Becky Worley breaks down where to find the best bargains on school items.
It's that time of year again, when parents have to get their children ready to head back to school. Students need new shoes, new backpacks, school supplies, text books, cell phones, computers and more, and parents are tasked with the job of getting stuff their kids like at a good price.
Here are some tips to find the best gear and the best deals.
College textbooks can cost a fortune -- the average cost for college students is $900 a year. But renting your books online could save students up to 70 percent.
The Web site Chegg.com rents students books the same way Netflix rents movies. You create an account online and pick the textbooks you want to rent for the semester.
Chegg has an inventory of over 2.4 million titles and they'll send any one of them to you in the mail ($4 shipping with a pre-paid return envelope). They allow you to "lightly highlight" but ask that you don't write in the books.
The New York Times found an Arizona State University student whose book bill would have been $657, but his Chegg rental bill was just $334. They found an economics textbook for $122 in the book store, but rental fees at Chegg for that book was $65 for one semester.
Bookrenter.com also rents textbooks, and publisher Cengage along with chain store Barnes & Noble are testing programs to begin book rentals.
Good Housekeeping magazine tested budget kids' clothes for durability and comfort.
Their picks for the best clothing for the price:
Polo shirts at JC Penney for $7
Boys Cherokee Jeans at Target for $13
Girls Basics Edition flare jeans at Kmart for $13
T-shirts at Wal-Mart (Faded Glory brand) for $3.50
Many school uniform items like khakis, polos and tights can now be purchased from major chain stores like the Gap or Children's Place. Try the sale alert service shopittome.com to send you e-mail updates when uniform items go on sale. I signed up at shopittome.com and they sent me an e-mail telling me about sales on the sizes and items I identified in my profile:
Uniform skirt, $4.99, 70 percent off at Gap
Uniform jumper, $7.99, 73 percent off at Gap
Girl's uniform polo, $6.05, 36 percent off at Children's Place
Boy's chinos, $9.24, 36 percent off at Children's Place
Old Navy is also currently running a promotion with 1,000 items under $10, through Aug. 31, 2009.
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