Save Time and Money On Back To School Shopping -

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Back To School, Back To School, Back To School Shopping

In just a few short weeks our oldest will be heading back to school as a 1^st grader! How did we get here so fast? Even though this isn’t our first rodeo, each year gets a little harder with the growing pains and not to mention that school supplies list.

In the past, our back to school shopping experience would easily become stressful especially when we failed to plan ahead. Just a year or so ago we didn’t plan ahead well which made it easier to give in to our girls wants. That year we had purchased all the things that were glitter and gold for her. And how do you think we paid for all those fancy back to school items? Yeah, you may have guessed it, credit cards. We are definitely learning our lesson now!

Education costs money, but then so does ignorance.” — Claus Moser

This year we knew we needed to go a different route when it came to school supplies shopping. With our current work schedules and our budget, we have limited time and money. It is important for us to purchase wisely and preserve the time we have for family.

We are thankful for our family and family friends who have been generous in handing down second-hand clothing. This has helped us more than they know! Now that our daughter will start out the school year with the majority of the clothing she will need we can postpone this back to school expense. So now we just needed to find a way to save ourselves time on back to school shopping.

This year we decided to try online shopping because it allows us to compare prices and quality for multiple products faster. We buy a lot of things online already, but we have never done all our back to school shopping online before.

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A few simple searches later, my daughter and I were checking out backpacks at Target.com. We then noticed Target advertising this new awesome feature called School List Assist. You guys, this feature helped us save so much time and money with just a few simple clicks. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of this feature before and so I wanted to make sure I got the word out there so that more teachers and mommas could master back to school shopping.

What is School List Assist?

Target and TeacherLists partnered together to provide close to 2 million class lists that would help create an exclusive school supply shopping experience for parents by using the School List Assist feature on Target.com.

With three simple steps you can easily locate your school supplies list, add matching products to your cart and choose your delivery method.

After everything is placed in your cart, School List Assist allows you to easily modify your selections. When modifying your selections you can trade colors or search for lower priced items to replace the current product.

Before you check out and pay, review everything in your cart to ensure that you haven’t missed anything. This is also your last opportunity to add any coupons or promo codes that may help you save more money. This is when we love to use our Swagbucks Button! This shopping tool has saved us so much time and money without having to clip coupons or search for promo codes.

Ways To Save Even More Money On Back To School Shopping

Shop at home first

Last year our daughter gained a short obsession with buying pencils out of her elementary’s school supplies vending machine. Additionally, she received multiple pencils from each Holiday Party they had at school. Since our school list, this next year simply stated pencils, we will be using pencils from this collection to start out the school year.

Buy Generic or Store Brand Products

Many retail stores like Walmart, Staples, and Target have their own brand of products that are usually just as good as the leading brands. Notebooks, for example, were $.25 for store brand compared to FiveStar notebooks that cost $2.79. This amount of savings can really add especially when you need to buy multiples. There are many school supplies products that you can save by simply switching to the store brand.

Use Coupons and Rebates

With the advancements in technology new ways of earning cashback from rebates and coupons have become simpler and readily available. While clipping coupons and mailing in rebate cards are still very much effective for in-store purchases those who do more online shopping may enjoy taking advantage of coupon and rebate apps like Ibotta and Swagbucks.

- Ibotta helps us regularly save money on our weekly trips to Meijers and Dollar General. Additionally, we plan to shop online we can go through Ibotta and earn cashback. Right now, you can earn 1% back on your Target purchases by going to Ibotta first. If you are new to Ibotta, sign up and earn $10 just by using our link!
- Swagbucks is an amazing website that allows you to earn cash back on purchases, save money with coupons, earn more money by taking surveys, trying new products and watching videos and so much more. We love using the Swagbucks button. The button ensures that we never miss out on Swagbucks points or the change to save money with available promo codes. The Swagbucks button will even make sure they try every promo code so that you get the most savings applied to your cart. So are you ready to start earning cashback now? Use our link and you will receive 300 points in your first month!