One Friday in December, I received a phone call from one of my son's teachers while I was at work. Now any parent who gets a phone call at work from a teacher is fearing the worst. I started thinking what kind of trouble I son could possibility have gotten into.
It turned out my son was not in trouble - Thank God. His teacher called to tell me that he was totally out of school supplies. I was floored. During the first week of school, my son took into the school 2 huge bags of school supplies that were so heavy, I had to help him carry them. And in less than 3 months, he had managed to either use up or misplace everything. When I questioned my son as to how he could possibly have gone through all that stuff in less than 90 days, he just had that "deer in the headlights" look on his face.
So over that weekend in December, I ended up having to re-buy all the school supplies. Of course in August, everything was on sale for great prices. In December, there were no sales so I had to buy everything full price.
After that experience, I started to wonder how many other students in schools across the country did not have any supplies left? How many other parents were forced to buy supplies after all the sales were over? And how many parents simply could not afford the cost?
Champions for Kids All You Magazine Campaign
So when I was given the opportunity by Collective Bias and All You Magazine to be part of a simple service project involving kids, I knew that I wanted to donate school supplies to a public school so that other students would be able to continue their school work without any interruption due to lack of basic supplies.
Champions for Kids is an organization that encourages people to give to children via simple service projects in their community. They have partnered with All You Magazine to highlight the power of the coupon since coupons can be used to stretch our budgets and increase our power of giving.
All You Magazine is a couponer's gold mine and it is the bible of many extreme couponers. The March issue has lots of great coupons for cosmetics and personal care items, vitamins and food products, and lots of household items, Unfortunately, the March issue of All You Magazine did not have any coupons for school supplies. But since I was doing my shopping at Walmart, I knew that their everyday prices for the items I was looking for would be way less than other stores.
I was able to buy 150 sheets of wide rule paper for only 82 cents each. Large size Elmer's school glue was 74 cents each and I was able to find high quality folders for 54 cents each. Dixon 24 count pencils were $1.12 and one subject wide rule bond notebooks were $1.94 each. I love these notebooks far better than spiral bond notebooks since when kids tear out the sheets were are no paper bits all over the floor. I also picked up some 12 count Paper Mate pens for 75 cents each.
I bought everything that I needed, including the March All for You Magazine for $25 before taxes. So that my son understands the importance of giving back, I plan to have him take the items to school and explain why they are being donated.
Everyone can be a Champion for Kids. On March 15th at 9pm EST, All for You Magazine is sponsoring a Champions for Kids Twitter Party where they will discuss couponing for good and everyone that RSVP's will be entered to win some great prizes which include Walmart Gift Cards. So make sure that you RSVP so you won't miss out on any of the fun- or any of the prizes.
To find out more about Champions for Kids, visit the Champions for Kids website and you can also find out more by visiting them on Facebook and Twitter.
Enjoy!
Disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias #CBias. All opinions are my own. Click here to view all the photos from my shop on Google+.
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