The cost of going back to school keeps increasing and the season is an important one for retailers. It is the second heaviest shopping period of the year, outside of the Christmas holiday season, when parents spend money on their children.
Whether your children are starting kindergarten, going back to school or university this year, here are some tips to help buy them everything they need without breaking your bank account.
Start early: If you have not started your back to school shopping yet, it may already be too late to get exactly what you want at a lower price.
Parents start the buying game earlier because school shopping lists become available at the end of the previous school term, also to make sure popular items aren’t sold out and to get the best deals on stationery and other classroom essentials.
Shop together with your children: A number of parents go shopping for their children without them and sometimes buy things which either don’t make children happy or are totally different from what they wanted.
You can save yourself some time and money by shopping for new clothing and school supplies with your child. Whether it’s a new backpack, outfit or coloured pencils, you will have a better chance of your child using the item if they have picked it themselves.
Do a closet and supply sweep: It has been a trend that each and every term our children have new items and this makes our back-to-school budget a bit big. You can break the trend and do a supply sweep in your child closets and desk drawers and believe it not you might find out that you have plenty of supplies lying around your house.
Start by rounding up all supplies you already own and put them in a central place so that you can make a list of what you have.
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Keep this list in your purse or in the car to ensure that you don’t forget it when you shop for school supplies. Once you complete this “supply sweep,” you’ll have a clearer picture of what you actually need to buy. Ideally, the sweep will prevent you from buying something you already have in hand.
Set limits: Many are the times we see children crying for or insisting to have trending things during shopping which the parent hadn’t budgeted for. Although your children crave for these items, these products will quickly destroy your back to school budget.
n addition these items often aren’t made to last. So, set limits with your children, and speak with them about money-based values and if they insist on having a particular item, you can drop another one from the list which is least essential to balance your budget.
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Buy in bulk: Buying your items in bulk will save you money because they are mostly cheaper when compared to retail products. You can even buy items to serve you the whole year and if you don’t think you can use or afford the entire supply talk to your friends and neighbours and you can pool your money to buy and then divide them equally.
Use cash instead of credit cards: Using cash is advisable because you can keep an eye on your spending unlike credit cards and you can manage to stay within your budget. Also to ensure that you don’t run out of cash before you are done, start with essential items and then prioritise the rest and shop accordingly. (Adapted from People Daily)
