This post is urgent for those with kids still in school! Shortly your kids will be cleaning out their locker or cubbie. You would be shocked at how many school supplies have not been touched! Most schools put out bins to donate leftover school supplies to the district’s summer school program in addition to big garbage cans right in the hallway.
Here is what we reclaimed (so far!) from my middle school student’s locker:
The graphing notebook had three pages used. I know that was expensive. The unopened Post-It’s are like GOLD… those things are crazy expensive! The markers are missing fuchsia. When your kids are little you fear sending then to school with a 10 pack of markers if the teacher asked for 12, but by middle school you are more of a skeptic. My experience is that most of these supplies are never touched!
Now, if you have an upper elementary/middle school student, a bribe may be necessary to get these supplies back. In my case, it was a pick up at school and a trip to Starbucks. Trust me, I am well ahead of the $ 4.55 spent on a Frappucino!
I always keep a school supply bin available. In this one you see yet more filler paper and a 10 piece math set which I got for .25 in October. If you want to be a black-belt school supply saver, keep a list of the supplies for the grade your child will enter the following year and be on the lookout for any odd or expensive items.
I would love to hear about you school supply adventures!
The Healthful Saver 
Thanks for sharing! My kid is only a year and a half so mostly it’s just the toys that are littered all over the place. We’re not into school supplies yet, thank goodness. But it’ll all come in due time 😛
Yeah, we have the toys plus school stuff everywhere! At least we returned the clarinet that has resided in the front entry way for the last 2 years!
I have no idea how they do it around here–if there will be extra, or not. I just know that the only one who attends school (Patsy) has already had me buy extra of most things. She loses and uses so much stuff, I’m not holding my breath that there will be anything usable left over from her stash. That being said, they have such great sales on the basics around here during the summer, that it’s not expensive to replace things. We can usually get notebooks for 19 cents, colored pencils for 99c, glue sticks for a dime, paper for a quarter, etc. I had so many left from 2 years ago, that I bought virtually nothing this past year. When we moved, I donated 2 big boxes to the school!!! I had to pare down, I had bought too much. This year, I do need to stock up on some things, but still have a big box full. But, if there was a free bin……..that would be even better.
For homeschool, last week, we did have to buy some top loading sheet protectors, and dividers to put in a notebook for each girl for their end-of-the-year Biology project. We also had to replace printer ink. But, mostly, we just use notebooks, composition books, and computer paper. I can also keep track of things better and only hand out what’s needed at the time. They do a lot on their computers. So that helps keep it down.