Saving Money (If You Have to Spend It)

Is there anything that anyone likes to save more than money? Some people would say time, but I like to save cold, hard cash. One of the best times to save that money is while I endure the torture of back-to-school shopping. Thankfully, there are many sales to assist the shopper with this endeavor. There are also many states that have such a thing as "tax holidays" for a short amount of time to help the shopper save those dollars and move more merchandise for the retailer. Oklahoma is a state that has one, and the following link gives much useful information about it (http://www.tax.ok.gov/stholiday.html).

I live in Arkansas, and we do not, as yet, enjoy this perk. (I have seen reports that we may be getting our own, though.) However, every state around us does have a tax holiday. Since I live minutes from the Oklahoma border, this is a bonus of which I can take advantage. This year, from 12:01 a.m., Aug. 6, until midnight on Aug. 8, clothing and shoes were able to be purchased for exactly the price that was listed, which saved quite a bit of money for people who have to purchase such things for growing school children.

Simply driving an extra 30 minutes to a discount store in a town that just happens to be in another state saved me nearly 10 percent of the purchase price on clothing for my children. I was able to purchase everything from socks and underwear to shoes and clothing. Even hats were covered by the tax exemption. I purchased diapers, only to find that they, too, were covered under the tax exemption. Eureka! I will definitely continue to take advantage of this perk if Arkansas does not get on the ball and finish passing the law to implement our tax holiday.

From a business perspective, I can see that this kind of assistance to all consumers is quite fair. Oklahoma does not care if you are poor or wealthy. The savings are for all. The retailers do not suffer for it; they actually benefit from it. Since so many Arkansas residents are forced to cross the borders into the surrounding states to take advantage of the deal, our retailers are losing sales to other states. It does not surprise me, though, when I think of how long it took to get a state lottery for education in this state.

The amount of money that I saved in not having to pay the sales tax was enough to purchase all of the items on my youngest son's preschool supply list. Unfortunately, school supplies are not covered on the tax exempt list, but I will not be complaining. There are other items that are not covered. The best idea is to do a search for your state, or the state to which you will be traveling, and look up the list. When in doubt, ask the cashier to ring it up and see if it has a tax. Our cashier stopped on items about which we were not sure to let us know if it was covered or not, just in case we changed our mind.

We had a wonderful experience with this tax holiday. I will be one of the strongest supporters of getting such a helpful program for our home. It helps Arkansas residents who cannot get to another state to shop and keeps the sales up for the retailers in our own state. Now that I have saved so much of that green stuff, I get to spend it on something else! Hmmmm.....I wonder what I can find?