subject: The Tao Of Back To School Shopping [print this page] For a parent, late August typically means one thing: back to school. Oh yes, we wish it meant sitting by the pool, getting a massage while drinking a drink with an umbrella in it, but no, for millions of parents it means getting their children ready to go back to school, typically kicking and screaming. This means buying new kids clothes for your brood, something that, depending on where you shop, can also mean a near catastrophic hit to your pocket book. Stores seem to have two schools of thought on the prices of these clothes: high prices or high volume. While you would like to stick to small mom and pop stores, it only makes financial sense to go to those giant chain stores to save some money.
Being a parent means giving up on a lot of deep seeded beliefs to save money. While you might have marched against capitalism and consumerist ways in college, today you just find the cheapest price and go with it. Regardless, back to school times becomes kind of a game in the way as you try and find the cheapest prices possible to make sure your kids get everything they need without sending your family to the poor house. This is done by visiting different locations to get good prices on specific pieces of clothing until you have full wardrobes.
Unfortunately, it seems like the cheapest shirt and the cheapest pair of pants is never at the same location. This means a lot of driving around town. While some people without kids might say that youre going a little too far to save a few dollars, unless you have kids you dont get that those $3 can be spent on dozens of pens or pounds of paper. If you are going to do this buy and dash concept of buying back to school clothing, it is important not go into it blind. Go to Mapquest or Google Maps and come up with a plan of attack that will make sure that you dont drive any further then you have to. You dont want to give that money youre saving on clothes back on gas.
One more thing to consider when getting back to school clothes: make sure they are good quality. It does no good buying a cheap pair of pants if they are going to simply fall apart after a month. Buy good quality and make sure that your kids like what youre getting them.
