Special Informat.ro / From backpack to after-school: the real bill of the beginning of the school year

The beginning of the school year means not only the excitement of the first day of classes but also a financial test for many families. The backpack, school supplies, autumn clothes, footwear, lunch, and for parents who work late, after-school programs can push September expenses from a few hundred lei to several thousand.

For a child enrolled in a public school, a family can pay between 600 and 1,400 lei for the minimum equipment needed at the start of the year—if they follow promotions and avoid brand-name products. In a medium consumption scenario, which includes more durable supplies, new clothes, and footwear for school and sports, the budget can rise to 1,700–3,100 lei. And for parents who need after-school care, the first month of school can exceed 3,400 lei and, in some cases, reach 5,500 lei or more.

The backpack and supplies: from the minimum offer to the complete package

The first visible expense is for school supplies. The list varies from one class to another, but generally includes notebooks, writing instruments, colored pencils, rulers, erasers, sharpeners, glue, scissors, drawing pads, watercolors, or modeling clay.

During promotions, some products can be purchased for a few lei. A hypermarket announced, for the back-to-school period, A5 notebooks at 0.39 lei, pencil cases starting at 6.99 lei, sets of pencils or watercolors from 7.99 lei, and backpacks from 17.99 lei. Under these conditions, a very limited package, consisting of a backpack and absolutely necessary supplies, can remain around the threshold of 100 lei.

In reality, the amount paid by parents is usually higher. An experiment Euronews estimated that a backpack equipped with the bare essentials costs approximately 300 lei, not including clothes, footwear, tutoring, or other school-related services.

Differences arise from the quality of products, durability, characters or licenses printed on backpacks and pencil cases, as well as families' decisions to buy everything at once or to complete the list gradually.

Clothes and footwear raise the bill

Supplies are just the most easily observable part of the back-to-school budget. For many families, the most significant cost is that of clothes and footwear, especially if the child has outgrown their summer clothes or needs equipment for both regular classes and sports. A minimum package can mean a few t-shirts or blouses, pants or skirts, a hoodie, underwear, and socks. To this, a pair of shoes or sneakers for school and separate footwear for physical education is often added.

For parents who keep an eye on offers, costs can be reduced. For example, a hypermarket promoted cotton t-shirts at 17.99 lei each. However, the savings obtained on a few items do not eliminate the problem of concentrated purchases in a single month, especially in households with two or more children.

Lunch and after-school

Once classes begin, recurring expenses arise. For children who stay after school at a public school or in a private center, after-school care can become the largest component of the monthly budget.

In Bucharest, fees for the 2026–2027 school year generally range between 2,000 and 3,000 lei per month, depending on the duration of the program, meals included, transportation, optional activities, and homework support.

An after-school program in Sector 6 advertises a fee of 2,100 lei per month, which includes transportation, meals, snacks, and activities in the program. In Tunari, an offer for the 2026–2027 program starts at 1,600 lei per month for pickup from school, lunch, snacks, and homework support. Packages that include additional activities reach 1,950 or 2,400 lei per month.

For families that do not choose after-school care, the child's food remains an expense. A package prepared at home, a snack, and, if necessary, a lunch ordered or bought can mean between 15 and 30 lei per day. Over 20 school days, the amount reaches approximately 300–600 lei per month.

How much does September cost?

Estimates do not include the purchase of laptops, tablets, or phones, nor the tuition costs of private institutions. They also do not include tutoring, which can become a significant budget pressure for families with older children. In 2026, tutoring starts at around 25–50 lei per hour in offers with students, novice teachers, or in groups and often reaches 75–150 lei per hour for experienced teachers. Individual preparation can cost 150–300 lei for a two-hour session, and in the premium segment, it can exceed these thresholds.

Expenses that arise along the way

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Beyond the initial shopping list, families often encounter expenses that are not visible on the first day of school: auxiliary materials, collections, projects, classroom materials, photographs, celebrations, trips, gifts, or extracurricular activities. Prices have also risen. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics cited by Edupedu, school supplies have increased by 7.54% between July 2025 and July 2026, while school books have seen an annual increase of 12.03%.

Textbooks are free in state education, but auxiliary materials and collections can sometimes end up on parents' shopping lists. Similarly, a trip, a thematic activity, or a contribution for collective materials may seem like a small expense taken separately, but accumulated over a semester can mean several hundred lei.

For families benefiting from support for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, the 500 lei voucher for supplies can cover a good part of the basic package. However, the amount does not cover clothes, footwear, the child's meals, after-school supervision, or costs that arise later.

In this context, the phrase "school is free" remains true strictly for access to classes and textbooks. For families, entering a new school year actually means a succession of expenses that starts with the backpack and can continue, month by month, with meals, transportation, activities, and educational support.

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