Blog

How to Save Time and Money on Back-to-School Shopping

It’s no secret: getting your son or daughter ready to go back to school can be expensive. First, there are the school supplies, which seem to increase in price every year; then they need new clothes and shoes; and finally, those books can cost a fortune.

But while you might not be able to avoid spending a bit, there are ways to make back-to-school shopping not only more cost effective but also less time consuming. Here are some areas to focus on.

Books. Although many public school students have their books provided to them, private school and college students are frequently responsible for purchasing their own textbooks—and these can be very expensive, particularly if you buy them new. Some sites allow students to actually rent textbooks for the semester, which is one way to cut costs. Another is to order your books from sites such as Half.com or Amazon.com, where you can get books cheap or used but still in good condition. Also, Amazon now offers Amazon Prime accounts, which come with free shipping, to all college students. Just make sure you’re ordering the correct edition of the books, as textbooks put out new editions every few years. Then try to sell the books at the end of the semester.

Clothes. Many retailers will offer back-to-school sales, so keep an eye out for those. Some states even offer “Sales Tax Holidays” in August, meaning that the state will eliminate its sales tax on a variety of items for a certain period of time. If your child attends a school that requires uniforms, the Gap has good deals on most typical uniform items. Also, end-of-summer sales generally come replete with clothes that can be worn through much of the fall. Keep in mind, too, that once your son or daughter gets to school, he or she might discover that a certain type of lunch box or backpack is in style, so it sometimes pays off to wait on making such purchases until slightly into the school year.

School supplies. School supplies, though cheap on their own, can end up costing you a pretty penny once everything adds up. Rather than purchasing expensive varieties of simple items such as notebooks or pencils and pens—which are often sold at the big office stores—hit the supermarket for the cheapest, most functional varieties of these items. While they might not be flashy, you’ll save money on the things you need to buy the most of, allowing you to possibly spend a little more on a nicer binder or trapper-keeper that your child can show off. Another solid place to look for these items is the Internet: Amazon.com and Classroomdirect.com are both great sources for cheap school supplies.

Lunch. Lunch represents the famous battle of time versus money: you can give your child enough to buy his or her own lunch every morning, or you can take the time to make lunch. But in the long run, that money adds up: five dollars every day is $25 a week, or $100 a month. Instead, try to find a compromise where lunch is bought once or twice a week, maybe on the days where you know you’re most likely to be busy, and lunch is packed the other days, even if this means it’s made the night before. If this is an unpopular decision, you can always negotiate by, for younger kids, buying a cool or desirable lunchbox, and for older kids by letting them help decide what will be in their lunches.

Even the smallest bit of time and money saved will add up in the long run. Just think: you’re doing this every year, so the savings add up over time and, if you have multiple children, the savings are even better. And when you dig those fall/winter clothes out of the closet, if they need cleaning, you can take advantage of Crest’s free home pickup and delivery dry cleaning to save even more time. Anything to make that critical back-to-school process a little easier!

Image Source