I very rarely go shopping anymore. I used to love going to stores and browsing and looking around, but now, I just don’t have the time and it’s too much of a hassle. I’d rather just order whatever I need online.
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| I've got my lists, and I'm ready to shop |
But every year at this time, I have to go to the store, to get all the kids’ school supplies, and it’s not fun! This weekend I headed out armed with our 2 lists filled with everything from pencils and notebooks to Clorox wipes and tissues. Luckily, this year, my mother agreed to help me- so she took Nathan’s list and I took Drew’s. We started at Walmart. A lot of the items were easy to find like kids’ scissors, marble notebooks, and loose leaf paper.
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| I'm so glad my mother was able to help me |
Others turned into a scavenger hunt. What the heck is a “Hi Polymer Pentel block eraser” and why is it different and better than a regular old eraser? We walked around the back to school section of the store about 10 times before finally finding them.
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| This is a Hi-Polymer Pentel eraser, I had to Google it while in the store! |
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Eureka! I found the EXPO dry erase board eraser
and it comes with markers-score!! |
Finding EXPO dry erase makers was easy breezy, but finding an EXPO dry board eraser was not so easy! And we saw 3 or 4 families all looking for Crayola thin markers- everyone was looking for the normal packages of 10 classic colors. They didn’t have them, I ended up just buying the package of 30. And, why every year, do we have to buy Ticonderoga pencils? There are always tons of other types of pencils, but finding the Ticonderoga ones is like finding a needle in a haystack. The most difficult item to find turned out be yellow folders. Not just regular yellow folders, they were easy. We needed two pocket VINYL folders. We found red, blue, green, orange and purple- but no yellow.
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Ticonderoga pencils? Anyone?
No, not Dixon pencils, the list says Ticonderoga! |
We decided to leave and head to Target because they had a backpack Nathan liked. We got the backpack, and found tons of yellow two-pocket vinyl folders. When all was said and done, I think I did pretty good, I got all the supplies and only had to go to 2 stores, usually I have to go 4- Walmart, Target, Staples, and the local teacher supply store. And I spent a little more than $150 for the 2 kids. In the past I’ve spent way more than that. But, I think leaving the kids at home and getting to my mom to help me really made the biggest difference. Instead of trying to keep track of what I needed from 2 lists, we were able to divide and conquer.
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| I guess I got enough for one store |
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| $152.79 I'm glad I only have 2 kids |
I remember when I was kid, being so excited to go out and get all my new supplies and clothes for school. But now I dread it, and my kids don’t care at all. I guess it’s probably because when I was a kid I used to pick out a few notebooks, book covers, and a Trapper Keeper (remember Trapper Keepers?) all with my favorite characters on them- and that’s it! Now buying school supplies means buying more than 30 items per child, including things like hand sanitizer and Zip-loc bags- and when is the last time you saw a child get excited about those?
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| Drew's supply pile |
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Nathan's supply pile
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Wow! That's a lot! This year we reused a lot of Erin's supplies. I resharpened her colored pencils, we used the same pencil box and scissors too. So far she hasn't been asked for many crazy things yet so the items have all been pretty cheap. Do you guys get a tax free week like we do in Florida? Next year will definitely be more with Cameron needing supplies too.
ReplyDeleteNo, they don't do the tax free week here in NY. They've done it in the past, but not this year. I cracks me up every year! It's a lot of work finding all that stuff in the store!
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