10 Steps to Conquering Back-to-School Spending

As the summer sun warms the thick August air, the real heat for parents of school age children is coming from back to school spending. With the price of everyday necessities burning a hole in your wallet, you will be relieved to know that there are many effective ways to cut the cost of those expensive school purchases. From sneakers to scissors, these 10 steps will help you stretch your school supply budget and still send your kids off to school in style.

1. Make a complete list. Include clothing and school supplies such as scissors, notebooks, backpacks, lunchboxes and all the other specific items each child will need. If you already have a supply list from your child’s teacher, use this list when making the master list. If you do not already have a supply list, ask the school to provide a generic list of items that children in the relevant grades will need. Many retailers offer these lists in their stores. Call ahead to see if your local Wal-mart or Staples has the list for your child’s school and grade.
2. Take inventory. Include both new and used items you already have in the house. You will be surprised at how many supplies you can check off your list just by going from room to room. Items like scissors, backpacks and rulers may not need to be purchased again for this school year. You can also use items you already have to spruce up inexpensive supplies. For example, if your child wants the expensive decorated folders but the plain ones are on sale for 5 cents, he/she can decorate the inexpensive ones with stickers or stencils you already have at home.
3. Create a detailed budget. List everything you think you will need to purchase and the approximate cost of each item. Ask for your child’s input when making the budget, and you will craft a wonderful teaching opportunity. When they help determine how to spend their back-to-school dollars, they will learn that if they want the more expensive sneakers or jeans, they will have to buy less expensive versions of the other items on their list.
4. Start now. Even if your child doesn’t go back to school for another month, now is the time to start shopping. Actually, the best time to start school shopping was last year’s back-to-school clearance. If you start stocking up for next year at this years clearance (in late September), you will have all the essential supplies such as pencils, paper, notebooks, etc. purchased at 50-90% off. There may even be items for this school year that you can wait to purchase until late September when the prices will come down significantly. Maybe last year’s lunch boxes are still in good shape. If you can wait 8 more weeks, the brand new ones will be $2-3 on clearance versus $10-$15 regularly priced.
5. Consider all your options and compare, compare, compare. There are many places to purchase school supplies and clothing. Some are much more expensive than others but with a little homework of your own, you can find the best buys.
• Hand me downs – gently worn items passed down from older siblings, neighbors or relatives are an excellent way to increase your child’s clothing choices at no cost.
• Yard/garage sales – Time to get up early on Saturday morning. Hit those yard sales for great buys on used and new clothing and school supplies. Don’t’ be afraid to bargain. Most people will gladly take 50 cents for a shirt or pair of jeans just to have it sold and out of their house! Often you will find clothes with the tags still on them that have never been worn.
• Craigslist.org – The wildly popular website, Craigslist.org, is essentially an online yard sale for people in different towns around the country and the world. There are Craigslist sites for many towns and you can click on the link for your town to see what is available in your area. Believe it or not - there is no fee for the buyer or the seller. People list their items to sell with no listing fees. Potential buyers contact the seller and then set up a time to view and possibly purchase the items listed. No shipping fees are usually incurred because you pick up the item in person. Many people sell children’s clothing items on this site at bargain prices.
• Clothing Swap – Holding a clothing swap in your neighborhood, religious organization, or club is an inexpensive way to find clothes for your children, share clothes with other families and clean out the kids closets. Give away what the kids no longer wear and take home clothing at no cost that is “new” for your kids. For more tips on organizing a kids clothing swap see this Columbus Parent story.
• Sales at retailers – There really are great sales this time of year. When you combine the 25-50% off sales, store coupons and tax free weekends, there are very good deals to be had. Remember that some stores will be more expensive regardless of the sales and that some will always be more affordable. Save the expensive store purchases for major clearance sales and stick to the more affordable clothing stores for most of the retail school shopping. When buying supplies, buy in bulk when the deals are fantastic. For instance, the local Staples ran a sale a couple weeks ago for 1 cent folders, sharpeners and 12-packs of pencils. That is the time to stock up on those items for the next year (or two!). They often set maximum numbers that you can purchase on each trip, but you can always stop back in at the store another day that week to stock up again. Search the sales flyers each week during the month before school starts to find the best buys. One store may have scissors on “sale” for 1.50 cents while the store down the street may have those same scissors for only 50 cents. It really pays to compare the different sales. If your store price-matches, take advantage of this option so you don’t waste gas driving to more stores than necessary.
• Dollar stores - Although dollar stores can offer some good buys on supplies, remember that during the months of August and September, many office and drug store chains will offer much better buys.
• Cyber Shopping – If online shopping appeals to you, make sure you use a coupon code for free shipping or a percentage or dollar amount off your sale. Sites such as www.flamingoworld.com/ offer online coupon codes for hundreds of online stores. Some stores, such as office supply chains, let you buy online and then pick up the items at their location in your town to avoid shipping costs.
• Tax free shopping- Many states offer a tax free days of shopping for school supplies and school clothing. They usually occur in early August. If you combine sales, store coupons and tax free shopping, you can find some excellent deals. To find out if your state offers a tax free weekend, contact your state government or simply do a google.com search for “tax free shopping, name of your state”. For example, to learn the dates for North Carolina’s tax free weekend, you would go to www.google.com and type in “tax free shopping, NC”.
6. Buy Baggy. Not the kind of baggy that makes you want to pull up his pants from his knees and give him a belt, but roomy enough to make the clothes last a little longer. Elastic waistbands, long shirt-tails, and jeans with expandable waists all help to lengthen the amount of time that your children can wear his/her new clothes. Remember you can also turn those too-short pants into shorts and those shirts with the sleeves that are not quite long enough into short-sleeved shirts.
7. Cash and carry. If you have the tendency to overspend and blow your budget when you are back-to-school shopping, only bring cash. Keep the credit cards at home and don’t be talked into opening a store account. If you have a credit card that offers a reward (like cash back or travel miles) AND you pay it off every month, then use that to pay for your purchases in order to earn the additional benefit.
8. Sell to buy. Need a little extra money to finish up that shopping? Try selling those clothes that the little ones have outgrown on Ebay.com, Craigslist.org, or your own yard sale. You will be surprised at how many of the old toys your kids may be willing to sell in order to get that new backpack they have wanted.
9. Track your spending. Keep your receipts and tally your purchases each time you shop. In order to stay within your back-to-school budget, you need to know how much you have spent. It is certainly easier if you do all your shopping on one day in one store, but you will absolutely pay more if you take this approach. After you have entered your receipts on your tracking list or Excel spreadsheet, keep the receipts in an envelope so they are easy to access. If you purchased items that are not needed, you will want the receipts to make returns. Keep your budget information for next year so you have a starting point and an idea as to how much you will need to spend. If you stock up at the back-to-school clearance sales this year for next years supplies, you will have a great head start on lowering next years overall budget.
10. Finally, don’t give in. No child needs $100 pairs of jeans and $150 pairs of sneakers to wear to middle school, no matter how loudly he/she protests. Help your children to understand the school supply budget and how it relates to the overall family budget. Stand your ground if they want to overspend. The responsible spending habits you instill in them now will benefit them all through their lives.

Once you have accomplished your exciting and action-packed back-to-school shopping mission and your little darlings are heading off to their first day of school, you can sit back and smile. You stayed within budget, spent responsibly and lived to tell about it! When the heat was turned on, you kept your cool, came prepared and conquered back-to-school spending. As I always say – It’s your money, spend it wisely!

For more information, see www.smartspendingresources.com.