Back to School Shopping on a Budget: Ways to Save on School Supplies

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We’ve been featuring different ways to save on back to school shopping all week as part of our several week series on Back to School: Shopping on a Budget.  Today I had the fun opportunity to speak with Jesse Jones, King 5 News Reporter, at my local Target store about ways to save on back to school items, specifically school supplies. The story *should* be featured tonight (Thursday night) on King 5 News at 11pm.  {Just a side note: It was such a great experience to talk with Jesse Jones today at Target – he is really such a genuinely nice, down to earth person & very easy to talk to! }

We’ll update with an online link tomorrow, too, in case you miss the segment. I wanted to share my tips here as well, so you can get more information about the strategies we talked about, so you be prepared when you head to the store to buy school supplies.

Ways to Save on School Supplies:

Make a plan & set a budget:

The first step you make should be to gather your lists of what is required to bring to the classroom from the school supply list & what your child will need during the year for supplies on their own at school and at home for homework & projects. The more you can buy now when the sales are so good, the less you’ll spend throughout the year. This is called stockpiling – buying ahead when the item is on sale so you have enough in your supply to last until another great sale & don’t have to spend full price if you run out.

Sit down as a family & figure out a plan & a budget for spending money on school supplies, as well as clothing before you start shopping & head to the stores. This is a great time to teach your child about the value of money & being good stewards of money. If your child is really interested in having a trendy backpack, lunchbag or binders (for the younger kids), then you might talk about ways you can cut costs on other items to have money to use on a special item. Or if your tween/teen is wanting the popular athletic shoes or name-brand clothing items, then set a budget & think about ways to really cut costs with school supplies & negotiate what is most important for them.

Do your research to maximize your savings:

Once you have your budget & list of what you need to buy, then start checking out the current back to school deals happening in the stores & start comparing where the best prices are. Look at the store ads for the week in the Sunday paper & compare which stores have the best deals on the items you need.

We make it easy for you here at Thrifty NW Mom by providing you with a list of the best back to school deals each week so you can see what our favorite deals are & then you can copy & print those lists to use for your comparisons. We post these back to school deals on Monday each week, so you can plan your shopping trips. It’s always best to shop as early in the week as possible to find the best selection on the deals as the school supplies do get picked over later in the week!

There are several approaches & you need to determine what works best for you & your situation:

1) Drive around to multiple stores each week to find the best deals & take advantage of the the loss leaders (these are the items that the store is taking a loss on to get you in the door & checking out the rest of their deals). This approach will definitely save you money as you are taking advantage of the best deals. If you live close to a number of stores that are all around the same area or if you’re already heading near these stores already, this could work well. The key is to not make alot of separate trips but incorporate them into your current trips.

The disadvantages are the time you’re using to drive around to the stores if they are not already on your route somewhere as well as the gas to get there, which could negate the savings you’re getting at the stores. It is also not as convenient if you’re shopping with young kids. But by starting early with your shopping, you can do this shopping naturally as you head out on errands by having your plan & lists prepared ahead of time.

2) Shop at just one store  for all your back to school shopping- head to a store like Target, Fred Meyer or Walmart & get all of your shopping done at once – school supplies, lunch supplies, backpacks, clothing & tech deals if needed too. The great thing about  Target or Walmart, you can price-match if you find better prices that week at a different store. You’ll need to have the store flyer with you, though & make sure to read all the fine print & exclusions.

3) Shop online to save time & money on gas & take advantage of online coupon codes, free shipping offers & cash-back savings – More & more people are shopping online this back to school season & finding some great deals (like Amazon’s 1 Day Sale on School Supplies, up to 50% off today).  The advantage to shopping online is that you can save time & money for gas plus you can also go thru Ebates.com to get cash-back on your purchases. Shop thru a site like Savings.com to get coupon codes & free shipping offers for the stores you’re interested in. You can also sign up for stores’ newsletters & FB pages to find out about special coupons they’re offering.

4) Combination of all these strategies – this is probably the most realistic strategy that you might be able to do a combination of all of these different options – shop the loss leaders at specific stores when possible & convenient & keep an eye on online deals & then buy the bulk of the rest of your deals from one store, while utilizing manufacturer & store coupons

Store Shopping Strategies:

1)  Buy Generic Vs Name Brand - When possible, look for the generic version versus the name-brand items. Often, the generic item will be as much as 50% lower in price versus the name brand.

Examples at Target:

Fiskars Blunt Tip crayons – $1.50
Up & Up Blunt Tip crayons – $.75 (Target store brand)

           Crayola 12 pk of pencils – $.99
Rose Art 12 pk of pencils – $.52

*Note: Teachers do often have preferences on brands for certain items such as Crayola crayons/markers, Fiskars scissors & Ticonderoga pencils (those were listed on my lists). If possible for your situation, they typically prefer these items because the work better for students in the classroom. So, you may want to get the name-brand for teachers to use at school & then use the generic items at home for homework, projects etc. There are some products though that the generic will be just the same as the name-brand 

2)  Use Coupons on Name-Brand Items & Pair with Store Sales - An even better idea is to look for those deals on the name-brand items & then find manufacturer or store coupons to pair up with the sale to get a fantastic deal. This way you’re still getting the name brand item & often for cheaper than what you’d pay for generic. This is what we find with grocery shopping & couponing – you can get the name-brand items that you like for cheaper than generic by watching for the best sales & stockpiling when you can combine the sales with coupons.

         Examples at Target:

Mead Five StarPocket Folders – $.50 on sale
Buy 2
Use $1/2 Mead Five Star coupon from  8/5 Red Plum insert
Final Price: 2 for FREE
(Compared to the generic folders which were $.15/ea or $.30 for 2) 

Papermate Pens (10 pk) – on sale for $1
Use $1/1 Target printable coupon
Final Price: FREE pk of 10 pens
(Compared to the Up & Up 20 pk of pens for $1 or $.05/ea) 

You can also combine manufacturer coupons with store coupons & a sale for the best case scenario! 

Target scenario:

Hefty Slider Gallon Storage Bags (17 bags) – on price cut for $2.24  (a popular item on teacher’s school supply list)
Use  $ .55/1 printable coupon
Stack with $1/1 Target printable coupon (household category)
Final Price: $.69 

3) Avoid trendy designs – Talk with your child about your budget & decide on maybe 1 item that they can choose the style & then maybe use more basic designs for the rest of the items to save money. For example, if they really want a fun, cool backpack, then let them choose the one they want but then opt for a basic, solid color lunch bag. Or vice-versa. For teens, if they are wanting to spend money on spendy, name-brand clothes, then talk about getting more basic school supplies (binders, etc).

These are just a few ways to save on back to school supplies.  It’s all about being prepared & strategic in your shopping to find the best deals. When you use a variety of money-saving strategies, you can find the most affordable options for your family & your needs.  We’ll have some tips on saving money on clothing next week!

We’d also love to hear what your best tips are on saving money on school supplies! 

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Tagged as: back to school, Store Deals