DECATUR, Ala. – Parents across the country are complaining about growing school supply lists that now include items like special ear buds, paper towels, duct tape, copy paper, liquid soap and other expensive items.

“I spent close to $100 just for one kid,” Decatur, Alabama mother of two Samantha Key told the Decatur Daily. “It is getting a little bit ridiculous when all of the parents are looking for four glossy blue pocket folders with brads. At the store, we were digging through four or five boxes of folders looking for just blue ones. Why can’t we just get any color? But they wanted blue and glossy, not the plastic ones, which last longer.”

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Key said she was frustrated with the shopping experience for her fourth-grader, and has yet to shop for her first-grader.

Many items on the supply lists, such as new earbuds every year, and a request for four boxes of tissues “gets a little crazy,” she said.

“Why isn’t two boxes enough?” Key questioned. “I feel like I am supplying the whole fourth grade with some of these things.”

According to the news site:

At an area Wal-Mart, the three schools’ listed supplies ranged from $42.34, plus tax, at Julian Harris, to $48.31 at Athens Elementary and $63.81 at East Lawrence Elementary.

The main increase at East Lawrence came with the request for two bottles of liquid soap, two rolls of paper towels, duct tape and copy paper. …

Lawrence County Schools tack on an additional $30 “donation” per student. The fine print on the school list says the money is for reading and history subscriptions, a math journal, science supplies, a T-shirt and other general supplies.

The increased cost for parents for school supplies comes despite the fact that Decatur City Schools doled out $406 to each teacher for expenses, district CFO Melanie Maples said.

In Fargo, North Dakota, one parent emailed Valley News Live to complain that she was forced to spend $140 on supplies for each of her kids.

“When back to school items come, you have to be there to get them while supplies are there because they go so quickly,” parent Barbara Hugelen said.

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Karen Knutson, who has five kids in area schools, said she has to set aside cash monthly just to keep up with the growing costs.

“I save out of every pay check, honestly all year around,” Knutson told the news site, adding that she spends roughly “$150 per kid.”

“Half way through the year they ask for additional supplies if you can send in more,” she said.

The National Retail Federation reports back to school shopping expenses have increase 42 percent over the last decade, according to Valley News Live.

“We hit the stores just to see how much school supplies cost,” the news site reports. “After buying all the items on the list, the total came out to $124, about the average price parents told us they spend.”

Knutson said that as her children have grown older, the school lists have also grown more expensive.

“The calculators are crazy, they are over $100 just for one of the graphic calculators,” she said.

The growing school supply lists have drawn complaints from parents for years, as schools increasingly rely on them to provide paper towels, baby wipes, unscented hand soap, and numerous other items, EAGnews reports.

And in some districts, parents have pointed out that not all supplies sent in by parents are used by their kids.

“One of my kids said it is an example of living in a socialist society,” Barbara Whitehead told WNCT-TV in 2014. “Those who can buy the supplies and the teacher takes yours and gives it to those who can’t or won’t buy! I think it is ridiculously out of control!”

Parents in other districts have also cried foul over schools using the school supply shopping lists to stock up on times that should be covered by tax dollars.

“There’s a problem when we have to buy disinfecting wipes and paper towels!” Mona Davids, president of the New York City Parents Union, told the New York Daily News in 2014. “My list even asks for two reams of copy paper!”

“Last year, I must have spent $100 just on wipes,” Public School 116 parent Ted Leather said. “The reality is if the parents don’t buy the wipes, the cafeteria doesn’t get cleaned.”