How to Get Free School Supplies

'Back to school' time of the year is full of anticipation, thrill and excitement for the kids. Shopping for new school uniforms, backpacks and an assortment of school supplies begins a week or two before the school reopens. Unfortunately, parents who live on a shoestring budget find it difficult to arrange for all the items on the long school supplies list. More so, if they have more than one kid to take care of. However, if you research a little before actually buying anything, you'll be amazed to find the number of avenues through which you can get free school supplies for children. Given below are some sources where you can find school supplies for free!

How to Get Free School Supplies

Family Resource Centers
Family Resource Centers are independent school agencies which run several programs to make available free or cheap school supplies for financially challenged families. Most private and public schools have counselors who can guide you on places where you can find free school supplies (2010). They also complete the application procedure for you. These programs are discreet, hence nobody ever knows where your child got her school supplies from.

New Businesses
New businesses in your locality will always give away free school supply samples as a part of their marketing strategy. These promotional activities begin a week or two before the schools reopen. You might be required to keep a close eye on flyers that arrive in mail or with newspapers. Also, thoroughly check newspaper classifieds to see if any new school or office supply business is about to start in your neighborhood.

Church Organizations
Many charity organizations affiliated to the churches offer free school supplies to middle school or high school students. The church urges its community members to offer donations in form of money or school supplies, which can be distributed to kids from needy families. The notification for this may be put on the noticeboard of your church or circulated through community gatherings. Mostly, a day, week or two before the school reopening, will be assigned to give away the free school supplies.

Salvation Army
United Way or Salvation Army runs a program named Run Start, which aims at supplying free school supplies to children who cannot afford them. However, one must meet certain financial guidelines laid down by Salvation Army, to become eligible for the program.

Rebate Schemes
Many school and office supply stores offer tax free school supplies through their rebate schemes, which allow you to buy school supplies at dirt cheap prices. When you buy something from these stores, you get a reward worth the purchase you made. With this reward money you can buy another item and get a reward on that item as well. Thus, you can buy as many school supplies without spending much from your own pocket.

Clearance Sales
Although you won't get school supplies for free at these sales, you can certainly avail huge discounts (up to 75%) on all school supplies. However, the problem is that these sales start a week or two after the school reopens. Nonetheless, you can buy the goods now and use them the next year.

Coupons
Shop online to get discount coupons that will help you to get some of the best deals on school supplies. Besides, you can find several attractive schemes that offer free school supply to kids. However, you might want to execute a fair amount of caution while dealing online.

One of the most useful tips for getting cheap or free school supplies is shopping for these items when they are least in demand. Buy these items in wholesale and use them over the next couple of years. Avoid buying items with character prints, as the trends for these change every year. You don't want to buy something that becomes obsolete by the time it is ready to use.