So, when I go and buy supplies that I will need, I don't want to spend a ton of money. I know that this deals with office supplies, but it could be the same thing if you're buying school supplies. I mean I don't want to spend $15 on Pens that I'm probably going to end up losing. That just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. So, where is a good place that you can buy cheap supplies? And by supplies I mean pens, pencils and stuff like that.
Honestly, I would just go to my local dollar store (if you live in the USA). They have a lot of back to school supplies out right now because it is July. Online, you can try Amazon. I was also recently browsing through YesStyle.com and they have a lot of cute pens and notebooks but that might be more on the expensive side of things.
That is actually a smart thing to do. I hadn't thought about that before, I'm sure that there would be a lot of good deals there. Most of the time I just think about going to Staples, but I'm sure that would be more money. And I'm also sure that Amazon has some good deals, especially if you are going to buy in bulk. I would be able to save some money that way.
I find if you stock up when they are having their back to school specials you can get all kinds of awesome deals. At Walmart I just got a pack of 10 pens for .10 and printer paper was 500 sheets for $2 and loose leaf was .10 for 200 sheets. There were all kinds of other great deals too. This time of year is the best time to get deals of supplies.
Dollar stores, Walmart and Office Depot are the places I get my office and school supplies from. At Office Depot you can buy a lose pen, a package with 4, 6 or 10, or a whole box with 100 pieces, so depending on the packing you can save loads of money. In my case, I need loads of pens because I hand write a lot.
I was going to suggest a dollar store too - I'm in the UK and they sound pretty similar to pound shops, which sell all manner of things for only £1. They always have big bags of pens and other stationary. Howevr, I'm sure you'll find some great bargains in the stores once the kids have gone back to school and they want to shift the rest of their stock in time for Christmas.
I would back missbishi all the way. When I'm in the UK, I look for stationary mainly in pound shops like Pound Stretcher. There's also very good one called Home Bargains that's slightly more expensive than pound shops, but still cheaper than regular supermarkets. I'm always surprised and impressed by what good stuff you can unearth from these stores that we tend to overlook.
Dollar Tree is the best for pens and notebooks and I stock up when they have deliveries of my favorites. CVS amd Walgreens also do back to school offers and coupons and I've found some good packs of pens there. My college also had student discount, (and I still have my card) for their own shops, so depending on your school, they could have some good bundles and deals.
I like buying office supplies at Staples, especially with Back to School sales you can get a great deal. I'm also a teacher so on certain days I can get 15% off on top of the sale price of pens, pencils, paper etc. Since I have two boys and I purchase these items for my class I can save quite a bit shopping there. Walmart also price matches so if you find a great price at Staples you can bring in the flyer and they'll match the price too.
I stock up on home office supplies during back-to-school sales. Local grocery stores often sell packages of pens and pencils for abut .50 cents each, notebooks for about .20 each, and folders for about .10 each. I have found that chain drugstores such as Walgreens and Rite Aid have similar back-to-school sales. During the rest of the year, I second @MMercury's idea with the dollar stores, such as Dollar Tree. They usually have an entire row dedicated to office and school supplies.
Wow, $15 for a pen? Fortunately for me, I live in a country where office supplies are relatively cheap. A single pen would only cost you less than a dollar. The more expensive ones are not even more than $2. Don't buy supplies at big bookstores. Just a local one would do or you could directly buy from manufacturers.
I usually get my office supplies and furniture from local thrift stores and surplus shops because these are items I don't care much about in terms of appearances. I wouldn't mind someone noticing I'm using a cheap pen, for example, so I just buy the cheapest ones I can so I can save and spend on items that actually need quality like clothes. Also I try and take advantage if sales seasons and clearance sales whenever I come across them by chance.
When I need to buy lots of supplies like for Christmas season when I need wrapping paper for the gifts, I always go to the place called Divisoria. The discounts there are great. The only problem is the distance (quite far from our place) and the crowd. That place is always crowded because of the bargains every day. Just think if I needed plastic containers for a home business, I always get it on a big discount. Cool.
I'll buy a lot of my supplies on eBay with free shipping. Sometimes the deals there are better than what is offered in retail stores. If I can't find it on eBay, I shop at Walmart.
One good way to get very cheap supplies is when they have back to school sales. CVS, Walmart, Walgreens, Office Depot and even BestBuy for tech stuff has back to school supplies on sale at the time when children are reentering school every year they have the sale. I go to the sales and get my supplies for they are so cheap. Things on the back to school sales are the cheapest so far. We have Fishcher here on the island and when they have the farmer's market produce on sale at Ft. Street Mall here on Oahu they have a side-walk sale as well and you can get supplies that they have marked down when you get your produce. Watch for sales that CVS and Walgreens or Walmart has and you'll get cheap supplies. When no sales and you need something Walmart has the cheapest so far that I've noticed for supplies.
I will buy a lot of my supplies on Dollar store and flapsenvelopes store. They always have envelopes and other stationary.
I make sure of the supplies are purchased through some sort of cashback and the discount deal. This way I end up saving more money. And another thing is that it can add up in terms of the earnings. Another thing is that cheap supplies often come on seasonal basis. So you should be understanding of those things and learn from the amount that you spend.