School Days, School Days...Time to Buy School Supplies!

Oh it is time for school supplies again. Last week I gathered together the things that I had and sat with three lists for five kids. Entirely too much stuff to have to keep track of "who needs what"! We decided to take a little different approach this year with supplies.

I didn't have the energy when the school year ended (or maybe I was just sick of the year end routines of the past) to go through everything the kids brought home and see what was left. I just stuffed it all in our supply cabinet in the kitchen (actually, there are two cabinets I use to stash now that all of the children bring home stuff).

Imagine my surprise when I pulled stuff out and found that so many of the notebooks has only 5-10 pages used out of them and the folders that came home were in great shape! (Thanks to middle school and trapper keepers!) I asked my children if it would be a problem for them to reuse the stuff that we could so that we wouldn't have to keep doling out money every year for stuff that is hardly used. They were all in agreement (well, all but one who was MOSTLY in agreement).

 Looking up online the colors in the Crayola colored pencil 12 pack, we sorted through and found all the colors we needed and put them together four times to get the big kids their colored pencils. As you can see, if they happen to run out during the year, there are plenty still left in the bin to get through the year. The little boys did get brand new Crayolas (because, there are certain things that the school year can't start without), and new markers. I also hit the jackpot at Staples earlier this summer and bought all of their glue stick four packs on clearance for 50 cents each so those were new too.

I cut the school supply bill to about half by shopping between Walgreens (which had buy one get one free or half price) and Walmart which has the cheapest school supplies in town that I have found. It was nice to say that I spent under $100 for school supplies this year for five kids. That hasn't happened since...well, EVER!

One more week of summer vacation...we are going to make the most of it!