Shopping for schooling needs – Round 4

Yesterday was the turn of Fuzi’s children to go shopping for their schooling needs. Last year Fuzi bought the necessities first and then claimed from me. However this year, Fuzi had used her money to buy bicycles for her 2 older daughters and so she ran out of cash. It had been quite some time since I last brought her kids out anyway, and so I promised to fetch them yesterday afternoon to buy the necessities.

As always, by the time I got to their house, all of them were waiting outside, all set to go. So we immediately headed to Ipoh, as there wasn’t much choice at the little town that they’re staying in.

However, it being almost the end of the year, we had quite a tough time looking for the right sizes, especially for Fuzi’s 2 boys. Most of the sizes available were either too big or too small for them. It didn’t help that the 2 boys, aged 7 and 10, were more interested in playing with the shopping cart they were pushing. When we finally got the right sizes, we quickly grabbed 2 of each before anybody else took it.

There weren’t really much problem with the other things (except for the price…). But all their old uniforms, bags etc were already in bad shape (Fuzi opted for cheaper stuff when she had to buy them first last year) and so almost every single thing had to be bought. And with the eldest daughter being a prefect, she needed extra stuff, like black shoes. But the girls were rather disciplined. Anything they wanted to take, they’d seek my approval first.

With all the things needed for the 4 schooling kids, by the time we got to the cashier, the cart was full of stuff. The bill came up to over RM600. And the receipt I got came up to about 1 1/2 ft in length! The only one who didn’t get anything was Iwan, Fuzi’s youngest boy who was happy enough to be following us shopping.

Anyway, after paying for all the stuff, I took them to the food court. At least the little boy got something to drink and eat at the food court, rather than not getting anything at all.

I then sent them home, thinking that would be the last of my school shopping spree for this year. My claims now, inclusive of both Sponsorship Fund and Children Education Fund, is already over RM4K. I’d better submit my claims before the end of the year so that the amount will be reflected in this year’s financial report. I hope the other Buddies assigned to other poor families will also submit their claims soon, although I know for a fact, their claims won’t be as much as mine. Most of the poor families are my cases.

When I got home, I SMSed Lin to ask if she had bought her children’s schooling needs so I could reimburse her from the Sponsorship Fund, but I was told that she hadn’t bought anything, hoping her ex-hubby would help buy their schooling needs. They are after all, his children too. He never did. He just gave a small amount just enough to cover for their youngest girl’s workbooks.

With her goreng pisang business not doing too well ever since a new supermarket opened at their town (many customers prefer to go to the food stalls nearer to the supermarket), Lin doesn’t really have much money in hand.

Oh well, I guess no harm going for one more round of shopping. Lin was thinking of bringing her kids shopping next Monday with whatever little cash that she has, probably thinking of just buying one pair each first. So I told her I’d fetch her on Monday afternoon and we’d go shopping together.

That means… yes, I’ve got another round of shopping to go!