Thrifty Thursday - Back to School!

It's that time of year again...the Back to School sales!   Even if you don't have kids in school, the yearly sales are too good to pass up.  When else can you buy spiral bound notebooks for 19 cents, Crayola crayons for 49 cents, filler paper for 79 cents and find great buys on underwear, socks, backpacks, athletic shoes and basic school clothes.  Sometimes the prices are even lower.

I usually concentrate on socks and art supplies when the sales are really good.  Kids are so hard on socks...they get holey and stained even before the kids grow out of them.  And there's nothing quite like putting on a new pair of socks...soooo comfortable!  I get socks for the whole family and then go home and throw out (or recycle) the old ones. 

Art supplies are another group of supplies that suffer abuse during the year.  Crayons get broken, lost, chewed on and have their papers ripped off them.  Markers get dried out.  Paints get contaminated by being mixed with other colors.  But when prices are low, it's worth it to "retire" old supplies and refresh with new.  I usually take the old crayons and put them in a zip lock baggie for future craft projects that use melted crayons.  The markers get thrown away.  No use mixing the old with the new.  It's frustrating to reach into a box of markers and find the one you want, only to find out it's all dried up.  Get rid of the dead markers!

This is the time to make sure everyone is all current and up to date with basic clothes, shoes and underwear.  Inventory your family's clothing and school needs and keep your eye on the ads.  You probably won't find better deals than over the next month or so.

If you DO see an ad for something at a super low price, be sure to get to the store early.  Really good buys quickly sell out.  Often you can get a rain-check but that's up to store policy.

Happy shopping!