How I survived my first Back to School

An almost quiet shopping experience @ Tarjay

Many back-to-school years ago, I was indifferent, uninterested and never cared a world about catalogs, store ads and fliers featuring back to school bounties and goodies. Tax Free Weekend didn't mean a thing to me. I was clueless and oblivious to this yearly phenomena.

But things changed this year. Like a rebirth and by default, I became an instant part of this all-time hit Circus!

On Saturday, me and my daughter officially became a part of the fraternity of parents and kids that paraded, milled, raced and raided the big stores for Back to School shopping while taking advantage of the Tax free weekend. I thought I would find myself in a jungle of chaos but thank you to those parents who opted to avoid this messy weekend, you helped made my first back-to-school shopping manageable.

It also helped that hubby did pre-back-to-school shopping during the week and gotten all the kiddos school supplies at already pre-discounted rates. Some stores like Office Depot were smart to do this. One great deal found there was the folder with pockets which costs only $0.01, where he also received a FREE large glue with his purchase. Now that's a good deal!

All that's left were "school" clothes. Knowing the hubby's love for shopping, he left this task to me. So, while we were cruising the Girl's section, he was several buildings away spending quality time with his laptop and free Wi-Fi.

Our first stop was Ole' Old Navy. Though they offered $10 and $10 off deals, most of the kids' jeans and shirts I needed were still expensive, ranging from an already discounted price of $19 to $26. Not worth the splurge for a fast growing kid like mine.

The Frugal deal: It is a steal for grown-ups.

Tarjay offered a better deal. Girl's Circo denim Jeans and the Khaki Pants were only $9.99 a piece! One feature I like about these jeans besides being inexpensive { cheap is not politically correct } is their adjustable waists - great for growing kids. The adorable Girl's Circo Tees {which I couldn't find online for reference} with cute prints sells for $4.99 but upon checkout, I discovered it was $0.99 off each. Sweet!

Girls undies and socks were also on sale. Everything fit into my budget! And with enough "leftover", I went and bought us some tasty Ice cream treats for a frugal-shopping well done!

To recap:

Target has made sure to ease shopping experience by delegating one end cap in their dollar section to contain informational flyers of each Schools' required school supply in the area along with list of categorized taxed and non-taxed items provided by NCRMA.

Most stores offers Pre and post back-to-school sales which is almost as sweet a deal as Tax free weekend. Great for parents who hates navigating through a crowded store. And lastly, don't underestimate the power of the Dollar Store for school supplies, especially if you're in a very tight budget.

Now one thing that puzzled me about Saturday was the lack of shoppers. Where did all the peeps go? My hubby and I decided they're all at Wal-Mart. Are we right?