Saving Money and Making Back to School Stress Free

For parents getting the kids ready for back to school is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing comes from the fact your kids are returning to school. It's a curse because you'll have to spend time, money, and effort in order to set them up for success.

Setting up a plan on how to get them back to school, will save you time, money and effort. Consider your plan in two parts. The first part consists of creating a To-do list and the second part consists of creating a school shopping list. By having two lists, you can also delegate responsibilities to your spouse and to your kids if they are old enough.

This list consists of only things you ABSOLUTELY must do! To reduce your stress levels categorize what you need to do. If it not directly related to back to school, it's not essential for school. Remember the goal to make your school year stress free and successful for your child.

Here are some things to consider for your list

Complete School Registration and Set up a Check up Appointments with the Eye Doctor, Dentist, and Pediatrician. - The majority of Health Insurance Companies offer Regular Health Maintenance Coverage.

Call your provider and take advantage of your coverage. After all, you and your employer are already paying for it. In addition, with regular check ups you can keep your children as healthy as possible. If you don't have insurance contact your School District office for help, many states now have preventative care programs for children.

Make sure your child memorizes your home, work and cell phone numbers along with their address. When we were teaching our daughter our contact information we put it to music using "Jingle Bells" and "Pop Goes the Weasel" as the melodies. She sings our contact information but she knows it.

Arrange for school transportation. Will your child take the bus? Will they walk?

Determine how they will go back and forth from school and begin to establish safety rules. If you haven't talk to your child about stranger danger now is the time. A good place to start is with The Safe Side program which was developed by John Walsh of

America's Most Wanted and Julie Clark the creator of Baby Einstein. You can get more information at their website http://www.thesafeside.com , where they also offer downloads and a video.

Consider getting your child a cell phone - Children as young as six can have a special cell phone that allows only a few numbers and even GPS tracking. Firefly and Disney both provide phone services for children.

Arrange for before and after school care and for daycare if their sick. Arranging childcare prior to needing them will really cut down on stress.

Create a Central Calendar - Many companies now offer special dry easer style calendars. By having a central calendar kids, your spouse, and special events can be tracked all on one board. A rule I've instituted in my household is that if it's not on the board it's not going to happen. In other words, if a special project is due or I need to buy something for specific things that event MUST be put on the calendar. I also have on a calendar notebook that is used to mark dates for months other than the month on the board. I've been doing this for the last three years and it's become everyone's habit and the last minutes "Oh! I forgot" moments are rare.

Those are just some of the things to consider when preparing your TO-DO List for back to school. If you're ambitious visit sites that are offer by Pillsbury, Kraft and Woman's Day to get meal planners, recipes, and shopping lists. By using such sites for my meal planning, I have lowered my and my husband's cholesterol and have saved money and time at the Grocery store. By planning meals a month in advance, you can strategically shop for sales and with coupons.

The second list you'll want to put together is a list of the things to buy for school. I highly recommend you review everyone's closet and see what fits, what needs repair, and what needs to be replaced. Clothes that are still like new can be passed down to the younger children as after school play clothes.

Always review what's in your closets. Shirts and pants can be updated and repaired with decals and iron on designs. Take a look at what's hot the hot look for the year and make the alterations on existing clothing yourself. Learning to make small alterations is easy and you can find many good books at the Library creating new look with old clothes.

To save even more money get your back to school supply list from you school district in August and shop the sales. Remember to keep your receipts because many companies will do refunds based on the things going on sales. It doesn't hurt to ask stores if you can get a refund between the price you paid and the new sale price if it's happen with a thirty-day period. Remember to follow the Sunday ads in from Mid August into September many stores sell school supplies at bargain prices to bring in customers. If you don't get the Sunday newspaper, you can read it free at your local Library.

Many shoes are also on sale in August, especially canvas and gym shoes. In addition, retailers have sales at the end of summer to make way for the fall inventories. Remember by buying only classic clothes and shoes you can buy things to use next year. I just purchased two twin sweater sets that were over 80% off and I will be able to wear them for the rest of this summer and because they are classic styles I can basically wear them until they wear out. My last cashmere twin set lasted five years and I stopped wearing it because it was accidently washed instead of dry-cleaned

Another way to save money is to purchase classic style shirts, pant, and shoes for your children. This is a shopping hint I learned from my mother, who is a great bargain shopper. When you buy classic clothes, you can wear them year to year without looking out of date. She would only allow us fad clothing if we paid for it or if it was given to us as a gift. That way our clothing dollars not only covered the year we purchased the clothes but it allowed some items to see years of use. By following the washing directions on the label, you can make some things last for years. To this day, I wear things I've had for more than ten years. Mom's advice always was to spend money on good quality classic clothes and to use accessories in order to stay updated.

By doing some planning, the stress of going back to school will be a thing of the past. Through planning you can save yourself money in clothing and by managing your time you may even have sometime to unwind before the school year starts. So good luck this year and good bargain hunting!