A few days ago I shared how shopping for back to school items was one of my favorite times growing up as a child. I grew up enjoying going to school. Getting ready to start a new year and be able see my friends again made for a really exciting time for me. At the time I know I couldn’t grasp exactly how much of a financial burden this was on my parents. In addition to having to buy supplies and school books, they also had to worry about paying tuition. Unlike here in the United States, the public school system in my home country is not as reliable. My family had to make a lot of sacrifices to be able to put us through private school on our family’s limited income.
My favorite memories always involve me going shopping with my mom. That was always a lot of fun and almost an adventure. To this day my mom doesn’t know how to drive, and besides we didn’t have a second car, so we always took the public bus. I loved going to bookstores to find the best deals on school supplies. Oh! how much would my mom have loved having sales circulars or blogs or any other resource to get the best deals. Back in those days, everyone had to do the research on their own and actually hunt for those deals in person, not virtually like we are able to do now.
Thanks to the internet all of this information and deals are readily available to us and we can make it work to our advantage. However, sending your kids to school is still expensive and it could take a chunk of cash from your budget. In case you didn’t read it, make sure to check out my tips on Back to School Shopping for Less. To further help you on your back to school shopping I am happy to be able to give away a $100 Visa Gift Card sponsored by Hallmark. That’s right! you can take this card to the store of your choice and use it to buy those back to school items still on your list.
What do you need to enter this giveaway?
1) Leave a comment on this post sharing YOUR favorite back to school memory. It may be from when you were going to school or a back to school memory involving your children.
For additional entries you can
- Share this on Twitter using the following line:
Share your favorite back to school memory and enter a chance to win a $100 Visa GC http://bit.ly/wgaLD (via @commnsensemoney) #hallmark
- Share this on Facebook:
Share your favorite back to school memory and enter a chance to win a $100 Visa GC from Common Sense with Money http://bit.ly/wgaLD
- If you have your own blog you can also share with your readers about this giveaway. Just make sure to link back and leave a comment with the link so I can verify this.
This way you can earn up to four entries. Just make sure to leave a separate comment if you decide to share this giveaway with others. If you are reading this entry via email updates or via RSS reader please click through this entry and visit my blog to enter. Emailing me is not a valid entry for this giveaway. This giveaway is open to residents of the United States only. Please enter only if you are 18 years or older. This giveaway ends 8/9 at 9PM CST. At that time I will select the winner using Random.org and will contact that person. If after 48 hours after contact I don’t hear from them I will select another winner at random. Good Luck!
| Lots of us are gearing up for school – an exciting, fun and sometimes, hectic time. Hallmark has put together this great resource to help you calm the butterflies and build your kids’ confidence. Just for joining the conversation you’ll be entered to win $500. Check it out. |
{ 6 trackbacks }
{ 695 comments }
← Previous Comments
put it on facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dallas-TX/Zero-Gravity-Thrill-Amusement-Park/75042465278#/home.php?filter=app_2309869772
I always liked getting the new clothes and school supplies.
I can’t remember that far back anymore, and my kids are too young for school still! But I do remember that my first day of law school, I was quite intimidated when this beautiful, tan, blond woman sat next to me for our first class of the year. The best thing is, she turned out to be super sweet, and became one of my best friends through school!
Thanks for the giveaway, Mercedes!
I also just tweeted the giveaway here.
Now that I homeschool my children, I love choosing the curriculum for the new school year.
I think that all children should be homeschooled that way the parents would be more responsible for their childs future
My favorite part was always the clothes shopping. Getting alot of new things made me feel so special.
There is so many great memories each year starting school for me, it’s hard to pick just one. But if I had to , my first one would be having my grandmother drive almost an hour to our house to pick my sister and me up to go school shopping (my parents just didnt have the means to pay for things like that). Now that she has passed those memories are most precious to me. Second would probably be trying to pick out which outfit I wanted to wear for my first day back to school. I can still remember the excitement of that very first day!
I just love back to school shopping and usually take my kids one at a time to pick out all their stuff. The hardest part is not buying all new stuff each year like backpacks and lunch bags.
I can’t remember ever being very happy about going back to school but this year was fun when my 8 year old got super excited to go buy supplies.
Shared on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1366864554&ref=profile#/profile.php?id=1366864554&ref=profile
I used to LOVE going back to school each year….I always got one pair of new shoes and 5 new dresses (this was waaaay back in the 60’s!)
I used to love shopping for back to school. I would lay out all my clothes the night before on my bed and decide what to wear on the first day. Great memories.
My best memory had to be shopping for clothes. There were five of
us being raised by a single mom and we all knew money was either short or non-existent. We knew mom helped out by cleaning houses
just to get all of our extras, and even though we may have only gotten two or three new outfits, they were new. Crisp fresh jeans and blouses or t-shirts for the boys we just felt good. After running around all summer in play clothes those new clothes meant so
much when we had so little. So I guess the best memory now looking
back was to know how much my mom did to get us everything we
needed, how much she really cared.
The feel of new shoes and the smell of new school supplies. Getting fitted for my new school uniform with my mom and sister. That butterfly of excitement the day before school starts again.
My favorite memory is shopping for the fabrics to make my school bookcovers. I always wanted fabrics specific to the subject of the text book, and enjoyed the challenge of finding them. My parents probably enjoyed it less…
My favorite memory was going to Walgreens with my mom in the middle of the night and we would fill our cart with things that were on sale for 39 cents with the in-ad coupons. Sometimes they were random things that we didn’t need, but we had so much fun finding them!
Every year we would go shopping for new school shoes and new uniforms.
I loved getting new clothes for school. My mom would take pictures of my brother and I on our front steps every year on the first day of school in our new school clothes. I also loved riding the bus with my best friend on the first day of kindergarten-i wouldn’t let my mom take me because I wanted to be independent and grown up!
I loved back to school time.. New clothes was usually the highlight and new crayons, markers, pencils, notebooks.. but my favorite memory for going back to school was the new yearly Lunch Box.. I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s to very thrifty parents.. So we packed out lunch in our little tin lunch boxes.. My favorite was my Brady Bunch lunchbox… and also I had a Lassie one that was a favorite.. Too bad I don’t have them now. Antiques!!!
Thanks for the fun!
itsjustmerene2003 at yahoo dot com
My favorite back to school memory was showing up to the first day of drama class in elementary school. That was the day we found out which play we would be putting on that year! I always hoped it wouldn’t be a musical, but I was excited to find out either way!
My Most favorite back to school memory was back in 2006. And I was having a hard time getting new clothes and school supplies for my daughter because of money problems.. She was kinda down in the dumps because she basically had nothing for school. She only had paper a pencil and an old three-ringed binder. And she had her old clothes. I felt so bad. As I was sitting on the couch one day thinking about what I could do to cheer her up. Thats when I got a knock on the door. To my surprise it was some teachers from my daughters school. They came in with two fairly large boxes filled with clothes and supplies! I called my daughter into the living room and you should have just seen her little face light up. It turns out that a close friend of mine contacted the school and asked if they could help out. I was so glad they did!
Thank-you for bringing back the great memory to me
My favorite memory is of my nephew. He was getting to finally go on the “big boy bus”. He was incredibly excited and at the very last minute, he ran back hugged us, and then ran back to get on the bus. It was the cutest thing ever.
Thanks so much!
My favorite memory was always getting new shoes. One year I wore penny-loafers all summer and actually grew through the toes of them. I got to get a new pair of tennis shoes for school, the only problem was I had grew so much I grew into the women’s sizes and all the women’s shoes were not very kid friendly looks-wise. Never-the-less, I was still excited about the bright white, generic (to save $$, of course) “Reeboks” I got to wear to school that fall.
Well this year I am hoping that by some miracle I will be able to start a back to school tradition with my daughter.I know that growing up my sister and I would get so excited about going shopping for new clothes, a new backpack and all the supplies that were on our list. Mom would take us and one thing I always will remember is being able to buy new shoes and having to wait to wear them so they would remain brand new for the first day of school. Well I dont know if that will be a possibility this year for my own daughter. She is 5 and this year she will be starting Kindergarten. She is so excited and feels so big but it breaks my heart when she sees all of her friends getting new clothes, shoes , backpacks and supplies then she asks me when will I take her to go shopping so she can get her things as well. I just dont know how to tell my 5 year old daughter that this year , her first year of school that mommy and daddy dont have any money. How do you explain to a 5 year old that daddy got laid off and because of the economy daddy cant find a new job and has had to go back to school full time so that next year we can do all the things that are needed. We have tried to get supplies but I went to 2 different school supply giveaways. The first I waited 2 hours in the heat and when it was my turn I was told me they had run out. The second one I got up at 5:30 am today and waited in line till 8am and when I got to the tent they told me my daughter had to be present, even though I had her social security card and school list. Well this morning she wasnt feeling good so I decided to leave her home with my husband and not make her wait with me. I went home and picked her up and when I got back they had already given everything away. I have always pictured this first year to be a year for all of us to remember especially my daughter but I am afraid the memory will not be a good one.
My favorite memory is looking at the first day of school pics of my children. How much they grow from year to year.
Posted:
Share your favorite back to school memory and enter a chance to win a $100 Visa GC http://bit.ly/wgaLD (via @commnsensemoney) #hallmark
@ http://twitter.com/mymadakaja
Shared via my profile @
http://www.facebook.com/tami.qualls?ref=name
I always loved getting new school supplies. The smell of new crayons, a new book bag and empty notebooks waiting to be filled! I still walk through the school supply aisles at the store.
My favorite Back to School memory is picking out the outfit I was going to wear on the first day back to school! I would spend countless hours in my bedroom trying on my new school clothes, agonizing over what to wear. Those were some good times
Getting a new pair of jeans.
shared here: http://mommyangel96.xanga.com/709304174/100-free-/
My Mom always took our picture as we walked up the driveway to meet the bus on the first day of school.
My favorite memory was picking out my outfit for the first day and I still love it with my own 4 children.
My favorite memory is going to my fathers house the weekend before school, my sister and i would wear our first back to school outfit.
My faovorite back to school memory is getting ready for third grade and (FINALLY) being old enough to have a TrapperKeeper. (I thought I was SOOOO mature!)
My favorite memory is of my kids getting their picture taken on the front steps of our house in their new clothes and shoes, all dolled up and excited, I did this every year of their school years, now I do the same for the grandkids.
My parents were on a limited budget but were able to scrimp and save in order to send me to private school. I never realized when I was young what a sacrifice it was. I had to wear dresses everyday and most of mine were hand me downs from a neighbor but every year before school started my mom would take me to our local JCPenny with it’s heavy doors and wood floors and I would get 2 new outfits. You would have thought I just won the lottery. We would make a day of it, trying on several outfits in an attempt to pick the best ones. I would also get 1 pair of new shoes. After getting my outfits and shoes my mom would take me to Kresge for school supplies then we would finish our special day at Saunders for a hot fudge Sunday. As my mom is aging showing signs of dementia I realize even more what treasures those memories are. Now with my own children and a limited budget I still try to make this a special time. It doesn’t involve JCPenny, usually bargin shopping for nice brands at our local thrift stores and watching the papers for 1cent specials, but we make it a game and have a ball. I just hope that when my boys get older they will look back like I do and treasure these fun times.
Shawna Lewis
weloveourdogs@juno.com
I love going shopping so I can see all this neat clothing outfits my daughters come up with it is so fun!!!!
Shawna Lewis
weloveourdogs@juno.com
http://twitter.com/theblindcupid/status/3211829895
I twetted
I posted this on facebook ;o)
My favorite memories were the new fall clothes and the hot September days of wearing those clothes in classrooms without air conditioning! I also remember walking to school on a path through the woods (in a Washington, D.C. suburb, mind you, and this was back in the 70s) and the change of the leaves as the summer came to an end.
One of my most vivid back to school memories has to be my first day of school. I was four and everyone else was five so the teacher said it would be ok if my mom stayed a little longer than the other moms. My parents had told me over and over to give it chance and that i would make friends and eventually i would like school but that it would be a bit scary at first. I was prepared ready to fight this school place they were making me go to. I walked into the big scary kindergarden class took one look at the sparkly pictures, kids playing, games everywhere, and i let go of my mom’s hand. And just as I joined the other kids I turned to see my teacher comforting my mom. My mom was crying. To this day i love her for that memory.
There is nothing better than a new box of crayons with a sharpener on the back! I still love picking those out, now with my kids. Although, this year my daughter’s list insisted that we only get the box of 24. What’s up with that?
just tweeted about this…
http://twitter.com/jeffmarias2001
I absolutely loved the “newness” of everything – new notebooks, pencils, sharpeners, crayons etc. Also, shopping for new uniforms every year, especially the year I entered Fourth Grade and the female students were now allowed to wear uniform “pantsuits” instead of just the pullover skirt. Also, each year my mother would allow me to buy a school shoe with just a little bit taller heel – that was also exciting – I had come a long way from Buster Brown!
← Previous Comments
Comments on this entry are closed.