Achievable Back to School Tips and Tricks
Back to School Tips and Tricks
If your summer is anything like ours, (late nights, slow mornings, unscheduled days), then the thought of school starting again is probably exciting, but might stress you out a bit. Going from no schedule to a structured day can be tough at the beginning.
Because I find the adjustment tough myself, I have come up with a Back to School Action Plan that I hope you will find useful as well! The plan covers three areas: shopping, meals and organization. By tackling these three things I know our mornings are going to run smoother and we’re going to save quite a bit of money!
Let’s get started with the back to school tips and tricks, shall we?
Back to School Shopping Tips:
Since the first year my oldest started going to school, we have implemented a tradition of going on a date together to get her school items. We both really look forward to spending some quality time together and I think the one on one dates we do is an investment into our future relationship. That being said, we don’t start our date day without a plan.
It can be so easy to walk into a store and buy whatever is on sale or super cute. But lets avoid that this year because quite frankly, it will be overwhelming to know how much money you actually spent on clothing that wasn’t actually needed and now has to be laundered. Ugh.
So, this is what we do here:
Inventory Clothes: This may sound overwhelming, but it literally took us less than 10 minutes. I simply pulled out every single item of clothing (including socks and underwear!) and asked her to say Yes or No to each item. If she said No, that item either got donated or put into the bin for her younger sister one day.
With everything that was a Yes, I took a mental inventory of what she needed. I discovered that all she needs is a pair of indoor shoes and a sweater. That’s it! I also purchase one (on sale) outfit for her first day of school and a “special” accessory.
School Supplies: This is the first year that we have to purchase school supplies since previously everything was included in the school fees for kindergarten and grade 1. Cost is more of a concern for me so, my thoughts for this is to shop the dollar store, home and maybe even Staples when they have a good sale going.
If time is more of a concern for you, try doing all your school supply shopping online at Walmart, Staples or even Amazon. Pick it up in store when your order is ready or have it shipped to your door!
Back to School Meal Planning Tips:
Meals can be a big stress inducer for me so that’s why this year I have a plan for school day breakfasts, lunches and dinners. I even made some printables for you to use!
Breakfast: My kids never know what they want to eat each morning so this year I will decide for them by creating a menu. Every day of the week will be the same thing all year long. For example, Mondays I will serve muffins and fruit. Tuesdays will be pancakes or waffles. Wednesdays will be toast and fruit. And so on.
Lunch: This year, my girls and I are going to sit down to brainstorm all the items that they would like eating in their school lunch. I’m going to divide it up into categories:
- Main dishes
- Veggies
- Fruit
- Snacks/Treats
Dinner: If I don’t have a dinner plan, dinner will either be take out or grilled cheese and tomato soup! đ And neither of those are healthy or good for the budget on a regular basis.
Back to School Organization
Morning Routines: Rushed, hectic mornings are not my favourite. Admittedly, they happen way more often then I would like.
However, both of my kids still find having a morning routine written down really helpful. To help them along, I’ve made up a list of these steps I need them to follow:
- Get Up
- Get Dressed
- Eat Breakfast
- Pack lunch (I like to do this while they are eating, but they can put it in their backpacks.)
- Brush teeth & hair
- Backpack & Shoes on
- Out the door
Set out outfits for the week: One thing I found super helpful last year was putting aside 7 outfits for each day of the week. This made getting dressed every morning so easy. My oldest tends to shut down when she has to decide so this has helped her tons.
Labels: With all the money that is spent on school items, it’s not a good feeling when something goes missing! Make it easier to find important and favourite items with labels. We love the labels from Mabel’s Labels so that’s where I ordered ours from.
