You know what I love....

I try and get our school supplies early...

...and when I say early, I mean BEFORE tax-free weekend. Why? Why would a mother with four school aged children miss out on no taxes? 

I'll tell you why. Tax-free weekend is exactly like Black Friday except it is concetrated completely on about 5 aisles. Yeah. Imagine trying to get everything on the list for 4 children... Yeah, I just don't do that. I can pay the extra $9.

That is why I go early.

But do you know what I love?

Nope, not the price tag, although that is a close second. This year it came to $378. (This number does NOT include clothing.) And the extra bonus to this is that they have promised to have additional items requested on the first day of school. Oh, yeah, and never mind that my junior high schooler is sure to have lab fees, band fees, etc fees. That's exciting, but not the best.

What I really love is when I go to the superstore early so that I can beat the crowds and be sure to get everything on my list the first time and discover they don't have everything. Love that. Colored pencils. They didn't have colored pencils.

Correction. I approached the worker and asked, "Are you guys out of colored pencils?"

"No. We have some. Right here." She lead me a few steps down the aisle to the box with 72 pencils in it.

Really? Did she really think that was what I was asking for?

Okay, so I guess it was my fault for not specifying that this would be for my elementary school aged children, not my aspiring artist husband. (I don't have one of those, by the way.)

Needless to say, I wasn't going to buy  of the $7 pencils....sigh.

Now I just have to remember to go to the store and get colored pencils. I'm thinking it may just be Walgreen's.

What do you love about back to school shopping?

Wee! Wee! A shopping spree!!!!

I can think of a lot of things that I could do with $250.

I could buy a whole bunch of new socks and hide them from my sock stealing, elastic destroying, hole making, stinky footed 11 year old.

I could buy my 11 year old a bunch of socks.

I could pay someone to come clean my house every 2 weeks for 2 months. (That is tempting...)

I could buy myself some new clothes... in a smaller size because I am going to lose this baby weight. Shhhh...I know my baby has been out for two and a half years. Don't go there...I'm warning you.

I could start my Christmas shopping. (Bwahahaha...good one.)

I could take Hubs for an overnight extravaganza...without the kids. (If it was with the kids it would be far from extravaganza...)

So many things that I could do with $250.

I decided, however, to take my money and buy something really exciting.

You know, like buying  84, #2 pencils, 36 glue sticks, 16 dry erase markers (fat, skinny, and fine tipped), 3 pairs of Fiskar scissors, 12 multi-colored folders with prongs, 6 folders un-pronged, 3 rulers, too many spiral notebooks, a few packs of wide ruled paper, 2 calculators, a couple ringed binders, 5 packages of stickers, 7 boxes of Kleenex, 8 paper towels, 4 reams of paper, 6 boxes of Crayola crayons, paint, play dough, Ziploc bags, hand sanitizer, Lysol wipes. The list goes on.

Do you remember when you would bring your own box of supplies to school with you? And you could put your name on your crayons and folders, and glue, etc. Oh, and your folders could be fun and decorative. Sigh....

So that is what I did with my $250. And though it is hard to part with, it's money well spent.

Though, an extravaganza would be fun too....