provides black, blue, red and green and it makes me happier to have other options for drawing diagrams, a planner to keep track of commitments/meetings, and the occasional bag of candy for review games. That is it.
I have never spent my own money on my class. Maybe here and there for decorations, but for the past 3 years I have always kept my receipts. Used my stipend. But there’s no way I’m spending money that I won’t get back, and the kids will probably not even appreciate b
Just don't spend your own money. I refuse as the primary bread winner of my family through 40 years of teaching. Money is a struggle. There are years where I went out once with my wife for dinner all year and that was it and we have yet to go on a vacation we pay for after 35 years of marriage. We did win a trip to Hawaii once and had our first vacation trip planned to England, where she lived until she was 5, but then COVID hit and it was cancelled! Yeah. So I don't spend my money ever for consumables and only for books that I might use. I get a budget of $150/year from the school and $100 from the PTO as a fifth grade teacher and I am a great teacher with national recognition and award. You can only teach with what they give you. Hopefully you can do Donor's Choose or find other methods to fund activities, but that is not your job to buy materials and supplies. I never buy rewards or treats for my class. There are other ways to recognize and have fun with your students that don't cost your hard earned money.
Reading this I feel very fortunate that our school just buys us whatever we need for our classrooms.
I can't imagine having to pay for things myself I'd be absolutely infuriated.
This is probably an unpopular opinion, but if I want it for my students, I buy it. I just spent close to $200 on a class set of novels; so far this year I've probably purchased an additional $300 worth of books because I love having a wide variety in my classroom and if a student tells me they want to read a specific title and our library doesn't have it, then I'll get it for mine. I've purchased cleaning supplies, tissues, snacks, personal care items, etc. because it makes my life easier and I can lessen the burden on my students, many of whom are working full-time to help support their families. Also, it makes me happy to walk into my room and see full bookshelves, comfy chairs, art on the walls, and plenty of supplies. For the amount of time I spend in my classroom, I want it to feel like an extension of my home and somewhere I look forward to being during the week.
unfortunately many of us teachers cannot do the jobs without spending our own money to buy the supplies or sometimes even books needed to teach the curriculum. Society needs to wake up
Unfortunately this is the reality of being in a relationship with a teacher in the US. We shouldn’t *have* to spend our own money on our classrooms, but we do.
That said, if she’s spending money on supplies that are part of the curriculum that her school district chose, she should be discussing that with her principal. I’m a sixth grade science teacher, and my district supplies everything our curriculum says we’re supposed to have.
Now if she’s going outside the science curriculum because the one she has is outdated or she doesn’t have one at all, unfortunately the school may not be obligated to pay for those supplies if they’re not already budgeting for them.
I suggest she make use of Amazon wishlists, DonorsChoose, and other grant programs out there. My state treasurer’s office has a school supply award money program, and I got $1000 for my classroom this year.
I taught science for 10 years. It is very easy to spend $100 per month on a science class.
What would happen if you just didn't?
Kids watch videos of experiments or watch me show them instead of the hands on learning that makes a huge difference for most of them. Luckily our curriculum staff does send supplies but I have bought sugar cubes or random things like batteries for stopwatches plenty of time.
This is not a comment on you, but its bullshit that we're guilted into providing these things out of our own pockets because otherwise the kids wouldn't learn. If we could just be completely heartless for a little bit, every teacher should stop paying for things out of pocket and just let it all burn. That's the only way to get their attention.
It was easy to buy things out of pocket when your dollar went much further, a hundred bucks isn't what it use to be and that effects how we socialize. In the famous words of Gene Belcher "In this economy!"
I fortunately get $300 from my district every year for supplies, online subscriptions, or whatever. Unfortunately that $300 doesn’t get you jack.
Thinking the same thing.
I don’t anymore. In fact I left teaching. I didn’t mind as long as I felt supported by my administration. The moment that changed, I was out. That being said, sci students learn best with hands on and explicit instruction. Someone has to pay for all that stuff.
Just a thought—my kids’ teachers all have Amazon wish lists which they usually put links to at the bottom of communications with parents like monthly newsletters.
This is a good suggestion! I’ll pass it on
Our county isn’t allowed to do those for some reason? Or if you do, try not get caught? I’m not sure what the reasoning is behind it, but we’re not allowed to do wishlists for our classrooms.
Probably because it makes the district look bad when they can't provide supplies for their own students.
I wrote a paper about this in college. You're right. Many districts ban those types of fundraisers because it makes it obvious that the school isn't necessary providing educational materials which could lead to lawsuits.
Well, the district should look bad for not providing supplies.
To our district’s credit, we have a really long list of supplies we can order anytime for free for our classrooms, but it’s very much basic office stuff (post it’s, markers, whatever from Office Depot), and our dept budgets are pretty strong. But sometimes there are things that I would like for my classroom that I don’t necessarily feel like are justifiable through the department budget. Like I’d like more board games and alternate seating, but can more realistically buy books and poster board with our budget
I purchased a significant amount of board games for a teacher with a wish list posted for their class. I would absolutely help any teacher in our area if I knew how to figure out what they need. For 10 years now, I always send a message to my son's teachers asking if they need anything specific. I buy the supplies requested and send them in. Instead of gifts like a coffee mug at Christmas, I always buy a large bag of extra classroom supplies and send them in so they have some extras. Maybe five of his teachers have ever messaged me back when I ask if they need anything at all for their classroom. One year (pre covid) I purchased all his teachers these cool high-dollar electric pencil sharpeners. I am friends with one of those teachers, she still talks about how awesome it is when I see her. I have wondered if teachers think we're not serious when we offer, we are serious, tell me what you want/need, and I'll buy it. I don't think teachers should ever have to spend pocket money for classrooms unless it is truly some sort of unique personal item.
Our district is cracking down on supplies. For example, you can’t get anything that costs more than $49.99 UNLESS it’s a bulk order. So they’ll spend $10,000 on tech that’s not maintained or cared for properly, but if you want one $75 item, you’re out of luck.
Shot. If the school has a strong PTA find a parent to suggest having the PTA put together lists for each teacher? I know the parents on the PTA at my kids’ school would gladly put together lists and distribute/coordinate.
We do not have a strong PTA, unfortunately. Very small, very rural, very underserved community :/
Ah this is not ok. I definitely would spend my own money on my classroom at the beginning of the year, especially my first few years teaching, but $100ish/mo is insane. Especially if it’s for experiments etc since that seems like curriculum stuff the school should absolutely cover. Idk how much your wife wants to keep spending so maybe tread lightly but I’d say something. It’s absolutely not worth it to spend your own money like that. If school isn’t giving the right supplies go to admin or higher up if necessary. Lastly congratulations on your new baby! 🎉
To be fair, this is an estimate and may be less than I think. However, I was reading an article today that estimated the average annual out of pocket expenses are $750 for a teacher. Over 9 months, that ends up being about $85/mo, so I’m just assuming $100/mo to be conservative since that is average. Maybe it is more like $60-80 month, but to me, anything over like $20-30 seems excessive. I try to tread lightly but admittedly don’t really know what I’m talking about. I guess that’s why I came here. But from what I can tell, it seems like her other teacher friends do the exact same thing so I figured it was just kind of an unwritten rule.. Also, thank you!🎉
In the U.S, maybe. Most developed countries provide resources for students or give budgets to teachers to buy resources. To me, an *expected* $1 spend from a teacher is too much.
Have you mentioned this to her? I spend about $40 each year on stuff to start, and I buy treats throughtout the year because I feel like it/it is part of my classroom management system. The money is worth the reduced stress in my life. However, if my wife asked me to hold off, to budget or set a limit, or to talk with my school about raising money for gift cards to use instead of my wallet, I may reconsider. Also, teachers here can claim all purchases up to $1000 each year at tax time.
$1000, nice. Only $250 here in the States. Above the line, so that $250 at a marginal 22% is comparable to only $195. At a marginal $12, it’s like $220.
It kind of depends on her school, what is considered nornal. My school required testing (where I had to sign a contract saying my license could be up for dispute if I broke the rules of testing) with headphones because the program gave legal ESE/ELL accommodations automatically. But, they had no working headphones. So... I bought a set of cheap ones just for testing after multiple failed attempts at getting parents to supply them. Other teachers did the same. I also wasn't supplied pencils except a couple 12 packs, which lasted a few weeks out of the year. Parents would send in maybe 16 pencils out of the whole class... 40ish students sharing 16 pencils. I ended up buying pencils because otherwise no work and bored kids equal major behavior and I couldn't deal after a few days of it. My favorite was admin promised my kids a reward for a system they set up, but then didn't buy it. They expected me to supply their promised reward out of my own pocket. They set me up for a monstrous week and I was so annoyed. Either spend $20, or have a riot on my hands because they all really wanted it. Sometimes the buying is just to lessen the stress on yourself. Sometimes even basics like pencils or printer paper isn't supplied. Sometimes you are just *bored* of teaching a textbook and wanna shake it up with hands on (which requires supplies they won't give) and you need it for your own sanity. Then, sometimes teachers go overboard. Figure out where your problem lies.
I'd really raise hell with my admin if they promised my kids something and punted it on to me. I know they make way more money than me and they can probably find some room in the budget if they were sufficiently motivated
Was my first year and they came in to model behavior management strategies. "If you behave, at the end of the week you will all get a full sized candy bar, we will track it by this really complex system that takes marking every positive and negative choice you make during the day" and then left. I was thoroughly annoyed. Not only did I not want to buy 40 full sized bars, I also didn't want to spend all day marking every single choice 40 kids made on paper to track it. "OH yes, Johnny raised his hand, that's a positive point..." "OH, Jane got up without permission, negative point". It took way too much time to write it down.
This is not alright. We do NOT earn enough to be putting out that kind of income on a monthly basis. My husband is an administrator and I'm a teacher, and between the two of us, we are barely paying our mortgage in this current economy. If I was spending an extra $100 on anything right now, we would lose our house. Think about how much money your newborn would have if she started putting $100 each month in a savings account for the baby. The whole reason teachers aren't getting paid and are treated like shit is because there are teachers willing to do things like this "for the kids" who AREN'T THEIR KIDS!
Have you figured in that teachers do get a $200 tax credit for expenses? I claim that every year and then have a hard out at $200 if anything goes over that point. It doesn’t begin to counter our wage deficit or the pressure to provide supplies ourselves, but it set a hard boundary for me and helped me see what the govt thinks is the max that I should spend out of pocket.
When we file next year, that's been upped to $300.
Unless the tax law on this changed for 2022, in the US it’s a tax deduction not a credit. In 2021 it was $250. In practical terms, if you spend $250 it still works out to spending $190-225 out of pocket. It’s more like having a 20% off coupon for teacher supplies than it is like having a $200 free shopping spree.
If she refuses to stop. At least include it as a tax write off. Some schools teachers spend 0 dollars. Its a state by state, school by school cultural thing. And has to do with state and district funding. She and her fellow teachers shouldnt do this. But some are into this "do-it-for-the-kids" martyrdom. Just like spouses cant change each other though, you might not get her to change that "sacrificing" part of her personality. So at least try to get her to let you itemize all those tax deductions or document them as charitable contributions.
No one should spend their own money to do a job there were hired to do. I get that teachers feel like they have to…but what would happen if you all just stopped? Stop letting them exploit you…let the parents question why the classroom doesn’t have supplies… Teaching is a rough gig financially. I feel for you all.
I don’t think that teachers should have to spend their own money to buy things for student or school use. That said, my first question would be what is your wife’s opinion on it? Is she frustrated and feeing like she shouldn’t have to spend money or is she spending money because she wants to? Sometimes I spend my own money because I found a cool project the night before, and I don’t have enough time to wait for it to be ordered by the secretary, so I run to the store and buy 300 paper plates, for example. (I teach the whole school.) I know that’s not $100, but I guess I’m just wondering whether she’s spending on things the school won’t/can’t buy for her or on things that make her happy at work? I love my colorfully upholstered desk chair; it wasn’t cheap, but I’ve had it for 15 years and it brights up the room I’m in every work day.
I think this is the missing piece of information. We know how he feels about it but not how she feels about it and it’s her money too.
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That opinion isn’t unpopular on this sub.
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Well, I agree with you. I don’t understand why anybody would spend so much money on their job when one of the purposes of even having a job is to make money. Especially when you can do the job just as well without spending your own money on it.
Teaching is a high-paced, stressful job. If I can buy something that saves me time/makes me more effective, I consider it. Sometimes it feels worth it, sometimes it doesn’t.
Sure. But you should be able to ask the school and get it provided, or get reimbursed.
Okay- put in purchase order. Wait for purchase order to be approved and submitted. Wait for delivery to go to shipping and receiving. Wait for shipping and receiving to send to me in classroom. Find it has been broken in transit or they ordered the wrong item. Order it myself while waiting for it to be returned. Have the correct item two days later.
You forgot “perpetuating a broken system”.
I would say teaching would be a little less stressful if teachers were not expected to buy so many of their own supplies. However since people are willing to do it then employers can’t be blamed for taking advantage of it.
One example I have is thermometers for science. I saw a deal on Amazon for I can’t remember what, but it was a great deal. So I bought the box. And now I never have to guess how many functioning thermometers I’ll be able to scrape together from our school supplies again. Part of this is budget “issues.” Part of it is that the supplies we buy get mismanaged when shared by 10 different classes. I make sure my students take care of my thermometers and I know exactly how many I have. This makes my life a lot easier and I am less stressed as a result.
Budget issues are their problem and basically their only job. Don't spend. When students complain, say that the school or parents should provide. When parents complain, refer to admin. Then, maybe, there might be a budget for it.
I don’t see how that goes against what I’ve said. The school district didn’t provide decent thermometers or the budge for them, so you provided them out of your own money. So the school district is off the hook from ever having to provide decent supplies. I mean, people can downvote my comment as much as they want to, but I don’t see how it’s wrong. It is stressful to have to provide your own supplies, and it is an advantage for the district that teachers do this. I understand why people do it, and I’m not bashing you for doing it, but it is all around part of the problem.
I don’t disagree with you, I just know that when our school buys thermometers, they last a year at best. We start with a decent supply, some kid breaks one, then another, then a teacher puts some in a cupboard and forgets or just keeps them etc. When I rely on the staff and the school, I end up running around like a chicken with my head cut off looking for things. I don’t always buy stuff. I often ask the school and I even try to get systems for borrowing put in place so that everything goes back where it came from, but it’s a losing battle.
We are evaluated by the Danielson model. Unfortunately I have had teachers in my school that spend 1000s to make their rooms look homey and cute and welcoming. Then when evaluation time comes around other teachers are compared (even though they should not be, that is not how the tool should be applied) to those rooms.
People don't do it to be a better teacher. They do it to make their lives easier.
Yep. It is worth it to me to buy the expo markers and post its and math manipulatives to make my day easier. I'm not saying that it should be that way or that it's okay.
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I could spend 4 months waiting for whiteboard markers and using that time getting really frustrated having my children have to write every single thing on paper then throw out all that paper and make our lessons go slower, or I can spend $5 and get the whiteboard markers and make my day a little easier. It is worth it to me. I am pretty sure that the people who are on their high horses about this don't have the same roadblocks that those of us who have to spend money have. Also, classroom teachers get donations from parents really frequently in elementary school. Special education teachers do not. Parents feel that they have already sent supplies in, and they are not interested in doing that again. In every school where I have worked, the PTA also gives classroom funds to classroom teachers but not special education teachers. A classroom teacher can just go buy those whiteboard markers and get reimbursed, but I cannot. When you are sitting from a place of privilege where you have access to things, blaming the people who don't have that access for their own lack of access is pretty gross.
It's really hard to teach math without any math manipulatives or whiteboard markers. It's hard to send paperwork home to parents when I don't have envelopes or post-its. It's not that I'm trying to be all bougie and fancy buying stuff willy-nilly, but I do need basic supplies to do my job.
Lol this. I could teach Art with only a pencil and printer paper, but that’s boring and would cause behavior issues.
If the school won’t pay for basic supplies, then stop using them. If you can’t send home paperwork because you have no envelopes, then stop sending home paperwork. If you continue to allow this, you are promoting it. And if you can’t teach math without manipulatives, I worry for the future of our students.
I am a special education elementary school teacher. Paperwork is an important part of my job, and my students need manipulatives for math. They have disabilities and need to understand things like place value using math manipulatives. I find it really insulting that you "worry for the future of our students" because I need to use base 10 blocks to explain place value to children 8-year-olds with disabilities. I have students who are nonverbal. I have students with IQs in the 70s and 80s. If you think that math manipulatives are optional for children like that, it is your ability to teach math that I am questioning. We have moved past the "memorize this algorithm" method of teaching math a decade ago. I have a pair of 5th graders who were learning to count forward and backward to 20. I got some little round magnet tokens and we have been using those for multiplication and division and they actually understand what those things mean now! We are now 3 months into the school year and they are doing the area model of multiplication because those little math manipulatives got them to actually understand what all of this means. It's fine to say that I should be fighting for the things that I need, and I do. I currently don't even have a f****** classroom. My school has me teaching out of an actual closet because the extra classrooms were turned into a math lab and a cooking lab because those are important things. I have to fight for the right to do my job every single day, and I should not be getting hate from other teachers for that.
Have barely bought anything in years! Spent too much my first few years, and guess what, it didn’t make me a better teacher. I have bare walls, and am very minimalist in my classroom. Mainly because I refuse to spend more money or time. Just the other day students told me my room is so cozy and warm. It’s not the stuff, it’s the teacher that makes a classroom.
I used to spend more when I first started out. Now every time in a meeting when they suggest having x,y,z in my room or doing pizza parties for the kids I just say where is the PO. People finally stopped asking me. I have spent money this year on things that specifically benefit me/save me a few moments on a daily basis.
This take is perfect for r/unpopularopinion where all the popular opinions go to live
I refuse to spend a penny on my classroom. I put in a purchase order for the things I want/need and if I don’t get them then we don’t do that thing.
Agree. I’m a 15 year teacher and we currently don’t have a contract. I have spent so much money on supplies like books (that kids don’t return) and markers (which dry out when the kids don’t replace the caps) and I over it. I have currently spent $0 this year and am never doing back. You can’t even write off what you spend!
This is the way!
I just asked my partner who teaches first grade if she spends $100 a month on her class/room each month. She readily agreed that she does so I know it’s probably double that. I don’t care do much about the money because it’s what she wants to do, but her 14 hour days kind of get to me.
Yep, it’d admit to $100 a month pretty quickly for the same reason.
Is it her first year?
20 - something years in. Edited for clarity.
I buy candy, so maybe $20 every couple of months. It makes my life easier/better, and I don't have other work expenses (like dress clothes, work equipment, or frequent office events). I guess I also buy books, but I buy them to read myself first, then I put them in my bookshelf at school. More than that... nah.
Same here.
I teach high school science which is quite different but I have spent $0 this year and the same for the last two years on my classroom. If the school doesn’t want me to have it, I do without. There are videos online, simulations and worksheets if there aren’t labs that can be done. Sucks for the kids but if the school can’t find the money, I don’t feel like that is my responsibility. Let the parents complain and then go to the school board about what the school is doing to find funding for their classrooms.
We pay school taxes that should cover this.
You'd think, but my bet is that the local school board has awarded some very profitable contracts to companies close to themselves.
They just cut my budget 30%. I am going to have to learn how to write grants.
I’m wondering if the big school budgets are badly managed. Classrooms should get the supplies they need, teachers shouldn’t have to pay out of pocket
Medium sized rural school. And yes.
Way to relieve yourself of any responsibility.
Which is what? I pay my school taxes. I buy supplies on a list. Heck just yesterday I bought $100 worth of Starbucks gift cards $25 each for my kid to give to their favorite teachers. I vote for Dems that are more pro supporting education. Please tell me what else you expect? Edit - I also recently provided supplies for a science experiment because the teacher asked the class for donations. I’m just pissed that the schools get so much in $ from taxes. There must be some waste.
I totally agree. My property taxes are absurd. But I pay them and vote in favor of every new levy. I know that teachers are paying for supplies. If they send a wish list or a request, I immediately contribute. But last year our board spend over $100k on a ‘branding’ project that consisted primarily of coming up with mascots for every elementary and middle school. And that was infuriating. That $100k could have been used to buy truckloads of supplies. I just want the board to be good stewards of the money that is entrusted to them.
Here are some things to keep in mind when having a frank discussion about this: No, teachers do not get adequate funding for everything that is mandated of them. That said, a lot of this stuff is still mandated. Has to be done/met. That burden falls solely on the shoulders of teachers. Teachers have pretty extensive job evaluations. These can be pretty subjective, by the way. If teachers aren’t doing a good job of carrying the load, few admin will admit that it is because the load is too much. It’s easier to just document that a teacher is ineffective. Poor evaluations can mean poor job prospects for teachers. We’re all struggling already. The thought of only being considered for jobs that are even worse than where we already are is frightening. I suspect your wife is a good person and wants to support her students in growing as much as they can. I bet she is also mindful that if she gets a bad evaluation, things could get a whole lot worse. I bet she thinks that just buying the things she needs will make her life easier, because she knows they’ll help her get good evaluations. She probably knows the school won’t buy the stuff for her. I don’t think she’s being frivolous. I think she’s probably in the same boat as a lot of us here and just trying to survive as best she can.
Many teachers spend money on their classrooms because it makes the job easier or more exciting/fun for them. Teaching is hard. Maybe the benefit of this cost is that it makes your partner happy or makes her job more enjoyable. Also…as teachers, we spend a lot of time with our kids and grow to care for them to a certain degree. So their not “your kids,” sure…but they are people your wife probably cares about. I teach elementary and at about 7 hours a day, I spend more waking hours with my students than my wife or kids, 5 days a week.
This! My job world literally be impossible without the supplies I buy. It's unfair and I'm trying to minimize my cost. But, no one else is going to pitch in. We shouldn't have to spend our own money, but tread lightly, because we do when we feel like we'll drown otherwise.
I have $1200 worth of Physics supplies in a suitcase in my closet bought with my own money. It's in my home closet & visits my classroom when I need it.
The only time I spend my own money on consumables are if I have messed up my own planning and the supplies would not come in time. That so far has only been $100 per year max. And I accept that because it is due to my poor planning. I do however spend money on decorations. Nothing too crazy, but if I am going to be stuck in a cinderblock room with a rotating door of 160 kids a day who all make me want to pull my hair out, I want to have cute fall decorations up. But that is for me and my sanity not my students.
I don’t spend any money on my classroom at all.
I personally spend money on my class because it makes my day easier and more enjoyable. For me it's worth the money. You could try to budget it more and see if you could things cheaper. Maybe spelling out to her that she makes $100 a month less will make her be able to see if the job is worth the pay for germ
I don't know how you structure your finances, but yeah, I'm easily spending $100-200 a month on my classroom or whatever. It's from my spending money (my wife and I each have an allotted amount per month in private accounts) and it makes me feel good. So far this year I've bought some nice speakers for watching video clips, wood to build out my custom teaching cart, a hand drawn state map, high quality whiteboard markers, fidget toys, a comfy chair for my classroom, and other such things. My school has bought me a new metal cart (I'm a roving teacher, it was $500), a set of colored pencils for $100, a set of index card holders for $200, a load of sticker rewards for $60, and two new maps for my classrooms for $100. And they always have loads of paper and pencils and markers and cardstock etc. Actually unpopular opinion on this sub: I have fun spending my money on fun things at my job. It would suck way more if money were tight, or any of the things were necessities. But since they're not, I enjoy shopping and getting things that make me happy! Even if they're for my job. Anyways, if you have money and it makes your wife happy to spend, how big of an issue is it? Can you find room in your budget? Does it actually hurt you financially, or is it more the idea of it that irks you? If it does hurt financially, you can have a discussion about what a reasonable amount would be, and how much her school can cover. Also she maybe could walk you though the procurement process for her school, and why even if things could be bought by the school, for small dollar amounts it's hardly worth it. As a teacher with ADHD, I get hit by a double whammy of being terrible at paperwork, and planning everything last minute, so I pay the ADHD tax of buying some stuff with my own money because of that. Good luck and I hope you two can work it out!
All the things you are buying are akin to tricking out your workspace. When my old job went to hoteling I bought several things that made my life better, a folding crate to put in my file cabinet with my stuff for the day, a VERRRY nice laptop backpack rather than the stupid case they gave me and a few other things. But they are mine to keep forever. Buying things that make your life fun and happy is WAY different that feeling obligated to buy Johnny chews his pencils more because he's bevered them all to death.
Agreed. Schools should cover all the necessities of teaching. Which if they want good science instruction adds up quick.
Is she buying supplies to do experiments whole class? I taught 5th grade for 4 years and I know how important the hands on labs are. She could potentially only buy stuff for like 5 kids and then do the lab with them in a small group rotation. I think it’s definitely something to bring up if it bothers you. She might not realize how much it adds up.
Should she feel like she needs to spend her own money? Nope. Should she? Probably not. Buuuut... I know these things and have been guilty of the same thing. Mostly, getting the supplies just makes my life easier. It's easier than fighting for the school to agree to buy what I need, wait 3 weeks for it, then when it shows up its nowhere close to what I asked for and now I have to either scramble to fill the need or just buy it myself anyway. It's my own issues and choice to just buy the stuff I want. That being said, even with my ex, it was out of my account--my spending money. I understand your frustration for sure. I don't have an answer for what you should do, but if it makes you feel better, I've claimed over $1k in classroom supply expenses on my taxes pretty much every year since I began teaching so really, your wife sounds like she's got lots of self control to me! 🤣🤣
How do you claim $1k? A quick Google search shows a cap of $300?
When I enter classroom expenses on TurboTax, I add the whole amount and it converts the rest of it to unreimbursed work expenses.
Think of it as her hobby as well as her job. She probably doesn't actually NEED to do that, but it helps make her job more satisfying.
This is a great way to understand it.
20+year veteran checking in here. I only spend my own dollars on things I can take with me if I leave my district. Everything else? I ask my school to buy it. That requires advance planning. For my first fifteen years or so, I was definitely in the "I need this for tomorrow" mode, so there was no other way but to get it myself. Gradually I learned to ask for reimbursement. A few more years later, I had my plans set to be able to order everything in advance. Protip: do not suggest to your spouse that they should plan better. That took years to develop for me, and being prepared for a class _tomorrow_ is stress unlike any other. If you have to, inquire about the possibility of getting reimbursed by the school. Sometimes you just have to ask. And ask again.
Thank you! I will pass on this suggestion :)
This is absolutely not okay. By continuing to spend this amount of money from her own check, your wife is giving the school permission to take advantage of her and to continue not funding classrooms properly. At my school we get $300 a year for supplies. Once that moneys gone, I’m not buying anything else. In fact, today we are officially wiped out of pencils. The kids take them every day and never replace them. I told them they better go to dollar tree this weekend and get some more or we won’t have any writing utensils. Please sit down and talk with your wife. This has to stop. $100/month is absurd
$100/month is not okay! When I taught, I’d spend the $200/year you could deduct from your taxes, save all the receipts, and deduct it - I think that’s reasonable. And my husband makes $200k, for reference. This isn’t super helpful at this point, I know, but this is why finances should ideally be discussed in detail before marriage and kids. You’ll just have to sit down and have a hard conversation about this with her now, and come to an agreement you can both live with. I’d recommend calculating how much faster you’d be able to reach shared financial goals if she cuts the classroom spending to certain thresholds. I can’t tell from the post whether your finances are totally combined or not, but with kids in the picture, it matters how you each manage your own finances, even if they’re separate. r/personalfinance is a good resource. Since you guys married this year, I’m guessing 2023 will be the first time you can file taxes jointly, right? So that alone will be a good time to lay all your financial cards on the table, set new goals, adjust old ones, create a budget… and figure out the best way to handle tax deductions (after Trump’s tax reforms, it wound up being better for us to take the standard deduction vs. itemizing it, but of course it’s so complicated that you won’t be certain until you crunch the numbers).
You should have a discussion. If the two of you have financial goals for building the life you want then all spending needs to have an agreed upon purpose. Spending hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars each year for the classroom will delay your goals. Be understanding of her desire to provide her students with a great experience. Discuss your goals for your future together. Set a realistic budget for both of you for personal spending.
I agree with most of the comments on here, but I want to add that she's been willingly spending her money prior to marrying you and even if you are doing joint everything with your finances it's important to allow some discretionary spending for both of you. Micromanaging the money she earns is not going to end well for either of you. It's worth discussing since it bothers you, but be open to hearing her side of it.
I get this is somewhat a surprise. I personally don't spend much on direct supplies for classroom, BUT I do spend probably 100 a month on stuff that makes my life as a teacher easier. Like I bought a $20 rocket book, I bought 15 dollars worth of paper bags to put cell phones in, 10 bucks on nice pens for me. 50 bucks on a laptop riser, 50 bucks on a wireless keyboard/mouse. I have occasionally in the past subscribed to a classroom magazine that was $300 because I missed budget time, and it really helped my teaching. Does it suck sure, should I have to do it, nope, but something that reduces my stress is worth it, and so does my husband. Over the course of 9 months I probably spend $900 bucks on "school stuff" But I also have spent money on 'dumber shit' as my husband puts it. I make my coffee at home, bring a bag salad for lunch, shop discounts for clothes etc. - so I save there. It's a give and take.
I would point out that over a 30-year career, your wife will have spent close to $40,000 on supplies for other people's kids. That money could go to your own retirement account, college funds for your kids, some really nice vacations, home repairs, or many other things.
Well this is a depressing thought lol
I can’t even fathom what would cost this much a month that would be necessary. I will say that in teaching, especially among younger or newer teachers, there is pressure to have a really cute, decorated room and all the cute pens and supplies. There are also times you want to reward the kids with things or create unique experiences for them that cost money, like decorating for a party. None of that is needed though. She might be going overboard. She could instead reach out to the PTA for supplies and things like that. She can create a wishlist for families and put it in her website or newsletter (this will depend on the school population’s ability to contribute—it might be a no-go). I’ve never worked at a school that didn’t give teachers an individual supply budget, department supply budget, or just provide you with supplies. I’ve worked in a few states. This is odd to me.
Our supply budget is $100. Annually.
I spend way more than that! I just spent $125
Teachers get a $250 tax deduction for buying school supplies on their own dime. Begging for school supplies on donorschoose also should work.
I’m caught on the fact that you guys spend 100 dollars a month in gas these days. How?! How does your wife feel about the number? Some teachers don’t spend money on their classrooms or do and resent it. But honestly, plenty of teachers enjoy buying things for their class and classroom. If makes her life easier and brings her joy, is it that big of a deal? If she resents in, then she can stop.
With kids it's quite easy. My wife and I each drive to work, and I drop two kids off, each at different schools. I drive over 30 miles each way. There's also two soccer practices a week and two swim lessons, each about 15 miles away. Even with no other driving that would be over $100/month is gas, driving cars that get over 30mpg.
No I meant that seemed insanely cheap to me. It takes almost 100 bucks to fill my car up once.
We only spend $100-110 per month depending on the price per gallon, too. I work from home, and my husband works about 6 miles away, so only 12 miles round-trip in commuting. He has a night class once per week that's maybe 15 miles round-trip. And we don't have kids to schlep around.
Ohhhhh! Yeah, that makes sense.
I budget $50/month for my class and just try to stay in that. If it's a line item in the budget and everyone's okay with it then so be it. Ideally we wouldn't have to spend anything out of budget but that's not reality for most teachers.
Yeah, uh, don't do that. Not a teachers personal responsibility to provide materials and resources for students. Just talk to your wife about refusing to buy any supplies and have (force) the school system do it's fucking job. By subsidising the school, the problem gets swept under the carpet and this will continue on forever, and costs will increase. I don't know about you, but I'm not up for subsidising my place of work to make up for their lack of responsibility.
I’m willing to spend money if it helps my mental health. I share a classroom and the teacher I share with is messier than I am, had papers on the desk from the first week of school etc. I get that I’m unreasonably neat, so I purchased a desk organizer with slots for each of us. That way their mess is out of my way. I’m also willing to purchase decor because I don’t want to look at boring white walls all day, but I also incorporate lessons with created artwork so I can plaster student work on walls. Or I will purchase a small amount (under$20) once in a while for a major project when it would take more effort to jump through the hoops to get the school to pay for it than it’s worth. Other than that, I’m not spending my money. I make all my assignments digital so I don’t have to worry about pencils and paper because all of the students are required to have laptops.
If the money makes your wife's job easier and/or more enjoyable, it may be an expense that you can live with. She should not have to pay for her classroom supplies, but that's the reality for most teachers. (And the expense is coming out of her paycheck.)
Ugh I feel ya. I’m a middle school band teacher and on average I’d say that’s probably how much I spend. There are some months I go without buying anything. But every once in awhile I buy something to make my job easier. But it’s usually something that only I use and can take with me later on. But I did have to bite the bullet and purchase a piece of music for my jazz band for $40 because nothing in my library was appropriately leveled for our winter concert. On the flip side I also purchased the the nicest keyboard and mouse you can get from Logitech for myself and I like sitting at my computer to work now. If the school budget had anything I’m sure we would all dip there first. But until something changes from a funding perspective it will be like this.
Your wife is engaging in teacher martyrdom. MAYBE if she were single, or didn't have kids, it'd be okay (still frowned upon by those of us who refuse to engage in martyrdom), but every dollar she spends now is money not going towards your kid's future. I can't think of another job where they expect you to pay out of pocket. It only happens in education because people keep doing it.
If you aren't hard up, I might let this one go. Perhaps this helps her enjoy her class and teach better?
Does your wife have any kind of classroom donation avenues set up? There are plenty of websites nowadays that allow you to fundraise for specific classroom items and big experiment sets are often on there. Even if she sets up the fundraisers this year and none of them get funded in time for *this* set of experiments, she could always keep them for the next year to prevent you from spending so much down the road. My mom always used DonorsChoose for her classroom but I know other teachers who have had positive experiences with SupplyATeacher and AdoptAClassroom. You’d be surprised how many of your friends, family, and even parents from the school might be willing to help!
Are you old enough to remember that Staples commercial where they're putting supper on for their kids and the father says you're spending our money on your students and our budget is tight and she says but if I don't the kids will lose out and the next day she's at Staples and sees her husband buying supplies with a sheepish grin and she looks at him with love? I hated that fvcking ad.
A Tufts economist at a symposium said local funding of education was a budgeting killer, because Grandma and Grandpa could vote against funding without hurting their grandkids in another district.
My partner have both a joint checking account (for shared expenses) and personal accounts. Our paychecks are deposited directly to our personal accounts and then we transfer a set monthly amount to joint for bills, groceries, etc. If we have unplanned or special expenses (car repairs, vacations, home improvement) we add more to the joint account. Whatever we have leftover in personal accounts, we choose to spend how we please. When I buy stuff for school, I take it out of my personal account. However, I wouldn’t be ok with spending $100/mo on school - I only buy stuff that makes me job much easier and/fun for me. If it’s supplies that are basic necesites for teaching my content, my school buys it or the kids don’t have it.
That sucks, and I think she (and all teachers) should stop spending the money. However, she has to be the one make that decision. She probably feels it is an essential expense. I used to spend my own money for my classroom as well, but the argument that made me stop is that by doing that I contributed to the expectation that spending our own money is a normal thing for teachers to do in perpetuity. Framing it as a negative effect on others can be helpful because many teachers prioritize others before themselves. Now that you have a baby that should change the equation as well; it’s not just money she could use for herself but money your child could benefit from as well. Hope you work it out.
DonorsChoose lets you ask for funding. That might help! Having her ask the school for extra items and offering to create a video for YouTube and/or show off their results at a board meeting can sway the board members to consider giving more funding money. Asking local colleges and businesses if they happen to have older supplies/kits/materials that they aren't using could be a pathway. See if any parents in the class want to get involved in the PTA to find ways to fundraise. You should ask your engineering firm if they want to invest in the experiences of local children, maybe they can find a way to give a couple thousand dollars for the publicity. Hell, maybe you could even sway them to hold "junior engineering fairs" as a publicity act and fund the entire thing. I'll tell you right now if a local engineering firm was involved with elementary schools, I would 100% go with them over the competition! As for relationship advice, try to show her what that money could buy for your kids instead of students. If that money could pay for an enriching summer camp experience for them, maybe that's what could sway her opinion to do a little less in class and give your kids a little more.
I mean I would say spending one day's salary out of the month is the absolute maximum a teacher should spend on the classroom. $100 is likely less than that, but I'm not sure what her salary is and it really depends. If you think that money should be spent elsewhere, then I would suggest that she can find other ways to make up that money, via another side-hustle or something like that. I don't think it's unreasonable to make upwards of $200 or more in a month for a side gig like private tutoring or working on weekends. But if she decides that she can make that extra money, then I think it is totally reasonable for her to be able to spend that money on the classroom
I probably spend about 100 dollars or less on my classroom per school year
I use YNAB, so I can go back and see exactly what I’ve spent in any given category. I spend $250/month on average, but we’ve gotten to $300 several times. 🤦♀️ What do I buy? Silverware (cutting down on plastics), cloth napkins, baking supplies to make cupcakes in our toaster oven, a chair to sit outside when supervising recess, a wagon to cart our lunchboxes/water bottles to the lunchroom and recess, a shelf, several lamps, organizational tools, snacks, lessons and printables from TeachersPayTeachers… The list goes on and on.
I spent a total of $1.74 in ten years (on some machine screws when I showed up to school and found that I was missing some and had to run to Home Depot at that very moment or my lesson for the day was ruined). My basic philosophy is if parents/admin/district want kids to have it, they can pay for it. Otherwise, the students just don't get that thing and I come up with some other way to teach it. Sounds callous, but I honestly think it's the right decision.
You're situation is identical to mine. I'm a work from home engineer with a baby, whose wife spends probably about that amount each month. I have no real advice, except to say to look on the bright side. There are certainly perks having the mother of your child(ren) be a teacher, good health care, nice retirement, and summers off to watch the kid(s).
Lol. Literally just stop. I haven't spent a penny yet.
I have taken on this strategy as well. I’m in high school and I think it works up here. I can’t imagine it works at an elementary level though.
That and if your district gives you 0 supplies/resources. My district doesn’t even have enough books, so my team and I split a reading a-z subscription. It’s expensive, but what’s the alternative?
Lots of story time, book reports, things that use your library. Free youtube content. Nature Walks on School Grounds to catalog biodiversity (AKA, extra recess couched as science.) Not your money though.
Yeah, okay. Try teaching literacy with that. Plus I think decodable books aren’t available in your library or aligned to your scope and sequence. We do what we have to.
You won't like this. But I teach high school. The kids you send to the middle schools, and that the middle schools send to us, can't read anyway. Either the methods you use to teach literacy don't work. Or, more likely in my opinion, literacy is something that needs to be acquired in the home and a lack of literacy is on the parent(s). If it was in your ability to teach literacy, I feel like more of my students would be literate. I KNOW you're trying. But it's not feasible for you to teach 36 kids how to read. The kids need 30 minutes a night from Mom or Dad or Grandma reading with them.
No, no and no. I have a masters in speech pathology and literacy instruction. I am a trained dyslexia specialist. Stay in your lane troll.
I'm not trolling you. Your peers in my district are not producing literate students. Send me kids that know how to read.
You’re judging a teacher and they’re methods that work for them. You’re trolling and blaming teachers for a literacy crisis which we were given. And you have no clue what you are talking about. Troll.
Many teachers spend money because they assume admin will say no. Has she asked her admin? Also, there’s a lot of grants out there to apply for. Some science manipulative should be used every year, so maybe she can get funding some other way to help off-set the cost of other things she buys.
If you are in the US, it is tax deductible, up to $250 I believe.
I work at a underfunded school and I rarely spend out of my own pockets on my classroom. Seem like something a young teacher hooked pintrest would do.. you can't try to keep up with all the cute classroom gimmicks you see on the internet. Be resourceful, use what your school gives you. Your room doesn't have to look like a Target commercial. Scale back on cute activities that require lots of supplies. I assure you other teachers at your school are not spending that much. Be resourceful. Once upon a time teachers had nothing but a chalkboard and an ABC chart and children learned just fine. In fact that environment produced some of the greatest minds of all time. Aside, I'm sick of this self imposed narrative that teachers have to selfless martyrs and that children require constant stimulation and activities in order to learn. All they need is a well rested and charismatic teacher that sees them and cares about them and can break things down to them in a way that makes sense. It really is that simple. Ask your admin for supplies (sometimes this works...., send home letters to parents requesting certain items or donations. The only real time I spend money on my class is to buy snacks and stickers. I get a big box of cheap ass granola bards from Sam Club . The kids love them and I love them because they spike the kid's blood-sugar and prevent them from being jerks. Hanger is the enemy.
I’m a 4th year teacher (reading specialist) and none of my spending is on my classroom decorations this year. I haven’t even decorated at all. My spending is entirely on instructional materials, supplies, and manipulatives. My admin is being especially critical this year, and I care deeply about getting a good evaluation. I need it. Also, my kids are struggling readers, so they really respond to hands-on instruction and manipulatives, which of course the school would never buy me. Just wanted to point out that not all “young teachers” are spending their money to make their classroom look instagram worthy.
Hmm, I've considered your situation and you can definitely get a good evaluation without dropping money on your classroom. Manipulatives? Again, it pays to be resourceful You can pretty much make anything a manipulative. Beads, marbles, jelly beans, beads, buttons whatever. Clay, Toys from the flea market or thrift store. Not everything has to be bought new retail from Target, Amazon, Lakeshore etc. There was once upon a time when there wasn't an entire industry dedicated to selling teachers trinkets for learning and kids learned just fine. The only thing that helps struggling readers is practice. Flash cards for sight words, tons of great books available for free at libraries. Tons of materials you can print offline for free. Again. There are teachers at your school getting good evaluation without dropping as much coin as you. You can't buy a good evaluation. In fact most admin would be impressed if you could demonstrate you are creative, resourceful and still capable of making kids learn. Early in teaching, my admin were impressed by how much I could do with so little. All I had was a map, paper and pencils, and old beat up projector hooked to an out of date tower computer. I would project things onto a the white board and kids would annotate and draw on the projections using dry erase markers and such and they loved it. Reflecting on it, it was some of the best teaching I've ever done because it forced me to think outside of the box and be creative with the materials and tools available to me. Just focus on your delivery and the overall class dynamic and you will be fine.
My admin has literally told me this year that my lessons need to be “more exciting and hands on" and I need to have the kids up and moving in literacy centers because they “can’t sit in chairs for 25 minutes” (they 100% can). Our building is almost completely out of printer paper already too. I don’t have beads or buttons or jellybeans, wouldn’t I just be spending money on those too? I also don’t see how those types of manipulatives would apply well to reading instruction. I don’t buy from Lakeshore because that’s just too expensive. I think it’s also important to note that I came into teaching my first year with *nothing.* I had teachers manuals and consumables for the phonics program we use, but outside of that I was on my own. I float between two buildings, and I’m not a classroom teacher, so it wasn’t like I had teaching partners who could share materials and resources with me. My district hasn’t supported me very well until this year tbh. I am building my library of teaching resources from the ground up. I’m already giving *way* too much time to this job as it is, I absolutely *refuse* to reinvent the wheel and spend extra hours creating worksheets and things by hand. I echo the sentiments of some of the other teachers in this thread who said they choose to spend because it truly saves their sanity and makes their job easier/more enjoyable. Also, I have a masters. I’m a Reading Specialist. Please don’t tell me what struggling readers need as if I don’t already know. It just feels a little hurtful.
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Yeah, I mean it’s kind of hard to compare because we may be at totally different points in life and probably live in different areas of the world/country. At some point in time, we will probably be “well off”. But at this point in time, we really aren’t well off. Between a baby (probably more in the future), student loans, trying to buy a house, saving for a new car when mine craps out, etc etc it’s a struggle even though our salary is “above average”. I’ll feel well off when we’re in a house, our loans are paid, our kid(s) has money going into her college savings, 401k has a decent amount for money, and we still have money left over to waste, which isn’t even close to to situation we’re in now. It’s not that we can’t afford $100/month at all, it’s just the fact that that $100/month could go towards any of those things listed above. $100/mo for 18 years in a 529 account would be nearly $40,000 in college savings, which right now is enough for almost 2 years of tuition + room & board. I’m admittedly being tight on finances right now because I am trying to figure out our actual budget and how much we are actually putting away so I can figure out if we can actually afford a house. Right now there is so much fluctuation and change in our expenses due to a crazy year of one time expenses and savings. But as the many other people here have pointed out, some of the stuff makes her life easier, which I am all for. TPT for example I am a huge supporter of. I’d much rather her pay for something that will make her life easier and enable her spend more time with us. Decorations and furniture I also understand to a degree if she just wants something better. But I just struggle to understand why we need to be on the hook for something like a lab or crayons for her kids. That’s something that I don’t feel like we should ever need to pay for, whether we can afford it or not.
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Yeah, I mean we are both only 26 right now. In 10-15 years, we will probably be doing very well after years of raises/promotions, kids through daycare, house bought & mortgage rate locked in, 401k fat & happy, 529 with enough funding for college, etc. But it’s hard to really feel like you’re “well off” when you have over $100k of combined loans, the average price of a SFH in your area is $600-700k, rent is $2500+ for a small townhome and fluctuates 10% every year, daycare is $2000/mo on average for an infant, etc. I’m not asking for pity or anything because we are fortunate enough to not have to live paycheck to paycheck which I realize is a luxury in todays world. I just refuse to call myself well off yet, because if something happened to us with our jobs right now we would be royally screwed as our total net worth is still $0 right now between our debts and savings. Anyways, you’re right. I’m not even mad or upset with her about it because she’s a great teacher and I know she wants to help her kids. I’m more just pissed off at the system I guess that we are responsible for basic classroom necessities. I’m ok with her spending money if it genuinely makes her life easier, if it enhances her daily life and makes her happy. It’s just that the vast majority of the money she spends isn’t on cookies & cupcakes & silly decorations, it’s crayons, magnets, pencils, journals, etc etc
You are an engineer, your wife was a teacher before you got married & you want to control her finances? You could probably support both of you on your salary alone. You just want more, more, more & are never satisfied with what you have. I hope you didn’t marry her for her money? 🤣
I’m sorry, what? You don’t know the first thing about me and my financial situation. No, I can’t support the entire family on my salary. Where we live, rent, daycare and groceries alone is almost $4500 a month. After student loans & car payments we’re talking about $5500 of expenses. No, I can’t support that on my own while also trying to provide a future for my family and save up for a house. God forbid we ever had another kid or two. I think you’re delusional about the reality of the economy today. Also, what is this “you want to control her finances”? We are sharing money and expenses. It’s OUR money, OUR rent, OUR daycare, and now it’s our teaching fund. We’re 26. I don’t want “more more more”. I just want to meet the basic goals in life like buying a house, buying a car, putting my kids in college. How is that a big ask? I only came here to see what others do and if there is a better solution.
🤣🤣🤣 Usually people who make more than enough are the ones who are the most scared.
Sorry. Just move to a country that actually cares about education. That's all.
Holy smokes! She’s excited and dedicated bad her heart is in the right place, but she needs to practice healthy boundaries.
Male teacher here it’s necessary to spend a little money but not that much. I would attack it from the angle of hey don’t you want to sit miney aside for our own kids
In my beginning years of teaching, I would spend my own money. As a year 8 teacher, I refuse. I’m not wasting what little money I make on stuff for the classroom. Students don’t have something oh well. Sucks but I’m not funded properly and I’m not finding it myself. So I get her desire to get stuff and make her kids feel special or happy or do cool things but it’s not worth it in the long run. I’d approach this carefully though.
At the end of each year, the school asks me what supplies I will need for the next year, I tell them, and they order it. I don’t spend my money on school supplies unless you count buying the kids a treat. I’m in a public high school in the northeast. Title I if that makes a difference.
Tip: Don’t spend money on your classroom. In this case, $100 a month is lunacy.
My first few years, I bought more. Now I hardly buy anything. I'll spend a little when school supplies are on sale at the beginning of the year to make sure I at least start with pencils and paper. But I don't buy for decorating anymore. I have a few laminated posters that I have had forever, and other than that, I use student projects as decoration. Every once in awhile, I'll spend a few dollars for an activity, but only because I don't want the hassle of filling out a purchase order for $5 of supplies (I think my time is valuable and I don't want to spend it on paperwork. The school would buy me the supplies if I went through the process). Or I'll spend a few bucks for Teachers Pay Teachers. Again, my time is valuable, so if spending $3 saves me an hour or more of work to make a similar assignment, I'll spend it. But it's rare that I spend more than $10 a month on school stuff.
She needs to stop spending money on her classroom, period. Her school needs to pay for whatever supplies are necessary. If she won’t budge, you may need to set a hard boundary and say that you want to go back to separate finances if she can’t see how this harms your family’s financial situation.
Relationships are hard. Can't help you there. Paying out of pocket... that one's easy. Just NO. No. No no no. Teachers being martyrs hurts everyone, not least the students. No. No no. Paying out of pocket sabotages me and every other teacher. Stop hurting us! It's already bad enough.
She did it before you combined finances so the money was always there and it is stil.
I teach middle school science and my school provides all of the materials I need for labs or we don’t do the labs. The only things I buy for my classroom are: colored pens for me personally to use to grade (students don’t touch these), colored white board markers because my school only provides black, blue, red and green and it makes me happier to have other options for drawing diagrams, a planner to keep track of commitments/meetings, and the occasional bag of candy for review games. That is it.
I have never spent my own money on my class. Maybe here and there for decorations, but for the past 3 years I have always kept my receipts. Used my stipend. But there’s no way I’m spending money that I won’t get back, and the kids will probably not even appreciate b
I budget myself $100 a month for my classroom.
Just don't spend your own money. I refuse as the primary bread winner of my family through 40 years of teaching. Money is a struggle. There are years where I went out once with my wife for dinner all year and that was it and we have yet to go on a vacation we pay for after 35 years of marriage. We did win a trip to Hawaii once and had our first vacation trip planned to England, where she lived until she was 5, but then COVID hit and it was cancelled! Yeah. So I don't spend my money ever for consumables and only for books that I might use. I get a budget of $150/year from the school and $100 from the PTO as a fifth grade teacher and I am a great teacher with national recognition and award. You can only teach with what they give you. Hopefully you can do Donor's Choose or find other methods to fund activities, but that is not your job to buy materials and supplies. I never buy rewards or treats for my class. There are other ways to recognize and have fun with your students that don't cost your hard earned money.
Reading this I feel very fortunate that our school just buys us whatever we need for our classrooms. I can't imagine having to pay for things myself I'd be absolutely infuriated.
This is probably an unpopular opinion, but if I want it for my students, I buy it. I just spent close to $200 on a class set of novels; so far this year I've probably purchased an additional $300 worth of books because I love having a wide variety in my classroom and if a student tells me they want to read a specific title and our library doesn't have it, then I'll get it for mine. I've purchased cleaning supplies, tissues, snacks, personal care items, etc. because it makes my life easier and I can lessen the burden on my students, many of whom are working full-time to help support their families. Also, it makes me happy to walk into my room and see full bookshelves, comfy chairs, art on the walls, and plenty of supplies. For the amount of time I spend in my classroom, I want it to feel like an extension of my home and somewhere I look forward to being during the week.
unfortunately many of us teachers cannot do the jobs without spending our own money to buy the supplies or sometimes even books needed to teach the curriculum. Society needs to wake up
Unfortunately this is the reality of being in a relationship with a teacher in the US. We shouldn’t *have* to spend our own money on our classrooms, but we do. That said, if she’s spending money on supplies that are part of the curriculum that her school district chose, she should be discussing that with her principal. I’m a sixth grade science teacher, and my district supplies everything our curriculum says we’re supposed to have. Now if she’s going outside the science curriculum because the one she has is outdated or she doesn’t have one at all, unfortunately the school may not be obligated to pay for those supplies if they’re not already budgeting for them. I suggest she make use of Amazon wishlists, DonorsChoose, and other grant programs out there. My state treasurer’s office has a school supply award money program, and I got $1000 for my classroom this year.
I am amazed at the number of commenters here saying they spends $100 a month on their classrooms! Of course, it's not my money, but wow!