Inside: Sharing my tips how I save money on back to school supplies and shopping. Getting three kids prepped for back to school is challenging, but here’s how it doesn’t break the bank.
I have three kids all started school next week. Not sure how you feel about back to school shopping, but if I don’t prepare and plan just right, it can cost so much to get the kids ready for school. Over the years I’ve created several habits that end up saving us a ton of cash and today I’m going to share how I save money on back to school shopping and prep.
How I save on back to school prep
Below you will find the ways I’ve figured out how to save for our family. These may not work for you, but I hope you can find a few good ideas here. I’d love for you to share your money saving ideas for back to school in the comments and maybe I can add another section to this post of reader ideas!
Reuse school supplies
With three kids one of our biggest expenses is just all the school supplies needed to send the three kids off to school each year.
I’ve created a whole process for this now and it saves us SO much money in the fall. Here’s what we do. When the kids come home at the end of the school year {end of May} I take anything that looks somewhat useable and put it in a box. Then we don’t look at that box all summer… because… summer! When it’s time to shop in the fall, I pull out that box and compare to the school list to see what we can REUSE, PASS DOWN or RECYLCE.
Here’s my box of supplies, and spread out you can see all the things we saved from last year. With three kids there is a bunch.
Let’s take a close look at things I save from year to year…. I feel like I cut out school supplies bill in half just by hanging on to these items.
- Binders and Tabs
- Bulk purchase highlights and pens {save extra for next year}
- Crayons
- Zip Pouches and pencil cases
- Files and folders
- barely used notebooks {just rip out used pages}
- Scissors, Rulers, etc
- glue sticks that came back from school from last year
I go through the school supplies list and highlight all the items we already have, then make on list of what we still need and go shopping.
When I get home it’s time to sperate into boxes and prep for taking to school. The pile on the left is all things we had already and then my shopping bags are on the right.
Here’s all the supplies separated. What’s in the box are all the things I saved from previous years! So much can be saved. I cross off one kids name and write another on many items, like folders and pouches {haha}
Add all the new supplies and you are ready to go!
DIY school supplies
Sewing and DIY doesn’t always save money, but if you have the supplies already on hand or can make something exactly what you need it’s worth it to sew. Here are several back to school items you can sew or DIY to help save some money.
- Insulated Lunch Box
- Vinyl labels
- 3 ring binder pencil holders
- School supplies organizer
- Zipper pouches
- Duck tape Zipper Pouch
Shop sales all year long
I don’t do back to school clothes shopping. I will buy shoes right before school, only because my kids haven’t had new shoes since last August {haha} the boys literally have toes coming out, but I hold off until right before school. I did purchase them each a pair of nice flip flops for summer, but shoes are right before school. Also, I buy my boys shoes off Amazon and lately I only buy Adidas {no affiliation with the company} their shoes just last the longest and are the best bang for your buck for my boys. They have worn through SO many other shoes for just about every other brand.
This year we ordered these shoes, and these shoes. Last year my boys each had one pair of shoes last the entire school year {I haven’t bought shoes since last Aug – except for some sport shoes – soccer cleats, etc}
As far as clothes I tend to buy summery clothes in the spring {or anytime I see things on sale} and then I will buy winter clothes in Sept/Oct when it cools off and my boys have grown for a couple more months {haha}
I am always on the look out for clearance clothes and always have a bin of clothes that I’ve gotten for really cheap {$2-5} that we check first before buying new. We also get hand me downs from family that I store and check before buying other clothes.
I wait for Old Navy to have $12 sale on jeans, then buy a bunch.
I also supplement with sewing. Here’s a fun post on patterns that are uniform and dress code friendly.
Buy quality = buy less
I am usually not a bit spender on my kids. They wear things out and break them so fast I just haven’t found it to be a good idea to spend money on them. However, I do think backpacks are worth the money to buy good ones. I have bought backpacks from both Land’s End and LL Bean that last at least 4 years of everyday use. This is twice as long as your average walmart bag will last {maybe more than 2x} and they are still in good condition to hand down to the next kid or donate.
I shop sales in July and usually get 40-45% off depending on the year and what sale I find. This is an area that it’s worth it for be to spend a bit more upfront.
Those are my tips! How do you save money at back to school shopping time?
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