Back to school budget

So I finally did it this year. I gave my daughter a back-to-school budget. I gave her $300 to spend on jeans, shoes and tops. She is doing well. She has bought most of her jeans & even found a pair for $10! I was impressed. She has spent half of her budget & wants to hold onto the rest until she gets to school so she can see what everyone else is wearing.

I am proud of her. This management of money has been enlightening for her. I am trying to take her to the reasonable shops first like TJMaxx. She found a lot there. She had her arms loaded with clothes including the $10 jeans. We added up the amount together. When she realized how much money she spent then she had to make some tough choices. But she did it.

I have to admit too that we have been using coupons. This has helped immensely. Her favorite store Delia's is great for this. Last year we did the purchase punch card so we had $20 off from finishing the punch card. (She has been holding on to this punch card since May knowing it will help with her back-to-school budget) They also have a buy one pair of jeans get one 1/2 off sale right now. Plus if you try on the jeans then you get a $10 coupon for anything in the store. It is one of the best deals around. Did I mention I love Delia's!

We went to Old Navy next & had a 20% off bag. (If you are a card holder, they mail you a bag & you fill it, whatever is in the bag gets 20% off the total bill) Plus lots of items in the store were 40% off. My daughter found some shorts on clearance for $12 plus all of discounts. More importantly, they were long enough to wear to school!!! Please someone help me understand why most stores are making short shorts that nobody can wear to school?! My son also found some great stuff at Old Navy. On top of that, I found two pairs of khakis for my husband on clearance for $16 apiece plus our 20% off. My bill totaled $140 & I bought 2 pairs of jeans, 3 hoodies, 2 shorts, 2 khakis, 2 sweatpants and more. Gotta love it!

My daughter also took her last year's clothes which no longer fit to Plato's Closet. This is a teen-age resale shop. She sold the clothes to them for $55. She has been holding on to this money. This is her "extra" back-to-school money. Every time she picks up an extra item, I remind her that she has the money to spend. You can see her calculating in her mind if the money is worth spending on this item or not. So far she has found nothing to spend it on. I know that will change when she gets to school and spots a must-have item on somebody else. I am excited for her though to see what this special item will be.

My daughter is basically done with her shopping. My son is fine as usual. The only thing we have to find for him is "product" a.k.a hairspray for his 10 year old head of hair. (That is a whole other blog) We just need to find tennis shoes. I was flabbergasted when I went into Finish Line & saw children's tennis shoes for $70!!!!!! Thankfully my son did not like any shoes there. Normally for shoes we start at Value City and work our way up. That reminds me I have to look for their ad about buy one pair get one 1/2 off too.

So back-to-school in our house is now called back-to-budget. We are going to Marshall's next week for more jean purchases. Hopefully we will find another deal. I am so happy we are working within a budget & she understands what that means. September & August can be an expensive months for us with so many back to school purchases and expenses. This budget for her has helped her see where the money goes and it is a little bit of pre-education as well. She gets an A in budgeting.