7 Dangerous Back to School Shopping Spending Traps

On the surface everything may look calm, but step carefully. Opportunities for overspending and bad decisions lurk everywhere. Get the spending smarts to keep yourself from falling into the money pits. Before you buy, educate yourself about these 7 Dangerous Back to School Shopping Spending Traps.

1. Brand Name Tunnel Vision-Have you convinced yourself that only brand name items will do? Lots of generic and house brand products are just as good as the prestigious brands at a fraction of the cost.

For example, with the rate at which kids grow, buying off brand clothing can save you serious cash.

2. Coupon Smupon-Who has time to go in search of back to school coupons anyway? In the case of back to school shopping, taking the time is so worth it to your spending bottom line. Make it easy on yourself and take a look at these 26 Plus Sources for Awesome Back to School Coupons. Some serious savings opportunities get thrown around this time of year.

3. Dress Code Denial-Are you familiar with the dress code at your child’s school? Better yet are you familiar with the code at your “I know it all” teenager’s high school? Forearmed is forewarned. Don’t fall for the old “Mom, Daisy Duke shorts are just fine at my school”. And besides “If you don’t buy me a pair, I will be the only girl in the 9th grade without them”.

The quicksand of “I am sure it is fine” is real people and it will suck you in if you don’t watch where you step.

4. No List, Still Charge Ahead-Can’t find the school supply list that was sent home earlier in the summer? Probably buried under some pool floats somewhere. So head on out to the store anyway and go off what you remember from your kid’s list from last year. NOT SO FAST.

You have just upped the chances that you will overbuy or buy something way off base to 100%.  Go by the school and pick up a new copy or, better yet, ask a friend to text you a photo of the list before you head out.

5. Sales Suck Ins-Just because it is on sale, does not mean it is a deal. When it comes to back to school season, you will see sales advertised everywhere. In order to determine what are deals and not, you need to know what is a good unit price.

Hop on over to Passion for Savings to get Heather’s super well-done Back to School Supply list and database of current school supply deals. She lays out in an easy to follow format what are school supply buy prices and what are not.

6. Supply Stampede-School supply shop on Saturday afternoon during the height of tax free weekend is a bad idea unless you love feeling like a sardine and enjoy the occasional errant elbow to the face. Being crammed in the narrow aisles with all of humanity grabbing for supplies is setting the stage for disaster. You are liable to purchase the first things that you see, price comparison be darned,  just to escape from riving sea of humans that threaten to trample you at any moment.

Shop in off hours when you can both think and breathe. You are guaranteed to make smarter decisions.

7. Follow Up Failure-Buying that laptop because of the great rebate offer and then never sending in the paperwork to get your money back is an all to real possibility if you do not jump right on it. Do not let your school supply deal become no deal at all. Send that sucker in today!

Now that you know 7 of the most common Back to School Spending Traps to avoid, you are well-prepared to enter the shopping jungle. Forge ahead on this annual expedition better prepared than ever.

For more Savings Tips:

30 Cheap, Fun Thing To Do This Fall 

30 Kind, Inexpensive Things to Do For Others