Today Kaiden spent his pocket money on the Scholastic book fair!

Today our local school had a Scholastic book fair and needless to say 5 of the children from the school were excited to see what they could get.

Me on the other hand thought a little dread in my head knowing the price of the books .

I took them all some money , gave them a couple of pounds each and they all scurried of to discover what they could buy.

There were a few multipacks which I tried to entice them into purchasing , knowing myself it was a bargain and if they did not grab them before the other parents that were huddling around the shelves shushing the kids as they rummaged through them like it was a buy one get one free at the Dior shop ,then they would be looking at £6 upwards for any other book on the shelves.

Unfortunately ,,,,,,,

Leon took his money and squandered it on sweets and nothing else . It is quite typical of Leon, I am sure he has attatchment issues with food and when ever he has the opportunity to put something in his mouth , it is quite obvious he will spend every penny he has to do so. 
When he was all spent up ,he ran of to tell his class friends empty handed and mouth full of his adventures at the school hall and carried on with his day as if it had never happened.

 Libby pushed her way through to the stationary section where she picked out a pink pencil and notebook . I am not completely moaning about it but I was hoping she would pick up a book knowing she would regret it when she wasted it on something she will more than likely lose in the end anyway like her others before. 
As her other siblings searched through the books , she stood waiting for me to hand more money over, but being under control and learning her that she can not have everything she wants (as she expects each event ), I tell her to go to her activities and explain she had her choice and has spent her money already.

Drew spent the longest time choosing, she is the type of girl who wants to pick something that looks pretty or you get something free with it. 
She pondered at diaries with the locks and keys but her budget did not stretch that far and anyway someone had already taken the lock and key so the book was left useless to her idea of it being a diary. 
She picked herself a me to you sticker fun book which I know will end up all over her bed tonight and more than likely stuck all over the bedroom walls and what not.
Awhole £3.99 on 10 pages of absolute nothing but a few stickers down the drain. 
Well I do suppose it is a half hour fun for her. Drew is happy.

My eldest daughter has to be the most fussiest. Being 9 coming 10 soon , she knows what she wants and is addament till she gets it . Oh I was the worst mother ever not allowing her to pick a book that was £8 , knowing she had a £6 budget only . 
She decided on getting the RSPCA Pet babies sticker book and a book mark!
All her budget gone and she still moans for more for a hotdog .
Bearing in mind it ws 11am and dinner was going to be served in an hour , I stirnly said 'no'!

My last hope on enticing the children not to waste their money and buy a book they can actually read was all up to little Kaiden . 
Aged 4 and being a superhero fanatic, I knew he would go straight for the Spiderman book that had some free glow in the dark spiders he could scare his dad with tonight when in bed .
It was an activity book but it was not only a couple pages and actually quite full of great activities which me and Kaiden enjoyed this afternoon doing.
Being £3.99, it seemed quite reasonable considering all his superhero marvel items/games/outfits and toys cost so much more  .

 I found myself holding only £4 left in change out of the £25 I had in my pocket at the beginning and as I walked out Kaiden found something I had not seen earlier that morning when looking with the little ones.

It was a multibuy for the smaller children, 3 books for only £2.99

Bargain!

Had to grab it, this time I felt like the mum in Dior store grabbing the last size 10 top designer shirt of the rails at 90% discount but this time it was for the boys , it was three books for the price of 1.

SCORE!

Finally all that moaning about the price of the books on the shelves and there was a breakthrough to actually grabbing a bargain .
 My bargain of the day .
Three more books and there was a reading book in there , not an activity book, not a colouring book, no diary but an actual story to read to the boys.

Farmer Joe and the Music Show had made my morning at the school all worth while.

I feel myself inside doing a little jiggle dance like he is on the illustration front cover.
This book alone is actually £5.99 so already I had made a saving.

Of course there had to be more activity books inside the pack but that not does not bother me in the slightest now.
In fact I actually love that this pack had a minibeast activity book. 
The two smaller boys Leon and Kaiden have spent the past month or so searching for them in the garden and I know they will love this.

This book would have cost £3.99 but I got this free and in fact for the three books in this pack I actually only payed for the colouring book which is marked up as £2.99 .

The colouring book was the last item in the bundle and as my children are constantly doodling and at the table with books and colours it was never going to go to waste.

So overall , after moaning about the cost of the book fair today , I actually got a bargain and came home with 6 books, Libby got some stationary and Leon got his sweets.

I spend a fortune on the school every week. 
School dinners , many school trips , fundraising and lately a £300 two day holiday for the oldest daughter that I find ridiculously costly for the amount of time she is actually there.
I am forever replacing never ending uniforms that spontaniously combust into thin air every week at PE lessons and of course the every so often book fairs that seem to be appearing more than once a year which is what I am used to but I suppose having all these lovelies being happy is worth it in the end.

So what I want to know is,,,,,,,,,,

when is the next one? 

Have you had a book fair at the school or experienced the costly aftermath of them, or did you grab a bargain like I did today? .