Here’s a math problem that many parents grapple with year after year: how to buy kids what they need for school without breaking the bank.
That’s why Tomika B., who declined to give her last name, told MarketWatch that she began saving for this shopathon back in January. “For the past five years, when my husband and I start talking about what we’re planning to do [financially] for the year, we put this down as a line item, and allow six months to fund it,” said Tomika, 46, a mother of two teens in Pennsylvania who aims to limit her spending to $300 for both kids.
Take stock of what you already have. “One year, I spent $30 on expensive pens, of which probably two or three actually got used,” said Eddie Johnson, who expects to spend around $300 on his two boys, ages 10 and 12, this year. So now, at the end of each school year, he and the boys store leftover, reusable supplies like paper, folders, pens, pencils and calculators in a box that gets reopened at the beginning of the following school year.
Start buying next year’s school supplies this year. Some savvy shoppers use the post-back-to-school, pre-Halloween window to stock up on those heavily discounted pencils, pens, papers, folders, markers, crayons and binders that they know their kids will need again next year from big retailers like Walmart WMT, -0.28% , Target TGT, -0.49% , Office Depot ODP, -1.98% and Staples. “That’s when backpacks are dirt cheap,” said Tomika.
Education Education Latest News, Education Education Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: AOL Lifestyle - 🏆 704. / 51 Read more »
Source: seventeen - 🏆 412. / 53 Read more »