The mad rush for school supplies and the do’s and don’ts

Aug 5, 2015

Have you braved the crowds and bought your school supplies yet? I built up my courage yesterday and hit the overwhelmingly huge Walmart after I failed at finding anything on my kiddo’s lists at the dollar store.

And if you have not made it to the store yet beware as there appears to be a shortage of glue sticks out there (or at least at Walmart).

Do’s & Dont’s of School Supply Shopping

Do order online if it’s affordable and your school offers a site. Mine did but the deadline was about two months ago and I didn’t even want to think about school supplies then. Next year I will!

Don’t do the $ 1.00 store unless you have a secret I don’t know about. I tried one dollar store and they had none of the specifics that the teachers were looking for (such as brands and counts).

Do take a small risk and go off brand if the price is much better and the difference is small. For example the teacher wanted GLAD sandwich bags, but I had a coupon for Ziploc and Walmart had them on sale. So Ziploc bags it was!

Don’t forget the coupons. I almost never use coupons b/c most likely they will be in my beige purse hanging from my closet as I am fishing around my black purse trying to locate said coupons and frustrating everyone behind me in line. Since that’s usually how it goes I just gave up on the whole coupon clipping thing. However Sunday a newspaper mysteriously appeared in my yard (I don’t normally get it) and I clipped a few coupons on a whim and stapled them to my supply list which resulted in an $ 8 savings at Walmart. I was so delighted with this $ 8 savings that I might even start using coupons again!

Do order online from Amazon. I got my glue sticks there, a few other items and was able to add on a 4 ounce bottle of glue for 50 cents.

Don’t take the kids with you if possible.  I used my lunch hour and finding all these exact supplies required my full attention and a huge amount of patience.

Do stock up on items that you would use at home throughout the year.  The prices are so good (50 cent notebooks) that I threw in a few extra for the home.

When chatting with some Moms today I learned that one school was able to get the whole supply list on Amazon for one click ordering. I am asking our school to do that next year. Ah, imagine the ease of school supply shopping that way! But for now don’t wait until the last minute because all the glue sticks might be long gone!