Back To School Shopping Is All Wrapped Up!

I keep my girls in clothes and shoes all year round.  This way I can take advantage of sales and clearance racks as I come across them as well as find nice items in thrift shops from time to time.  Using gift cards, store coupons and rebates along with sales and clearance prices helps me even more.  We are a single income family so every penny has to be wisely managed.

After going through clothes, shoes and school supplies we were able to determine the girls were pretty well set.  The only need items on the list were bras and college ruled spiral notebooks.  An extra school uniform for my youngest would be nice, but not the end of the world if we didn't get one.  I can totally work with that.

The oldest wanted to get her hair cut at a salon while the youngest wanted me to trim hers.  I was fine either way.  For my oldest, I put the ball in her court.  She called around to several salons before finding the one she wanted to go to and had even found a coupon online to save $2.  She also washed her hair before we left so we only had to pay for a cut.  I was super impressed with her for figuring this all out on her own.  So off to the mall we went.

We started with bra shopping at Dillards.  I was hoping to find the girls some bras on a good sale, or better yet, a clearance rack and use my $50 gift card I had acquired by redeeming cash back points from my Mastercard.  The less I had to spend, the better.  When we pulled up at the mall and parked  I noticed Dillards had a sign in the window advertising an additional 40% OFF on clearance prices.  I got super excited and rightfully so.  I was able to get each of the girls three really nice bras and the youngest two Calvin Klein sports bras for cheerleading and track for just under $50!  After the gift card = FREE bras!  For 8 bras!!!  FREE!!!

At Payless Shoes we found a really nice pair of dress shoes for the youngest to go with her orchestra dress and any other dress she might choose to wear.  We weren't planning on new shoes but they were on clearance for $10 (regularly $35) and I thought it would be nice for her to have an extra pair.  The girls don't need dress shoes often so I imagine these should hold up nicely for quite awhile.

My daughter got her haircut and after the coupon and a tip it only cost $18.50 at Master Cuts.  Her hair looks super cute too and she is quite pleased.  After her trip to the salon my oldest dashed off to a Hot Topic shop to pick up something she knew her sister would like for her birthday and it was on sale.  Her birthday isn't until November, but she's thinking ahead and I love it!

While she did that the youngest and I shopped for an extra school uniform at JC Penney.  I was happy to see those on sale as well.  We got her a pair of pants and a top for $22.  While there I spotted something I wanted to get the girls for Christmas that was also on sale so I grabbed that up when they weren't paying attention.  I put all of these things on my JC Penney card to earn reward points and will pay that balance off in full next month to avoid any interest charges.

After our little shopping excursion we left the mall and I took the girls to lunch at Red Lobster.  I used a gift card I had been given last year and only spent $23 on our lunch and a nice tip for our terrific waiter.  Our Saturday out to the mall and lunch, just us girls, was wonderful and we had a really nice time too.

Albertson's had the spiral notebooks on sale so while I did a little grocery shopping on Tuesday I picked up 8 of those for 19¢ each and two packages of notebook paper (just in case) on sale for 2/$1.00.  We are officially good to go.

Now I just have to pay for their student activity cards, yearbooks, cheerleader uniforms, band fees, school pictures......  yeah, it never really ends.  But, I am super happy that I am able to do all of this for them.  And without it being a financial hardship is a true blessing.