How to Buy Back to School Supplies at Substantial Savings

Preparing elementary and middle school children to go back to school can be an exciting and fun time if preparation is well planned and well coordinated.

My children have always looked forward to the weeks prior to school starting when the family would make one shopping trip to buy much needed school supplies. While the kids prepared one list of school supplies they needed their Mom and I prepared a supporting list of places we could shop to buy these items at the best price. Over many years of buying back to school supplies we have learned that a great deal of money can be saved through the proper timing of purchases and making the most of back to school sales.

One lesson we have learned is that while all stores offer some attractive sales prices it pays to shop multiple stores and sales to maximize back to school purchase savings.

To better illustrate this point I have listed below the list of school supplies my two elementary school students listed as what they needed (wanted) for the start of the school year. Opposite each item I have listed the best price we could find for each item based on sales brochures issued today and effective this week at the designated stores. I think you will agree we were able to meet our children's back to school supplies requirement with minimum cost.

One 10 pack of No. 2 pencils - $0.09 at Walgreen's Pharmacy

One pack of 130 sheets of filler paper - $0.39 at Walgreen's Pharmacy

One 70 sheet, one subject notebook - $0.05 at Staple's office supply

One 100 sheet notebook - $0.25 at Staple's Office Supply

One pencil Box - $0.01 at Office Depot

One 12 inch ruler - $0.01 at Office Depot

One Box of 16 Crayons - $0.05 at Office Depot

One pencil sharpener - $0.01 at Office Depot

One 10 pack of Paper mate pens - $0.09 at Walgreen's Pharmacy

One 6 pack of Highlighter pens - $0.09 at Walgreen's Pharmacy

One 2 pack of erasers - $0.09 at Walgreen's Pharmacy

One box of paper clips - $0.19 at Walgreen's Pharmacy

One 50 sheet legal pad - $0.29 at Walgreen's Pharmacy

One 3 ring binder notebook - $1.99 at Staple's Office Supply

One three subject 132 sheet notebook - $0.99 at Walgreen's Pharmacy

One 2 pocket report folder - free at Staple's Office Supply

For all of the items on our children's back to school list we paid $4.59. Our actual cost was slightly less as we divided the packet of pencils, erasers and pens between the two children.

While at Office Depot we found another important school preparation item in the free Child Identification Kit. This included a fill in the blanks personal description of the child (height, weight, hair and eye color, age, identifying marks, etc. and included blocks where each of the child's ten finger prints were placed. Also included was a recent photo of the child (provided by office depot for a $5.00 processing fee).

We concluded our buying of school supplies including the Children's I.D. Kit for under $10.00 per child. We feel this was a bargain which was achieved with just a little prior planning and selection of buying during promotional sales.

We recommend that parents take the time to plan and shop for the best prices to gain similar significant back to school savings.