Back to School & the Budget (oh and maybe the mention of some Visa Gift Cards you may be eligible to win)

I love our supply closet.  We have boxes of pencils, notebook paper, folders, even water-color paint.  All items that were on sale.  Bought.  Ready for our use whenever we need them.  When the boys need new pencils mid-school year (because inevitably I get a note home … “Please send in new pencils/ dry erase markers/ paper … for your son”) I can send my son upstairs to get what he needs at ‘Back to School’ prices. 

But backpacks? Lunchboxes?  Trapper keepers?  It seems to me these things are a little on the high-end right now.  But watch for me at the beginning of September, a couple weeks after school has started.  I usually grab a couple of backpacks 50% to 75% off, or maybe a lunchbox, also discounted. (Although, lunch-boxes can last a couple of years for us).  So my boys don’t have brand new back packs the first day of school.  Quite honestly, they could care less!  It seems in the past they start to need a new one mid-year so what I find I put in the closet until their current backpack starts to get holes from being kicked, dragged, tossed, thrown, wrestled and whatever else boys do to their backpacks.  You won’t find them 50% off in February though!