Not-back-to-school shopping

I had the honor of being interviewed by our local newspaper about "back to school shopping." Here is an excerpt from the article:

For Karla, who home schools her three children, there is no such thing as “back to school shopping.”

“My children do not know what it is,” she said. “It's one way we save a lot of money.”

The children watch very limited television and therefore are not exposed to the back-to-school shopping ads.

Their mother typically hits the clearance table at Staples after the crush of back-to-school shoppers have hit the store, and she says she finds terrific bargains.

Last year, she found over-sized three-ring binders that zipped up, originally about $7 each, marked down to 50 cents.

“My favorite place is that Staples clearance table,” she said.

The children also pick up pens and pencils on field trips and their mother finds erasers, rulers, paper and other essentials on the mark-down racks.

“You have to know your prices and you have to look in those big bins in the middle of the aisles,” she said, explaining that she found 24-packs of crayons at Wal-Mart for just 25-cents a package.