This week is all about getting the College Boy ready to go back to school.
I bet you can see the big grin on my face after saying that, even through the computer screen, can't you?
This means having to shell out more cash, beyond the tuition and room and board I just paid the school.
Not so much grinning about this though.....
So if I can find an angle to work something for free or cheap, I am on it!
If you remember I transferred a few of my prescriptions to KMart's pharmacy from Rite-Aid when Kmart was offering $60 in gift cards to do so back in the Spring.. I also joined this Kmart Refill Club thingy.
Saturday I had an rx refilled at Kmart and since it was my 5th refill I got $10 in points back onto my Shop Your Way loyalty card. I already had $2 in points on the card from a couple of months ago.
College Boy needed some PowerAde/Gatorade drinks to take back to school for Marching Band Camp and Kmart had Power Ades for .69¢ each so I loaded him up for some of those plus a pack of Ramen cups and 2 microwaveable Tomato Soup bowls.....
$0 spent on the College Boy stuff.
Then I hit Dollar Tree for a few more things for CB to take back to school......
Safety pins, 2 packs of dish sponge/scrubbies/, kitchen towel and 7 food items to help get him through Marching Band Camp.
$11.24 more OOP.
When CB got home in May we tucked all his college goods he wasn't going to be using over the Summer into a box in the garage so we knew where all that stuff was when the time came to dig it out.
Much saner plan that letting it all get swallowed up into the cesspool called his "room" in May and having to excavate for it in August.
Housewares, towels, linens and the toilet brush are now accounted for and in the living room.
On Sunday while out for a produce run to Maine Source Hubs stopped at Staples and we bought computer paper.....
While we are not quite out of printer paper we are down to our last box of 5 reams.
The last time I had to buy printer paper was in April of 2009. Back then Staples had an awesome rebate deal on discontinued package design printer paper. No limit on it either so I ended up buying 35 reams of paper and even with all my printing of coupons it has lasted 6 Years! We may run out of this stash early next Spring so it would have lasted 7 years at that point. lolz
My Staples printer paper stash bought in March/April 2009.
Staples had a paper deal on Sunday and Monday only. Pay $4.99 plus tax, get back $4.98 in the form of a gift card/prepaid debit card. Limit of 4 reams. With the tax after rebate each ream came out to .31¢. I've packed 2 reams with CB and I'll tuck away the other 2 for his use later.
I printed out the master College List last week. The list we used last Summer to pack him off to college the first time.
On his day off last week we honed the list, deleting items he no longer needs to bring this year.
Then every time was pondered and if we had said item in the house/garage it got checked off.
When said item gets brought into the staging area(the living room), it gets crossed off as well.
This way we can see what is still needed and made(the hopefully short)"got to buy" list.
Monday we hit the store for the last time to get what was left from our list--batteries, printer ink refills, a backpack/computer case, etc. $193.18 OOP plus the backpack Hubs picked up and the stapler I need to return as we found an extra one at home.
I also picked up a rotisserie chicken while at Sam's Club to serve for dinner last night. 8-)
We also hit the music store while out and about to pick up a conduction baton for College Boy. He is taking conducting 101 this year. Thankfully this item only cost $5. By far the cheapest musical item we have EVER bought! lolz
I took a prescription up to Weis as well on Monday and planned to get a $20 Weis gift card for filling it, then use that gift card to pick up some groceries for this week.....but they didn't have enough pills to fill it on Monday. So I bought only the necessities on Monday and I'll go back Wednesday for the drugs and gift card and I'll buy the rest of the groceries.
I did buy sour cream and a box of Jif cornbread mix as I needed those to make dinner. BONUS-the Jif mix is the 100% rebate item on Saving Star so I'll get that .67¢ back. 8-)
Hopefully by the time I need my next rx refill, Rite-Aid will be offering Plenti points to transfer to their pharmacy and I can move my KMart and Weis rxs to them and get some point freebies.
After Monday's spending bacchanalia we are now down to needing 1 item.....sunblock for Band Camp which I'll pick up Wednesday when I am out at Weis or, if they want too much for it there, I'll give CB the money to go to Walmart and buy it himself.
Heck! What's another $10 on sunblock when I've already spent $11,716.66 on him this August(this isn't counting all the stuff I've picked up before now(notebooks, toiletries, tp, laundry detergent, food, snacks, drinks, etc.)
sigh......
Everything except College Boy's clothing, bed linens, tv, computer, his French press, toiletries he's currently using, cases of water and the "still need to buy" sunblock.
Stick a fork in me, I am done with this Back-to-School stuff!!
All that is required is to load this all into the vehicle and head west(and north)and drop it all off at school along with College Boy.
2 more seasons of having to slog through this ritual and I am done FOREVER!
There will be adult beverages and much rejoicing at that point. ;-)
Are you working the deals and angles you can find getting your kid(s) ready to head back to campus?
Sluggy
I bet you can see the big grin on my face after saying that, even through the computer screen, can't you?
This means having to shell out more cash, beyond the tuition and room and board I just paid the school.
Not so much grinning about this though.....
So if I can find an angle to work something for free or cheap, I am on it!
If you remember I transferred a few of my prescriptions to KMart's pharmacy from Rite-Aid when Kmart was offering $60 in gift cards to do so back in the Spring.. I also joined this Kmart Refill Club thingy.
Saturday I had an rx refilled at Kmart and since it was my 5th refill I got $10 in points back onto my Shop Your Way loyalty card. I already had $2 in points on the card from a couple of months ago.
College Boy needed some PowerAde/Gatorade drinks to take back to school for Marching Band Camp and Kmart had Power Ades for .69¢ each so I loaded him up for some of those plus a pack of Ramen cups and 2 microwaveable Tomato Soup bowls.....
$0 spent on the College Boy stuff.
Then I hit Dollar Tree for a few more things for CB to take back to school......
Safety pins, 2 packs of dish sponge/scrubbies/, kitchen towel and 7 food items to help get him through Marching Band Camp.
$11.24 more OOP.
When CB got home in May we tucked all his college goods he wasn't going to be using over the Summer into a box in the garage so we knew where all that stuff was when the time came to dig it out.
Much saner plan that letting it all get swallowed up into the cesspool called his "room" in May and having to excavate for it in August.
Housewares, towels, linens and the toilet brush are now accounted for and in the living room.
On Sunday while out for a produce run to Maine Source Hubs stopped at Staples and we bought computer paper.....
While we are not quite out of printer paper we are down to our last box of 5 reams.
The last time I had to buy printer paper was in April of 2009. Back then Staples had an awesome rebate deal on discontinued package design printer paper. No limit on it either so I ended up buying 35 reams of paper and even with all my printing of coupons it has lasted 6 Years! We may run out of this stash early next Spring so it would have lasted 7 years at that point. lolz
Staples had a paper deal on Sunday and Monday only. Pay $4.99 plus tax, get back $4.98 in the form of a gift card/prepaid debit card. Limit of 4 reams. With the tax after rebate each ream came out to .31¢. I've packed 2 reams with CB and I'll tuck away the other 2 for his use later.
I printed out the master College List last week. The list we used last Summer to pack him off to college the first time.
On his day off last week we honed the list, deleting items he no longer needs to bring this year.
Then every time was pondered and if we had said item in the house/garage it got checked off.
When said item gets brought into the staging area(the living room), it gets crossed off as well.
This way we can see what is still needed and made(the hopefully short)"got to buy" list.
Monday we hit the store for the last time to get what was left from our list--batteries, printer ink refills, a backpack/computer case, etc. $193.18 OOP plus the backpack Hubs picked up and the stapler I need to return as we found an extra one at home.
I also picked up a rotisserie chicken while at Sam's Club to serve for dinner last night. 8-)
We also hit the music store while out and about to pick up a conduction baton for College Boy. He is taking conducting 101 this year. Thankfully this item only cost $5. By far the cheapest musical item we have EVER bought! lolz
I took a prescription up to Weis as well on Monday and planned to get a $20 Weis gift card for filling it, then use that gift card to pick up some groceries for this week.....but they didn't have enough pills to fill it on Monday. So I bought only the necessities on Monday and I'll go back Wednesday for the drugs and gift card and I'll buy the rest of the groceries.
I did buy sour cream and a box of Jif cornbread mix as I needed those to make dinner. BONUS-the Jif mix is the 100% rebate item on Saving Star so I'll get that .67¢ back. 8-)
Hopefully by the time I need my next rx refill, Rite-Aid will be offering Plenti points to transfer to their pharmacy and I can move my KMart and Weis rxs to them and get some point freebies.
After Monday's spending bacchanalia we are now down to needing 1 item.....sunblock for Band Camp which I'll pick up Wednesday when I am out at Weis or, if they want too much for it there, I'll give CB the money to go to Walmart and buy it himself.
Heck! What's another $10 on sunblock when I've already spent $11,716.66 on him this August(this isn't counting all the stuff I've picked up before now(notebooks, toiletries, tp, laundry detergent, food, snacks, drinks, etc.)
sigh......
Everything except College Boy's clothing, bed linens, tv, computer, his French press, toiletries he's currently using, cases of water and the "still need to buy" sunblock.
Stick a fork in me, I am done with this Back-to-School stuff!!
All that is required is to load this all into the vehicle and head west(and north)and drop it all off at school along with College Boy.
2 more seasons of having to slog through this ritual and I am done FOREVER!
There will be adult beverages and much rejoicing at that point. ;-)
Are you working the deals and angles you can find getting your kid(s) ready to head back to campus?
Sluggy
Looks like you did really well! No college kids here, but 2 soon to be bits seniors. No bts shopping, although I did just score 8 pairs of pants for free of of my town FB tag sale site. I purged the desks last month, sold stuff we will never use for $15. Buyer was happy, I am happy. We stil have God essentials, once the twins go back, there may be a few requests bug I know it will be limited. I don,t refurbish Fall wardrobes until Oct, when the sales hit, but still suspect that little is needed, esp. So we purged their clothes this Spring. my bts shopping consists of new bras, they are on sale this week. exciting!
ReplyDeleteI don't replace/rebuy clothing each BTS season, never did unless it was needed clothes/shoes.....same with backpacks. The only clothing purchased was 1 pair of jeans and a hoodie at Sam's club and a pair of running shoes for marching band camp. I already had a pack of new sox bought on clearance and tucked away and I have 2 packs of underwear also bought on clearance in the wings when his drawers give out later this year/early next year.
DeleteHey only a frugalista would get excited about getting a deal on bras....lol
I'm just trying to get her out of the house!!! Things from last year are piled everywhere. Robb helped her buy her books used online and she's gathering all of them that came over the summer. She's sharing them with her bf who is taking most of those classes 2nd semester.
ReplyDeleteI sure wish this school posted textbooks early enough for me to grab some deals on those other than being limited to any used books in the campus bookstore.
DeleteGood for you!
Goodness you sure stay busy. I wish Kmart was still in business in my town but sadly it closed. Does he have your gift of saving money?
ReplyDeleteNo, the CB doesn't handle money well and he hasn't inherited any of my frugal genes. It took him half the Summer to figure out that, TGee, all my paychecks are being spent on crap and I'll have nothing saved to spend at school this year". He's recovered and says he's going back with double the money he had saved last year for his 1st yr. of school. Perhaps there is hope for him yet! ;-)
DeleteI was just thinking that I only have 2 more times to sort his crap and then I'm done!!!! We think alike. God help the hubs.
ReplyDeleteI have piles and piles of junk in Anna's room and as we speak, I'm washing the stuff to repack.
I'm so tired of spending money. It's like Brewster's Millions.
I am doing the back to school getting kids ready happy dance because I don't have to do it this year. Son3 moved from the dorm to an apartment and opted to stay in the city and work this summer. He has been getting his necessary items for school on his dime and time. (Win!)
ReplyDeleteHe is headed this way in 2 weeks for a family wedding/long weekend and plans to shop from The Store of Mom, but is limited to space and weight in one suitcase. On his list of must haves are Luzianne tea and decent grits (yes the boy retains his southern roots) but they take little space and weigh almost nothing.
As an aside, last year he called me with the $$$ request for texts. I hopped on Amazon and found them for much less, had them shipped to his dorm and no OOP shipping (thanks Prime). A few of his books were delivered straight to his tablet and most of them were very low price (2 were even free)
Will this ever end, for you and I? The money the time, the moving, the looking, the scrimping? I mean really will it ever end? Received 2 calls from daughter about school money just this morning.
ReplyDeleteFirst year of college. I bought extra socks, pants, and t-shirts because mine will be doing his own laundry. It really adds up with printer, ink, paper, and all that crap for a dorm room. We ordered four books on Amazon per his professor (even givings links). He is my baby, happy to see him go but dread the thought of next Wednesday. Cheryl
ReplyDeleteUgh, my "bonus baby" means that after getting two through college and post secondary, we have one more in four years! It will be 8 years before we are breaking out the champagne. Lots of wine before then though.
ReplyDeleteI'm washing everything as we speak. I did get to argue with DJ last night because I asked him to help me sort his stuff and do an inventory. After that Den had to make a run to the liquor store for me.
ReplyDeleteI think I am going to have a drink to celebrate NOT having any kids going back to school.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but cases of water for College Boy cracked me up. When I was in college I drank faucet water. Heck, I STILL drink faucet water. LOL!