How to Buy School Supplies on the Cheap

Easy Tips for Lowering the Cost of Back-to-School Supplies

Like many other families caught in the pinch of hard times, this year we are really having to watch our spending with those back-to-school supplies for the kids. Trendy notebooks and designer school supplies just aren't a option for us, much to the disappointment of my kids who rather prefer something with colorful graphics emblazoned all over the cover.

Fortunately, we were able to reach a compromise and managed to find all our school supplies including a Jansen backpack for less than $30. The secret was shopping the sales, getting the kids involved in the purchasing process, and thinking "outside" of the (pencil) box. Here's how we managed to buy our school supplies on the cheap while keeping the kids happy.

Shopping for "loss leaders"

Discount and office supply stores are in hot competition for your spending dollars, with all stores offering cheap promotional gimmicks to get you into the store. These promotional gimmicks are called "loss leaders" because they lose money for the store. The loss however is offset by the other stuff the retailers hope you will buy.

The best place to find out about these cheap school supplies is in the Sunday paper advertising circulars. Have your kids circle those "loss leaders" that are part of the back-to-school supply list and then together make a shopping loop that includes all those stores. To make a game of it, I handed my daughter a $5 bill after she identified the loss leaders in our area, and suggested she see how far she could make that money go.

In most cases, those "loss leaders" tend to be the basic supplies that all kids need for school. At Office Depot for example, their loss leaders last week included 24 ct crayon boxes, pencil boxes, pencil sharpeners, and 12" rulers at the bargain price of one cent each. Other stores in our shopping loop were selling protractors, file folders, erasers, and 4 packs of mechanical pencils for 5¢. We found bagged 10 count Bic pens for 25¢, notebook paper at three bundles for a $1, composition books and spiral notebooks for 25¢ each, and Elmer's Glue for 20¢.