Gathering school supplies can be a pretty time consuming process and younger mothers tend to have trouble knowing what they need to get and what they don’t. We have a good solution for that though as we’re going to list the bare essentials when it comes to school supplies and let you know where to find them. Best of all, none of these school supplies are expensive and you can probably get everything that you need for around $20 or less. Ready to get started? If so, scroll down and take a look at the beneficial list of supplies below!

Notebooks

The first must have (but cheap) school supply on our list is notebooks. Not only are they super cheap (under $1 each if you know where to look) but they are a must have for any student. Stores like Big Lots, Kmart, Walmart, and Fred’s Super Dollar Store tend to have some very good prices on quality notebooks. This is especially true around August or so.

Pencils

What student doesn’t need pencils? Most people prefer mechanical pencils nowadays but you can get some pretty amazing deals on wooden pencils if you shop around. You’ll need a sharpener though as pre-sharpened pencils tend to be more expensive. We recommend getting an electric pencil sharpener right off the bat as it’ll pay for itself time and time again. We especially like those that you can simply mount on the corner of your desk.

Book Bags

The third thing on our list is something that you’ll need if you have any intentions of carrying your school supplies. Unless you have good coordination and are really tight on money, we recommend buying a book bag somewhere like eBay where you can get new stuff at used prices. You’ll also probably be able to find brand name book bags for a very good price. The only way to find out though is to head on over to eBay and take a look!

Miscellaneous

Finally, the threw in a category for misc. items that a lot of people forget about. You know, stuff like erases, rulers, markers, and even calculators. All of this stuff can be found at just about any retail store on the planet but you can get some really good bargains on items like those that we just mentioned if you shop at dollar stores. Stores like Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Family Dollar usually have very good prices on items that last.

So with all of this being said, you should have no trouble finding cheap school supplies every single year. Shop at some of the stores that we’ve mentioned throughout this post and use coupons whenever you can. If you do this, you’ll definitely save money as long as you check out the quality of the school supplies. If you have to replace them every few weeks then you really aren’t saving any money. Don’t worry though. Every store that we’ve mentioned has quality materials so you have absolutely nothing to worry about.