Back to school on the cheap

I haven't bought new clothes for my son...he has plenty of stuff with tags on it in his closet from last year that were too big. They should fit now.

I did get four new tops for my daughter, though. She's really growing fast.

And I, too, wasn't planning on new backpacks, but I think my mom is getting them ones.

Supplies are provided by the school and we really don't need to replenish the ones at home...we have so much that still good from last year.

I will, though, help supply the classrooms with teacher supply requests. I won't cut back there. But instead of buying new books for the class, I'm sending some gently used ones. Julia has outgrown Junie B....she only read them once and I'm thinking a first- or second-grade class would love having in their libraries.

Arizona Moms Editor Yvette Armendariz shares stories about raising her kids and tips for busy parents in her Time-starved (goddess) Mom blog. She and her husband are raising two children, ages 8 and 11.

Funny story I thought I'd share...just this afternoon after lunch I decided it was time to go through my son's closet. He's 4 1/2. There were so many t-shirts and pants that were 3T...he's starting to wearing 5T. He wandered in and saw what I was doing and then he noticed that some of his favorite shirts were on the chopping block. He had a full on melt down, crying, begging to keep some of the shirts. He wasn't taking that they were to small for an answer. What a nightmare...next time I go through closets, I do it while Daddy is enteratining them!!! It was brutal!

JenM

My daughter is starting Kindergarten, and the school she is attending wear uniforms. So I had to buy new clothes for her. Other wise she would have worn her old close. My daughter is small for age so she might be able to wear the same uniform next year. As for a backpack some community have backpacks with paper, pencils, and folders that they give away.

♥ Never make someone your priority, when you are just an option to them. ♥

I've already gone through the old stuff and am selling what doesn't fit on eBay to make $$ for purchasing new school items and clothing. I also brought some things to a consignment store & sold them. I have purchased some new items via eBay as people are selling things now more than ever for school and even though some of the clothing might be last years styles i.e. Gymboree, you can still get them for a steal and save lots of $$$ and they are brand new!!

I've also been scouring retailers website clearance sections. There are some great deals right now. I found a skirt on American Eagle's website yesterday for $5.99, now when have you ever found anything in American Eagle, let alone a skirt for $5.99!!!

My e-mail is awright517@cox.net if you want to contact me for anything feel free.

JenM I can totally relate to your story. My daughter does the same exact thing if I do the sorting with her around. I was just going a bag of eBay clothing the other night that I was going to list and she said I'm going to make a pile that I want to keep and I tried explaining that they don't fit her and she was adamant that she was keeping them and that she would use them to dress her dolls. I didn't argue and just agreed. I know she'll soon forget about it and probably never think about the pile again. It's so precious though how attached to things they get.

My daughter wears a uniform so I was able to get hand me downs from a friend. We also do a "gently-used" uniform exchange several times during the year. However, she has a melt down over everything I want to give away or throw away, so I am doing it while she is away at summer camp. She may get a new uniform for the first day of school and for the school picture day and she needed new shoes, socks, underwear, so I spaced it out throughout the summer so as to not buy everything at once. She will continue to use last year's backpack and lunch bag because they are in good shape. Uniforms are great because we don't have morning arguments about what to wear and I don't have to pick up each change of clothes like I've done all summer. What I hate is "free dress days" on holidays or for a school-based reward. I almost always have to go buy the red and white for Valentine's Day and then she seldom gets a chance to wear it again. I LOVE uniforms.

I love to shop so I buy my son new clothes all the time, so he's already got 6 or 7 new shirts that he didn't have at the end of the last school year....and a few new pairs of shorts. I'll probably buy him a few more shirts, and a new pair of vans and that'll be it until cooler weather, then we'll pick up some new levis. He wears a school polo shirt one day a week, and then on the 2 days a week he has PE he's required to wear a school PE shirt, so he really wears his own shirts to school two days a week. He can wear whatever shorts or pants he wants every day.
He's also getting a new backpack....last year we bought him one on wheels and that thing is beat all to hell. He wants one with a diagonal strap.....no idea what he's talking about but I'll just take him shopping and have him point it out to me.

My son has been using the same backpack since kindergarten. I got him a nice one then, and it's still got lots of wear left. It's going to third grade with him. I never set the expectation that he would get a new one every year. Not so for the lunch box...those don't seem to be holding up as well. He didn't really need many clothes, just a few pairs of shorts. We'll worry about long stuff when the weather gets colder. As for my daughter (starting kindergarten), she outgrew everything this summer. I just hit the clearance at Old Navy and got her a closet full of new outfits for about $4 each. She's thrilled, and I spent about $70 on her-that will get her through to winter and maybe still fit in the spring. Dad even got a few t-shirts for $1.50. Okay, so mom got a couple things, too! I'm done with school shopping.

Susan is mom to Alexander, Isabel, David and stepmom to Eric. Make sure your email address is current, we'll be giving out great prizes DAILY in September after our site makeover! Don't miss out!

I know this isn't about clothes - but it is about saving $$$ when it comes to school time!! When packing my children's lunches - I take into consideration what size portion of food they actually DO eat. For instance, my son will take 2 bites out of a thing of string cheese - and so does my daughter, so they each get a half. And instead of buying individual bags of chips, crackers, etc... I have small ziplock bags and put maybe 10-15 teddy grahams in one (when normally I would throw in a hand full) ... Because realistically, that is all my kids will eat during lunch. It's good because we aren't wasting so much food and it's less trips to the grocery store.

The story will run Aug. 4, with lots of great ideas from here and also new data from the National Retail Federation's annual back-to-school shopping survey. You guys have been great as usual! Thanks for all your help.

Karina Bland is raising her 9-year-old son in Tempe with a lot of love, humor and support from her friends and family. A longtime journalist covering child welfare and education issues for The Arizona Republic, she blogs about raising good kids.