Back To School...already

With back to school coming before we know it, the kids and I decided to get started and get organized.
To start the school year off right, we put together little gift baskets for the teachers. I found most all the items at Target in their dollar isle. Some items I did get at Staples. Little things, like stamps, sticky notes, highlighters, etc, will be a great gift to kick start the school year. I know I'd love something this thoughtful from one of my students. The kids are thrilled to show and share their enthusiasm through these gifts. They still think we should add some candy of some kind too. So sweet!

We've been gradually gathering school supply items as we find them on sale. As we bought the items we needed somewhere to keep track of them until school starts. So, I photocopies their school supply lists so that we'd have one to take to the store with us and stapled the other to a paper grocery sack. As we buy the items we check them off and add them to their individual bags. This is working out great and the kids feel so organized and are beginning to get excited for school. Now for the sales: Staples has huge savings. I signed up to get their weekly ads, which come via email a day or two prior to when they hit the Sunday newspaper shelves. This is awesome, because then I know what penny sales will be available on Sunday morning. One week, the kids got packs of 8 pencils for a penny a pack and packs of 4 glue sticks for a penny. They each were able to get two of each, which went into their paper sacks. Now the new penny sale deal at Staples usually have to be bought with other items that total $5, but so far I just look for other supplies that are a great buy to reach to that price.

You can see inside the bag that we've started to collect our supplies. I think it would be neat to add the price next to the item to see how great a shopper I am when all the supplies are purchased. I might start competing with myself year after year to get a better deal.

FYI: As a teacher, Staples will allow 25 items to be purchased. This is a great way for teachers to stock up their classrooms with supplies for pennies, literally. I always keep certain things on hand and then when a student asks for something, I don't think twice to hand over something that may have cost so little. I love great deals!