I have three children in my household that are under the age of nine and I can’t say shopping with them is always a pleasure. To make things easier for me, I often purchase items online. It saves me the stress of shopping with little ones and sometimes I can find a better deal online than in the store. Plus with living in a small community, I don’t have to then drive an hour to find everything on my children’s school supplies lists.
It took a bit of planning to try and find the best deals online. The three major online retailers I looked at and purchased from were Walmart.com, Target.com, and Amazon.com. With Amazon.com, I do pay the $99/year for Prime to make shipping free on most items they offer.
Amazon.com
#2 pencils can be purchased in a box of 144 count so you would have plenty for multiple children or to help refill classroom supplies during the year like we do with my local school. You can purchase them for $10.22 with Prime or go even lower with Subscribe & Save, which brings it down to $8.69 with saving 15%. That breaks it down to $0.06 each pencil.
With Subscribe & Save, there are defaulted subscription periods to select from, like every 4 months, 6 months, etc. for the next delivery. When the renewal date is near, you will get an e-mail notice and you can change the next delivery or even cancel if you no longer wish to receive the item.
I also purchased the following three items on Amazon.com. The scissors were an add-on item so even with Prime; I had to buy a minimum of $25 in purchases to have this item ship for free.
Target.com
Target had a great deal last week where you could have any order shipped for free. Some name brand items were buy one, get one 50% off then too.
This week they have free shipping on orders of $25 or more, which is not hard to do. You will also receive a $5 Target gift card with a $25 purchase this week. Same day pick up in the store with online orders is also available.
I used Ebates.com for this purchase and will be getting 2% of my purchase back. Another good site for online rebates is ShopAtHome.com
up & up™ Pronged Two Pocket Poly Portfolio – Folder – 5ct $2.50
up & up™ Colored Pencils 12ct $0.74
Paper Mate® Pearl Eraser – 3ct $1.49 each Buy one, get one 50% off
up & up™ Super Jumbo Glue Stick – 2ct $2.50
up & up™ Liquid School Glue – 4oz $0.47
Crayola Ultra-Clean 10-ct. Classic Colors Washable Broad Line Markers $1.97 each Buy one, get one 50% off
up & up™ Wood Ruler $0.25
Mead 70 Sheet Wide Ruled Paper Cover Notebook – Blue $0.65
Walmart.com
Lastly, I shopped at Walmart.com. There is free shipping with a $35 minimum order or you can have it delivered as site to store for free. I also used Ebates.com to get 2% back on my purchase at Walmart.com.
School Smart Wedge Cap Pencil Tip Erasers, Box of 144, 2 Pack $7.98. That equals $0.06 each eraser
Expo Low Odor Dry Erase Marker Starter Kit, Assorted Colors, 4-Pack $5.48
Crayola Classic Color Pack Crayons, 24 count $0.50 each
Overall, I think I did well shopping online. The only two products I found very difficult to get a “best buy” price online versus in the stores was the notebooks and folders. You can order them online with Walmart.com and Target.com and elect in store pick up to get items, like 70 page wide ruled notebooks for $0.50 instead of $0.65. I think the savings of less mommy stress when shopping without the kids was priceless. 🙂
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Disclosure: This is a sponsored back-to-school post (as a contributing columnist on Mami of Multiples), all opinions are my own.
