School Supplies

Can I just tell you HOW MUCH I LOVE SCHOOL SUPPLIES? One of my favorite movies, "You've Got Mail" talks about the smell of pencils....Meg Ryan's character is talking about how she loves New York in the fall and the smell of freshly sharpened pencils. I can smell them now!

Since I was little, I loved buying school supplies. When I was in elementary school, the office had a "store". You could buy pencils, eraser toppers, folders, etc. I LOVED having a quarter to go buy a new Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake or Smurfs folder.

I am an organizational freak, so I love having a planner and post-it notes, highlighter pens and notebooks. Everything was always color coordinated and labeled. In high school, I even had those locker shelves in my locker so I could put all my books on one shelf, notebooks and folders on another.

For the few years in between my Master's program and Blake going to Pre-school, I would walk through the school supply section at Walmart and soak it all up. I mean, who doesn't love new pens? My favorite right now are the felt-tip pens by Paper-Mate and the Sharpie pens.

I have tried diligently to save money on school supplies by watching the ads and going to a variety of stores. For instance, I stocked up on highlighters (5 pack for $.19), #2 pencils (10 pack for $.09) and markers (buy a 20 pack for $3 get a $3 rebate) at Walgreens. I bought $.25 crayons (Crayola 24 pack)at Kmart and Kroger. Kmart has Crayola watercolors for $1 and other deals. I ALWAYS buy extra school supplies. I have learned that teachers tend to request new crayons, markers, watercolors, etc. after Christmas. The only problem is that after Christmas, the stores are not running insane deals on school supplies! I also like to have extra for the Operation Christmas Child drive at church or other last minute gifts.

I really do not think my boys were nearly as excited as I was to purchase their supplies. They only cared about the color of their pencil boxes. The teachers pretty much choose what type of folders, pencils, etc. that they get to use now, so there is not a whole lot of decision making to do. what happened to Trapper Keepers? I LOVED mine!

School starts in 6 days - I CANNOT BELIEVE IT! If you haven't purchased your school supplies - get out there now!