Well, it's that time of year again.  You buy all the stuff they need for school, then you buy what the teachers need too.  You get the kids some new clothes because they somehow ruined all of theirs during the summer.  Then when you are tired and worn out from shopping all day, you have to figure out who gets what and open all their stuff and make sure your kids have everything on the list.
I know that times are hard and money is tight, so I will give a few pointers on saving money, your hair, and time to organize your back to school lists.

1. At the end of the school year, get your child's back to school supply list.  Also make sure they bring home ALL of the left overs that you bought for them the year before.  (I had a teacher request us to buy 4 dozen pencils and she threw them all in together, so I had my daughter take about 3 dozen of them back at the end of the year.  I thought that what the teacher did was quite rude to not inform parents about it before doing it.)
2. When you get home, go through all the stuff and figure out what was reusable and what was not.  The rulers, pencils sharpeners, notebooks that still have a lot of paper, etc.  Cross those off your school supply list.  You should be left with the used item which I throw into their art supply area to be used up at home.  (Or I just throw them away if unusable)
3. Now that school supply list that they gave you should have quite a bit marked off and if you are like me, it makes it hard to read at a glance while shopping.  I make a list of what I need to buy and how much in my own writing so it's easy to read for me.  I keep it in my wallet or purse so if I saw something on sale and I think it's on my list, I can just look.  It makes it really nice to be able to buy things slowly over the summer and not have that BIG rush at the end.  Also winter and fall clothes are on clearance then too.
4. Each time I buy something that I know they will need, I put it in my room in their bags so they won't ruin it until school starts.  Oh and if you want to make things really easy for you, I would make 2 lists, one for shopping and one for the kids.  The kids one would have their names at the top and a list of all of their school supplies.  Then I separate everything when I buy it and put it into their bags (that's in my room)so that is one less thing to worry about when come time to pack all of their stuff into their backpacks.

 Little tips.  Your child really doesn't need 4 dozen pencils.  Who do you know that goes through 48 pencils in less than a year?!!  Oh and that extra box of crayons, yeah, leave that at home too.  If you think it's excessive, you're probably buying it for someone else.  Just tell your kids that if they run out of anything at school, then come ask you for it.  Also tell your children to not dump all of the stuff you bought them in with everyone else.  I can understand the wet wipes and the tissues, but nothing else.  If you are aware of a certain teacher that does that and your child happen to have that person, then contact them and talk to them about it.  If they insist that your child does it as well, just don't send the extra stuff.
This has saved me a lot of money this year and it made my back to school month a lot less stressful!  It may seem like I am a tightwad but with the way this economy is going right now, do you blame me?
I wish all of you parents out there the best of luck with your child's education this year and I hope that they don't take us back to school to much.

Labels: back to school shopping, children, money, school, time