Back-to-school is upon us. Whether you have children at home who are headed back to school, or you’re a child-free household, the fact remains that this is one of the best times of the year to purchase a variety of school supplies for your home use or personal business use.
Prices on everything from notebooks to pens to adhesive tape are never lower throughout the year than they are during this season.
Here are some of my favorite tips and tricks for saving as much as possible on school supplies.
Watch for “spare change” deals. I like to keep an eye on advertisements for “penny deals,” “quarter sales,” and other similar offers where superstores, office supply stores, and pharmacies offer certain school supply items at pocket-change prices.
Typically, these kinds of stores will offer a few items at loss-leader prices, changing these offerings week to week. In perusing ads for my local stores, I’ve seen 20-cent highlighters, 25-cent spiral notebooks, and 39-cent bottles of glue.
People are also reading…
Typically, stores will not have every single item on sale in the same price range. It’s important to remember this, as it brings me to my next tip.
Don’t buy everything at once. If you’re buying to fulfill a school’s list, it’s typically not economically wise to buy your child’s entire list of supplies all at once at the same store.
Stores offer loss-leader prices to get you in the door, hoping that you’ll be tempted to purchase the entire list of supplies that the school is asking for once you’re there.
Many stores even offer local schools’ supply lists on display near the products too to encourage this practice!
However, if saving money is your object, you’ll save more by skimming sales and only purchasing the loss leaders week-to-week.
Some deals are better than others. While I’m quick to pick up bargain-priced erasers, pencils, and the like, I do draw the line at buying deeply discounted backpacks or messenger bags.
I’ve already seen backpacks priced as low as $2.99 this season. However, in my family’s experience, bargain backpacks are typically not built to endure carrying a large load of books, a laptop and sports gear back and forth each day.
Buy for your home too. If you need pens, pencils, notepads, scissors, printer paper, tape, glue sticks or any other home-office-related items, this is a great time to purchase them.
As I primarily work out of my home office, I am always in need of supplies for it. Each year, I try to estimate how many of these items I’ll need throughout the year, and then I stock up during school supply sales.
It’s worth noting too that many of our shopping habits have changed due to the pandemic.
In previous years, I would be among the shoppers bouncing store-to-store and picking up all of the bargain-priced items week-to-week.
However, I’m still in a place where I’m avoiding unnecessary trips to the store. If you’re doing the same, you may wish to focus on the store that has the most deals, and then utilize curbside pickup or delivery to get the supplies you need.
This brings me to my final tip for 2020 school shopping.
Check your home stash before shopping. If this isn’t your first year shopping the school supply sales, you may have a stash of supplies already at home. I’ve taken advantage of “shopping” my home office shelves as I’ve put my sons’ school supply lists together.
Watch now: shopping and social distancing at the Napa Premium Outlets
Shopping and social distancing during COVID-19 at the Napa Premium Outlets.
Jill Cataldo would love to hear your thoughts on how this experience may have changed the way you shop and prepare for the unexpected. Feel free to email her about your experiences at jill@ctwfeatures.com.
