It’s back-to-school season for my older child and a whole new school experience for my little one!   I started purchasing their school needs for a good two weeks prior to their schools' class opening.  Shopping is not as easy as just buying the school supplies listed, but what makes it difficult is deciding which type or brand do you buy.  Why?  Because as a mom, I prioritize my children's safety at all times.

Let me share with you some of the items in our back-to-school shopping bag:

Hello Loves!   No matter how life is throwing me a lot right now, of course life should go on.  There are a lot other aspects in our lives that we should not give attention to.  One of which is our back-to-school shopping.  While most of the students had started classes last Monday, my elder son will start his next week.

But before anything else, let me just say this ha: WAAAH, ang LAKI ng TAAS ng tuition fee this year!!!  Okay na.  But seriously, 10% increase is a BIG increase.  That's why I kind of enrolled him a little late because I had to pull more powers (Spell M-O-N-E-Y), not to mention the cost of books and other school supplies.

To prepare him for school, we had a back-to-school shopping last week.  But unlike our shopping last year, we bought lesser NEW stuff for him.  This is good news to me as a budget-conscious and practical momma.  Don't get me wrong loves, it's not that I'm being too frugal about my children's expenses to the point of having incomplete materials for school, but it's just that we bought quality materials for him last year that he still can use them this year.  For me, that is the real sense of practicality.

Just look at this bag:

Back-To-School Tip: Buy a brand of school bag that is made of quality materials and one that's durable.  This bag may be a little expensive to some, but you're assured of its quality.  Heavy books/notebooks?  No problem.

You may think, that's an expensive bag.  But loves, I divided the cost of the bag by two years (because he is using it again this year).  That's the thing about quality materials, it's really durable.

Next, I swear by this brand of shoes for kids: HARDY TOGS (available at any SM Department Store).  My son has been using the same brand and even the same shoe style since he was in Grade One (1).  Unfortunately, the style that he wanted is no longer available to bigger sizes, which made him chose a different style, but the same brand.  All his Hardy Togs shoes lasted the whole year and mind you, he ran the school field with it, he kicked ball with it, he sometimes folded the back part to make it like slippers (I know, I know it's not good, but boys will be boys) and he sometimes played basketball with it!  Still his school shoes last year is still intact!  He has developed brand loyalty since he was six years old.  We love Hardy Togs!

Back-To-School Tip:  Choose a brand of leather shoes that has double sole stitch to last it the whole year!  Perfect for very active boys such as mine!

The other back-to-school essentials we bought were his undies, micro-fiber towel (because he sweats a lot!) and his socks.

Back-To-School Shopping Tip: Microfiber towels are good for absorbing sweat! For socks, you could buy 3-in-1 socks, they are more practical than buying solo socks.

Last year, we bought the brand Nelson for his school uniform both polo shirt and long pants.  It's more expensive than other school uniforms, but then again, we swear by it.  He could still use all of them this year.  No loose stitches, no missing buttons and no tears in his pants.

Back-To-School Shopping Tip:  Buy a quality-made uniform like Nelson!  It's value for money!

Back-To-School shopping is always a therapeutic activity for me and a great bonding time too with the kids.  As always, to make shopping a practical and pleasurable one here are some quick tips.

PRACTICAL SHOPPING TIPS:

1.  It's always best to come prepared with your shopping list and a pen to tick off those already in your basket.
2.  Set your budget and stay within it.
3.  Shop during the morning to avoid large crowds or few hours before closing.
4.  Don't bring big and heavy bags.
5.  Enjoy.

Happy Back-To-School Mommies!  :)

Hello JUNE!  We finally meet again.  How time flies, it's already half of 2013 which also means that it's Back-To-School time once again.  Some schools had started their classes today, June 3.  My school boy will start theirs next week which is the reason why I'm still 85% to completion for our preparations.

I've done some back-to-school shopping mid-May covering major purchases such as school uniforms, school bag, lunch kit, shoes and some accessories.  This time, what I am busy with is covering his notebooks and books and buying the remaining small items for his grooming kit to say I'm 100% done with back-to-school preps for him.

Speaking of writing notebooks, I'm a bit particular with the quality of my dear school boy's notebooks.  Their school sells their own but it was sold-out when I was supposed to buy for him.  Plus, I find it a bit expensive for P45.00 each!  So off to National Book Store we went and my practical shopping powers boosted once more.

I've had experience in some types of notebooks in the past.  Because kids will always be magnetized to
super heroes or other cartoon characters, notebooks with them on cover sell like hotcake.  I was a victim of what you call in marketing "pester power" when kids have convincing power or influence over mommy which item to buy.  I bought poor quality notebooks last year.  The paper used was very thin and the red and blue lines were not clear.  Here's a sample of his old low-quality notebook:


Notice how the print on the next page could be seen on the current page? It's that thin.  The paper wasn't that white too.

Below is an image of the notebook that I chose for him.  I'm satisfied with the quality of the paper and the printed red and blue lines.  Each leaf of the notebook is thicker than most of the writing notebooks sold.  The paper is clear white as well.  This is the closest, maybe even better, to the school-logo-printed notebooks sold at my son's school.  Winner pa is that it's almost half the price!

Below is the image of the writing notebook sold at my son's school.  Quality wise, it's better than most notebooks sold at the popular bookstore we grew up with.

But when I placed them side by side, the writing notebook I bought at the bookstore for almost half the price his school notebooks is at the left, while the notebook sold at his school is at the right, the former's paper was whiter than the latter!

With this, it's confirmed, my purchases were of quality and more practical choice.  The character notebooks were the same price as this one but with poor quality.  The only CHALLENGE was, it only comes in one color: PINK!

I don't think my son would appreciate it being seen in school with pink notebooks.  The solution is, cover the notebooks with boy-looking wrappers.  Gift wrappers cost between P3.00 - P7.00 in bookstores.  In one wrapper you could cover 2-3 notebooks.  Let me show you a step by step on how to easily cover notebooks, should it be your first time to do so.  I've been covering notebooks and books since I was a student myself.  It's a therapeutic activity for me.

NOTEBOOK COVERING 101

Here are the materials you will need:
- Notebooks to cover
- Gift Wrappers
- Scotch tape
- Scissors
- Plastic Cover

1. First, cut the gift wrapper into the size of the notebook you are covering.  An inch per side allowance is ok.

2. Center the notebook onto the wrapper, fold one side of it onto the hard cover (could be front or back) and secure it with a scotch tape.

3. Fold the other side of the notebook's cover, but DO NOT secure it with a scotch tape yet.  This will just serve as a guide where to tape it.  The next steps will tell you why you shouldn't tape it yet. :)



4. At the inner end/near middle part of the notebook where the leaves are binded/stitched/stapled, make a diagonal cut starting from the end of the wrapper to exactly where the notebook lies.  Do the same for all four sides of the wrapper.
5. Open/spread the wrapper as seen below (the side which you didn't secure with a scotch tape) and fold inwards the part where you cut it.  The folded parts should be aligned with the notebook's tips for a neater look.


6.  Now re-fold the side of the wrapper which you laid open on #5, and this time, secure it with a scotch tape.

At this part of the process, you've secured the sides of the notebook, front and end covers.We'll now deal with the top and bottom parts of the notebook in the next few steps.

7. Open the notebook and let's start with the front cover.  Cut the wrapper diagonally at least an inch from where the folded wrapper meets, to the corner of the notebook as shown below.

8. Do the same on the other side of the notebook's corner.  Do step #7 and this step on all remaining corners.

The finished/cut corner/s should look like this.

9. Fold the top part of the wrapper to hug the notebook and secure neatly with a scotch tape.  Do this on all remaining corners.



10. Voila!  You've successfully covered the notebook with a wrapper of your child's choice.  It's recommended that you still use a clear plastic to cover the writing notebooks of your child/ren to protect it from liquid spills or pre-mature deterioration.

There it is my loves!  Hope you learned something new from this post.  Do we have the same style in notebook covering or do you have a different one? :)

Are you done shopping for your children's back-to-school needs? Honestly, I'm not yet done, but I already started. After almost experiencing a heart attack when I enrolled my son, we went to SM Manila to do some shopping using the SM Accessories gift vouchers I received in the mail and of course our budgeted back-to-school shopping money.

In my recent post about SM Accessories Kids Cool School Savers, I mentioned that they've got discounted merchandise which will give any moms big savings! I've bought the big ticketed items for him such as his school bag, lunch kit, uniforms, shoes and other accessories. I haven't ticked any item yet on his books and school supplies list. :)

I just want to share the great deal I got from my recent shopping at SM. When they said, "We've got it all for you" they really weren't joking.

School Bag
Since my now Grade 4 student son is no longer fond of character-designed bags, he spotted this plain trolley bag sitting at one corner.  When I picked it up, I was so surprised that it was on 50% discounted sale!  From P1,700.00 it was down to P800.00 +!  Imagine that huge drop in price?  If I were to buy him the character-branded bags of this size, it would have been a slash of P3,000 on my budget!  The material of the bag is very durable and made of quality.  You could tell with the stitches and the canvass used.  I'm so glad we noticed this bag!


Lunch Kit.
My son's a basketball player and aspires to be a member of their school's varsity.  Since his bag is already plain, he chose an insulated lunch kit with a basketball design.  This is the closest we got to the basketball themed lunch kit.  Why is this value for money?  It's made by quality bag manufacturer, Hawk Bags.  It has a lifetime warranty.  Wow!  Lifetime!  I could just bring it to ANY SM store if there are problems with its stitches, zippers and have it repaired.  Another winning factor is that, it came with a free 300ml water jug! :)  Got it for P600.00 only.  Other quality insulated lunch kits (without warranty) cost P1,000 and above.

School Shoes.
Would you believe, that this very EXACT brand and design of school shoes is what we've been buying for the last 4 years?  Yes and it's my son's choice to begin with, and because it's really durable, it has become my favorite as well!  Hardytogs Shoes is my choice for active kids such as mine.  Imagine, my son had ran (spell r-a-c-e) with it, kicked ball with it, slid with it, walked it in puddles/mud during rainy season, and had been through hell with it.  But still at the end of the school year, it's still in one compact piece!  Talk about durability and quality talaga!  But I guess, this will be the last year that he'll get the same design, because we already got the biggest size for this SKU.  His feet grow big really fast!

Take a closer look at the stitches of this shoes.  It's double-stitched and the rubber used for the sole is the non-slippery but really thick one.  I'm so glad I saw this shoes back when he was in grade one and he's had happy feet in school ever since. :) Oh this quality shoes is P1,200+ only.

School Uniform.
Nelson is the brand of choice when it comes to school uniforms.  I used to look for them in Divisoria and each time I wanted to buy him Nelsons there (it's cheaper in Divisoria) they're already out of stock.  They say that the sewers of Nelson are the original but really old ones.  So whatever production they have, they just distribute it to SM branches and the quantity left, are sold in stalls in Divisoria.  They don't over-produce because they say the sewers get tired easily.  That's what I was told. :)

I bought him five polos, last time I bought was when he was in grade 2.  He has grown so big since that time.  As for the pants, I bought him three for now.  The polo costs P229.00 each while the bottoms were at P349.00 each.

Undergarments.
I always buy him this brand because of quality, durability and comfort.  No need to expound. Each pack of three, costs P320 each.

Socks and other Accessories.
The socks were on sale as well as this canvass wallet with chain.   Not shown in the picture is his ala-Aviator Sunglasses.  Pumoporma na si Kuya! :)

So there you have it my back-to-school shopping where I scored huge discounts and got myself great deals! How about you?  Did you find any exciting deal like I did during your back-to-school shopping?

Few more weeks to go and it's BACK-TO-SCHOOL Moms and Dads!  Have you enrolled your child in school?   I already did just yesterday.  I almost had a heart attack while paying at the cashier for his tuition, spell GASTOS!  School supplies and books not yet included as well as his new uniform, school shoes, bag, lunch kit, tumbler, socks and other pa-gwapo accessories!  But of course, I want to give the best for my kids so OK lang! :)

Speaking of giving the best, SM Accessories Kids has everything on my back-to-school list of things to buy!  Now, let me tinker which among these Cool School Savers must-haves should I purchase for my grade-schooler:

SM Accessories Cool School Savers Must-haves!

I can't wait for these discount coupons to be distributed in-store and printed in major broadsheets this month of May!

Front of SM Accessories Kids  Discount Coupon

Back of SM Accessories Kids Discount Coupon

• Please surrender coupon upon payment
• Only one coupon can be used per transaction
• This coupon cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion or discount
• This coupon is valid from May 1 -31, 2013
• Valid in all SM Branches nationwide