10 Tips For Saving Money During The Back-To-School Season

Staples is helping to get school supplies into the hands of those in need through the 3rd Annual Staples Do Something 101 School Supply Drive. The first two Do Something 101 school supply drives raised nearly $1 million for local charities to purchase back-to-school supplies for students who need them. In addition, Staples stores donated thousands of school supplies to its recipient organizations.

In honor of this program, Staples and TwitterMoms have teamed up with a blogging program to share 10 tips for saving money during the back-to-school season.

Here are my 10 Tips For Saving Money During The Back-To-School Season:

1. Go to Back-To-School Sales
2. Clip Coupons (the Sunday paper, circulars, coupon blogs, coupon websites, BOGO, follow places on Twitter and Facebook that might have sales or coupons, look for coupon codes, discount codes, price match, etc.)
3. Shop Online for sales (Usually you can compare shop easier this way.)
4. Reuse, Use Hand-me-downs or Used items again, and Recycle ( Freecycle is a great place to go to give & get stuff for free in your own town. Buy or get Reusable items and keep good stuff out of landfills! Craigslist, Ebay, Garage/Yard/Moving/Estate/Going Out of Business Sales, Thrift Stores, Flea Markets, and Dollar Stores are all great places to find good deals on used items.)
5. Make your own school supplies or get it handmade (homemade bags, backpacks, pencil cases, clothing, re-usable sandwich bags, etc. you can sometimes find on Etsy and other places for a great price or you can find a pattern online and make your own.)
6. Look for Rebates
7. Buy In Bulk and stock up when there is a deal!
8. Swap, Barter and Borrow from friends and family.
9. Grow Your Own Food and Pack a Lunch (Growing a garden will help with the cost of food for lunches you pack.)
10. Tax-Free Weekend (Some states offer this as an incentive to shop)

For four days only, Staples is offering a special discount to the TwitterMoms community and your followers and friends. Print out this coupon and bring it to any Staples to get 25% off their collection of Sustainable Earth by StaplesTM notebooks and writing pads. These eco-friendly notepads are made from 80% sugarcane so fewer trees are used! Click to Tweet an invitation to save!

Fan/Like Staples on Facebook. Follow Staples on Twitter.

DISCLOSURE: I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Staples blogging program, making me eligible to get a $50 gift card. The first 50 qualified participants will get a $50 Staples gift card to help get your kids prepared for back-to-school! In addition, one lucky random winner will get a grand prize of a $150 Staples gift card! For more information on how you can participate, click here.


Back-to-School SavingsStaples Back-to-School