I have a drawer with school supplies and just buy bits and pieces throughout the whole year. When I see a deal in bags and nice good school shoes I buy them and store them away when not directly needed.

I just buy bits and pieces throughout the holidays and then a final check of what we might need is done in the final week of holidays.

Back to school specials usually start at the same time as the holidays, so I start buying then. By the time school goes back, I’m all set

Yeah definitely a week or two before hand. This gives you plenty of time to get the right gear sorted out for them.

I usually wait til the back to school sales are advertised on TV or in the newspapers. Then I stock up as much as I can. There’s no time limit with me, the sales dictate when it happens

Eekkk they go back next week – I haven’t even thought about it and I’m back at work this week! But we don’t need books or anything, just uniforms, shoes, lunch boxes, lunches etc.

In the early years of primary, I made sure to buy the school supplies in bulk then put the spares away. The school tends to ask for the same supplies year after year, so I clean up the old ones and supplement them with a few new ones, and I usually only buy new things once all old and stored things are exhausted. I store all the spare supplies in a crate that stays in the garage, and I label EVERYTHING. Everything comes home if you label it.

mom94125; my favourite part of back to school is covering the books!

Clever idea KELC to compare catalogue products and prices.

I start once all the catalogues come out with the Back to School specials. I find most places are very similar in price for clothes, shoes, stationery etc (unless you want more expensive ones of course).
If you plan to shop at places like Officeworks, Kmart, Big W, Target etc tmake a list of everything you need then get all the catalogues in front of you (or online) and work out where has the bets price for each

The week before school starts again. Best sales then on shoes and supplies!

next week i will be checking out prices and starting to do the shop. right about now, you will be getting bombarded with back to school catalogues lol. just get uniforms on one pay, books on another if that helps your finances. i think that sometime soon you will also get your schoolkids bonus which helps to cover this expense. as long as it is all ready to go on day one you will be fine. my child’s first year, we just went to the newsagent and they picked all the stuff that we needed. this is good if you don’t want to shop around, need the majority of the list anyway or don’t mind someone else picking the design of things. also very convenient if you are time poor. we put our list in, went grocery shopping and went back to pick it up. too easy.

covering the school books is a totally different story though lol