Posted on Fri, Aug. 15, 2008

The Savvy Consumer: Savings abound on back-to-school items

The back-to-school sales-tax holiday is upon us, and if you’re willing to fight the crowds, you can save approximately $8 for every $100 you spend on clothes, shoes and back packs.

But the tax break doesn’t apply to everything that students need — including school supplies, textbooks, physicals and eyeglasses.

If money is tight, there are other ways to save while shopping for your returning student.

School supplies

Let’s start with school supplies.

A recent survey by Neilsen suggested that more consumers will be buying their school supplies at grocery stores as parents combine store trips to save on gas. Some shopping-tip Web sites recommended using dollar stores this year for school supplies; others suggested buying the supplies online.

None of these ideas rang true with me, so I decided to go shopping myself. I found the 20 items needed from an Arlington district school for a sixth-grader and tried several venues, including a grocer, dollar store, office-supply store, online store and two discount retailers.

The hands-down winner overall was Target. With a 24-count crayon box costing 17 cents, two glue sticks for 22 cents, and a five-spiral package, 150-sheet ream of notebook paper, and 10 red writing pens all for 50 cents each, Target’s prices were considerably lower than those of other stores.

Wal-Mart was comparable or even slightly lower on some items, but the store I visited was very disorganized and after considerable searching, a full one-fifth of the items on my list either didn’t have prices posted or were not found. Wal-Mart’s back-to-school slogan plastered all over the store was "Do the Math." That’s pretty difficult to do when there aren’t prices to be found on store shelves or the products.

The grocery store and dollar store did offer $1 promotions on several school supplies on my list, but a dollar doesn’t look as good when the same thing is at a discount house for 50 cents or less. Also, neither had all the items I needed.

Textbooks

Although the Web didn’t seem to be too helpful in terms of low-cost pricing for school supplies, for textbooks savings, it seems to be pretty spectacular.

The average four-year college student will spend $988 this year on books and supplies, according to the College Board. Community-college students aren’t much better off, spending on average $921 for books and supplies.

More and more college consumer advisers suggest that students conduct online textbook searches. On average, students can save about half on their textbook costs, said Anirvan Chatterjee, founder of BookFinder.com.

The process is simple: Students find the ISBN number of their textbook (either at the bookstore or online), enter it into a search engine and out will spill Web stores from major retailers like Barnes & Noble and Amazon to smaller booksellers that will offer impressive prices, despite the shipping costs. BookFinder searches 150,000 booksellers in more than 50 countries to find cheaper textbook options, Chatterjee said.

Other textbook search engines to try out include Textbooksx.com and BigWords.com. Most of these sites offer ways to sell your books as well back to bookstores. EBay also runs a brisk trade in the textbook realm and is worth checking out.

Sports-related costs

If your student is involved in sports, he or she likely will need a physical before starting school. Your regular doctor may be where you first turn, but if your insurance doesn’t cover physicals or you don’t have insurance, you may be in for sticker shock of $100 or more.

First, ask your doctor if they give any discounts if your insurance doesn’t cover physicals and you pay cash. Asking never hurts, and doctors are becoming increasingly aware of the squeeze many families are feeling over the high cost of medical care.

There also are a couple of local clinic options. One is CareNow, which has 21 health clinics in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. With an online coupon at www.CareNow.com, you can get a school physical for $20. A sweeter deal happens Aug. 23, when all the clinics are offering a one-day special of $12 school physicals.

John Peter Smith Hospital also has 10 school-based clinic locations in Tarrant County and offers school physicals for $5 for those without insurance coverage. An appointment is required. For a list of locations, go to www.jpshealthnet.org and type in "school-based health centers" in the site’s search box.

Staying in focus

Finally, for those have children who need eyeglasses, I know it’s hard to spend much money on glasses that will often be lost, broken or scratched sometimes within weeks of buying a new pair.

Two Web sites offer glasses and frames for relatively little amounts of cash. One is ZenniOptical.com. The San Rafael, Calif.-based company sells eyeglasses starting at a remarkable $8 a pair for single-lenses glasses and frames.

I first came across Zenni from Atlanta consumer advocate Clark Howard, who says he uses them regularly. I recently sent off for my first pair for my son and husband, and will let you know what I think of the company in a future column.

Another eyeglass service with a better exchange policy is Eyeglassdirect.com. The Brooklyn-based company starts at $28 for single-lenses glasses and frames and is a Better Business Bureau accredited business.

Good luck with the crowds.