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The 2007 Backpack Index Includes 10 Tips to Help Parents Control the Costs of School Supplies
When your children come home from the first day of school this year and hand you their supply lists, expect to pay as much as $1,245 if you have two children in grades k-12. The cost represents supplies as well as the payment for activity-related expenses whether that is a musical instrument rental, sports equipment or club fees.
To fill the backpacks of their children this year, Huntington projects that parents should have $351 available in late summer for elementary pupils, $530 for middle school children and $894 for high school students. These expenses are for supplies and do not include the money parents can expect to pay for back-to-school clothing.
"Huntington has designed the Backpack Index to help parents save what they will need for back-to-school shopping," said Mary Navarro, senior executive vice president of retail and commercial banking at Huntington Bank. "Huntington has also developed a Back To School Shopping Guide that parents can use to teach their children about money management as they buy school supplies. They might also save some money in the process."

  Huntington's Back To School Shopping Guide includes 10 tips parents and
  students can follow. A sample of the tips includes:

  1) Take an inventory of the supplies you already have.
  2) Compare prices and decide who offers the best deals.
  3) If your children want more expensive items, insist they use their
     allowances to pay for them.
  4) Give your children cash to shop with and stick to your budget.
  5) Talk to neighbors, friends and other parents to see if they have an
     instrument or sports equipment their children are no longer using.

  For more shopping and back-to-school saving tips and a podcast of those
  tips, visit www.huntington.com/backpack.

For supply lists and costs for elementary, middle and high school visit:
https://www.huntington.com/forschools/backpackIndex_elementary.html
https://www.huntington.com/forschools/backpackIndex_middle.html
https://www.huntington.com/forschools/backpackIndex_high.html
About Huntington
Huntington Bancshares Incorporated is a $50+ billion regional bank holding company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.
Web site: http://www.huntington.com/backpack

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