Thursday, August 2, 2012

Spending $500 on school supplies? How to keep costs down

I was happy to return to Fox 25 News in Boston today, this time to talk about how to save some money while back-to-school shopping. Here's the clip from the show:




Consumer experts are saying that parents plan to spend $500 or more on back-to-school items this year; the number sounds outrageous, but once you add electronics and school clothes into the budget, it's easy to see how parents can spend that much or more per child. Over at Yahoo! Shine, I interviewed frugal shopping expert Mir Kamin of WantNot.net about ways parents can keep costs reasonable.

Kamin suggests that people pay attention to store sales and shop "outside the box," keeping an eye out for deals at the grocery and drug stores as well as office supply centers and warehouse clubs.

"The thing to remember is that 'loss leaders' like 10-cent Crayolas and such are there to bring you into the store and make you feel like that overpriced comic-character notebook is a deal because you saved so much on glue and erasers," she explains. "So basically, watch the sales flyers, grab the cheap stuff when it comes up -- and grab extra, so you don't need to re-buy halfway through the year -- but don't buy the stuff that isn't dirt cheap."

You can read the rest of her tips here: ""Back to school spending: $500 per shopper?"