The Back-to-school shopping season is second only to Christmas!!! Even with a terrible economy, folks still manage to spend a chunk of money getting their children ready to go back to school. In fact, through a survey conducted by the National Retail Federation, younger children will have more new clothes, shoes, supplies, and electronics in the 2010-2011 school year than they have in the past four years.
School will start for my girls on next Wednesday. People around here are going to be scrambling around trying to get prepared at the last minute. I don’t know about ya’ll, but whenever I scramble, I overspend. I actually started early this year but here are a few tips to keep from overspending this weekend:
1. Know what you have—You can’t possible REALLY know what you need to purchase if you don’t know what you already have that still works and what does not. Take the 30 minutes to ` hour that will be needed to go through your children’s closets to see what can be salvaged. You may just need to purchase a few shirts instead of complete new outfits!
2. Only get what you need right away–Stock piling school supplies and winter clothes just spend up money NOW. Resist the urge to go out and buy your child’s entire fall wardrobe unless you absolutely have to. Here in North Carolina, it remains very warm until the end of September. It has been my experience that fall clothes go on sale in late September/early October in preparation for the winter duds! It is also pretty unlikely that your child will use every school supply that the teacher asks for during the first month of school!
3. Set a Budget and use CASH— Sit down and decide how much you can AFFORD to spend. Once you decide on a figure, go to the bank and take out the cash! I don’t know about you Divas, but I am much more efficient with staying within the budget when I use cash. Even using a debit card can set you up for “”mental budgeting which in turn leads to OVERSPENDING!
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Excellent advice that I adhere to myself!
) I'm in SC, so we don't buy Fall Clothes until they're on clearance…either that or sew them ourselves. Thanks for sharing these great tips! Happy Friday! 
)
http://www.seamsinspired.com
I'm happy to be your newest follower of your delightful blog and I'd love to have you as a friend at Frou Frou Decor!! I'm also having a Fabulous link party/giveaway today!! Hope you stop by!!
Hugs,
~Terrell @ Frou Frou Decor~
And no need to even wear anything other than shorts and short-sleeve shirts here until at least October! I didn't buy my kids pants or long sleeves yet. I figure they'll go on sale before they really need them anyway!
This is great advice! My daughter is starting school for the first time, and I just finished doing the closet assessment. She has six good-as-new pairs of jeans, so I have decided she will be a jeans and top kind of girl this fall! I'll buy her a couple of cute outfits (I mean, she is starting school for the first time) but that's it.
The other problem is that I am a teacher…so of course I find it necessary to get MYSELF a back-to-school wardrobe!
Great post! I can really use it because my son starts school next week and I am going back to school shopping with him tomorrow. I am following you from New Friend Friday:)
Hello. Found you on Social Parade, following from EcoModern Mom.
Stacey @ http://www.ecomodernmom.com