Recently my wife went shopping for the sprout’s school supplies. It’s getting to be that time of the year again, the birds are singing, the world is getting back into peace and harmony, and summer vacation is coming to an end! I can tell because the boys are getting more desperate to do ‘lots of stuff’ before the end of the summer.

Well, one of the things they got to do this weekend is go buy their school supplies. It’s kind of a double-edges sword event for them; On one hand, it’s fun to go get new notebooks, backpacks, pens, paper, rulers, staplers, clothes, protractors, and other implements of destruction, in preparation for the big day. But on the other hand, it’s a visible reminder that summer vacation is almost over!

Take a Vacation from Taxes

The reason most of the shopping was done this weekend is because our nearby town had a ‘Tax Vacation’. A Tax vacation is a period of time where school supplies can be purchased tax-free. There’s always a list from the various school districts, and most if not all those items are tax-free for a particular period of time before school starts (it depends on your area, and the times can run from a few days on up to a week).

The good thing is that it saves you some money on required purchases, and everybody knows we need lower prices and savings more than ever right now. The better thing is that some tax-free holidays also include some BIG ticket items.

If you’ve got a college-age student heading off to the great wilds of academia, you’re probably having to buy them a more substantial list of items, including a laptop computer, printer, various peripherals like disks, cables, and carrying cases, etc, etc. Watching the money fly away for these purchases is almost as bad as writing the tuition check. But these can count too!. The tax holiday in my area includes these items in their tax-free list of items. That can add up to HUNDREDS of dollars of savings when outfitting the fledgling college student. (Of course, you’ll probably see that money go BACK to them in the form of of spending money, but at least for now you get to save it).

Take a look in your area and see if you can find when your town or a nearby town is having their Tax Holiday and take advantage of it. Saving a little money always takes a bit of the sting out of a ‘required’ purchase. And for a bit of additional fun, take along the kids to do the shopping, and watch their faces as you (constantly) remind them that summer vacation is almost over.

Just their mixed look of fear and quiet desperation is enough to get me through most shopping trips.

Do you have suggestions on how to save money for school? Leave us a comment and let us know!