Save on school supplies with these easy tips. Get the best prices and stock up for the school year.
Save on school supplies
It’s time to shop for school supplies! Are you ready? With a bunch of kids to shop for, I have to stay ahead of the game.
I want to share with you 5 tips to save on school supplies. These ideas really helped me stay on top of what I needed to buy for each kid and what the best prices were to look for.
In the end, I paid an average of $25 per kid for their school supplies! I was very pleased with that price. While dollar stores and Dollar Tree offer good deals, I have found that other stores offer better prices for school shopping.
There is always so much to buy so any savings really helps the school budget. School shopping seems to always include an endless list of pencil cases, lunch boxes, school uniforms, pens pencils and more. Plus, I always pick up extra supplies that we might need during the year while prices are low.
Learn how to get the most for your money and maximize the savings. Don’t forget about tax free weekend and some stores still do price matching with a sale price.
Get ready for the first day of school with these easy tips.
5 tips to save on school supplies:
1. Know what is on your back to school list
Early in the summer I printed out my back to school list of what school supplies I needed for each child. I kept this list in my purse so I would have it with me all the time.
In early July, I noticed Walmart was already putting school supplies out and I was about to check prices against what I needed. As I bought things, I simply crossed them off my list.
2. Know the best price you can get
When you see school supplies on sale in the store, it can be tempting to just pick some up, but how do you know if you’re really getting a good deal or not? Download my FREE School Supply stock up list and you’ll know the best prices for the most popular items.
Why spend $1 on glue when you can see from this list that glue can drop as low as $0.25 each? This list is a general guideline, and will give you an idea of “buy” prices for many items on your list.
It always helps to utilize this list for the best savings possible. You don’t want to spend more if you don’t have to.
3. Shop online for back to school sales
Amazon has some excellent deals on school supplies and they are rocking the back to school sales! Knowing what a good price was, I happily bought a few supply items from Amazon.
Some of the best deals I got from Amazon were on Lysol Wipes, glue sticks and pencils. Now, I have to say that I could have saved $0.02 on the glue sticks had I bought them in the store, but considering the amount of school supplies I have to buy in the store, I was willing to sacrifice the 2 pennies.
Check out our post on the best back to school deals on Amazon – we are updating this post daily!.
4. Shop more than one store
Now, I certainly don’t mean driving around to 10 stores on 1 crazy day, but it is good to buy your school supplies at more than one store. For instance, I bought the majority of our school supplies at Walmart, but some items at Walmart were higher than my price point, so I waited.
I found 3-ring binders for cheaper at Target, so when I was shopping in Target, I picked up my binders. Also, when I was grocery shopping at Crest, I noticed they had great prices on glue, spiral notebooks and folders, so I picked some up there.
Having my school supply list on hand helped me because I crossed off what I bought when I bought it, making sure I didn’t overbuy. This is crucial when trying to save on school supplies.
5. Don’t wait until the last minute
Waiting until the last minute is probably THE biggest reason to not save on school supplies. Believe me, I’ve done it. A couple of years ago we took a vacation late in the summer and when we came back home, there was less then a week until school started so I grabbed my school supply list and headed to the store.
The supplies I was able to find were priced ok, but the problem was I couldn’t find all of the supplies I needed. After several trips to a variety of stores, I ended up buying the last of the supplies I needed from an office supply store – not exactly the cheapest place to find what I was looking for.
Save money with these tips.
There you have it, my top 5 tips to save on school supplies. Using these tips this year, I was able to spend just over $25 per kid!
That is way better then dropping $50 or more per kid. Plus, I didn’t use any coupons to achieve the savings. I just followed these simple tips and was able to save myself some money (and a lot of headaches).
Get started saving money today while stocking up for school. It is not hard with so many stores offering low prices for back to school shopping.
Now remember, if you are following along on on our Back to School page you can actually do even better.
What tips do you have for saving money on school supplies? We’d love to hear from you and and tips you love.
More back to school tips:
- How I keep my kids chicken nuggets warm at school
- 30 Healthy School Lunch Ideas
- 25 After School Snacks for Kids
I wish our schools would post their school lists early! It always varies by teacher, but here it’s already July 3, and none of the schools have produced their school lists! Most won’t start until mid-July, and some don’t put their lists out until the beginning of August.
I think when they finally put it out, I’ll grab the ones from teachers in the next grade, to have on hand next year!
That’s a great idea!