Budget Cuts Follow-Up: Buying Ahead

 

As I mentioned in my recent article on Budget Cuts, I’m trying to find more ways to cut back on some categories of my budget.  I want to be able to shift those savings in budget categories for snowflake payments on my debts.  As I’ve mentioned, one of the categories I want to cut down on is gifts.  I’ve found that you have to buy out-of-season.  One of my recent deals is a great example of that!

As a new teacher last year, I signed up for Scholastic’s “New Teacher Survival Guide” e-mail.   When I received my most recent e-mail, it had a coupon code for 25% off.  I was so excited!  I failed to notice the fine print…it was only on Scholastic’s new teacher collections.  Some coupon!  So I didn’t get to use the coupon.  

But I went to Scholastic’s teacher store website, and they have their $1 sale up and running on several books.   I spent $14.23, but I’m happy to say that I bought eight books for my little sister for upcoming holidays, a book for myself on crocheting for kids (Hey, if it can teach a kid to crochet, surely I can learn!),  a book to use in an upcoming unit on the First World War, and a Japanese flag accent ($1.99) to use in units in both of my world history classes. 

Here’s how the books break down for my little sister:

• Two books for her Easter basket
• A book about Little Critter and his dad for her to give to my dad for Father’s Day
• A Clifford book about Halloween for her treat bag
• Three books for her Christmas stocking

Overall, looking at the breakdown, I spent about 15% of my classroom budget for the month, 36% of my gifts budget for the month (I counted shipping in with this category), and about 4% of my miscellaneous budget for the month.