It's the middle of August now and that means Moose Jaw families are getting ready to send the kids back to school. 

Jessie Reid, a local mother of four school-aged children, said there's always quite a bit of hustle and bustle to get the whole gang ready.  

"There's a lot of shopping involved, definitely. I like to take just two kids at a time and we spend about an hour or so going through and picking out what they're going to need for school year. Sometimes you need to replace backpacks, so we do spend some time going to the local stores and seeing if we can find stuff of good quality."  

Reid said that the business of sending all four kids, who range in age from six to 15, back to school is an exercise in budgeting and planning. 

"It's expensive. The same as Christmas? Yeah, definitely. It really, really does add up and it's something that you do have to plan for budgeting-wise."

Reid said all told, her family spends anywhere between $500-700 to make sure all the kids are fully prepared.  

"For all the kids all together, you're looking at at least five to 700 dollars, if you're talking about getting a couple pairs of shoes for each kid. Definitely they grow, so they need new jeans, they don't stop! Usually they break their backpack about three weeks into school. So you get the warranty on the back pack!" 

Reid's second youngest daughter Lily, who is ten-years-old and entering into grade five, is looking forward to seeing her new classroom and her new teacher, although she doesn't know who it is going to be.