20 “Prepper” Items to Buy NOW to Save Big Money

Guess what time it is?  No, I don’t mean what time it is on the clock.  If you haven’t picked your head up out of your desk in a while so that you can be assaulted by fliers from Office Max – Office Depot – Staples – and others, It’s almost back-to-school time.  We homeschool, and I have four children homeschooling this year.  I graduated one, but I’m starting a new one.  He, however, is my last.  I guess it’s all downhill from here!  But with back to school time, it provides us with a great opportunity to save money.

School is so stinking hectic for me and expensive!  I have to buy books, supplies and plan everyone’s school.  I do it on a year-by-year basis.  Then, after I get done planning (an immersive two-week project), I get to make sure everyone stays on task, answer questions, teach lessons that kids didn’t get in video lessons, and keep kids from devolving into discussions of the latest Ultimate Frisbee techniques.  I get to keep the older three on target……all while working on a blog, cooking, keeping kids from going at each other, continuing my preparedness, and working on church stuff.

So, one way that I take one thing off my plate, I go shopping for the entire school year in less than one month.  The other upside of this is that I save a truckload of money by doing it.

You know how it is.  For those of you who send your children to school, you get these nifty checklists at the beginning of the year.  You know the drill, 1 box of jumbo crayons, 1 package of pencils, 1 ruler, and a partridge in a pear tree.

I hear you now though,

“What does SCHOOL have to do with PREPAREDNESS?!?”  It gives us the opportunity to SAVE MONEY!

Uhuh…. stay with me a sec, and I’ll explain.

(1) Saving money, where we can, allows us to either get out of debt, to put more money into savings, or to purchase preparedness items.

(2) What would you do if something happened, and there wasn’t a school to go to?  I don’t mean a snow day, I mean what if there was an event of some sort.  The kind that most likely won’t happen, but it’s not without the realm of possibility.  What if YOU had to teach your children?

I promise it’s not ONLY for us crazy people.  Plenty of sane people do it too.  And before you say, “I could NEVER teach my children.”  Yea, you could.  You may want to knock some heads together for a while (though please don’t), but you could.

In order to teach your children at home, you’re going to need STUFF….like pencils, paper, comp books, folders, highlighters, books.  Ya know, STUFF.  The best (and by FAR the cheapest way to get this stuff) is to buy it in quantity during back to school sales!  So, what things will be on sale over the next month?  The upside is even if you NEVER have to homeschool your kids, you’ll have all these items on hand for when your kid comes to you at 7:45 in the morning on November 10th and says, “Mom, I forgot, I need to bring three folders into school today.”  You can then high-five yourself and pull them out of your storage area.  Remember, buy enough for a year (and then a few more for good measure).  If you have a lot left over, you won’t have to buy as many next year.

1.)  Pencils

My suggestion is to buy Dixon/Ticonderoga.  Yes, they more expensive, but they are SO WORTH IT.  My kids only get one to two sharpens out of everything else – if that.  And it’s not just my kids’ fault.  I’ve used those pencils too, and they DON’T sharpen well at all.

2.)  Crayons

I still prefer Crayola, but you can oftentimes get them for just $.25 – $.50! Talk about saving money.  They usually cost $1.50 – $2.00 per 24 pack.  You just need to watch for the sales.  And again, don’t just pick up one or two.  Pick up, like, ten per kid who colors.  Stock up on them so you never have to buy them at full price.

3.)  Colored Pencils

Once your kids graduate beyond crayons, they move to colored pencils.  I can’t buy enough of these each school year to last my kids through!  They seem to eat them for breakfast.  Fiber, right?  This year, I’m doubling what I bought last year, so I don’t run out.

4.)  Glue Sticks

If my kids eat colored pencils for breakfast, they eat glue sticks for lunch.  I guess it just helps them feel more full?  In all seriousness though.  My kids still do crafts.  They still have school projects which require glue.  Fortunately, you can get glue sticks as cheap as $.25 / stick!

5.) Folders

We use folders in our house for a lot of things, from school to organizing stuff for church or other things.

6.) Composition Books

We just picked 30 of these up last week for $.50 each.  These are great for journaling, drawing, writing essays, or taking notes (yes, homeschoolers do that too).

7.)  Erasers

I love to buy pencils end erasers.  Since I have four kids, I like to color-code them for my kids so I know whose is whose.  I also buy these gargantuan ones that measure 2″x5″.  They are much harder to lose!

8.) Pencil Sharpeners

I’ve found small ones for $.50 during this time of the year.  Having manual pencil sharpeners are very important.  No way the kids can use no electricity as an excuse not to do school.

9.) Notebook paper

Whether its paper airplanes, chapter review questions, or writing letters old-school style, you need it.

10.)  Notebooks

You need a notebook to put my workbook in.  ‘Nough said.

11.) Pens

Everyone has to write.  Do you have a favorite color of pen?  I love writing with purple pens.

12.) Highlighters

I should own a highlighter factory.  My husband goes through them like candy, but he doesn’t eat candy.  Ha!

13.) Rulers

Need a straight edge for geometry?  Have to teach kids how to measure items.  Need to know what size to cut a piece of paper?  These go for $.25 each at this time of year.

14.) Clicker Pencils

I would rather use a clicker pencil than a regular pencil.  I don’t have to get up and sharpen them.  Yea, I’m lazy that way.

15.)  Clicker Pencil Lead

Got clicker pencils?  Buying replacement lead is cheaper than buying more pencils.

16.) Printer Paper

Whether school or business or personal use, you gotta have it.  I mean how many reams does your family go through in a year?  Ours go through 1-2 cases of paper a year!

17.)  Elmer’s Glue

Sometimes you need the runny kind of glue instead of a glue stick.  This is the best time of the year to pick it up on sale.

18.) Scissors

In Elementary school, we love to use History Pockets, which requires a lot of cutting and pasting to make crafts that coordinate with the period of history that they are studying.  Scissors are a big part of those projects.

19.) Pencil boxes / Pouches

If there’s any hope of keeping pencils, highlighters, scissors, markers, etc.  You’ll need these.

20.) 3×5 cards

How do I use these?  Let me count the ways!  Study questions.  Note-taking for old school research papers.  It’s not just my kids that use these.  They do, but I use them too.

Other helpful items to watch out for

Stapler/staples

Whiteout

Post-it notes

Envelopes

What about you?

Do you homeschool your kids, or do you send your kids to school?  Do you stock up on a whole year’s worth of school supplies?  Honestly, if you don’t homeschool, if you ever had to, what would scare you the most about homeschooling? I’d really love to hear.  Leave a comment below or hit reply to the e-mail you get with this article.

Together let’s Love, Learn, Practice, and Overcome

There are links in this post.  Some of the links may be affiliate links.  Some of the links may not be.  My promise to you is that I will only recommend the most economical version of the best quality of items to serve you. These are the items that I have bought for my own family.  You can feel free to use my affiliate links, of which I will get a small amount in compensation, or you can choose to search out your products on your own.

This post was originally published on July 16, 2018.  It has been updated for this republication.