School Supplies -- Should I Order a Coursepack or Buy Items Myself?

My little girl heads off to Kindergarten this year -- which means that it is the first time I have been faced with buying school supplies.  At our Kindergarten orientation, we were given a school supply list, as well as a note about how we could order from their in-house system called EPI Packs.  Here's what the Kindergarten list contained:

Elmer's Glue 4 oz (4)
No 2 Yellow Pencils (12)
Plastic School Box (1)
Crayola Crayons (4)
Facial Tissue (1)
Blunt Scissors (1)
12x18 Solid 50 CT Construction Paper (2)
12x18 Bright White 50CT Construction Paper (2)
Blue Plastic Pocket Folder
Red Plastic Pocket Folder
8x10 Ruled Spiral Notebook Red BL 36 CT (2)
Spiral Wide Ruled Notebook
Expo chisel Tim Dry Erase Markers 4-pack (2)
Elmer's Small Glue Stick (2)
12x18 Manila Paper 50 CT
Pink Bevel Eraser (2)

For those of you who have know me a long time, you have probably followed me in the past on my money saving blog, The Clearance Chick. When I found out that the price of these items was $46 from the school, I looked at the list and thought to myself "I know I can find this stuff cheaper than that."  In the past, I have helped numerous people find super cheap school supplies (like crayons for a quarter or erasers for a penny.  Surely those deals still exist, right?

So, I decided to try my luck at buying these items myself and seeing how much money I could save. I didn't really go to lots of stores -- only two (Office Depot and Walmart). Here were my prices:

Elmer's Glue 4 oz (4) - $.50 each
No 2 Yellow Pencils (12) - $1
Plastic School Box (1) - $0.47
Crayola Crayons (4) - $0.25 *Office Depot Special*
Facial Tissue (1) - Free
Blunt Scissors (1) - $2.47
12x18 Solid 50 CT Construction Paper (2) - $3.95 each
12x18 Bright White 50CT Construction Paper (2) - $3.95 each
Blue Plastic Pocket Folder - $.41
Red Plastic Pocket Folder - $.41
8x10 Ruled Spiral Notebook Red BL 36 CT (2) - $3.29 each
Spiral Wide Ruled Notebook - $.17
Expo chisel Tim Dry Erase Markers 4-pack (2) - $5
Elmer's Small Glue Stick (2) - Free
12x18 Manila Paper 50 CT - $.97
Pink Bevel Eraser (2) - $1

Total price: $37.28
*note: the glue sticks were free, as were the facial tissue -- simply because we already had them at our house -- but you could get these for an additional $2 (with no sale) - meaning that the total would be $39.28

This means that saved about $9 by buying these items myself.  I can then use that money on school fundraisers. 

My Advice
So -- if your child likes shopping for their own school supplies, I'd suggest buying them on your own -- even at Walmart (it will be cheaper).  If you do even more comparison shopping, you can get these items even cheaper.  But if you don't have a lot of spare time and don't want to deal with trying to find deals on school supplies, I'd suggest buying the school pack.