Whether you’re sending your elementary or high school aged child off for day one of a brand new year, or sending your college age child out into the world, the costs of school supplies can be staggering. Every year they seem to increase! Even retailers that tout themselves as the cheapest out there, like Walmart, can end up taking lots of your cash at the register by the time you tick all the items off your list.

So how can this be avoided? Well, the first thing to do is make a budget and stick to it. But the second thing to do is find shops that can help you stretch that budget a long, long way, like closeout stores. H&J Closeouts is one such shop. Closeout stores are a great way to get super steep discounts on items you use all the time!

Because many closeout stores require you to buy in bulk in order to get their great discount prices, you may want to consider forming a group of parents, such as the parents of all your child’s friends, who will go in on the order. In essence, you’d be the distributor of these superbly inexpensive school supplies to other parents who’ve committed to reimbursing you for them.

With many closeout stores, supplies are only available until they’re gone (frequently there is no reordering), so be sure to jump on a good deal when you see it!

For example:

- A blank (no brand or logo markings) plastic retractable F-2 medium point blue gel ink pen costs only $.40 each. Here’s how it works: you buy a box of 25 and receive the deep discount that works out to $.40 per pen. You couldn’t buy a box of 25 quality gel ink pens in major retailers for anywhere near this closeout price! Even if you only have 12 parents involved in your group order, that’s about 2 pens per child.

- A retractable Sharpie green highlighter with chisel tip for as low as $.40 each. Minimum order amount is 72, so if you get together 18 parents that’s 4 highlighters per child, which should be enough to last the year.

- A clip-on book light can help your child prevent eye strain when reading homework in dimly-lit rooms. For just $1.00 a piece you can get great flexi LED booklights for your children with a low minimum order of 30 pieces. Get 30 parents involved and it’s an even split!

As a bonus, this kind of bulk buying arrangement can help you get to know the parents of your child’s friends. It’s accomplishing a task and enjoying socializing all at once!