Mom, tell me if you can relate to this experience I had last year at this time. I was standing in the school supply section of Target. In hand were the lists of all the items my kids will need for the year ahead. I felt confident. Number two pencils? Check. No problem. But the further down I got onto the lists, the more I started to feel a combination of panic, annoyance, impatience and confusion.
The lists very clearly indicated “Elmer’s glue (not purple)”. I am not kidding you, all that was sold in this store was purple glue. There was like an entire aisle of it.
Was I being punked?
Why would the list state that when it is clearly all that is sold? As I continued battling through the challenge of one kid needing an eight pack of markers but the other kid needing a 12 pack and searching for the classic colors because bold was not indicated on the list, I couldn’t take it anymore. As if in some corny infomercial, I practically shouted out – “There has to be a better way!”
Mom, turns out there is.
Here are four awesome resources for you to look into for your school supply shopping.
Educational Products Inc– This is the company I used for all of my school supply shopping. All. Of. It. I found my school on the list, selected the grades my kids are entering and boom, it was shipped to my house. All of the items are loaded up so there is zero going through the lists and driving yourself crazy. I price compared with Amazon and Target and it was right in line with their prices. I did pay for $15 for shipping which seemed a bit high initially for my liking. But saving me the time, hassle and headache is probably worth about that much.
School Tool Box– Same idea as Educational Products. This had a bit higher by item pricing (nothing outrageous though) but free shipping over $50.
Target School Assist– Similar to Educational Products Inc and School Tool Box, you will find your school on the Target site and then can go in and “select/un-select” the items that pull up when you enter in your child’s school and grade. You can have it delivered for free or pick it up in stores. However, there were several items that were unavailable when I looked into this one so it wouldn’t have been a one stop shop.
CardCash– Kristina is a huge fan of this site where you can purchase discounted gift cards. Think about looking into it for places like Staples so you can save money on back to school supplies and places like JC Penny for back to school clothes. Genius!
We hope your school participates in one of these services so you can have one less thing to stress about!
Do you have any tips on back to school supply shopping? We’d love to hear!
