Disclosure: This article is sponsored by Walmart. The opinions shared here are 100% mine.
The school supply list arrived today. I suppose I can’t be in denial any longer. It’s almost time for the glorious sleep-in days of summer to end and return to school. Today my daughter received her teacher’s welcome back letter. She was so excited to find out whose class she’d be in this year! Enclosed with the letter was the school supply list for the year. I was surprised to see the changes in the list from 3rd to 4th grade. This year we need to purchase a binder for the first time! Even though the school supply list is on the school system’s website, I didn’t check it out before receiving the letter. We’re planning to use Walmart’s Classrooms program to make the shopping easy and breezy. I can’t believe how completely simple it is to use this! When I headed to the site, I found that my daughter’s school was already set up on the system. If yours isn’t, just click “request a list” to send an email to your teacher.
From the landing page, I entered the zip code to find my daughter’s school. The lists were separated by grade level. When I chose her grade level, all items from her list were right there. Having the option to just click “Add all to cart” is amazingly simple. For busy parents who don’t have time to stop by the store and pick up the back-to-school supplies, this must be a huge lifesaver! I think it’s also nice for parents to have a visual of the items they’re asked to purchase. As a teacher, I have a certain style of binder or divider pack in mind when placing it on the supply list. Parents, however, might not know what type is the best to purchase. Some of the items shown were more expensive than the basic style, so I just clicked the “More Product Options” button to see other choices. For example, the composition book shown on the site was $4.97. These are always on sale around the beginning of the school year. I’ve seen them on sale for as low as 25-cents each. When I clicked on the product options, many choices were available for 50-cents. While it’s not the lowest price I’ve seen, it’s definitely low enough for me to take advantage of it. Not having to head to the store to get that lower price is worth it! I clicked “Add All To Cart” and it took less than 20 seconds to fill up the online cart. Yes, I counted. When was the last time you spent less than 20 seconds going back to school shopping?
We’ll probably have my daughter use her backpack from last year, so that eliminated the need to purchase another one. The rest of her supplies cost less than $10! Just for kicks, I added up all items from the list as-is. It still was only $31. Wow! When we go to a physical store for back to school shopping, my kids ask for about twice that much just in extraneous luxury items like hamburger-shaped erasers.
When I was ready for checkout, I chose the ship to home option. It also gave me the choice to have the items delivered to the store for free, but I wanted to avoid heading into the store. Since I head back to the classroom myself in a few days, I need to make the most of every second. My shipping cost was $16.64 with the items from my daughter’s list. By adding only $13.78 more to the cart, I was able to get FREE shipping to my house. I can always find $13 worth of products, and considering that I’d be getting product instead of empty shipping costs, it was worth it. This would be a good time to add in a few items to donate to the classroom. While my daughter’s list didn’t have any “optional” or “nice to have” items on it, there are some items that I know her teacher will appreciate. Plastic bags, extra tissues, pencils, and other items are always needed in a classroom. There are always children who come into the classroom with no supplies at all. Having extras to use will make the teacher’s life so much easier, and will help that child feel comfortable in the new classroom. So adding $14 dollars worth of extra supplies was a no brainer for me. If you have multiple children heading back to school, you probably met that free-shipping total without any problems. Save yourself a trip to the store!
Even with adding in extra items, I still got away with far less than I would normally spend in the store shopping for back to school items. Those extra minutes were far better spent floating in the pool for a little longer this summer.
Now, what if I told you that you could get even MORE out of your Classrooms purchase? Here’s how. Check the “Cash for Schools” landing page and see if your school has signed up. If so, you can begin earning 4% cash back on all Walmart purchases for your school. If your school isn’t signed up, provide your school administrator with the printable “Free Cash For Your School” PDF. When you take the time to save the Box Tops from participating products, it makes the savings even better!!! These are simple ways for schools to earn even more cash to benefit the children. After all, isn’t that what it’s all about?
What do you think? Will Classrooms save you time and money this year?
Alas, I don’t have to think about this…my children are too old for back to school, and my grandchildren are too young!
Our school list isn’t posted, if I had one teacher’s email I could have sent them a link, actually I think I do have one, going to send an email, right now!
It is really expensive to send kids to school now days with required supply lists, including Kleenex, glue, paper, etc, Yes I think that Walmart does try to keep the prices lower for school supplies and they are very helpful, they postsw lists for schools in our area for parents, grandparents, etc who want to get school supplies there. Will check our see my granddaughters schools have signed up..
Neither one of my granddaughters schools is signed up, still will get supplies from walmart.
not something I have ever had to think about thankfully, as I don’t have children
My daughter is homeschooled so this is not really applicable to me. That being said, if she was in traditional school, I would definitely use this feature. I would definitely find a way to not pay empty shipping costs.
My daughter’s school was listed (along with 24 others in our area code!) How very col. Gtrat program-thank you for the info and links!
Great program to see the School supply list for the schools in my area. I did not see my school, but maybe it will show up later. I will keep checking to see!
was surprised how many schools were listed, loved the ease of ease of everything
My kids are not school aged anymore. =(
I sure do miss those days….
I didn’t know about this and them having the list. We did save the list from last year as to what he would need this year but this is great to have. Thanks!
This is such good information to know what to get for each school. Great to know what school supplies to get.
this is great. i didnt know you could look this up online. unfortunately, they don’t have my daughter’s school’s list. oh well. thank you for this post!
Great idea for streamlining bts.
i have to go thorugh i have the parent get the stuff but i buy a lot for me
Really helpful to know. Thanks.
I love the new program that Walmart is doing. I remember 3 kids with 3 different schools and 3 different lists! We had to wait for the poor teacher to send us notes in the mail and make a mad dash to the store and pray there was something left! lol Hows thoughtful you were to grab the extra stuff for the kids that were without. As a former TA, I know how much it is appreciated it will be. Great review!
I had to get my daughter’s school list from her school as they were super specific about supplies, they didn’t even have the list in the store. I would love to use this though! I’ll have to do the request a list thing!
there is so much a kid needs for school these days
Hadn’t heard of this but what a convenient and user friendly way to get your shopping done. Then, you can forget about it and enjoy the rest of your summer, knowing your kids will have their supplies.
Wal mart always has our class supply list so I can start shopping early
Didn’t know about this. Thanks for the info.
I think this is great! Makes preparation easier
What a great idea! Thank you for the giveaway too (B2S Bash)