School Shopping got you down?

Yes, Covid has us off our game as parents, guardians, people. I totally get it. We are in a crazy time where we don’t know what is right for our children anymore because we are damned if we do, damned if we don’t. But for those of us who have our kids going back to school in person, our school supply list is everything I expect every year and it leads me to start my searches for the best deals. And now, I will share them with you.

First, don’t take any of my comments on digs to those who can afford to just go and buy school supplies. I know some just go, buy and have the luxury to not worry about money as much as others. My blog posts on money really are more geared towards those people who are trying to find the best ways to fit their budget into a world where kids are mean. Maybe not your kid but there are kids who have such nice things that they don’t understand why everyone doesn’t have them. Back story: I grew up in a family where we were not rich, we didn’t go on fancy vacations, travel was in a car, I was 24 before I took my first plane ride. My parents, uncles and aunts, even my grandparents talked about money with us even as children and taught us about how to work hard for what you want but also that sometimes, buying used can be just as good if you know what you are looking for. We grew up with thrift store clothes as the base of our wardrobe, and yes, I did go through a rebellious stage where I hated it. But looking back, I cannot thank my parents and family enough for showing me the value of things and where it should be placed. While my husband and I make very good money, we try to live as if it could all end tomorrow. We don’t like to live down to the penny, we try to live modestly with our spending to help show our children that value of things, and we teach our children, now 5 and 9 about what it takes to earn money and the cost of things. They do chores around the house and while yes, we do pay them an allowance, different jobs have different pay. If they have someone they want that we wouldn’t put into a gift category, they do the following on how we purchase school supplies to find the best price and put a plan together on how they will earn the money for it. This summer, there was a lawn mowing accident for one of Kenzie’s favorite toys. Kameron made us very proud by taking his piggy bank and asking to see what he had and find the best price to replace that toy for Kenzie’s birthday. He has such a large heart and made us very proud. We know that we are setting up our kids for great financial success in the future. But as a family we know that not everyone has the same financial situation and we don’t judge those who spend their money their own way. This is more for those struggling to find the best way to get their school supplies and just looking for some help.

Now, the good stuff. Back to school can be overwhelming. Between school fees, clothes, supplies, lunches, I get it. I adds up quickly. for our school fees, because we do not qualify for any assistance, it is $135 per kid in our school district for fees, snack milk, and just a file for pictures and a yearbook. Now I know kids don’t neeeeeeeed a yearbook but for us, it’s a special token and so we make it work for us. We do the picture file because we have such a large family that we also print our own so we can accommodate the sizes we need to give to each person. So that cost isn’t even factored in. It adds up, my first recommendation, especially when money is tight right now in due to Covid shutdowns, take the assistance that is available. I know it can be embarrassing. I know that it can be overwhelming but know that taking that help that is available is there for a reason. It’s all a trickle-down effect. If you can qualify for help on your kids’ lunch schedule, that saves you on your budget for food which frees up money for other bills. If you qualify for assistance on your fees, again, it all helps somewhere else for your budget. When people are upset that school funding gets cut, it’s not always because the money isn’t there, it is also divided up by need. If your school district isn’t having the applications and qualified people, they don’t look like they need as much as other school districts and the money will be moved around. No one has to know that you apply, and you should be able to trust that the people in your school district are keeping that information confidential because that is their job to do so. It is okay to ask for help.

Now the list. I know and appreciate the time that is put into school supply lists because you are trying to determine everything that a kid needs to use for a whole year. It is not easy by any means to know what you are all going to need. You also must account for those kiddos who maybe don’t have the means to replace things in the middle of the year and so want to make sure you have enough to go around. So, let’s look at where you can save.

The first thing I do is copy only the kids lists that are needed. Our school tries to make the list more compact so there are less pages being printed out, but it can look overwhelming. So, we print it out just what we need.

The first thing I do is go through last year’s stuff and see what I can salvage. This year was nice because of school being cut early, I was able to reuse a pencil box and still had several post it notes. Their folders were still in pretty good shape and already had their name on them. I also have them reusing their Backpacks and Lunch boxes Right there was about $7 in savings for the supplies and $30 in backpacks. It doesn’t sound like much but that $7 is about 2 gallons of gas, 3 Gallons of milk, a bag of apples and a bag of oranges. $30 could be their new school shoes that they grew out of last year. See where I am going with this? Now the rest of this stuff. One thing that I will do is take a trip to my local Dollar Tree (not a paid advertisement) and see what they carry for items. I start there because I know exactly what it will cost there and so I have a good starting point for comparison. I will then take a stop to the other stores in town that offer any kind of school/office supplies. For us, we have a Dollar General, A Grocery Store Websters Marketplace, Walgreens, and a local Smaller Drug Store Ripon Drug. I take note of what they are offering, what their prices are and what they keep in stock. It may seem like a lot of running around but especially for those parents that have been working from home and keeping house, this was a nice, well needed mama break. These are great starting points because you can compare prices and know what you can get without having to go out of your way. One rule of thumb when comparing those prices is knowing that I won’t be going to a store for just 1 item unless it is a ridiculously good deal. Sometimes in store, you can find in store specials. They may have had the stock for a while and so they deep discount it to make room for more. You won’t know about those sales unless you go there in person. I found some of those deals at our Local Dollar general store on Folders. While I was reusing my folders, I found the thicker plastic folders that are normally 50 cents and up for only 25 cents a folder. I splurged a bit and grabbed 6 to donate to the classroom because sometimes, there will be kids who just don’t have the things they need, or they fall apart mid-year and it’s nice to have backups. Plus, teachers donate so much of their own money already, I like to try and help where I can. The $1.50 wasn’t terrible for my budget and it felt good to help even that little bit. The biggest thing I compare is also the named brand items that they keep in stock. Sometimes, it feels ridiculous that they need certain name brands for items, but do you know why that is? Have you ever heard of an item called an MSDS sheet? I know from work what they are but a quick google search so it is something you can verify, gave me this definition from Wikipedia: A safety data sheet, material safety data sheet, or product safety data sheet are documents that list information relating to occupational safety and health for the use of various substances and products. SDSs are a widely used system for cataloging information on chemicals, chemical compounds, and chemical mixtures.  So, in other words, the schools must have these sheets for each brand to show what is in it, their contact information in case of emergency and how to take care of a person if they are injured by the product. 500 kids in a school with 30 different brands causes a lot of sheets and book work to keep available. Streamlining it makes it way easier to take care of your kids if they squirt hand sanitizer in their eye or eat the glue. Not that I’ve dealt with those things….yet….but I have heard of them happening.

I then sit down with all that information and start looking online. I start at my next closest city retailers for what they are offering. The big guys, Wal-Mart, Target, Even Aldi, and Pick N Save. I also look at Office Max, Staples, Festival Foods, and smaller local office supply stores. I know there is a big push to buy local but like I have said in other posts, purchase what you can afford. I agree supporting local is important, you know exactly where that families money is going, but if you pay $5 dollars more total on a few items and it causes you to be short somewhere else $5 it doesn’t really help anyone. Stay within your budget. Never feel guilty that you can’t afford to purchase there this time. Make it up somewhere else. Go to that specialty shop for a birthday, holiday gift. Have something specially made for holiday decor instead of a big box retailer. There are other ways to support them when you can financially afford it vs every single time. Okay, off my soap box. What I am looking for in these ads are the specials they are running for back to school type items. I found crayons and the Ticonderoga pencils less expensive at Walgreens and Pick N Save last year than I did at peoples first guesses of Wal-Mart and Target. For me, I was going to the next city over, Oshkosh, every day for work and so it wasn’t out of the way for me to stop at these stores. Staples is only in Fond du Lac and so that was again one of those, it has to be a pretty big deal to have to go there and then I would add in my Wal-Mart, Target, Aldi’s, Pick N Save stop in that city. Another trick, it sounds crazy but for us, Fond du Lac and Oshkosh are in 2 different counties. I will always try to go to Oshkosh when I can because Oshkosh has a lower sales tax rate and so overtime, those savings can add up. The other positive to these bigger box stores is sometimes, you can ship to your home and not have to use the gas to get there. You will pay your counties tax in those cases but especially in a pandemic, stay home where you can and enjoy that time with your fam.

Alright, I have all this data. Now what? For us this year, we found that I could get the hard cover binders in the size that the kids needed at the dollar tree. The next lowest price I found was $3.98. He needed 2, that is a $5.96 savings just on the binders. (FYI, that savings with our original savings just covered your yearbook for the kid :)) We were also able to get post it notes there for the ones that I couldn’t salvage from last year. When post it notes are almost $3 a pack, that again $2 each savings adds up. Side Note: My personal thought on paper products is cheap as possible. Most paper products are just thrown away. While it is fun and great to have fancy paper, if you are on a tight budget, don’t go overboard. And reuse as much as possible. Some friends and I have a game where we have re-used the same gift bag to each other over and over, so it is fun to see who’s all received it and all the memories from pervious times together. Anyways, this rule also includes cards, wrapping paper, gift bags, tissue paper, Kleenex, and paper towel. I am a bit nicer to our hineys but that’s another subject for another post. Dollar tree also sells name brand Sharpie Black markers, in the fine line that my kiddo needed and so that saved me about $3 as well. Now notebooks, again, don’t go overboard. Fun covers are great but where are their notebooks from last year? Probably thrown out. You are literally throwing this money away when they are little until they can appreciate it more. I look at some of the deals on what I am getting other places. So right now, Target has a special where if you spend $30 on school supplies, you get a $10 gift card to Target. Notebooks were 25 cents each vs Walmart at 40 cents each and so that savings doesn’t seem like a lot but again, it all adds up and if you spend a bit more on some of the other stuff and hit that $30 mark, you get $10 off something else later that you can save cash on. Hashtag, Winning! Maybe you use that $10 card towards the better Kleenex for the classroom or the largely coveted Lysol Wipes and Hand Sanitizer. Side note, Target is the only store that I found the specific branded hand sanitizer our school district was looking for.

Lysol wipes are hard for everyone to find. Do not go to the black market to get them. As parents, we know that we would love to ensure the health of our kids right now, but I am trusting the schools that they have plans in place for how to clean up if students cannot find it. I also may have called Dollar General, the only store that I could find them at, and asked about when their trucks were going to be delivered and sent family to those stores when they opened to snatch up (Legally purchase) as many as they would let us buy so that we could send them to the schools and have some for at home. Don’t Judge me, I have no shame in my Lysol wipe game.

Now to the other dreaded topic. Clothes. I don’t care who you are, if you love back to school shopping for clothes and shoes, I am going to assume you have a lot of money to spend. I want my kiddos to be comfortable and shoes are important. Good shoes make all the difference in so many ways of life, it’s good to be savvy in your spending in that department but it is better to make an investment into good shoes for overall health. I start at home, go through the kid’s clothes, see what they don’t fit in, sell them on Facebook marketplace, donate them to a charity, but get them out of your house. This year was the biggest jump in growth the kids have had in 1 year in a long time and so where I could usually plan on 1 size for shoes and clothes for the year, this year they jumped 3!! Yup! 3 sizes in one year. Budget accordingly. we try to get some main pieces that can be used throughout. 1-2 Good sweatshirts for the winter, couple good pairs of jeans and shorts, a few good PJs that are new but re-use what they can still wear as fillers. Don’t make your home an episode of hoarders for clothes though. Get them gone. For Gym shoes, I meet in the middle for my rule of shoes. For Kenzie, being so little, they aren’t doing a lot of crazy things for gym class so basic soft shoes from Wal-Mart, worked great and budget wise were a great deal at $10. She may wear them 1-2 times a week for about 20 minutes. For every day, we spend a bit more and try to find a good pair of athletic shoes that can be worn all year long, every day, decent room to grow into for the school year and that as my 5 year old reminds me, can go with anything. We do the same for her sandals and “fancy shoes”. For Kameron, we try to find those athletic type shoes that feel good and spend a bit more on them because he is heavier and will be using them harder in gym class, etc. We want them to have good support and mold for him better as he grows and moves. We benefit from having outlet stores in our area and so we will go to Nike Outlet, Under Armor Outlet, Puma Outlet etc. and look at stores like Rogan’s for the best deals. Rogan Shoes for us is awesome because they offer buy one get the 2nd half off. That is huge because it helps your budget tremendously. If you are lucky enough to re-use the gym shoes from last year, then you can buy each kid one pair of shoes and it has a significant savings. Now, I am also not out buying the latest Jordan’s or the latest and greatest limited-edition kicks. Again, be sensible but shoes are important. Remember that for yourself as well. Be kind to your back and spine friends. Invest in good shoes for you too! For clothes, I like rummage sales, thrift and consignment shops. But I am also a big fan of stores like Children’s’ place and Outlet stores. Children’s place gets my business because they have quality items and not terrible prices and you can earn “place cash” for future purchases. Great to have when your kids hit growth spirts mid-year, holiday dress up, etc. My kids are also tall and skinny and so they have that nice elastic band in the waist so I can get the size they need length wise and tighten to meet their waist requirements.

I know back to school is chaotic and overwhelming but again, it doesn’t have to be. Be true to your budget, be okay with setting boundaries that you can afford and know that there are other parents out there going through it too. It’s okay to say no to your kids, they don’t need everything they see and if you think they do and you are saying no, you are just giving them something to talk about in therapy someday. You are making that money worth it 😉 Take care and be well friends.