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If you’re like me, you can hardly believe it’s time to start school supply shopping! But now IS the time, because the deals are in FULL FORCE! Here is one reason I like back to school shopping:

Teaching Opportunity!

This is a great time to teach your child to stretch their dollar. Give them the tools and let them make the decisions!! Here is what I did and what I am now doing…

Last year I gave my kids a set dollar amount and they were to use that money to purchase all they needed for school. Supplies, backpack, clothing… all that good stuff! Here was the kicker: any money they had left over was theirs to keep! They were much more selective about the supplies they picked!! And some decided against getting a new backpack, another decided he didn’t need very many new clothes.

This summer the hubs and I decided that the school aged kids are going to have to buy all of their own supplies with the money they earn by doing jobs this summer.  The only thing I’m giving this year is a PRICE SHEET – so they can know what a good deal is and decide how far they will stretch their dollar (OK, I will help my kindergartener decide what to get, but he’ll be using his own money!).

Finding the Best Deals

How are you going to find the best deals?  What for our comprehensive school supply post to go up Monday afternoons!   And to help you as YOU peruse the ads, here is a price point guide… this is where I found the best deals two years ago… I’m sure this will vary a bit this year, but this will give you a good idea of how low it’ll go!

Price Sheet

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Now, this is a list of items my kids need. I’m sure there are others that yours will need. If you want to figure out what the best price point is based on last years prices, you can go to the sidebar and under “categories”, click “School Supplies“.  OR you can just click right HERE!

My excel spreadsheet (fully customizable of course) is available for download here. I have a column for each child where I can list how many of each item they need. The first row shows the total number of each item that needs to be purchased. Just fill in the form by looking at the school supply lists provided by your child school (you can usually find these online as well), then print it off and keep it, along with the ads, in the car with you. That way you’ll have it with you when you’re out running errands!

Stay tuned… later today we’ll have our first School Supply post up for you!  In the mean time, have you found any great deals on school supplies this week? Leave it in the comments!