It is about that time again and our kids have to start school in about 2 1/2 weeks. The task of shopping for school is always very stressful to us and it takes a lot to face it sometimes. UGH! But I have a schedule to uphold, and have to get these kids ready before the stores run out of clothes and supplies to choose from. This is how we create our shopping plan for back to school.
Clothes:
About a week ago we inventoried all of their fall and winter clothes. We had them try everything on, then we tallied up what they had. This gave us an idea of what gaps we had so we could create a list of what the kids need for school clothes shopping. I created a worksheet in our word processor to help us streamline this. Keeping this on hand will allow for easy annual inventories, and keep you organized.
The clothes that didn’t fit or were too old (or they just had way too many of…) went into 2 piles. One to donate to Good Will and the other was items that were not good enough to give away and we threw them out or chose to reuse them as rags.
From this tally sheet I made a list for shopping. I arranged it by the departments we would be shopping in, then by the items needed then by the person. This way we would be first directed to the correct department and wouldn’t be having to go back and forth, searching for things.
Supplies:
Our school sends out lists with the children’s required school supplies at the end of the previous school year. It is such a joy… to try to keep track of this list over the summer. LOL! Anyway, I place it in my Household binder so it won’t get lost.
I take all of their lists and I go through all of our extra supplies that we have on hand (from previous shopping trips, and from what came back from last year that was adequate to reuse). This generally takes care of most of the needed school supplies. Then I start setting up their backpacks with the supplies that we do have on hand. Again, like with the clothes inventory worksheet, I just have to fill in the gaps where we are lacking.
From what we are missing I create a new list, and set it with the clothes shopping list in my household binder and wait for the right day to go shopping. Prep work is now complete.
Having a plan and a budget in mind will really help you stay on track. My children know that they are allowed to choose the items we shop for from the list, and from the store that we agree upon. Children need choices, but families need limits. It really isn’t responsible of a parent to spend all of the months money on clothes and not be able to buy food or pay the bills, just because they didn’t want to limit their children’s clothing allowance.
Planning is key. If you have any ideas or comments that you would like to add, I would love to hear from you. My next Back to School segment will be about any other preparations that might be needed before the school year starts.
