As the end of summer looms before us, countless parents across the country are struggling to obtain back to school supplies for their kids. When classroom supply lists are long and bank accounts are coming up short, buying your child’s back to school needs can be a problematic.

To stay within your back to school budget, create a school supply shopping list and don’t deviate from it.

Don’t succumb to impulse purchases; no matter if you find a great bargain on the clearance rack or your teen swears she absolutely needs the more expensive jeans. Stick to your guns.

If you can, shop earlier in the summer to spread the purchases out. You may not know all the classroom requirements ahead of time, but you know your child needs pencils, paper, pens, a notebook, etc.

Take advantage of any tax-free weekends. These generally occur toward the end of summer around the beginning of August. While not all areas participate, you want to shop during this weekend if yours does. Tax adds up.

Look for back to school coupons in your weekly newspaper or on store websites. You can print them out directly or use mobile coupons to save money.

Shop for trendy clothing at discount stores instead of department stores. Trends are always more expensive when they’re hot, but discount retail chains usually have their own versions and nobody will know the difference but you.

Take advantage of your neighborhood thrift store. Some consignment shops only accept gently used, like-new clothing, so get more for less money. You can also find backpacks and other items at thrift shops.

Look for online deals and shop from home. You can avoid the traffic and crowds by taking advantage of online store sales. Most offer free shipping around back to school time and you could end up saving as much as 25% compared to shopping the brick and mortar store.

Keep those supplies simple. It may be cooler to carry a zip-up notebook with hidden pockets to school, but a standard three-ring notebook will be significantly cheaper. The same goes for generic-looking notebooks and pencils. Never pay more for a design or brand name if you can have something just as functional for half the price.

f you’re still pressed for cash, shop with a credit card. Keep the balance under your budget to avoid racking up the debt.

For those with less-than-perfect credit, consider applying for bad credit credit cards. Almost anyone can qualify and even bad credit credit cards make buying back to school supplies easier on your wallet.

If you have more than one child, take them shopping separately. It’s easier to keep track of purchases without a crowd and it gives you a better chance to spend some quality one-on-one time.

Don’t forget to reuse any leftover supplies from last year, or any second-hand supplies from an older brother or sister.

You can even ask friends and family for leftovers or make exchanges to help everyone save money.

If you need to buy new back to school clothes, hold off doing so until after school starts and the Labor Day weekend sales begin.

The prospect of the annual vacation isn’t always as restful as the break itself, with concerns about saving, budgeting and paying for the holiday that your family wants.

The trick, as with everything, is to plan in advance. In the same way that Christmas should be saved for during the preceding year, annual vacations should be planned for and budgeted.

Of course, there are times when an annual savings plan towards the family vacation just isn’t practicable, particularly for last minute holiday decisions.

In those cases, it’s wise to spend time researching the cheapest loans, credit cards or other cost effective borrowing options, to avoid paying punitive charges finance fees and remembering your break for all the wrong reasons!

Firstly, go onto a price comparison website to see what offers are available for zero percent credit cards. Often these offers have a special promotional rate for new spending or balance transfers.

For zero percent on new spending, purchase the holiday at this promotional rate using the card and be sure to pay it off within the zero percent window, or you may face high interest rates.

A low interest loan is a good option for spreading the cost of the holiday out over the annual period or less (any longer will begin to run over with next year’s vacation). Again, search online for the best interest rates and factor in all additional fees and costs.

Avoid payday loans for financing breaks unless you have weighed up other options, sought financial advice and are sure these are right for your circumstances.

PayDay loans are designed to bridge the gap for very short periods of time, usually between bills due and payday. They often only cover small advance amounts and the interest rates can be very high. This is because they aren’t designed to be long term loans.

If you’ve investigated credit cards and loans and there is nothing attractive enough on the market, consider other more creative options. Could your family lend you the money? Could you perhaps raise some extra cash by selling unwanted clothes, toys and other household items on ebay?

Could you work overtime or take on some freelancing to raise additional funds to pay for the holiday? Make sure your tax return is updated accordingly if you do!

Or how about even bypassing the traditional long haul holiday for a year and joining the thousands of Americans who are choosing to have staycations this year?

Rather than spend large amounts of money heading to exotic locations, enjoy time off with your family and make a holiday of it. Visit local tourist attractions, have days out, eat ice-creams, go on bike rides…

There are plenty of low cost holiday options which don’t require spending a fortune, or even worse, borrowing one. So shop around, spend wisely and make sure your holiday is one to remember.

Birthdays can be pricey at the best of times, If you’re throwing a child’s birthday party, you don’t want to break the bank, so first, check out the cost of any shopping using a price comparison site such as Moneysupermarket.

Deciding on which games are to be at the party is a good place to start. For younger children, games can be simple and cost very little. Action games such as musical statues and ‘what’s the time Mr Wolf?’ will cost nothing at all and will have the added benefit of tiring them out a little.

If you want to keep the children entertained when they first arrive, especially if you’re having a party at home or in a hall, set out a table or two with some coloring sheets. Sheets can be downloaded from the internet and printed out for nothing more than the ink and a few packs of crayons or coloured pencils can be bought cheaply.

If you intend to have prizes for the winners of games, depending on the children’s ages and how well they deal with competition, you could buy a few inexpensive medals. These can be bought from a party shop or online, or make your own by covering circles of card with tin foil and threading onto a piece of spare ribbon.

Pass the parcel is a fun game that needn’t cost the earth. Tiny prizes, such as stickers or sweets, can be hidden in each layer if you wish. Use leftover wrapping paper, newspapers or magazine for your wrapping paper.

Piñatas are popular at children’s parties. This Mexican party game features a hollow papier mache model that is hung from the ceiling and the children take turns to hit it with a stick.

When it is finally opened, sweets and toys fall out to be collected by everyone. Shop-bought ones can be pricey, but you could make your own in any shape you wish using papier mache.

Small, blindfolded children and sticks are not a very safe combination, so you could choose to have several little doors that are opened by pulling on a string or ribbon instead.

Face painting is another popular pastime at parties, but hiring a professional is a cost you can do without. You can buy your own set of facepaints very reasonably and do it yourself (or enlist the help of an artistic friend). Have a few practice runs beforehand and stick to a couple of easy designs (one for girls and one for boys perhaps).

Whatever their age, children enjoy a good dance, so wherever you hold the party, take along a portable sound system and a selection of songs. Nursery songs are good for very little ones and a selection of kids and pop songs for the older ones, depending on the children’s ages.

You could choose to have a prize for best boy or girl dancer, most energetic or even most elegant!

Party bags are a matter of choice and taste. Keep costs to a minimum by simply presenting each visitor with a piece of cake and a bag of sweets to take home.

If you feel you should do more, search around for bargain toys, hair bands and little cars. Make your own little bags from material scraps tied with ribbon.

Balloons are always popular and really cheap. If you can manage it, each child could have a balloon model to take home. Again, have a practice and stick to one or two designs.

In this week’s edition of Why I Love My Kids Wednesday, our children embarrassed us and ratted us out like champs.  I hope you’ll contribute some of your entertaining stories as well in the comments section.

5 Year Old Potty Mouth

So, we found this insanely strange looking beetle in our yard the other day.  Our two boys were enamored with the giant pincers and rapid movements in the little bug case they use for such activities.  At one point, a giant spike started to emerge from its backside.  I had no idea what it was, presumably a stinger of some sort.  Anyway, I don’t even recall saying this, but I must have described it to my wife over the phone in vulgar fashion and my son overheard me.

He was at speech lessons today and was describing this new beetle he found to the speech teacher.  She was listening along when he burst out, “And This Giant Spike Came Out It’s Ass!”.  My wife was mortified.  She just looked at the teacher not knowing whether to laugh or hang her head in shame.

Trash-Talking: Caught Red Handed

You can always count on your kids to rat you out when you’re trash-talkin’ someone else.  Our 5-Year Old got us good this week.  He’s enrolled in swim classes right now. My wife enthusiastically signed him up for swim so he could finally get out of swimming bubbles and kick boards and learn to swim on his own.  She was dismayed to find that each time she picks him up, all the kids are doing is rudimentary activities like climbing up and down a ladder in the pool or playing tag in the water and not actually learning to swim.  This went on for a few days.  At dinner one night, she was venting to me and said, “I didn’t pay all this money so he could play tag in the water”.

So, our 5-Year old comes back from swim this week and tells my wife that he relayed that line to the teacher verbatim, “My Mom Said she didn’t pay all this money for me to play tag in the water”.  In retort, the teacher said, “You tell your mommy that you don’t get to progress to the next stage until you finish this class and she can come talk to me if she likes”.

Wow, talk about ratted out!  Gotta love what your kids selectively share with people from household conversation.

Any good ones on your end?

So, we were visiting some friends yesterday and they have a 3 1/2 year old.  Our son, who just turned 5 has been getting punished for being naughty (for a few years now of course, but he’s changed tactics), has now resorted to telling his little brother to do naughty things, with the thinking that he’ll still get to celebrate the destruction he has wrought without the consequences.  In this case, he told our friends’ son to flush some toys down the toilet during our visit.  Nobody actually saw it, but someone that came in the bathroom after the deed was done said that the boys fessed up to their caper.

We’re obviously incredibly frustrated and embarrassed by this and they were very cool about it.  They called this morning to just try and ascertain what it was that our son told their son to flush since the toilet’s clogged.  Apparently, it was a hockey puck, a set of toy keys and something else now that the full story has come out.  We offered to pay the plumber’s bill, but they said no.  We intend on sending them some money once all is said and done anyway.

As punishment, we intend on counting out plenty of money out of our kid’s hoard in is piggy bank that he prides himself on.  It’s a day after the fact and we didn’t know what happened immediately, so the punishment’s a bit delayed, but he knows what he did was wrong.

Thoughts on how we’re handling this and have your kid’s put you in a similar situation before?

Wow, I'm like...SMARTER!

I love learning about simple solutions to complex issues.  Over and over, people approach issues in a costly and ineffective way while overlooking “old-fashioned”, do-it-yourself approaches that are surprisingly effective.  I was intrigued to read this article about how chewing gum can actually improve kids’ test score performance.  For all the knocks kids get for popping bubbles, sticking the gum under the desk or in a classmate’s hair, according to this study, there appears to be some tangible benefit to chewing in an academic setting.

According to the article,

“Those who chewed gum had a 3% increase in standardized math test scores and had final math grades that were significantly better than the other students. Teachers observed that those who chewed gum seemed to require fewer breaks, sustain attention longer and remain quieter.”

While the 3% may not seem statistically significant, and the observation piece may very well be attributed to the “placebo effect”, the fact that Baylor’s College of Medicine endorsed the practice as showing significant improvement over a control group is pretty impressive.  While no specific mechanim was cited, it is postulated that chewing induces increased bloodflow to the head, which in turn, translates into improved cognitive function.

A Much More Expensive Solution – That May Not be Worth it

Now, on the flip side of the coin, I read an article today at wsj.com showing that the hefty fees parents pay out for SAT Test Prep courses provide only a marginal benefit, if that.  And many of the outfits boasting about their services and results cannot back it up and had to alter their advertising statements when challenged.

One report put the average benefit at 30 points on a 1600 max point SAT exam (study conducted prior to increase to 2400 total points on the SAT).  I don’t know about you; my parents didn’t have thousands of dollars to shell out for the test prep stuff and I did OK.  I took the exam twice, got about the same score each time and got into the college I was after.

Perhaps the solution is to just replace $4000 course with chewing gum – it’s a lot cheaper and it actually seems to work!

It all started out so innocently.

Just one here, one there.

When our son Kevin was born, people would bring them to us and we would let him have them.

As time went on, he wanted more and more.  We didn’t have the heart to say no.  And it would be embarrassing to the people who were giving them to him if their precious cargo disappeared.

We’d go to a carnival and boom – another one.  We’d go to a birthday party and as a party favor, bam – again!  A relative would bring one here, an EMS worker (long story) would bring one there.  It started off cute, but is now overwhelming.

We allowed it to continue for some time and things are finally coming to a head.

They’re in his bed. They’re in our cars.  They’re in our couches. He brings them everywhere he goes.  And they are so numerous we can’t even keep track of them any more.

His insatiable appetite has become impossible to stop.

We’ve Lost All Control.

We are enrolling Kevin in Stuffed Animals Anonymous (SAA).

While he has a couple favorites, I kid you not, that of the 30 or more he has (I can’t count), he takes inventory every night and he knows when one is missing, when it’s damaged, etc.  He wakes up screaming at 3 AM if little seal isn’t with horsey and if hoo-hoo (his favorite owl) falls through the crack between his wall and the bed.

He’s 4 and he’s getting to be a big boy. And with a new girl in the house; we need a break.

SAA for Kevin!

What ridiculous rituals do your children employ that only a kid can get away with?