5 Ways to Save on Back-to-school Shopping
Posted by Gail | Filed under Smart Shopper
When it’s time to send the kids back to school, there’s a flurry of excitement that comes with stocking up on school supplies and new clothes. With sales signs flashing everywhere, the temptation to spend is almost as great as at Christmas. Here are 5 ways to save as you head into the back-to-school shopping crazies.
Shop the sales. Make your dollar go a lot further by gathering up the flyers and doing a little prep work. Involve the kids by giving them a budget for their school supplies and having them figure out how they’ll spend their money for pens, paper and all the other stuff they’ll need.
Do an inventory. Make a list of what your child has and what he needs before you head out to the stores. If last year’s jacket still fits that’s one less expense.
Stick to your guns about what you can afford to spend. Even if she HAS to have those jeans, you can say “No.” She won’t break. You could, of course, allow her to upgrade using her own money to make up the difference between what you’re prepared to spend and the brand she absolutely has to have.
Budget for extra-curricular expenses. The extras such as sports equipment, music books and the like often get left off the list. You’ll likely have to come up with extra money during those first few weeks of school to cover all sorts of activities so don’t spend it all when you’re shopping.
Show your children your budget. You want them to have realistic expectations before you head to the stores. Many parents hate to talk about money with their kids. And they’re dead set against disclosing the realities of their financial circumstances. Then they get ticked when their children don’t show sufficient appreciation for how hard they have had to work to provide those no-name jeans. Well, if you don’t tell ‘em, how are they supposed to know? Being smart about money isn’t intuitive. It’s learned. And you are your children’s most influential teachers… of both good habits and bad.
August 14, 2012 at 6:21 am
When I was younger I remember my mom use to tell us how much she plans to spend on back to school clothes. Once the money was done, so was shopping. That helped me to get a sense of how much things cost at an early age, versus just picking up whatever I wanted without considering the price.
August 14, 2012 at 7:28 am
Yes, I know this hurts Canadian merchants, but if you live close to the border, school supplies in the States are WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY cheaper. If you can find clothes that are made in North America/Mexico, you won’t have to pay the crazy tax on them either.
August 14, 2012 at 7:36 am
@ Dawn: we were told at the border that as long as you’re buying children’s sizes, they are not subject to taxes.
August 14, 2012 at 7:59 am
I shopped at summer clearance sales for clothes and saved a bundle for my growing girls! They went through their school stuff from last year, and we figured out what new stuff they needed and that’s been purchased and we are ready to go! We didn’t go over budget, and we still have time to relax before school starts!
August 14, 2012 at 8:39 am
Single Number One thing my mom did for my sister and I was sit us down and make out our back to school budgets with us, and then did her monthly budget. At the end of it, both my sister and I decided to forgo some of the items we needed, to make do with what we had, because the balance at the end of my mom’s budget barely even left her enough money to get a tea from Tim Horton’s if she wanted – one for the month! It also made us appreciate more the fact that she bartered her time to help us play the sports we wanted because the money wasn’t there.
She taught us to use the gift days of the year as the times to truly get what was needed, and that that was an appropriate time to use your want wisely.
Back to School shopping came down to absolute necessities, as we each took stock of our pencil cases, craft area and learned to use the duo-tangs from last year, by putting a fresh label on the front and tossing out the reports we won’t need again in this new grade. Saves bundles more to reuse, re-purpose, and look through your junk drawer for acceptable items.
August 14, 2012 at 8:56 am
My daughters have to buy their own back to school supplies with their allowance money. They knew this in advance, and my oldest daughter has a special jar for a new backpack when the old one breaks. It is amazing how little they need for the new year when they are paying for it themselves.
Clothes will wait until the weather actually changes, then we will go through the drawers to see what fits and make the list of what is actually needed. They are okay with that too.
August 14, 2012 at 9:02 am
With 2 growing boys to outfit for school, it made more sense to buy the clothes when the fall/winter clothes went on sale in Oct/Nov/Dec. It was always warm weather in Sept./Oct. anyway and they just wore their summer clothes to school for the first few months of the semester. By the time the weather turned cooler, the stores were having good sales.
August 14, 2012 at 9:37 am
2 things that might help:
1. Dollar stores have great school supplies. The larger ones of the same chain seem to have more variety but, wait until the school sends a list home as the supplies needed could be different from what you had bought.
2. Clothing trades with friends and relatives. This works for us ladies so why not for our children. Sometimes clothes don`t get a chance to wear out before they`re grown out of.
August 14, 2012 at 9:54 am
We are going shopping today. I now have 3 that need back to school stuff and started feeling overwhelmed. Hubby helped me go thru the drawers and closets and we tried on everything so now we only need to buy a few things as far as clothes since a lot still fit and looked good from last year. Of course everyone’s feet grew but with sales and coupons I got all 3 sneakers – name brand (because of special sizing) for $85.00 when 1 pair usually run $50-90.
Another Mom in our school does bulk shopping for school supplies and we divide it up between how ever many of us chipped in. For $30 we got all the school supplies for the year (When I priced it out I got to $50 and it was only half the list).
For his recent B-day my son asked his grandma for an Angry bird backpack and then with his recent allowance he is buying his own Angry bird lunch case…he is only 5 so I am very proud that he did this.
My oldest just had her b-day this weekend and got a lot of cash and gift cards and she will be taking those along today to get stuff she wants over what I am budgeting to spend (like Tshirts marked up just because it has Justin Bieber on it lol).
August 14, 2012 at 10:01 am
I agree with Jutebug, I always bought the first day outfit and when the first day arrived it was so warm that the kids just wore shorts or cooler clothes and I found I didn’t have to spend the money right away but wait for some sales. That said Old Navy has great prices on their fall bottoms that I couldn’t pass up. New shoes and backpacks is all they are getting to start off… with the exception of jeans from Old Navy..
August 14, 2012 at 11:15 am
I agree with Dawn. It’s crazy how much better the prices are south of the border.
The other day at Walmart I ran into one of the moms from the school I teach. “That’s quite the list,” she says. “Do you folks realize how much all these things cost when you make it?”
(I love these awkward conversations when I am out there being a regular person lol)
“Yes it’s long but no one expects you to buy new everything each year. Surely she has some things left from last year? I know my kids do”
mom – “yes I guess so but I let her toss them out. She really wants new”
me – “Well I can’t argue with how nice new school supplies feel and smell, but my kids know they have to carry some things over. New, when their old stuff was fine, is a choice. Mama’s not made of money” I laugh, as does she, but she buys it all anyways, grumbling.
August 14, 2012 at 1:04 pm
One of the great things for kids about going back to school is wearing New Stuff. One of the things we as parents forget is the stuff that we bought over the summer or the stuff being handed down from an older sibling is New Stuff. Their friends haven’t seen it yet and often that’s all that really matters.
That being said, my girls (16+18) have to buy their own backpacks (allowance). They both still have the same backpacks they bought 4 years ago. I cannot tell you how many times they repaired them ( I don’t repair. It’s yours, you fix it). My oldest is going to University in 2 weeks (yikes) and she plans on selling her backpack to her sister and waiting to see what she needs for school.
August 14, 2012 at 5:41 pm
Yeah, prices are cheaper across the border. That’s because wages & benefits paid there are generally considerably lower than you are earning here in Canada. You can’t have it both ways – if you want good salaries, then it costs more to produce stuff & prices are higher. If you want lower prices, then you need to be content with lower wages and less benefits.
August 14, 2012 at 6:54 pm
There are still some Zellers left that have 40-60% off stock. That might still be a really good place to check out!
August 14, 2012 at 7:19 pm
My back to school shopping for our two girls is DONE, and on budget! I bought one item a week – first they got their backpacks, the next week their pencil cases, the next week their lunch bags, etc. Last weekend, I pulled the clothing totes out of the clothing to check the hand-me-downs and current clothing to see what they had and still needed. They just needed two pairs of pants each, and of course 2 new pairs of shoes since they had outgrown their last shoes. They wanted dresses and fancy tops at the store of course, but we had a list and it wasn’t too much of an argument sticking to it. Done, and done!!
August 14, 2012 at 11:58 pm
I remember mom marching all 4 kids into Canadian Tire, we each picked up 4 packages of 400 sheets of ruled looseleaf paper, and we each stood in line to purchase our 4 packs. Paper was normally over $2 a package, and was on sale for $0.25 each, limit 4 per person. We did that a few years in a row!
With 4 kids — all growing like weeds — my mom learned right away that it didn’t make sense to buy a bunch of clothes for the start of school. She made sure we each had enough to get us going, and then she would pick up a pack of socks here, some underwear there, tshirts and pants – staggered so that she wasn’t outfitting everyone at once, and buying when things were on sale, not when the stores decided it was Time to Buy.
The other thing we did – we didn’t follow the supply list specifically. We learned pretty quickly that if you send your kid to class with 3 boxes of pencils, the teacher will take all the pencils away, and give you 2, and keep the others for you for when you need them. Sadly, this meant that my mom was supplying pencils for the kids whose parents didn’t send in 3 boxes. So instead, she sent us to school with a handful of pencils to keep in our pencil case, and we told her when we needed more.
Other than that, we reused binders, pencil cases, pencial boxes, bottles of glue, scissors, crayons etc. You got a new backpack when yours wore out – not because it was a new school year.
I was actually saying to a friend of mine – I miss school supply shopping, now that I don’t need to do it – but I don’t miss spending that money!
August 15, 2012 at 8:09 am
@ Robyn: Here’s another link.
http://moneyland.time.com/2011/06/17/capital-one-buys-ing-direct-and-customers-start-to-freak-out/
August 18, 2012 at 12:55 pm
[...] 5 Ways to Save on Back-to-School Shopping [...]
August 20, 2012 at 9:06 pm
Once Upon a Child, and Value Village…great clothing buys at a fraction of the cost of “new” and often you wouldn’t even know they weren’t knew. And I also buy a “package” of pencils and only send a couple with my kids…they let me know when more are needed, otherwise, they’d have a bunch and other kids would “borrow” one, eventually leaving them without.
August 21, 2012 at 8:35 pm
I always buy clothes, school supplies, etc on sale. Generally the supplies list for each grade are the same from year to year. This year I got really great prices on items that I normally would not buy my children just because they were cheaper than buying them walmart brand at home. I got them each a pair of DC shoes for 19.99 (reg 55 to 65 here). My son who really wanted DC, Hurley and Element brand shirts would normally only be able to get one up here, but in Montana (only because we were already on vacation there) was able to get these shirts for 6.99 each (rather than 20 to 25 each here). All in all I spent about 1134.00 and that got 12 new shirts (comination of long sleeve and t-shirts), 5 dresses, three pairs of runners, 5 pants, two packages of socks, three packages of underwear, swim suit, 7 pairs of shorts, 7 tank tops, school supplies, back pack and lunch bag all for my daughter (she’s the only girl in our entire grandchild line up, so there are no hand-me downs); 13 shirts, 7 pairs of pants (he went through a growth spurt), two packages of underwear, one package of socks, three pairs of running shoes, 4 pairs of shorts, swim shorts, school supplies, back pack, and lunch bag for my oldest son; 6 shirts, 4 pairs of pants, 4 pairs of shorts, a divers wet suit (he is iron deficient and turns purple in the local pool because he doesn’t stay warm easily so this outfit helps), one jogging suit, three pairs of running shoes, two packages of underwear, one package of socks, school supplies, backpack and lunch bag, for my youngest son; 4 pairs of shorts, 6 t-shirts, 3 underwear, 7 pj shorts, 4 dry fit underarmour shorts for hunting;1 dry fit shirt for hunting for my husband; and 19 t-shirts (some dressy some not), 1 long sleeve shirt, 1 pair of capris and 1 dress for me. My stuff suprisingly came to only 232.00.
All in all we averaged 151 items for 6.18 each plus school supplies (which were about 200 for all three kids) totalling the 1134.00. Now my husband and I never buy ourselves clothes (maybe once ever two to three years so this will last a long long time). Although we spent quite a bit I was thoroughly happy with what we were able to get for the total. I never would have been able to do all that shopping up here.
August 24, 2012 at 2:43 pm
Though I don’t have children, I would love to see uniforms for elementary and high school come back. There are a lot of advantages to this. All the kids are dressed equally and there is less chance of a child being bullied and teased for reasons like not wearing fashionable cloths or name brands. Many parents have a hard time keeping up with fashion and style. By re-introducing ‘uniform’ back into today’s society we avoid these conflicts along with greatly reducing back to school clothing costs.
Another advantage is that wearing ‘uniform’ clothing will teach children the responsibility of keeping their cloths clean and in good order (standards of uniformed children should be kept in check by the school as it used to be). I remember in elementary school that our teacher in the morning walked passed all of us at our desks saying things like, sit straight, quit slouching, you need to clip your nails, your hands are dirty, go and wash them. Again, it taught us responsibility, cleanliness and respectful behavior (and that was only in the late 60’s early 70’s).
Lastly, my most favourite reason for bring back uniform is to keep the girls from showing too much and wearing too little and the boys from showing their underpants over their jeans and the crotch at their knees!
Save your money and lobby for uniforms!
August 26, 2012 at 6:57 pm
I rember when i was going to school, and i told my mom that i had to ask the teacher for more paper and she got mad at me, and my mom askes me where rhe paper she bought ne was and that the teacher toke most if the suplies frim us and we had to ask her for more. That was the last day i ever gave my school supplies into the teacher. I also rember going in multiple times and getting loose leaf paper