It’s that time of year again…back to school budgeting season.
I know that families with kids can very well drop hundreds of dollars on sending their children back to school with the latest gear. That’s just not me. My budget is always pretty moderate since I know there are tons of other expenses that I’ll need to be prepared for over the course of the year.
Below are some of my best back to school shopping tips that help me save big every year.
Start At Home
Before you even head out to the store, check your home for stray supplies lying around. I’m sure you’ll find pencils, pens and paper to say the least. If you overbought the previous year, you may have extra supplies lying around just ready to use.
We usually have pencils around the house though along with paper and a few binders. Back when I was in school, our supply budget got smaller and smaller in my household as we got older so I would successfully raid the house each year for paper, reusable folders that were still in good shape.
When it comes to backpacks, it’s best to buy one that’s made to last so it can be used for a few years instead of having to get a new one each year. My son will be using the same backpack this year as well, seeing as how I used the same backpack all throughout high school and college.
Locate Back-to-School Giveaways
Most cities have back-to-school events where volunteers and organizations grill out and give away basic school supplies and backpacks to the neighborhood. Events like these are open to anyone and everyone and you don’t need an ID or anything to receive the free supplies and other donations.
I went to one of these events last year and my little town really outdid themselves. In addition to handing out school supplies, household toiletries, and free barbecue, they also had a giant food truck that handed out meat, boxes of cheese, bread and other items along with a barber who gave all the kids free haircuts. I had so much provolone cheese in the freezer I was able to use it make sandwiches for lunches through the winter.
To find out if your area offers any of these events, search online, look for fliers or ask town officials or your local library. It’s still probably not too late!
Avoid Name Brands If It’s Not In Your Budget
I mean it on this one. When you’re shopping for school clothes for kids, your main focus should be the style and quality of the clothes along with the price. If an outfit happens to be a name brand then that’s fine, but if it’s just a generic Target brand that’s alright too.
With clothes, I tend to try to get enough to cover fall, winter and early spring before I have to go shopping again. That requires a lot of strategizing. You can save here by being open to receiving hand-me-downs and buying gently used clothing.
It’s super hot where I live during the month of August so my newest strategy is to send my son back to school in some of his summer short outfits, then take advantage of labor day sales in September if I need to buy anything new.
We will be stopping by a new Goodwill to check out their kids’ clothing this year before going to a regular retail store and I accept hand-me-downs year-round so I have jeans in our storage unit that he can wear three years from now. If you don’t have any good thrift stores near you, you can shop online with ThredUp.
ThredUp is an online consignment shop that sells gently-used clothing for men, women, and kids. You can even sell your clothes to ThredUp and they will pay you, or you can enjoy their low clothing prices for you and your family.
Purchase a back-to-school outfit for your child on me if you are interested in checking out their clothing. If you click on my referral link, you’ll get $10 to spend while I get $10 to spend as well 🙂
Use Coupons This Time
If you dislike couponing, this is the one time where you should push yourself to make an effort because it could save you a good amount of money. I love Target coupons because you can pull them up on your phone very easily and this year they have dollar store prices for many different types of school supplies.
Check the circulars that come in the mail to get leads on where the best deals will be and cut out a few coupons to use. You can also take the more modern route and use an app to help you compare coupons and deals and save.
I’ve heard really great recommendations for apps like Ibotta and Rakuten (formerly known as Ebates). You only have to do this once a year so might as well make this extra effort to rack up some savings.
Related: Rakuten (Ebates) Review: Earn Cash Back on Everyday Shopping
Start Setting Money Aside Early
Setting money aside during the summer is a must if you have more than one child, but it’s a great idea for all parents. Instead of having to drain your funds in August right before school starts, it’s better to have money set aside that you can use.
I started saving $30 here and there for school clothes in June and worked the cost of supplies into my budget after I saw the supply list.
You can start budgeting for back-to-school expenses as early as you want and set up automatic transfers to build your savings each month.
Shop during the Seasonal Rush
Sometimes it’s best to avoid the seasonal rush, but with school supplies and clothes I’d say jump right into fire and crowds of shoppers. Retailers offer amazing deals on items during this season and if you shop too early or too late, you may miss out on those deals.
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Kirsten says
I am so stressed out about this! My daughter is starting kindergarten, too, but we can’t shop for supplies until we have actually moved. I’ll admit I am less worried about cost and more worried about time. We’ll have a lot to take care of when we arrive – only part of that is related to kindergarten. Of course, I also have my brand-new full-time freelancing responsibilities, so… yeah, scared!
Choncé says
Moving right around the start of the school season can be rough, but I’m sure everything will work out so don’t be scared 🙂 I would just pick up a few small items that you know will be on the list like crayons, markers, glue sticks, folders and a crayon box. Also if she needs a back pack and/or lunch box, I’d grab that as well and save the rest of the stuff for when you see the actual list. I wonder if there is any way to access it online…that’s how we found ours. There’s always something still left for last minute shoppers though so I’m sure you’ll be fine.
Tonya@Budget and the Beach says
I don’t have kids (money saver! lol!) but I love the idea of the community event. That’s so cool and I’m going to look around for one that’s around here that I can volunteer with.
Choncé says
Yeah they’re really fun and make you feel a lot more involved with your community whether you’re a volunteer or a recipient.
creativebugger1 says
I absolutely LOVED what you said about clothing brands and superficial people. In my teaching days, I was always shocked at what parents spent on back to school clothes… and they bragged about it! Being a uniformed school district, it was insane anyway. The kids got a dress down day about once a month (usually for a fundraiser) and parents would spend a small fortune on clothes because their kids needed to “stand out” on those dress down days.
Choncé says
That kind of mindset just doesn’t make sense to me, especially when people put their babies in expensive designer clothes. Infants grow into a new size like every few months haha. I think parents feel the pressure when the kids are young, then kids feel the pressure themselves as they get older and start to compare themselves to other kids or fear getting made fun of. I’m hoping I can instill better values in my child so he won’t have to go through that when he gets older.
Connie says
When I was younger, my parents found it really helpful to have a shopping list from my teachers. For awhile, my mom would buy so many things I didn’t even need (but she thought I did).
Choncé says
We had a couple of years where my mom would overbuy but I feel like sometimes she would do it on purpose so we’d have extra for next year or be able to pass things down to the younger siblings. The key is just to avoid letting anything extra go to waste.
DC @ Young Adult Money says
I’m so glad you mentioned giveaways! As you (might?) know we used to be giveaway freaks and entered (and won) tons of them, mostly for stuff we didn’t need so we sold it for $ (it was one of our side hustles). If you know where to look there are literally hundreds of back to school giveaways. Not a bad way to make/save some $ when you are just watching TV at night.
Choncé says
That sounds pretty cool and I did not know you were so good at giveaways. I know how to get free school supplies but I pretty much suck at winning giveaways and it’s very rare. The two most recent giveaways/raffles I won didn’t even give me the prize 🙁
Kayla @ Femme Frugality says
Good tips! I hope you son enjoys his first day of school.
Choncé says
Thanks Kayla!
Christina @ Embracing Simple says
Awesome tips Chonce! I’ll have to keep these in mind when Little Miss is in school in 4 years…yikes! I just know that’s going to creep up on me.
Choncé says
Yes, the early years seemed to fly by for me but we both enjoyed them to the fullest 🙂
DC @ Young Adult Money says
Great tips Chonce! I don’t have kids and I’m not a student, but I do like having extra notebooks and supplies for my side hustles. I typically buy up a number of the cheap notebooks (seriously only $0.20 a notebook?). Such good deals out there around this time if you look for them (and use coupons as you suggested).
Choncé says
Same here we always have notebooks. I’m thinking about stocking up on some office supplies this year too.