Back-to-school can be a pricey time of year. Purchasing new school clothes, shoes, and supplies amounts in a big chunk of change for our family every August. Our decision for me to stay home with our youngest this year means practicing extra frugality. I’m happy to report that we successfully reduced our typical back-to-school chunk of change to literal piddly change…if that.
1. I magnetized our Barton tiles…for free!
We’re refrigerator magnet people. Specifically the flat magnets – the the ones that come in the mail with flyers about businesses…you know the ones I mean?
We save all of the magnets that come in the mail, and we’ve picked them up over the years – given out free at RV shows, running races, or different travel destinations.We have FAR more magnets than we have refrigerator space. So most of the magnets ended up in a baggie in our junk drawer.
With a dyslexic learner in the house, we use the Barton System for Reading and Spelling. I’m averse to the online tiles app – another story for another day – but I have recently become super jealous of magnetized tiles I’ve seen online. So I priced a set. And I choked on my coffee. And I went to my junk drawer, grabbed the bag of magnets and the glue, and I got to work. 30 minutes later, I had a set of FREE magnetized Barton tiles.
I stole a baking sheet from the play room that was once used for kinetic sand play, and repurposed it as my magnetic board, and voila!
It’s working famously, and it makes me smile five days a week as my awesome little dude crushes Barton lesson after Barton lesson on the road to becoming a stellar, confident reader.
2. My “me time” chai latte was only .49 cents.
You know how I get a few hours to just…be…while my youngest attends Forest School? Well, I had rationalized an overpriced hot drink at the Barnes and Noble Cafe on our first day of Forest School as my paid dues to the B&N wifi and table hogging while I blogged and planned homeschool lessons.
I ordered a hot chai latte (because I’m peri-menopausal and have self diagnosed cortisol issues and am trying to cut back on my caffeine intake, boo), and it rang up to $5.49. And then I was asked my favorite question to be asked whenever checking out somewhere, “would you like to use your rewards”? Umm, yes. Yes I would. And .49 cent latte. Boom.
3. Our yard sale funded our chicken flock!
I have decided that I am a five to seven year yard sale hostess. Meaning, it is a lot of effort to gather and price things, and I just can’t muster the kind of energy that yard-selling requires more than once a decade basically. But this was the year!
Luckily, our town hosts an “around town yard sales” event every Labor Day, and town residents are welcome to set up a table space in the community park. This is especially fortunate (I.e. necessary) for me as I live on a very rural, very dirt road.
The boys and I have been wanting our own flock of chickens for a while now, and we had decided that after this summer’s epic road trip, we would finally bring our flock home. We decided that all proceeds of our yard sale would go towards our flock fund.
We raised $201. After getting the feed and water containers for $3 each (on a clearance table at Tractor Supply), and picking up four chicks, a bag of starter feed, and a package of hydro-hen for another $29, our total flock bill came out to $35. We repurposed an old guinea pig cage as their home, were lent a brooder plate by a friend, and used an unopened package of guinea pig bedding instead of buying pine shavings!
We were still without a coop, though, so we headed to Tractor Supply, again, with our yard sale earnings. Their Producer’s Pride small cottage coop, originally priced at $299, was 50% off. Score! Our youngest proudly counted out his cash bills at the register. We had an unused gift card to put toward the balance, so we walked away with the coop for $136.
I’ll post more about our flock soon. They are a hoot and we love them. And I really love how inexpensively we’ve been able to bring them into our lives!
4. We possibly own the most durable backpacks ever.
Our biggest back-to-school financial win was our complete and utter lack of back-to-school shopping. It is nice to think about how when we would have been back-to-school shopping we were swimming, fishing, hiking, biking, camping, or otherwise enjoying life instead. That makes all of us happy.
I really don’t enjoy shopping, and I was blessed with two boys who absolutely abhor shopping. And so, our oldest went to 5th grade with the same backpack he’s been using since…drumroll…the middle of 2nd grade. He had a Lands End backpack tear in the middle of 2nd grade, and we replaced it with an Adidas backpack from Amazon. When our youngest started kindergarten the next fall he, unsurprisingly, wanted the EXACT. SAME. backpack his brother had, so we have two (not identical, but very similar). And that second backpack is in its third year as well, making a trek to Forest School once a week.
Both of our boys have shoes that fit with lots of life left, plenty of clothes that fit their bodies and personalities, and both have been perfectly content to do absolutely zero back to school shopping. We didn’t even replace lunch bags this year, as both boys are attached to the ones they own, and both are still in great shape!
While I fully realize that feet and bodies will grow this year, and styles and preferences will change, I am enjoying this season of contentedness while it lasts!
