Tips for Smart Back-to-School Shopping
Develop a plan for your back-to-school shopping. Even if your child’s teacher hasn’t provided a school supply list, stick to the basics and take advantage of back-to-school sales.
Start your back-to-school shopping with a game plan. Even if your child’s teacher hasn’t provided a list of school supplies, you can’t go wrong by sticking with the basics and taking advantage of back-to-school sales.
Use the recommended or required supplies from your child’s school or teacher as a starting point. If you don’t have a list yet, check with parents at your school who have older kids. They might have good advice about what is required in your child’s grade.
Inventory your current school supplies
Sort through supplies in your house to see what can be reused. Often your child has brought home supplies from last year that can be reused or handed down to a sibling. Pencils, pens and erasers do not need to be shiny new.
Start early and look for bargains at Back-to-School Sales
The best bargains are generally at back-to-school sales. Keep your children’s supply lists in your car/purse or on your smartphone so you are ready to buy when you swing by Target or Walmart. Try to shop for supplies as you do other errands.
You know you’ll need paper, pencils, glue sticks and notebooks. Dollar stores, warehouse stores and even eBay are sources for buying these and other basics in bulk.
But back-to-school sales can be great for picking up “loss leader” items at great prices. Just be sure to stick to your supply
Watch for promotions
Some discount office supply stores offer free shipping on online orders. Local health departments in some areas offer free basic school supplies to parents who bring their children in for immunizations. Hang on to flyers and ads that advertise supplies at a particular price. If the store where you’re shopping charges more, ask the sales clerks to match its competitor. Some stores that don’t offer price matching will still do it.
Figure out when quality counts.
Leaky pens will cost you more in ruined clothes than some more expensive varieties. In the event that a strap or zipper breaks, a backpack with a warranty might be a good investment, even if it costs more.
Not every costly item will last as long as you’d like. Take calculators, for example. Math teachers advise that you not purchase one with more functions than your child will use so that she learns and uses those functions. But as she advances in math, your middle school or high school student will likely need to replace her scientific calculator with a graphing one, and these are costly.
