9 back to school money saving tips the shops don't wnat you to know about

In todays blog post I thought we could focus on how you can reduce your back to school costs.  Back to school represents quite a significant cost to your family. If you don't manage these costs, they have the potential to blow out, and result in large credit card bills. To help you out we have compiled the nine tips below.

• Tip 1: Consider dollar stores: These stores still have some good quality items at low low prices. Definitely worth considering for some of the school supplies. The quality might be slightly inferior but the price is a lot less.

• Tip 2: Buy used text books: Where possible buy used text books. They are cheaper, have often only been used once and still serve the same purpose. They also have the advantage of interesting comments down the margins. Your kids were going to learn those words anyway. In fact they probably already know them.

• Tip 3: Shop for used text books early: If you leave your shopping to the last minute chances are a lot of the used text books will already be gone.

• Tip 4: Plan well in advance: If you leave everything to the last minute you will be bound to spend more money.

• Tip 5: Shop around for the best deals on the most expensive items: Perhaps it is a laptop, or sporting equipment. If you can get the best deal on these big ticket items you stand to save a lot of money. Paying cash will save you some dollars too.

• Tip 6: Consider coordinates: If you buy children's clothes that go with anything you will spend less money trying to match clothes.

• Tip 7: Buy clothes out of season: Where we currently live the temperature often gets over 50 degrees (124 Fahrenheit) so needless to say winter items are not to big here in summer. However, if you can get over that fact, you can save significant amounts on clothing buy buying them out of season. Especially true for sporting uniforms.

• Tip 8: Start a back to school fund: This is a great way to get on top of back to school costs. Put aside $5 per child a week and you will have $260 to spend on their supplies. This should cover a fair proportion of the school costs. This fund also helps if you see specials throughout the year. If you haven’t got enough just rename the holiday fund.

• Tip 9: Buy things in three: If you see a sale item eg a packet of pencils, then buy three lots. This will easily see your kids through the year.

So there you have it. The tips above give you an advantage over the retail shops. Follow them, and keep more of your hard earned money for yourself…or spend the savings on a massage once the kids are back at school.

If you want to learn more money saving tips then check out our 1011 Money Saving Tips E-Book.

In other news....

You have probably noticed dear reader that we haven't written a post for a few weeks.  The reason is that we were off globe trotting with the family...my wife and three kids.  We went to London, Paris, Euro Disney and Venice.  And have some new super doopa travel tips (and some photos) to bring to you in the coming days.

We did make a mistake on one hotel though, the last hotel we stayed in, in London's Earl Court.  It was cheap...a lot cheaper than the other hotels (we generally use accor hotels which are well priced and very clean and comfortable). When we were shown to our room we discovered it was three metres from the bar (a football match was taking place so the bar was packed) and right above a karoke club!  The room wasn't sound proofed and it sounded like there was an Abba want-a-be singing in our room.

What's more the room was mouldy, dusty, and was decked out in the worst 1960s decor.  Within about two minutes my son's athma was already playing up.  My wife looked at me, there was no way around it, I had to walk back to reception and ask for an upgrade.  We ended up with an ok room, on a more suitable level...still not sound proofed.  Needless to say we picked up a lot of new words from the German Couple next door!


Cheers

Rusty O'Connor