Where oh where have all the pencils gone?

Where oh where could they be??
They're sure as hell not in my pencil basket.

I'm a 4th grade teacher to about 75 students. I love almost every aspect of my job. However, I've spent over $75 on pencils so far, for this school year alone. Not counting everything else I buy for my students.
We still have about 65ish days of school left, and I know I will have to buy many many more packs of pencils.

For those of you that say "it's your job", actually my job is to teach students. Not single handedly keep the pencil companies in business.

For the others that say "they need to be responsible and bring their own, blah blah ". I agree. However, some of my students know there is no food at home for themselves or siblings. Some of my students are working through the grief of a parent going back to jail.

As a teacher, I choose not to add another responsibility on to their little shoulders, and make them stress over not having a writing utensil for class.

Rant over