10 tips for back-to-school shopping savings

By Jennifer Waters, MarketWatch

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — The back-to-school shopping season is in session and parents have been reining in spending as they grapple with the sluggish economy and weak jobs outlook.

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No free iPod for students

Apple and Microsoft unveil their usual back-to-school sales for tech gadgets, perhaps a little differently than in prior years. Ian Sherr of Dow Jones Newswires talks about deals including laptops and tablets. Andrea Coombes reports.

Spending for the back-to-school season — the second most-important shopping period of the year — looks to be slightly down compared with last year, according to the National Retail Federation.

Parents told pollsters in an NRF/BIGresearch survey that they expect to dole out an average of $603.63 on clothing, supplies and electronics, nudging below the $606.40 average a year ago.

Total spending on children in kindergarten to 12th grade is on track to reach $22.8 billion. Add in the big bucks college kids students spend, and that total skyrockets to $68.8 billion.

But there are ways to curb your spending on the needs first and still be able to sneak in a few wants with these tips:

1. Shop at home first. It’s easy to forget in August that you’ve packed away extra school supplies last spring. Take a full inventory of what you have and what still fits the kids before you put a foot in the mall.

2. Make a list and a budget and keep it with you at all times. You never know when you might stumble onto a sale on your way to the dentist or the grocery store.

3. Shop around town for what you need. Many stores will offer what the retail industry calls “loss leaders,” such as notebooks and pens for pennies on the dollar, as a way to lure you into the store in hopes that you’ll buy the bigger items there, too. Watch for flyers and advertisements from big-box stores like Walmart, Target, Staples and Office Depot for their specials, or try SalesLocator.com, a site that aggregates ongoing sales in your area.

4. Sign up for e-mail alerts from your favorite discounters and be ready to jump when you get one. Many will offer one-day specials. Keep an eye on Twitter and Facebook for those offers, also.

5. Speaking of Facebook, if you don’t have an account open one just for the deals. A recent study by Deloitte, the consulting firm, found that 35% of parents plan to use social-networking sites for help with back-to-school shopping. Look for products you most buy or your favorite retailers and “like” them. They will then start sending direct posts of sales, promotions, coupons and exclusive offers your way.

6. There are still some states with tax-free holidays ahead this month and next. Other states, like Minnesota, have tax-free holidays everyday on food and clothing.

7. Buy in bulk. This is a good time of the year to stock up on supplies you’ll need all year and many items come with deep discounts when they’re bought in bulk. Don’t want to have the stuff sitting around the house for the entire school term? Find a neighbor, friend or family member who will split the spoils.

8. Wait till after Labor Day — or even later — to find deeper discounts, especially on apparel, as retailers look to unload unsold inventory, cutting 50% to 75% off full price.

9. Go to coupons sites like Coupons.com, Savings.com, CouponCabin.com or MyCoupons.com to download savings certificates that match your needs. Remember that most retailers also will offer coupons on their own sites. CouponMountain.com collects and groups a number of online coupons by category.

10. Consider alternative means of collecting the goods you need. Look at second-hand shops and garage sales, which often sell never-worn clothes and items, even with the tags still on. Create a clothes swap with your neighbors and your kids’ friends’ parents to hand down or trade used books, clothes and uniforms, or unused packages of loose-leaf paper, pencils and pens. Sites like Swap.com offer a greater marketplace for books, music, movies and games, but also drill down into local areas that could include your city.

Jennifer Waters is a MarketWatch reporter, based in Chicago.

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Teenage Girls And Social Media: Tips For Parents From A Best-Selling Author

Nearly 10 years ago, author Rachel Simmons wrote a best-selling book called Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls. Now she has updated her book to include the role of social media and technology.

Read An Excerpt: Teens And Technology In The Home

These days, with frantic Facebook stalking, girls sending thousands of text messages a month and sometimes sleeping with their cell phones under their pillows, bullies have new ways to reach into girls’ worlds.

“You can’t really talk about girls anymore without talking about the role of social media in their lives,” Simmons tells All Things Considered co-host Michele Norris. “For many girls, technology is not just what connects them, but it’s part of their relationships. So many girls will say, ‘I don’t exist if I’m not on Facebook.’ It’s a huge part of how they navigate their lives.”

 

Simmons, who also helps run the Girls Leadership Institute summer camp, says that girls don’t have a lot of communications skills when they’re teenagers, so they lean on social media to navigate their conflicts.

“If I’m upset with you and we’re both in eighth grade and I don’t have the tools to tell you that, I’m going to get on my cell phone. And because I’m not looking you in the eye, I’m going to say terrible things to you,” she says. “And if I go on Facebook and I say nasty things on your public page, other girls start to see it — and if they want to get involved, they can add what they feel. And the target begins then to feel that not only does everyone hate me, but I can see that. Everyone can see it. And I can’t go home, I can’t hide.”

Here are some tips that Simmons offers to parents of teenage girls (you can read these in fuller detail on the excerpt):

• Be a good example and don’t spend all of your own time on your cell phone or social media. Also, it’s important to start saying, “No.”
• Don’t let your child sleep with her cell phone. “Give her a stuffed animal,” Simmons says.
• Have a cell-phone parking area, where all cell phones go at meal time, homework time and at the end of the day.
• And tell girls not to share their passwords with their best friends. “You can tell your daughter, ‘If worst comes to worst, blame it on me. Tell your friend I made you change your password and keep it private,’” Simmons says.

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