Value For Money Back-To-School Shopping

Are you done shopping for your children's back-to-school needs? Honestly, I'm not yet done, but I already started. After almost experiencing a heart attack when I enrolled my son, we went to SM Manila to do some shopping using the SM Accessories gift vouchers I received in the mail and of course our budgeted back-to-school shopping money.

In my recent post about SM Accessories Kids Cool School Savers, I mentioned that they've got discounted merchandise which will give any moms big savings! I've bought the big ticketed items for him such as his school bag, lunch kit, uniforms, shoes and other accessories. I haven't ticked any item yet on his books and school supplies list. :)

I just want to share the great deal I got from my recent shopping at SM. When they said, "We've got it all for you" they really weren't joking.

School Bag
Since my now Grade 4 student son is no longer fond of character-designed bags, he spotted this plain trolley bag sitting at one corner.  When I picked it up, I was so surprised that it was on 50% discounted sale!  From P1,700.00 it was down to P800.00 +!  Imagine that huge drop in price?  If I were to buy him the character-branded bags of this size, it would have been a slash of P3,000 on my budget!  The material of the bag is very durable and made of quality.  You could tell with the stitches and the canvass used.  I'm so glad we noticed this bag!

Back-To-School Special: Notebook Covering 101

Hello JUNE!  We finally meet again.  How time flies, it's already half of 2013 which also means that it's Back-To-School time once again.  Some schools had started their classes today, June 3.  My school boy will start theirs next week which is the reason why I'm still 85% to completion for our preparations.

I've done some back-to-school shopping mid-May covering major purchases such as school uniforms, school bag, lunch kit, shoes and some accessories.  This time, what I am busy with is covering his notebooks and books and buying the remaining small items for his grooming kit to say I'm 100% done with back-to-school preps for him.

Speaking of writing notebooks, I'm a bit particular with the quality of my dear school boy's notebooks.  Their school sells their own but it was sold-out when I was supposed to buy for him.  Plus, I find it a bit expensive for P45.00 each!  So off to National Book Store we went and my practical shopping powers boosted once more.

I've had experience in some types of notebooks in the past.  Because kids will always be magnetized to
super heroes or other cartoon characters, notebooks with them on cover sell like hotcake.  I was a victim of what you call in marketing "pester power" when kids have convincing power or influence over mommy which item to buy.  I bought poor quality notebooks last year.  The paper used was very thin and the red and blue lines were not clear.  Here's a sample of his old low-quality notebook:

Notice how the print on the next page could be seen on the current page? It's that thin.  The paper wasn't that white too. 

Below is an image of the notebook that I chose for him.  I'm satisfied with the quality of the paper and the printed red and blue lines.  Each leaf of the notebook is thicker than most of the writing notebooks sold.  The paper is clear white as well.  This is the closest, maybe even better, to the school-logo-printed notebooks sold at my son's school.  Winner pa is that it's almost half the price!

Below is the image of the writing notebook sold at my son's school.  Quality wise, it's better than most notebooks sold at the popular bookstore we grew up with.

But when I placed them side by side, the writing notebook I bought at the bookstore for almost half the price his school notebooks is at the left, while the notebook sold at his school is at the right, the former's paper was whiter than the latter! 

With this, it's confirmed, my purchases were of quality and more practical choice.  The character notebooks were the same price as this one but with poor quality.  The only CHALLENGE was, it only comes in one color: PINK! 

I don't think my son would appreciate it being seen in school with pink notebooks.  The solution is, cover the notebooks with boy-looking wrappers.  Gift wrappers cost between P3.00 - P7.00 in bookstores.  In one wrapper you could cover 2-3 notebooks.  Let me show you a step by step on how to easily cover notebooks, should it be your first time to do so.  I've been covering notebooks and books since I was a student myself.  It's a therapeutic activity for me.