It’s the Time of the Year that we are excited and sometime not: Back to School !
There is a cost attach to this reality and we need to have a system in place to help us achieve our purchases in the best and most practical way possible.
Fortunately, the retailers are giving us the consumers some incredible deals on office supplies, clothings , furnitures,gym membership for the parents,food stores and more…
Let’s see what are the best Six Budget back to School Tips to help you succeed and be in control.
1-Inventory
Your first step is to look for any outstanding items you may have from last year.
Office Supplies could be so expensive so why not take a look and see what you have left. The most common thing that will cost more is: binders,caligraphic pad, special pens, a good lock, geometry kit and lets not forget about the school bag or the lunch bag, if you need to replace those two.
Look through your list to determine what need to be replace and what could be kept and try to do this exercise with your kid, sometime they will complain because it is not brand new, show them where are the great savings and what are the extra things they could have by saving .As a family more options are possible : Traveling, activities, a new pair of shoes … They will feel part of the equation and be happy about the process.
2-Budget
What is your actual budget? Did you had a chance to put money away for the occasion or not?
We don’t want to use our friend mr. Credit Card but sometime this is our only option but let’s try anyway to purchase all the items that we need with our own money and this is faisable with some creativity.
Let’s be real for a moment, the school will give you a list that sometime is a bit to much to handle but there is a way around it.Per example you have : One box of 20 pens, 2 Kleenex boxes, 2 pack of 200 sheets… You know at the beginning,you will not need all of it right away so why not purchase the necessary items that you are abble to purchase and the following week to purchase the remaining. This will give you some options to purchase the items needed without the need to get on credit.
To be on a budget it’s only a way of saying try your best to spend the money that you have in hand. Once your list is up to date you could go to the store and have a happy shopping.
3- End of season shopping
Are we doing it? To shop at the end of the season so we could save close to 40-50% of the real price.
We are so ready to go on Vacations that we forget that in two months it will be the back to school frenzy but how to go around it… It is to shop early for the general items that the kids may need (papers, pencils,containers, erasers, binders,…).Most of the time you will get awesome savings, yes it is early to think about purchasing some supplies but at the end,you will save a bunch.
4-Grocery Store
This is one of the underground place where to purchase your Back to school supplies and let me tell you ,you will be surprise by all the different bargains available.
Most of the time there will be a special section for supplies, if you purchase in July compare to the prices in August.You could also match those prices with the retail store where you usually purchase your items, the store will give you the item at the same price of course if it is the same item. It’s better for them to keep a customer then to lose it, make sense!
Consider looking for icepack, Lunch bag, toothpaste,brush, water bottle (aluminum), even some stores have clothings at a great price, you could even shop with the store card and redeem your points after. If your points are giving you something that’s worth using your Store card why not but if you feel , this is another payment that i don’t want to have next month, avoid at all costs and adjust!
5-Dollar Store
There is no question about this one, we should all go to the dollar store hands down!
This should be your go to place for most of the school supplies.
Surprise, surprise about the different items available:markers, papers ,erasers and more. At the main store you could buy everything that need to be purchase at a fair price and everything else at the dollar store, always verify what your buying is in good condition.You don’t want to end up going back to the store to exchange items while your Kid have already started class.
Another trick is to look for those hidden bin in the store where there’s items that are worth your time to look at.
We should be happy that we have those kind of stores around because 10 years ago , it was another story … We had no choice to go to the store identified in the back to shool list from the school. We are lucky, time have change and for the better.
6- Lunch
Another way of saving would be to have your kids or even yourself (Adults also are going back to school) bring is Lunch maybe 4 out of 5 days at school rather than giving them money for the full week.There is a lot of money to be save, it could be close to 1000$ over the school year.
Talking about how to be in control of what your kid are eating in school, we all know we have a big issue about bad eating habits, our kids are not in shape, tired most of time, not active enough and more… This will give a chance to your kids to learn and act about the benefits of eating healthy foods. Also the extra money saved, could be use for a nice Vacations in a exclusive destination.
Our Kids.
We love our kids so much that we have the tendency to over spend for them, there is nothing wrong with that, we all do but at the end, we have to teach our kids the importance of money. They are the futur and of course as a parent we do our best to give them the proper tools to handle any situations that may occur in Life. There is no good or bad options when shopping for Back to School Supplies, we just need to be ready in a way that we don’t break the bank.
Happy Shopping.
Stanley
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