Buying School Supplies

One of my pet peeves about having ADHD is that I have difficulty getting ahead because we spend a lot of extra money to compensate for disorganization. I have paid tons for organization supplies, bought clothes on the fly because I was unprepared, and purchased a duplicate item because I couldn't find it the one I had.

But I'm smart. If I put my mind to it, I can come up with ways to save money. This is what I came up with this summer to get the best deals on school supplies because I noticed that Target would drop the price on one or two items for the week - crayons for $.20, for example - and you could save a buck or two on just those products for that week and it would be something else the next week. Last year I just bought all the stuff we needed in one trip, but this year I got smarter and devised the system below.

Buy school supplies cheaper, smarter:

• Get a list of school supplies at the beginning of the summer. Many schools have theirs online and you can pull them up any time. 
• Make lists: 1 list of everything needed for all the kids and a list of what each kid needs. Carry the main list with you. 
• Set up a bag for each child - either their school backpack or a paper bag. Attach their individual list to their bag. Put them out of the way or somewhere the kids can't get into them (learned that one the hard way - kids love school supplies and will play with them as they get excited for school). 
• Check the ads each week starting about early July. You can probably pick one store and just check that store online each week for their deals. Buy only the supplies you need that are on sale that week, but purchase extra of those items for your home stock - you need a stock of school supplies at home, too. 
• When you get home, review the individual lists. Label the items if needed and place them in the bags. Check off the purchased items on the list. Put your home stock items where they belong. 
• By the end of summer, you should have most or all of your supplies and saved some money. Anything you haven't seen on sale in 2 months probably won't go on sale - pick it up before school starts. 

Now, I go to Target more than once a week anyway and the girls really enjoyed going to pick out their supplies. Weekly excursions spread out the fun for them and I absolutely love office supplies, so this was easy for me. If you don't enjoy shopping and you have ADHD, this may be absolute torture and you might find it worth the money to just get it over with.

Consider the following adjustments to the plan:

• If you hate shopping, have someone else do the shopping each week - and aunt or uncle, grandparent, or a friend of the family. 
• Keep all of the items in the bags from the store in one place and sort them out once at the end of the summer before school starts. 
• Shop for the sale items whenever you can, even if it's not weekly, and get the rest at the end of summer. Saving a few dollars is better than nothing, right?