Preparing for your kids to go back to school can add up to be very expensive. This is especially true if you have many kids. I have 6 kids, 4 of which are school-aged, so it can get VERY pricey for us. We are a single income family so budgeting is important. I have found some frugal hacks that brought down the overall cost of back-to-school for our family. So I hope some of these tips will help you bring down your costs as well.
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Where to Start?
1. The School List
I find that the best place to start is looking over the items that the school designates as necessary for the school year. This is always the first place I look to to make a plan and a budget. My children go to a private Catholic school so included in the list of school supplies, I also look through the school handbook that includes the uniform.
2. Home Inventory
The best way I know to saving money with back-to-school is to only buy items you need. I go through the school supplies that my kids brought home at the end of last year and see which items are good enough to use for another year, which items have a bit of life left and can therefore go into the arts and craft bins for our family, and which items just need to be tossed.
My son brought home 6 completely unused pencils from last year that I can 100% send right back to school with him. No need buying him a whole new case of them. There are also items like their scissors, rulers, pencil pouches, lunchboxes, reusable water bottles, and backpacks that rarely need to be updated yearly.
As far as uniforms go… Obviously if my kids have outgrown clothes or school shoes, then I will need to purchase them. If they have worn out clothes or shoes I will need to purchase as well. My kids wear white button down shirts for school so if I have tried to salvage stained or dingy shirts that are beyond saving, I will get new ones. I go through every item we own to make sure we are only buying what is necessary.
3. Make a list
After I have gone through every item on the school list and looked through the home to find we have, I make a list of all the items left that need to be purchased.
4. Make a budget
This is when I go through my list of items to be purchased and I allocate money for each category: uniforms, school supplies, and extras. I allocate a small amount of money for my kids to pick a few fun items to get them excited. I know some parents that allow their children to buy all new and unique items, but that is too much for us. I only let my kids buy a new backpack, pencil pouch, lunchbox, and/or reusable water bottle if their old ones are beyond repair or terribly dingy.
5. Find the best prices
I look through Walmart, Target, Staples, Amazon, and Dollar Tree to see where the best prices are. I will say that 99% of the time I will go to Walmart because they do have the best prices. I will take my kids to Staples, Target and Walmart to find the notebook and folder of their choice.
6. Shop Online to avoid impulse purchases
This is a no brainer for me. If I walk into Walmart I am sure to buy all of the items I need plus half a cart of items I don’t need. Sometimes it is easier to just buy online.
7. Buy items at Thrift/Consignment stores
This has saved me sooo much money over the years. Where I live, we have a pop-up consignment kids sale that happens 3 times a year. It’s a 4 day sale and on the last day of the sale (Sunday) 80% of the items are half off. I have bought my son’s entire fall wardrobe for $30 (6 shirts, 4 pairs of pants, a pair of tennis shoes, and a pair of dress shoes). It make a killing every year. I can get most of the uniform upgrades for 10% of the price I would usually pay.
8. Buy in bulk
This makes a lot of sense when you have a lot of children. Each of my kids need 12 pencils, it is a lot more cost effective to buy a 50 pack of pencils instead of four 12-packs. Sometimes this doesn’t work, like colored pencils, but generally it saves quite a bit of money overall.
I combine all of the items on my kids’ lists so that I can buy all the pencils in bulk, the erasers in bulk, the glue sticks in bulk, etc. Obviously, I wont be able to buy all of the items in bulk, but it definitely saves me money to do it when I can.
This is great for when you’re planning snacks and lunches for school. Buying a giant box of granola bars from Costco will be a lot cheaper than buying a box of 5. This only works and saves you money if you are buying items that your kids will actually eat.
9. Consider generic brands
I will say that not all brands are created equal when it comes to school supplies. I would buy a Ticonderoga pencil over Pen+Gear pencil. Now, generic doesn’t always matter, but I have found that supplies that need to be sharpened, do so better when they are certain brands. I feel the same way about marker quality. Generally, I will try a generic brand and test the quality versus the name brand and if I find it is similar I have no problem buying the generic. I will always buy a specific brand if it is listed on the School List. My school only put the name brand when it matters to them.
10. Take advantage of sales and clearance items
This doesn’t always work right before school, but I will take advantage of the sales after the back-to-school rush and buy $20-30 worth of supplies for the rest of the year or for the following year.
Making Back-to-School Fun
There are a few things that I do to make sure my kids are excited to go back to school.
Take them, individually, to get their supplies.
This is in NO WAY efficient or saving you money, but last year it was such a wonderful connection point for us. I took each of my four school-aged kids to the store with me to pick our their specific special items. They all loved the one-on-one time that we got together and it was really special.
Let them pick a few special items.
When necessary I let my child pick out their backpack, lunchbox, pencil pouch, and reusable water bottle, but not every year. I do, however, let my child buy a new unique folder, composition notebook, and a special pen for home every year. Generally, I buy these items plain and in bulk, but I let my kids express their individuality in simple ways.
Let them pick a special lunch and/or breakfast item.
I let my kids each pick their own special snack item and/or breakfast item. Sometimes, they want me to make special pancakes for the first week of school, some years they want blueberry waffles. I’ll get them a bag of their favorite chip or whatever. It’s just a simple way for them to pick a snack to look forward to.
Take First Day of School Pictures
I TRY to do this every year. There have been years that I take it about a month into school. There are also years that not all of my kids have the same first day of school. That makes it tricky. I never regret taking the pictures though. You get extra points if you remember to take pictures on the last day of school… I never do. I like using these boards for my kids’ First Day of School. I buy one for each child and use the same one each year. I will say that I never put my kid’s full name or School if I’m posting it on social media (which I generally don’t).
A couple *BONUS* Tips
Make sure to label ALL of your kid’s items.
This will end up saving you money in the long run because the items that your kids lose or leave behind on the bus, on the playground, in their classroom, etc, will get returned to you. I like using these labels because you can personalize them. I have many kids and having a label that just says your last name is very helpful (especially because we are the only ones in the school with that last name).
Pack lunches instead of buying.
This is more cost-effective especially if you have multiple children, but it can also be the healthier option as well. because my kids go to private school there are no lunches to buy, but I would like to think I would make them anyway because I personally have the time.
Send extra supplies to the teacher.
This isn’t going to save you money, but I love doing it any way. I send extra paper towels, tissues, Expo Markers, hand sanitizer, hand soap, and chalk (white and rainbow). I know that teachers will need these and I find they are always very appreciative of the gesture.
I have a whole other post talking about the Bake-to-School Teacher Gifts I like to send in with my kids.
Arrange a Meeting with Your kid’s Teachers.
This might just be a Me Thing, but I find I get so much peace of mind after talking to my kid’s teacher before the school year starts. I have one child that really struggled. He had some developmental delays that seriously affected how he did in school. He had an IEP and needed modifications to the courses so that he could keep up. I was able to relay this modifications and advocate for his needs. His teachers always appreciated knowing his deficits so that they could better identify when he needed extra help. He no longer needs all of this specialized attention or an IEP.
Conclusion
The Back-to-School hustle and bustle doesn’t need to break the bank. There are ways to save money and still make the season fell fun and new for you and your kids. It’s all about balance and prioritizing what is important to you and your family. My kids don’t need the newest Jordans for school, but they do need functional school shoes. They don’t need a new backpack every year, but if it’s ripped and the zipper doesn’t work then maybe this is the year for an upgrade. They don’t need all 7 of their composition notebooks to be Pokemon or Hello Kitty, but 1 of the 7 will still make them smile.
I hope these tips help you as much as they have helped me. If you have other tips on saving money, leave them in a comment below.