You don’t have to go broke buying back to school supplies. Here are simple ways to save money on all those back to school essentials.

Be Creative – First Check Around the House
Before heading out to the store, take a look around your house to see if you already have any of the items on your children’s school supply list. You shouldn’t have to replace rulers, pencil boxes, calculators and backpacks every year. If it’s in good shape, re-use it.

Check your junk drawer to find pencils and pens, glue, crayons and other items that you child will need.

Shop Smart
Who’s offering the sales or coupons? Don’t overlook the office supply stores – I saw some stores were offering 10-cent crayons, 5-cent folders, and 50-cent binders. All of the stores fight hard for your back to school dollars, so that’s great news for you. Watch the weekly sales inserts in the newspaper; then, take the best buys from each store. Remember: You don’t have to spend all of your back to school dollars at one store. Just get your 5-cent folders, and move on to your next store for savings.

Watch for stores that offer price matching, then you won’t have to burn extra gas to get the good deals at other stores.

Buy Only What Your Child Must Have
Don’t be tempted to purchase items not on your childs must have list – colored pens, stickers, self-stick notes, and so on. Make a budget and stick to it. To avoid overspending, decide in advance how you will handle your child’s requests for non-essentials before you shop. If you have trouble saying “no”, shop alone.

If your budget can handle it, allow each child one extra purchase within a certain price range – say no more than $5, etc. Then everyone will go home happy.

Have fun, budget carefully, and enjoy a fabulously fantastic frugal lifestyle!

Tags: 5 Cent, 50 Cent, Best Buys, Binders, Colored Pens, Crayons, Folders, Frugal Lifestyle, Glue, Good Deals, Good Shape, Great News, Junk Drawer, Office Supply Stores, Pencil Boxes, Pencils, Rulers, School Supplies, Simple Ways To Save Money, Ways To Save Money

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 2:59 pm and is filed under Bargain Shopping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.