Photo by ladybugbkt
There are so many different opportunities to get school supplies for pennies on the dollar right now. It's wonderful to be able to stock up for school, but with all the great deals it's good to think beyond just the school year.
Lisa emailed me with a great suggestion:
This year, I'm stocking up early for some charitable holiday giving. So far, I have picked up enough to fill 3 bags and am getting the backpacks cheap or free this week at CVS and Staples. Considering we still have at least a month to go before school starts and the Back-to-School deals just keep coming, those gifts will likely be very generously fulfilled!
I love this idea and hope that others of you who are taking advantage of the Back-to-School deals will also consider how you might be able to pick up a few extras of things to bless someone in need.
FishMama has some great ideas here for other creative uses for school supplies.
Do you have any other suggestions to add? If so, I'd love to hear them!
No time to read the comments so this idea may be mentioned already. I stock up on back to school deals on erasers, pencils, colored pencils, washable markers, crayons, child-size scissors, watercolor paint sets, inexpensive artist paintbrushes, tiny stapler, rolls of cellophane tape, pads of construction paper, lined paper, folders, photocopy paper, glue sticks (and whatever else you remember that I’m not, that will fit in with this idea!). I then go to a packaging store and purchase a sturdy cardboard “check storage box”. Put about fifty sheets of plain photocopy paper in one side of a folder, and lined paper in the other. Start filling the box with the folder of paper, pad of construction paper, and then all of the individual/sets of items. If you have a wonderful old magazine with kid-themed pictures, include this as well.
I wrap the whole thing up in gift wrap and give these as gifts to three or four year olds as “art boxes”. The magazine can be cut up to make collage type decorations for the box, or the box can be decorated with markers and crayons. (Use your discretion here – for the youngest recipients who haven’t yet learned how to use scissors or how NOT to eat glue, give those items to the mother on the side.)
This has been among the most enthusiastically-received gifts ever, by both the children and the parents. Although you may spend 15.00 or so dollars total even at reduced prices, the final box would be difficult to reproduce for under 40.00 during the rest of the year.
Also, use the sales to grab a package of colored markers for your own fix-it stash. I use a brown marker throughout the year to color in scratches on wooden furniture. The colored markers can disguise chips and cracks to beloved ceramics that have little “accidents”.
Blessings,
Michelle
Check to see if your local humane society or other shelters have a wishlist. Often, they have office supplies on it that include office paper, pens, highlighters and other back to school items. I’m using the deals to stock up and make a donation to my humane society!
Thanks for the idea!! It’s nice to hear that there are still a lot of people dedicated to give and bless other people considering the economic changes right now. Stay inspired!
http://greatisthelord.net/
Inspirational Gifts
Great tips! Here’s mine – Have your kids make a simple wrap that says something like “I pick you” or “You brighten my day”. Wrap it around the box, tape in place and you have a great, inexpensive, non-candy treat to pass out on Valentine’s Day!
With the help of a couple of my friends we are hosting a back to school supply drive for a local orphanage. I have been able to get most of the stuff I am donating free or almost free, including backpacks, pens, paper, folders, erasers….. it’s a great feeling to help out but it’s even better when it doesn’t cost you much out of pocket! 🙂
Every year our Publix and the news stations have a school drive, so I am stocking up to donate to kids who do not have supplies for one reason or another. It makes me feel good to donate to the community.
I usually pick up extra boxes of crayons to use for stocking stuffers or last minute birthday gifts. Add a coloring book later on and I’m all set.
Around October/November our church sends the college students care packages. I try to include lots of my free (or almost free) health and beauty stash and some goodies from my school supply stash too.
My church is collecting school supplies for a Lutheran school on the Texas/Mexico border. I don’t have to buy school supplies for my own kids yet but with the prices so good, I can not help but to pick up a few items for those less fortunate.
My son has leukemia and spends his hours at the hospital drawing. The playroom volunteers make up little art kits for the children who aren’t able to leave their rooms and I’m sure any hospital with pediatric patients would appreciate a donation!
Great Post! If you want to add 12 Free cute Coach Pencils to your school supplies…check out my post here:
http://tomorrowsplight.blogspot.com/2009/07/free.html
Back to school sales are awesome, we have four children and we homeschool. I was able to buy everything that we need for the school year and only spent $4.01 (Including tax). You can see what I bought here http://tinyurl.com/l33vfg I did not buy any paper, because I stocked up last year when it was on sale for REALLY cheap! I will probably not need to buy it for a long while. I just recently started teaching a Sunday School Class at our church and I have restocked everything there for hardly any OOP! Of course the church would re-imburse me but those no need because I literally spent under $3.00! Oh, I bought all of this at WAGS!
I just did a post on this topic too. You can read it here: http://savingandgiving.blogspot.com/2009/07/way-to-give-school-supplies-operation.html
My son has a long and somewhat expensive (if you pay regular price) school list for Kindergarten. I am stocking up on cheap school supplies and filling several bags with the complete list of Kindergarten supplies for his school. I will then give these bags to the school to distribute to students that cannot afford to buy school supplies. I love being able to do this and I also love the lesson that it teaches my son!
I’m stocking up on things to put into Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child boxes. It’s wonderful!
At church, we send out care packages to our foreign missionaries. I put items from my stockpile each time we send one. I try to put in name brand things like toothpaste, school supplies,lotion,floss & etc. Things that we sometimes take for granted but in a foreign land would be a luxury!
I will often buy backpacks or other bookbags at Target after the fall school start is over. Many of their bags as well as any leftover supplies will go on clearance in September. Then you can give them to the school or put them away for Christmas (or stock up for your own kids to use through the year at home).
I am a Girl Scout leader (12 years now) the first troop I led was about half girls from the federal housing project and I laid in a good supply of craft materials for the troop using back-to-school sales. Now I purchase for new start up troops who have girls of limited means. Out GS Council is able to let me know which troops might be in need.
I have been collected for the church who is filling backpacks for 4th graders. I picked up some items too for my 5yr old.
How about Sunday School or Vacation Bible School supplies?
We also do Operation Christmas Child. Last year it was great because we got all of our tolietries and school supplies for free and could afford to pick up a couple of extra dollar store toys!
I also bring in extras to my son’s teacher for those kiddos who may not have everything they need.
Hm, not sure the link came through:
http://www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com/2009/06/shopping-with-intention.html
Another good place for things like this would be Jared Boxes for hospitals. You can read more about them here.
We also do shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. In addition to picking up school supplies ahead I save all the free toothpaste I get at CVS in a brand we don’t care for, pick up beanie babies with tags on at garage sales, and a bunch of little toys marked on clearance after Easter. In addition to the five we do as a family, my sister-in-law and I get all the supplies for the boxes our children’s Sunday school class assemble. Each year we figure out a few more tricks to get the cost per box down a bit more.
We give crayons in Christmas stockings to our children (usually along with a coloring book from the dollar store).
Our church usually has a collection to fill school bags for local children who cannot afford to purchase supplies. My children love being able to bring something to put in the donation box!
Our two older kids are 5 and 3 and love to cut pictures out of old magazines (thanks to free subscriptions!!) and glue them into notebooks. This makes for cheap craft time with free after ECB scissors and notebooks and cheap glue sticks from Target.
My sister-in-law is leaving soon, to teach English to children in Ecuador.=) My mother-in-law is stocking up on the cheap school supplies, to send with her. The children there don’t have many things, so they are really going to appreciate it! I can just imagine the smiles on their faces when they open up boxes of bright crayons. =)
my staples has a box in front to donate new school supplies for kids without. I usually buy all of the penny items or cheap items I can muster and donate them there.
Heather, check your Walgreens ad (if you have a wags near you). It’s not on sale right now, but the packing tape does go on sale there!
I ended up sending a ton of stuff to Samaritan’s Purse last year that I had picked up at back-to-school sales. I am also a teacher, and although kids are technically supposed to bring their own school supplies, I like having spare notebooks, pencils and folders because the kids just can’t function without them. Some of the more fun stuff we put in a box and let the kids pick a prize once in a while. Military personnel in war zones would also really appreciate donations of writing utensils, paper, post-its, really almost anything you can think of- my husband tells me that access to those supplies can be pretty limited, depending on where they are. I will probably save some of this stuff to send to him when he is deployed again this winter.
We fill shoeboxes at Christmastime for the Samaritan’s Purse. School supplies are GREAT to include in these. I always buy ahead in the fall when the supplies are cheap.
Last year, I bought plastic pencil boxes when they were on sale at Staples for $.01 and $.10. We filled them with candy and a few school supplies as gifts for DD’s class. I bought red ones and tied a pretty ribbon around them.
I also have used school supplies for Valentine’s Day treats. One year, I bought rulers at BTS time and DD attached a red heart to the ruler with the saying, “Valentine, You Rule!”
Glenda
I am buying ahead for Operation Christmas Child boxes!
every year we do operation christmas child (fill a shoe box with toys/stuff) and the last few years i’ve started buying stuff ahead to fill those boxes so we can get more bang for our buck! 🙂
Rather than saving them for Christmas, just go to your nearest school and donate them to the family resource center (most schools have something like this, maybe under a different name). That way the kids that cannot afford to bring their own will have them at the beginning of the year like all of the rest of the kids.
I just made an announcement about this in our church on Sunday. I had a large group of people sign up to get emails from me telling them when and how to get the free school supplies to donate to one of our local ministries in need.
Also, consider donating items to a local school or a friend who is a teacher – so many supplies are not covered by school budgets now! Teachers can use them in the classroom and help out the kids in the class who can’t afford to buy everything on the requested supply list.
I’ve been stocking up for an orphanage we support in Nicaragua. We’re heading down there again in August, and I can’t wait to be able to supply the kids with school stuff for the rest of this school year, and next as well (their school year is Feb-Oct/Nov). As it is now, the kids have nothing of their own, and I’m hoping to be able to get pencil boxes, pencils, pens, crayons (markers or colored pencils for older kids) and a notebook for every kid!
What a great idea to stock up on these items for charitable giving! We don’t have children, so I usually pass by most of the fantastic savings on school supplies, but now I’ll stock up and donate a few backpacks!
Thanks,
Trixie
I always buy up a bunch of art/school supplies this time of year. They make great donations as already mentioned. I’ve packaged up bundles of crayons, markers, glue, etc. etc. with various papers as ‘art sets’. It’s fairly easy to sew a little tote to hold it all, and it’s a nice gift for a ‘tween-age’ firl on the angel tree, or even a relative to likes to draw and paint. 🙂
-Laura, at
http://www.tenthingsfarm.blogspot.com
We have a friend who is serving in the military in Afghanistan right now. We try to send a care package every few months. He always asks that we put in school supplies for the Afghan children in village nearby. They love getting notebooks, colored paper, colored pencils (with manual sharpeners), and crayons. The soldiers can use the gifts to help these children and their families–schools there are really trying, but they have next to nothing to work with. And in so doing, they begin to build real relationships with the people to open dialogue about all kinds of things.
I buy up a whole bunch for use in shoeboxes with Operation Christmas Child. I usually buy more than I’ll use, so I’ll bring supplies in for others in my church to use in filling their boxes as well (I’m the coordinator at my church).
When my kids were younger, I would get extra supplies to put in the little bags I made up as teacher Christmas presents. Then in December, we’d go to the teacher supply store, and I’d have the kids pick out a few things they knew their teacher was running out of – sticky tack, reward stickers, etc., and add that. It was always a very welcome gift, and I liked that I could get some of the supplies very inexpensively by starting early!
As Amy referenced above Operation Christmas shoeboxes are a great project to shop for now. Also hospitals / hospices for children would be a great place for crayons, markers etc.
Almost any charitable organization – shelters, schools, churches, food banks etc. have office needs. Pens, paper, pencils would certainly be welcomed.
I teach in public school and we get many donations from churches that are nearby, people who live in the neighborhood, etc. Our home-school coordinator keeps a lot of these supplies (including backpacks) in her office. When a new student arrives w/o the proper supplies, she loads them up with goodies. We had some children arrive to our town at the end of last school year from another country, didn’t speak English, etc. They were so happy to get their own bag full of the right supplies.
I also take advantage of the deals to buy supplies to keep in my own classroom, but to also create “first day” bags. I fill up a ziploc bag with several pencils, pens, box of crayons, blue stick, bookmark, cap erasers, highlighters, etc. This bag is waiting on the students’ desks when they walk in on the first day. It’s fun to see the looks of surprise on their faces. Makes for a great first day!
Here in California, due to some major budget cuts (we have a $26 billion budget deficit) we are for the first time being asked as parents to provide school supplies for our children. (In previous years, all supplies were supplied by the school budget.) I am very capable of providing the listed supplies for my 3 children, but I know many families who will not be able to. Anything that I find on sale that is on the list (our school knew before the end of last year that they would be asking for supplies so they sent a list home with the last report card to enable parents to bargain shop) I buy 11 of them. So when school starts I’ll have the 1 my child needs plus and extra 10 to give to the teacher for her classroom for any child that doesn’t have the item. Almost all schools are willing to accept donations, just call the school office (most offices are closed right now for the summer, but will open the 1st or 2nd week of Aug.) and talk to the receptionist about donating. Last year when my husband office cleaned out their office library, they were gonna throw away about 50 3-ring binders. I called the school and they were very happy to take them off my hands. When I went in to drop them off the receptionist was telling me how she had just had 3 teachers that morning asking for 3-ring binders. She asked them if they could just wait until the end of the day, she would have plenty for them to choose from. And she did!
I just did a post on this same thing on my blog today! You can come check out my ideas at http://boisebargainshoppers.blogspot.com/
Thanks for these ideas!
I like to stock up on school supplies and give them as birthday gifts. Most young kids love getting new paper, crayons, markers, etc. as gifts.
I try to restock the Sunday School supply closet this time of year also. (as a Christian ed coordinator – please ask before assuming the closet needs to be restocked. It is appreciated, but not always needed)
I usually give a few extra to my childrens’ classroom teachers for classroom use. This year I think I am going to give extra supplies that are on the list and tell the teachers to give them to children that they see do not have supplies.
My sister is a teacher and it is through her that I found out that most schools help their teachers very little with supplies; so giving extras for the classroom would always be appreciated—especially tissues and dry erase markers!!!!
I have gotten some of the novelty stationery items at CVS for my son’s bday gift bags.
crayon shaped erasers, little teeny tiny notebooks on keychains, funky pencils. I got a bunch last year when they were 75 or 90% off too!
Last yr i bought the 24c crayolas at walmart for my other son’s august bday treat bags. The kids were thrilled to get a whole box of crayons!
Some churches or church-based preschools would LOVE the donations.
Missionaries would too, not just the shoebox mission gifts.
🙂
Amy
Schools supplies are great for goody bags for birthday parties. Kids love little notebooks with markers or crayons. School supplies are also great to keep stocked in the car for long car rides. And local schools, many of which are facing budget cuts this year, also appreciate extra supplies to use in the art room or for disadvantaged students who cannot afford school supplies.
What a great idea!
I’ve also been stocking up for my husband’s office supplies since we own a small shipping company. Why aren’t there ever deals on packing tape! 🙂