Today is my daughter’s first day of school, and she is none too pleased. The fact that she is not educationally inclined is hard for me to understand because we’re polar opposites. I actually really liked school, at least the academic part of it. School’s only purpose, as far as my daughter is concerned, is social networking.

One thing we did agree on before she headed back: school supply shopping would be kept to a minimum. It seems like just about everything is more expensive these days, and I have no interest in going hog-wild this year, as we have in the past. Luckily, I’ve been squirreling away pencils, pens, erasers and the like all summer. Also, her supply lists were fairly minimal this year, and she’s old enough (13!) that she doesn’t want to have to lug around a huge backpack full of stuff she will most likely never actually need.

We’re not the only ones cutting back. According to a recent MarketWatch (www.marketwatch.com) article, many back-to-school consumers will shop less, visit more discount-type stores, and focus on sales items. A link to the full article is below.