Saving and Preparing for a New School Year

This post is sponsored by Groupon Coupons.  All opinions are my own.

Preparing for the upcoming school year is underway in our home.  I am finding myself perusing the weekly sale fliers along with other methods to keep our home schooling budget as low as possible.  Over the years, I have found a few simple techniques to help me make sure we have things we need and a few of our wants to make our learning environment enjoyable.

Three Ways to Save and Prepare for the New School Year

• Shop your own supply closet: I am not a big fan of having too many of the same things taking up space. For me the first step of preparing to shop is to check the supply closet so that I will know what we already have available. I do believe in having extra, but not too much. Therre is a fine line. At the end of school supply season, I often buy a few extras when supplies are marked down to clearance. Buying extra helps to keep us from running out of materials in the current school year while also gives us supplies to begin the new school year.

• Use supplemental materials when available: Our early years of home educating consisted of mostly workbooks, activity books, and games from Barnes and Noble. I still find myself shopping at Barnes and Noble for supplemental materials that work just as well as full fledge curriculum. My daughters have come to appreciate these materials, and have actually created their own list of resources they would like to include in their learning arsenal for the upcoming school year. Groupon Coupons have a variety of coupons available for Barnes and Noble, and I will be taking advantage of these savings. The savings available through Groupon Coupons include access to the Barnes and Nobel Educators Program which I am a proud member, free shipping options, and 15% or more off of purchases. By buying resources from Barnes and Noble, I am usually able to make our courses specifically fit my daughters' needs.

• Shop with your local sales ad: Each week from July through August I make it a point to check out the store circulations. This helps me to get the most bang for my buck particularly if the store is nearby. Not only do most stores have good sales in the weekly sales paper, but I have found online coupons for stores such as Walgreens through Groupon Coupons. Walgreens always makes my weekly shopping stop because they often put the brands I like such as Fiskars scissors on sale for a good price.

How do you stretch your dollars as you prepare for the new school year?