10 Back To School Supply Shopping Tips (For parents & teachers!) Even before I had kids I would hit the back to school supply sales to stock up my own art room. Today I will share my money saving tips to get your kids or classroom ready for the new school year! *This video is a collaboration with Dollar Tree. Affiliate links used.
Top 10 tips! 1. Wait for the supply list from your teacher. There is no point buying thisng you don't need or cant use (no matter how good the deal is!)
2. Clear out old supplies first and determine what you have. You may still have plenty of pens, post it note and highlighters from last year that need to be used up. If you have old book bags and backpacks that you are not going to use this year but are still in great shape pass them along, same goes for outgrown sports equipment. Those soccer cleats that no longer fit could be put to good use by another child!
3. Go refillable! My kids love mechanical pencils and you can get a few decent refillable pencils (I like these side advance ones from Dollar Tree and you get 4 for $1 http://shrsl.com/j2sd ) and have them keep a box of refill leads in their pencil pouch to save space and trips to the store. These are the refill leds I buy: http://shrsl.com/j2sf I also like to use these refill clear tapes in my desktop tape dispensers, they are very good quality: http://shrsl.com/j2sj
4. If you want the best prices on consumables like glue sticks, crayons, markers and notebooks check out the back to school sales at Target, Walmart, Kmart and Staples. These "loss leaders" are designed to lure folks into the shop there there is no law that you need to buy anything else if you don't need it. I would stock up on these sales every year when I owned an art teaching studio.
5. Remember though that the Dollar Tree has the above items for a dollar every day so you can always "store it at the store" which might be more practical if you are just buying supplies for your own children.
6. If you need a large quantity of things like baskets and bins check out the Dollar Tree online. Our local dollar trees sell out of the good stuff quickly and they rarely have to cute colors that I see in haul and organization videos so if you are outfitting your classroom or craft room ordering the bulk supplies online will save you the hassle of going store to store in search of enough of one item. http://shrsl.com/j2sx *I think they might be out of the book bins online as I could not find them today but they were there last week :(
7. Buy quality and buy it once! It is inconvenient to have to replace a backpack or binder halfway through the year and often times it would just be cheaper to but a quality item the first time around. I am a big fan of the zip up Case-It binders, they last really well and the one time the binder broke before that school year was done to company replaced it no questions asked. They earned my business that day! Just make sure to keep your receipt for warranty purposes or purchase it on Amazon like I did and you can access your receipt in the future if needed. http://amzn.to/2uNDAcG
8. Make sure if you are buying a backpack that it fits everything you plan to carry. If you want to make sure it fits your binder and lunch box then bring it with you or measure it. Again, it is no bargain if it does not do the job you are buying it for.
9. Let kids pick out some supplies like binders, backpack and notebooks. They will be more excited for school if they get to choose!
10. Find out what your kids classroom needs and grab a few extra if you can. Wet wipes, tissues and and sanitizer and welcomed by most teachers who often end up purchasing these items out of pocket.
Do you have any tips to share? Let me know in the comments!
10 Back To School Supply Shopping Tips (For parents & teachers!)
Credits: Video production and Craft ideas: Lindsay Weirich Music: Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
