Skip the shopping around for back to school supplies this year

Say goodbye to the shopping part of going back to school this year with some cheaper ways to buy your kid’s classroom supplies this year.

Tricia Conroy is a mom of twin 8-year-olds and a 2-year-old as well as a teacher so she knows a few ways to get creative when it comes to putting together school supplies for her kids and students.

Conroy has a specific plan when it comes  to saving time and money on shopping. She recommends two specific websites, Educational Products Incorporated and Target because both sell already made packs for your child’s specific school grade and even their gender.

Conroy recommends using EPI because it is the brand teachers like and it gives back 10% of what they make back to the school.

It is slightly more expensive than Target after Conroy used a local school list compare prices and found that the pack was $95.39 at EPI and $75.80 at Target. Wal-Mart did not have a pack for sale and after totaling the individual price of each recommended supply, the total was over $100.

For school uniforms Conroy says thrift stores are usually cheaper for shorts and pants. Puddle Jumpers in Fort Myers posted their uniform prices online at $4.25 per uniform piece.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Store in Naples has Collier uniforms that round about $5.00 each.

If you do use EPI, Conroy suggests ordering now because it takes 4 days to process plus shipping, or you can wait til Friday when a sales tax holiday will help you save 6.5%.