Back to School: Saving Money and Relieving a Headache

Well back to school is coming and I am sure a lot of people are stressing out on the headache that it brings. I use to work in the Back To School Department at a retail store years ago. It was a headache for me to go in the back trailer in 100 degree heat, loading pallets, and bringing it out to the customers. This stuff sells fast! And the prices are indeed sales. You will not find prices like this for another year.

Buy it all now is one way to save on back to school.. That is right. You may think your son or daughter (or yourself) may only need 2 notebooks as the list says, but they will go through many. The best thing to do is to stock up for later. I have seen notebooks go for as low as 10 cents when I use to work in back to school. After the back to school sales ended, the notebooks jumped up to $1 each. It may seem like a small difference, but it really can add up.

Don't worry about brands. Seriously kids need to realize that name brand doesn't mean anything. If "name brand" really means that much to them, encourage them to create their own style. Perhaps tell them to try to create the most fashionable and inexpensive outfit they can think of. If worse comes to worse, there are a lot of stores out there that sell used name-brand clothing. Plato's Closet comes to mind when I think of this type of store.

Once in a while, brands do make a difference. If you are buying your child markers or crayons, I have found growing up that some of the cheap brand of these really die out fast, and I ended up having to ask for more later. For a few things, quality verses price may save you in the long run.

Do it yourself. Maybe you can sew your kids up a new outfit. They can pick out the fabric and pattern that best suits them. Or perhaps you need a new computer, so instead of dropping $600 for a new one, figure out what you need and upgrade it yourself. You'd be surprised how much kids actually love seeing their classmates with one of a kind personalized items.

My mom is a wonderful seamstress, and when I was a kid she use to make me my very own vinyl pencil page and even book covers. She's create her own character or put on my favorite Disney Characters. I had every girl in my class asking my mom to make them a vinyl book cover or pencil bag. In college she made me my own book bag.

One thing may be if you have kids a bit older that are decent with math, give them a budget that you are willing to spend. Tell them that they have a certain amount to pay for accessories, a certain amount for clothes, and electronics. It sometimes can be a fun challenge. This won't work for all of them. But maybe say that if you can reach a certain $ amount below the budget, take them out to a movie or buy them that new game they were asking for. It'll show that if you save money on certain things, you can have money for fun too. Just a thought.

My mom use to tell me I had $20 to go around the grocery store and plan a dinner for the family. That was a ton of fun for my sister and I to go around the store adding things up. We had to come up with the beverage, main dish, side dish, and possible desert.

All in all, the best thing to do is not panic. Remember that these sale prices are very much a sale and to take advantage of them now, and stock up. It's a good time of the year to have some one on one time with your kids too.