MySchoolBucks

[SamSpade]

Has anyone noticed this?

Most of the time, it’s inconsequential. A little bit. I tell my kids, if you want snacks at lunch, just tell me. I’ll buy you stuff to take. It beats paying a buck for a cookie.

“What if I pay with my own money?”

——-

And here’s the problem. Doesn’t matter what school but mostly LHS - that cookie or chip cost comes right out of my account. Even when my kids tell me they DID give them cash.

Has this happened to you? Granted, the cost of lunches is pretty good considering. But if someone is sliding cash in their pocket and charging ME to account for it, it’s pissing me off.

 

[NorthBeachPerso]

Haven't most schools gone cashless? I don't know, I've been out for almost ten years and they were transitioning to everyone having an account when I retired.

 

[OccamsRazor]

Most likely scenario:

Child asks for money for cookie. You give it to them. Next day, child CHARGES cookie on account and uses money to buy other snack/ice cream from vending machine.

 

[SamSpade]

Most likely scenario:

Child asks for money for cookie. You give it to them. Next day, child CHARGES cookie on account and uses money to buy other snack/ice cream from vending machine.

That’s the challenge. Is she lying? Except -

It IS her money. It’s not money she asked me for a school snack. It’s either money she earned doing a payable chore (there’s no allowance in our house - you have chores you don’t get paid for - and there’s ad hoc chores that are totally voluntary - you get money to do them, but you don’t have to do them. Mostly it’s stuff like, I’ll give you five bucks to do the weeding).

It doesn’t make sense she’d pay and just lose it.

This one almost never lies.

 

[OccamsRazor]

That’s the challenge. Is she lying? Except -

It IS her money. It’s not money she asked me for a school snack. It’s either money she earned doing a payable chore (there’s no allowance in our house - you have chores you don’t get paid for - and there’s ad hoc chores that are totally voluntary - you get money to do them, but you don’t have to do them. Mostly it’s stuff like, I’ll give you five bucks to do the weeding).

It doesn’t make sense she’d pay and just lose it.

This one almost never lies.

Then... why did you say this?

Has anyone noticed this?

Most of the time, it’s inconsequential. A little bit. I tell my kids, if you want snacks at lunch, just tell me. I’ll buy you stuff to take. It beats paying a buck for a cookie.

“What if I pay with my own money?”

——-

And here’s the problem. Doesn’t matter what school but mostly LHS - that cookie or chip cost comes right out of my account. Even when my kids tell me they DID give them cash.

Has this happened to you? Granted, the cost of lunches is pretty good considering. But if someone is sliding cash in their pocket and charging ME to account for it, it’s pissing me off.

 

[SamSpade]

Haven't most schools gone cashless? I don't know, I've been out for almost ten years and they were transitioning to everyone having an account when I retired.

SOMETIMES - there will be a credit. She gives them cash, and they credit the account. That’s what makes me think she’s not lying - besides, she knows I track it all.

 

[SamSpade]

Then... why did you say this?

I BUY them snacks to take to school. It’s stupid to give them money when it can just be charged. I go to the STORE and buy them snacks.

 

[OccamsRazor]

I BUY them snacks to take to school. It’s stupid to give them money when it can just be charged. I go to the STORE and buy them snacks.

Did you read the portions that I bolded?
You followed up by saying that it is HER money. But, in the initial post you mention that it comes out of YOUR ACCOUNT. Or, did you mean to say it comes out of the CHILD'S account that THEY are putting money in to?

 

[SamSpade]

Did you read the portions that I bolded?
You followed up by saying that it is HER money. But, in the initial post you mention that it comes out of YOUR ACCOUNT. Or, did you mean to say it comes out of the CHILD'S account that THEY are putting money in to?

(sigh) Maybe third time’s the charm.

MySchoolBucks is my account to pay for all school things. It pays for her lunch. It’s my money and with automatic withdrawal, it functions like my bank account. On a regular day, she buys her lunch via that account.

As much as they charge for snacks - it’s crazy to ALSO pay for as many snacks as she wants to buy. A dollar for a cookie and a buck plus for chips, she could conceivably buy the equivalent of two lunches a day. It is far cheaper to just get her snacks from the store, and no billing shock when the auto payments come too fast.

So - she wants to buy them at school - snacks are on her. Since they will take her cash, she buys them with her own cash out of her own wallet. IF they bill me anyway, she reminds them that she paid CASH and to credit the money they just charged. This happens. We have reviewed the billing.

But not lately. It appears they are accepting her cash, but billing me in ADDITION. My guess is the person in charge doesn’t know how it works. My daughter has said sometimes the person says something like that.

ANYWAY - I wanted to know if anyone has seen this.

 

[OccamsRazor]

(sigh) Maybe third time’s the charm.

MySchoolBucks is my account to pay for all school things. It pays for her lunch. It’s my money and with automatic withdrawal, it functions like my bank account. On a regular day, she buys her lunch via that account.

As much as they charge for snacks - it’s crazy to ALSO pay for as many snacks as she wants to buy. A dollar for a cookie and a buck plus for chips, she could conceivably buy the equivalent of two lunches a day. It is far cheaper to just get her snacks from the store, and no billing shock when the auto payments come too fast.

So - she wants to buy them at school - snacks are on her. Since they will take her cash, she buys them with her own cash out of her own wallet. IF they bill me anyway, she reminds them that she paid CASH and to credit the money they just charged. This happens. We have reviewed the billing.

But not lately. It appears they are accepting her cash, but billing me in ADDITION. My guess is the person in charge doesn’t know how it works. My daughter has said sometimes the person says something like that.

ANYWAY - I wanted to know if anyone has seen this.

Understood! How often is this happening?

If not very often: May be a screw up at the school level
If very often: I'll stick with my original Post #3

 

[SamSpade]

Understood! How often is this happening?

If not very often: May be a screw up at the school level
If very often: I'll stick with my original Post #3

Every once in a while - mySchoolBucks only goes back a few months. When it happens, it's every time, until my daughter gets insistent.
THEN I see credits.

Frankly, my guess is, I've lost at most 20-30 bucks. But if it happens to OTHERS - someone is raking in cash.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

Ever thought that she just tells you she is paying her cash for it and charging it?

 

[rio]

My girls graduated in 2017 and 2020bfrom LHS. We were always pushed to set up a lunch account since elementary school, but I never did. They rarely bought lunch, so the once in a blue moon they wanted to I just sent them with cash. As they got to HS, same as you, they bought snacks on their own dime, but no lunch account.

Imagine my surprise when it came time for BOTH of them to graduate, I got a notice that they owed $ for lunches that had never been paid. One was for 10 cents, the other for $1.05. From ELEMENTARY SCHOOL!!! Needless to say I called the # provided and told them there was no way I was paying back a debt that most likely was never incurred by my child, from 10 years ago, for that small of an amount, that I had never been made aware of before! It cost them more $ to mail the notices than what I supposedly owed. The person I spoke to was very nice both times, agreed with me, and made the debt dissappear.

 

[SamSpade]

Ever thought that she just tells you she is paying her cash for it and charging it?

Of course. Even the best kids will lie. It’s just sometimes her version is more convincing because I usually know how much money she has.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense because every once in a while, billing will show a debit FOLLOWED by an equal credit. It does support her story.

 

[TPD]

And we wonder why young adults get in trouble with huge credit card debt - we are teaching them in elementary school apparently that you can just charge it and someone will pay for it. My kid graduated from GMHS in 2018. If she had a lunch account, I wasn't aware of it because I never set it up or funded it. She is a very responsible young adult now with a credit score over 800 and a credit card that is paid off every month as far as I know.