Alternative for parents

Expensive school utensils: saving on IT equipment

"Refurbishment" offers an alternative for parents.(Bild: refurbed)

As reported, inflation has made a huge leap in school costs. In IT, "refurbishment" is an alternative. The "Krone" spoke to an expert and knows about the advantages of used items.

A study by the Tyrolean Chamber of Labor made it clear: on average, parents have to spend 1878 euros per school year and child. While the cost of books, for example, has risen, the price of IT equipment has remained the same. However, this is still too expensive for many families.

The short-term advantage is that you can save up to 40 percent of the costs. For 500 euros, that's over 100 euros.

Peter Windischhofer, Gründer von „refurbed“

Bild: Marko Mestrovic

This is also confirmed by a YouGov survey: 31% of parents find it difficult to afford school-related IT costs and a further quarter cannot afford them at all.

An alternative to expensive new devices is refurbishment, in short: a general overhaul of old products. Peter Windischhofer is an expert in this field. He founded the company "refurbed" with two colleagues and offers used and refurbished appliances: "The short-term advantage is that you can save up to 40 percent of the costs. For 500 euros, that's over 100 euros."

The items are repaired and then resold.(Bild: refurbed)

In addition to the costs, refurbishment also helps the environment: less CO2 is produced, less electronic waste is needed and around 80 percent of water is saved.

Increase in the fall
In the case of "refurbed", Windischhofer notices an increase in the fall: "Especially when school starts, we also notice that many laptops, cell phones or tablets are bought. Many parents are involved." Several million products are bought and sold on "refurbed" every year. Interested parents can find out more on the website. There is also a one-year guarantee: "Children are more likely to drop a product like this than adults," concludes Windischhofer.