Shopping for Back to School. Photo/Microsoft Office
Related Articles
It’s time to get organized and to purchase your back to school supplies. Always begin back to school shopping with a game plan. If you stick to the basics you can’t go wrong even if your child’s teacher hasn’t provided you with a list of school supplies. Check your local Baltimore area stores for specials. Office supply stores like Staples and Office Depot, plus discount department stores like Target and Walmart are a few options. They all offer competitve sales and many will even include a list of the school supplies required for each elementary and middle school in your area. For instance, in the Target stores in Columbia and Ellicott City, there are school supplies lists for Howard County schools, so you don't even have to worry if you left your lists at home.
For school teachers, Learning How is the place to go to pick up all the supplies they need to get their classrooms ready. Stop by your nearest Learning How store. Baltimore area stores are located in Columbia, Towson, Bel Air and Westminster, MD.
It's a countdown to back to school, so here's my top 12 tips for shopping for back to school supplies:
1. Check the local store flyers to take maximum advantage of back to school sales. Hang on to flyers and ads that advertise back to school supplies at a special price.
2. Make a list and get the kids involved. Use the recommended list provided by your child’s teacher as a starting point. Sit down with your child and go over the list together. This helps your child to learn to be organized.
3. School supplies rarely go out of style. Your younger child can easily use his sister’s unsharpened pencils left over from the previous year.
4. Try setting a budget. It helps your kids learn how to set priorities to manage their money and start saving their allowance money for the school supplies that your budget doesn’t allow.
5. Do your child’s teacher a favor and stick to supplies without gimmicks. Keep supplies to the necessary and useful versus fancy and fun.
6. Sort and organize last year’s supplies to see what can be used or re-used. Re-stock your child's study area.
7. Keep your supply list in your wallet, purse or car. As you do other errands, you’ll be able to take advantage of back-to-school sales because you will always have your school supplies list on hand.
8. Buy papers, pencils, notebooks and glue sticks in bulk and set up a supply shelf or storage area at home so that you do not run out of supplies all year long.
9. Send to school only those supplies that are required. This teaches your child to manage her supplies properly.
10. Get your kids to be environmentally friendly. Motivate them to add pizzazz to last year’s notebook with stickers or photos to give it a brand new look. Encourage them to start a scrapbook bin so that writing on just one side can be re-used.
11. While shopping, do not compromise on quality. Leaky pens and snappy crayons can cost you more in soiled or ruined clothes than branded varieties.
12. Purchase a backpack with a warranty. The warranty will give you peace of mind in the event it falls apart soon after school starts
Finally, remember your budget and don’t be tempted to overspend when shopping in a mall for back to school supplies. You may have so many options, including tempting displays and impulse buys in the checkout aisles. Stick to your list and make back to school shopping fun and stress-free for the whole family.
Organize to buy school supplies
School supply list.
Comments
I like the strategy of telling the kids well in advance that you will only pay for the essentials (and explaining what those are) and giving them the option of paying for extras or upgrades themselves. In addition to teaching them how to budget, it helps prevent arguments in the store, which can happen all too easily when dealing with the stress of busy stores and high expenditures!
Thanks Janet for your great tips! Talking to them well in advance (and often!) is definitely key! I also love the idea of giving them the option of paying for extras or upgrades. This is especially helpful when dealing with teens!
Thanks for the great tips. I have been getting little things like the crayons and paper throughout the summer. I still have to go over the supply list but I find like you said seeing what the kids actually like to use is a better use of money.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!