by Leigh Goessl

Created on: November 03, 2010   Last Updated: February 27, 2011

As summer vacation comes to a close, the minds of many parents often go to thinking about needing to do the sometimes dreaded, but yet required, back-to-school supply shopping. While shopping for school supplies can be time consuming, for many parents the bigger concern are the expenses associated with stocking up.

Fortunately there are many relatively reasonably priced ways to purchase necessary school supplies. By using a bit of strategic planning, parents can easily cut back and find good deals during their back-to-school shopping sprees. Here are a few of the best inexpensive places to buy school supplies:

• Discount and grocery stores

Many of the best places to buy back-to-school supplies are the stores you shop in regularly for other household goods. Typically during mid-summer, various stores such as Target, Wal-Mart and K-mart begin massive school supply sales. During this time of the summer shoppers can often find many school essentials which cost only pennies on the dollar.

Grocery stores are another potential way to save some cash when shopping. While supplies may be limited in nature and not everything gotten in one store, often the basic supplies such as notebooks, loose leaf paper, pencils, pens and crayons can be picked up relatively inexpensive in price.

• Drug stores

Another perhaps unexpected place to find priced-to-sell school supply deals are drug stores. It is not uncommon for many drugstore chains, such as Walgreens and CVS, to offer some pretty good sales on student supplies.

• Office supply stores

Office supply stores are another source of finding potential good deals. While many of these stores charge exorbitant prices on some supplies, during the back-to-school season sales designed to lure consumers in can yield good savings. Check out stores such as Office Max, Staples and other like retail stores.

• Thrift stores

As the old saying goes, one man's trash is another man's treasure. Such is the case for school supplies. At the end of the previous year many people donate their used goods to thrift stores. Often these supplies are in good shape and very reusable. Calculators, backpacks, laptop cases, binders and other similar supplies can offer terrific savings in the thrift store.

• Dollar stores

One back-to-school favorite for many parents is the good old dollar store, and indeed these often also offer great prices for many indispensable supplies needed for school.

A word of caution though, sometimes prices at various dollar stores are designed to sound great, however higher quality and better priced items can often be found at the aforementioned back-to-school sales. That being said, many of the supplies which tend to be higher priced in general can often be a great deal at the dollar store.

• Shop your closet

Rather than toss last year's leftover supplies your child brought home at the end of the session, box these supplies and save them for subsequent years. Items such as markers, crayons, erasers, highlighters, pencils, binders, and more can be used if they are in decent shape.

Also during the terrific sales it is a good idea to stock up on exceptionally good priced items. It is not uncommon for teachers to request replenishment supplies throughout the year and this way you do not have to pay the higher prices during the school year since you have a well-stocked supply box. If they don't get used, they can always be used as a jump start for the following school year.

Back-to-school shopping is a necessary expense for parents with school-aged children, however buying these essentials does not have to break the bank or budget. There are many great ways to save on these annual supplies.

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