It’s almost that time of year again, our children will be wandering the halls of school, sporting new clothing and the prestigious new backpack.
But school supplies can get expensive if you don’t plan ahead.
I was just at Wal-mart the other day, and they already have their school supply section in full swing. Of course, part of that is because in our area, we have year round school and it starts July 20!
With five children in school this year, it’s important that we cut costs where we can. One of the first things we did, was decide to trade out backpacks. We threw away the two that couldn’t be salvaged (holes, rips, stained).
We were left with three, that we changed out to our two youngest, because they really don’t care as long as they get a “new to them” backpack.
We will get our two oldest new backpacks this year, because they are entering middle school and we thought it would be special if they did.
After the whole backpack dilemma, we were faced with five different school supply lists. And honestly with two in middle school, they have so many different teacher’s their school supply lists are twice as long. Have you noticed that even the elementary school supply lists have gotten a bit out of hand?
So with lists in hand that had items such as:
- crayons
- colored pencils
- markers
- #2 pencils
- folders
- notebooks
- glue sticks
- glue bottles
- scissors
- wide lined paper
- and more…
..we headed out to Wal-mart to check out the prices.
The first thing we came up with, is that our children already own scissors. In fact, they own a lot of scissors. So that got marked off the list. Each child that needed one has a pair of scissors. Why purchase new one’s ever year? Is that why we have a collection of over 12 pairs?
The deals we encountered at Wal-mart beat out everywhere else we looked. Prices ranged for some of the products from 2/.25 to 5/1.00 or even 10/1.00 depending on the product. The prices were unmatched!
Several years ago I learned a tip that I have implemented each year since. I over spend. Yes, I know…how frugal is that? But it is! In the long run. First of all, I have enough glue sticks in my stock to not have to buy any this year!
How did I manage that? I bought enough to replenish their school supplies throughout the year, when we went school shopping at the start of the year. At the end of last year I had two boxes of colored pencils, unopened. Three boxes of crayons, unopened. Probably around 60 #2 pencils, 18 glue sticks, 2 packages of loose leaf paper, and a lot more!
You have to keep in mind, that the sales at the start of the school year are designed to save you money. But if midyear you have to purchase any additional supplies, the prices have resumed to normal and you will sometimes pay more than twice the amount. So why not stock up before school begins? Have them on hand!
You can never have too many school supplies!
What are some things you do to save money during the school year?
Nicole Humphrey writes articles for the Scrapbooking Blog and for the Frugal Blog. She also guest blogs on a variety of topics. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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