Being frugal is a skill that I am always refining. Just because we have to watch our pennies doesn’t mean the children have to go without. My son is constantly growing out of his clothes. What fits him today may not fit him in a month (I wish I was joking). Thankfully he has friends that hand down their gently used clothing, which helps a ton. Still, there are several other ways we use to save money on new and gently used clothing as well as saving on school supplies. Follow these tips to save you up to hundreds of dollars this year!
Both Kohl’s and JCPenny offer $10 off of a $25 purchase (usually once a month). If you combine their clearance pricing with this special you can get quite a few clothes for a very reasonable price. Don’t count out eBay or Amazon, they should be looked at as well as the other retail giants. Walmart online has a clearance section, and sometimes you can get clothes for a fraction of the price (and they have great screen printed tee’s that are easy on the pocket book to begin with).
When doing ANY online shopping I advise that you first link through a swagbucks account, other rewards account. If you do not have one set up, you can link to it here: Swagbucks.
You get rewards points/dollars for every dollar you spend. It may not seem like a ton of money, but it does build up over time. I use my rewards money to help offset Christmas spending, and it does make a difference.
For school supplies I do comparison shopping online before physically going into the big box stores. I compare Walmart, Shopko, Amazon, Target, The Dollar Tree, and even Menards before going into the stores, making a list of what to pick up and where. I make it a point to stick to only these lists. It is easy to get thrown off track. That is what the stores want…..for you to spend more money than you intended when you initially walked in.
To save on your purchases after the fact:
The iBotta app allows you to select the items you want to save on, and then after you scan your receipt in, you can save on those items. I have only used this app for 4 months, but I have already built up $71 in savings to cash out (to start using iBotta you can copy this link here: iBotta) . I don’t buy anything that I wouldn’t have purchased without the app, so it is like free money. Checkout51 is another app I have not saved as much with this app, but again it is free money to me for only a few minutes of work. I downloaded the app at the same time as the iBotta app, and have built up $16 in savings. There are many more apps out there as well, but I have had much success with the ones I have listed here. I hope that you will find the apps helpful in saving on your school supplies and clothing this year. For tips to start the school year out right, check out my post:
