Pay it forward: School supply donation shopping with Gutzy Gear

c 2012 Money Saving Parent

It’s been reported by the American Retail Association that the average family spends $688.00/child on back to school supplies and clothing. I don’t know about your family budget but that amount seems a little excessive to me. So when I received the opportunity to see how much I could buy with just $25.00 I happily accepted it. Not only would this test my shopping skills but, my purchases are to be used to help other families, schools and teachers in my district.

So, I grabbed my coupons and my sales ads and began my search. After about 30 minutes circling the items I wanted from the Sunday newspaper it was shopping I must go!

Here is what I was able to do with a $25.00 donation from Gutzy Gear, a generous contribution by Anne’s Thirty One and some really great friends that decided that this sounded like a really important effort to help kids and families in our area.

Pencil Box*
19 pocket folders with brads (10*)
6 spiral bound notebooks (5*)
3 packages of filler college ruled paper (1*)
20 pens (10*)
9 highlighters (1*)
40 pencils (20*)
2 protractors (1*)
3 composition books*
4 packs of watercolor markers (2*)
2 packs of 24 count crayons (1*)
30 mechanical pencils (20*)
5 erasers*
pencil/pen bag
Thirty One backpack
iCarly backpack *
1 box colored pencils
2 dry erase markers
4 glues sticks*

* indicates purchased using $25.00 sponsored by Gutzy Gear

Where did I do my shopping? Office Max, Office Depot, Walgreens and Target are tops for back to school supplies in my experience. Funny enough I had written Target off but after getting into the store to use my gift card for a birthday gift I found that there were a number of really great prices on back to school supplies – none of which where in their Sunday ad!

Our donations went to benefit the Katy ISD Operation Backpack drive.