Tip Tuesday: Back to School!

It's that time again!

I know . . . can you believe it's here already?

Back to School! The sales are regular and fabulous and it is simply the best time of the year to stock-up on all those school/office supplies. Buy it now so you don't have to pay two-times, three times or even more the rest of the year.

My kids could easily go through half a case of crayons in a year. I buy them at back-to-school time for less than $.25 instead of $1 or more the rest of the year. That stash of crayons also serves well as an emergency birthday gift (paired with a cheap coloring book from our stash).

I also use a lot of notebooks. My "To Do" list lives in a $.15 theme notebook. A page or so a day means I need to have at least half a dozen of those. Plus, the girls each have to have their own notebooks for their projects (writing, drawing, chores, you name it). Letting them use the notebooks is much cheaper than when they get into the printer paper! My notebook is also a place I jot down store deals with coupon match-ups. I tear the page from my notebook and slip it into my coupon binder to head to the store. Hmm, I might need more than a dozen this year. . .

Pencil boxes are a must for organizing small things. We recently reorganized the girls art supplies and used several boxes. One for colored pencils, one for markers, one for painting supplies, etc. I only had a few pencil boxes on hand so we need to get more this year. I've also used pencil boxes in our dress up box to corral all that play jewelry.

Do try and contain yourselves. I know from sad experience that it is very easy to go overboard on this (that's a completely other story...), but if there is something you use on a regular basis that falls into the "School Supply" category now is the time to stock-up.