Last year, and every year before that, I made the mistake of doing back to school shopping last minute. The end result, I spent more money then I should have because I ran out of time. Very common thing for me, I wait until last minute and I end up regretting it because
1. I over spend
2. I'm stressed out due to last minute shopping and crowds
3. I am regretful - I tell myself every year, I really need to get ahead of this and I never do until now... AND WOW. I feel so much better!
I really hope this helps my Mommas out there, please do not wait til school starts- that's when the madness begins. At the start of July, I kept telling myself, I really need to start shopping. Just get it over with because I am so busy, I KNOW IF I WAIT, I am going to be sooo cranky because I am so busy with everything else that if I have to go to 2 or 3 different stores for supplies, I AM GOING TO BE NOT HAPPY. Last year, I went to target and they didn't have everything I needed so then I had to make a second stop at Walmart. Total waste of time and stressful due to large crowds. Trust me ladies, shop earlier and get it all DONE AT STAPLES.
Everyone tells me, go to Walmart, its cheap. Go to Target, they have great deals but to be honest, I spent 2 days on my lunch hour, researching the best deals and I can tell you from first hand experience, STAPLES has the best deals. This is where you want to go. You can knock out a whole list of school supplies for all the kids in ONE STOP, for a GREAT PRICE.
As most of you know, I have 2 sons and 2 nephews. Now while i'm shopping for my sons, I figure what the heck, I'll buy for my nephews too while I'm here because the deals were so great. I spent $92 dollars on school supplies for 4 kids. Now that may sound a lot but remember I'm shopping for 4 kids! THAT'S A GREAT DEAL. While shopping for 3 different grade levels, I separated my cart into 4 piles. One stack for each kid. IT WAS SO EFFICIENT, LOL. It's better then just throwing everything in and wondering what you have.
So a break down of what I think IS THE BEST DEAL:
- Calculator - $9.99
- Expo DRY MARKERS $1.92 !
- Pentel Lead Pencils - $3.00
- Lead refills - $3.49
- 30pk Mechanical pencils - $ . 99 cents!
- Large pack of wipes - $ 2.00
- Printer paper $ 3.99
-Filler wide rule paper - $ .85 cents
- Crayons $ . 50 cents
- Markers - $ .97 cents
-24 pk TICONDEROGA pencils $3.00
- Compositon note book
- 8pk glue stick $ 4.00
-Compositon notebook $1.00
- Spiral bound notebook $.25 cents! yes 25 cents!!!