Money Saving Mondays: School Shopping

Cue the groans from kids – and cheers from parents: In four weeks it will start becoming “back to school” time for thousands of New England schoolchildren.

“Like any other shopping activity, it really helps, if you're going to spend significant money, to have a plan and be organized,’’ says Jon Lal, founder and CEO of BeFrugal.com, a Boston-based shopping deals site.

The cardinal rule: Before you go shopping, check your home and drawers and the back of kids’ closets to see what you already have. For clothing and school supplies, consider getting together with family and friends for a swap where you offer your surplus and see what’s on your kid’s list you can get from others.

Lal also encourages parents to eye that school supply list with some health skepticism – because the main way he sees people wasting money is getting everything on it before knowing what kids really need. “I think the biggest thing people do is go exclusively by the school list, and the school list is in some ways a wish list -- an ideal list,’’ Lal said.

For what you do buy, Lal encourages shopping strategically: “Get the laptop and calculator early. Get the pencils and note pads at the end.’’

The reason? “It might be a particular model calculator or a particular model of laptop that your child needs, so that one you want to shop online and in stores for such items early, because you don't want to run the risk of these items getting sold out.’’ But paper, pens, supplies, notebooks – Lal says it may pay to procrastinate until September when retailers are itching to move that merchandise: “These things are significantly reduced at that time because retailers are trying to get all these things off their shelf. Shelf space costs them money.’’ 

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