This is the first year I really felt on top of things!  Last year, as I encountered super sales on school supplies, I stocked up.  This year we didn’t really need to get too much since I already had a good supply of folders, notebook paper, spiral notebooks, glue sticks, crayons, etc.

When I first started my couponing craze I ran across great deals for school supplies- so I stocked up even more!  24-ct Crayola Crayons ($0.25 each), compasses ($0.25), packs of erasers ($0.33 each),  12-pack Colored Pencils ($0.99 each), Elmer’s glue 4oz ($0.33 each), packs of 12-ct pencils ($0.49 each), 10-pack of mechanical pencils ($1.00), two 10-ct packs of ballpoint pens (both FREE), rulers ($0.01), pencil sharpeners ($0.01), book covers ($0.25), scissors ($0.49)….it goes on and on.

I don’t even need compasses or more pencils or glue or crayons….but you just never know!

Our “School Supply” tote looks like this today:

And that’s after filling our backpacks for this year!

I haven’t done a cost breakdown to figure out how much I spent on each kids’ supplies this year, but I’d have to guess it wasn’t very much?

Now it’s time to talk clothes….

We are on a budget this year and decided to give each kid $100 to spend towards school clothes.  We told them we’d cover the basics like socks, underwear, coats, jeans and shoes.  But tops and “outfits” or any pants beyond 2 pairs of jeans are up to them!

First stop would be Wal-Mart because, well, they have inexpensive clothes and we never shop at Wal-Mart and knew we’d be driving by one on our way to camping (Pine Hollow).

Trevor selected 5 printed tees, a button up collared short-sleeve shirt and a pair of athletic shorts for $43.38.

(sorry, no photo)

Riley followed similar suit to Trevor by picking out several printed tees.  Here’s what she got for $37.00:

And Brooke…well, she spent $34.00 and got this:

…3 items.  How does someone choose THE most expensive items at Wal-Mart?

A couple weeks later Fred Meyer had an internet coupon for “Friends and Family” which gave an extra 20% off your purchase, which you could combine with coupons from the newspaper and the store sale prices.  For example….shirts normally $28.00 were on sale for $14.99 plus the 15% offf coupon and the 20% off internet coupon….that made each shirt $10.20.  The girls picked out a few of those, among other things.

Here’s what the girls chose:

Can you tell who’s is who’s?  One selection is definitely more Girly-Girl than the other!

Riley ended up taking back a couple of her items- the soccer t-shirt and the pink and white ensemble with the sequined tie. She swapped those out for a striped hoodie with earphones.

Brooke’s total spent = $73.40.

Riley’s total spent = $70.97.

Trevor didn’t go on this shopping adventure with us, so he’s still at his $43.38 total.

All in all, I think the kids did pretty well.  Since they still have some money left to spend, I think we’ll wait a few more weeks and then take them back out for more “Fall” geared clothing.