School supplies can add up, so if you want to spend between $1.75 and $5.50 instead of between $25 and $28 for all of those pencils, notebooks and more (one friend told me she spends about $45 for back to school supplies), keep reading. There are two previous articles in this series: Frugal School Supplies in July and Frugal School Supplies in July 2.
Well, we have our school supply list and are now ready to use it to grab the bargains. What is the first step and where can we get school supplies for pennies or for free? Let’s take a look!
The first thing I do with my list is to head down to the basement where I keep a shelf of school supplies. These are things that I grab during all of those great sales the year before (but you have to be careful with those sales, I’ll talk more about this later) and get from my other sources. It is only July 1st, and the only thing I am missing is one composition notebook. I already have post it notes, pencils, crayons, markers, erasers, pencil box, index card holder, etc. If you don’t have a stockpile, that is okay. There are plenty of places to get your supplies cheaply and build up a stockpile for next year.
Let’s start with those back to school sales. Some of them start as early as mid-July! Usually, it is the department stores that lead off first, followed by the mart-type stores and then finally the office supply stores. The best way to attack these sales is to watch the flyers, go early and only shop for the bargain basement items. The stores count on you to do all of your school supply shopping there. This means they provide a few loss leaders (such as a 25-cent box of crayons or 1-cent folder) while inflating the prices on other items ($3 for a pack of glue sticks or $5 for a set of safety scissors). They know that parents are harried at the last minute and will just start loading the stuff on their lists into their baskets. Also, at the last minute, you may not find everything you need.
Be a smart shopper and only pick up the loss leaders. If you start early enough, you’ll be able to find the other items on your list as loss leaders at other stores, or at least for non-inflated prices.
Now that we have covered the last minute sales, let’s look at other places to get bargain school supplies. I’ll even talk about how to get a so far endless supply of free number 2 pencils.
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. Starting June 1st, don’t miss her articles in the Baby Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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Frugal School Supplies in July