Creative Commons Image | tncountryfan

My favourite part about school is back-to-school shopping. It is literally one of my favourite things to do. I happily go out and peruse the aisles of the office supply store, admiring all the different things I could use to organize all the different school supplies filling up my basket. Supplies for my supplies! The only part I don’t like about back-to-school shopping is the part where I get to the cash register and start to question whether I actually need everything I’ve picked up. Sacrifices must be made for school supplies are expensive. Add to the back-to-school clothes and all the other stuff you need, and the couple of weeks before school starts get to be pretty tough on the old wallet.

Luckily, there is Used.ca. It may not be the first place one would think to look for school supplies, but it is a treasure trove of useful back-to-school necessities: musical instruments, sporting equipment, computers, backpacks, clothes… I could go on. We checked out some of the prices on UsedOttawa.com for typical back-to-school items and even we were surprised at just how dramatic the savings are.

Hypothetically, let us say you have one child going back to school, involved in band and sports; this is what you could save shopping used:

That is some serious dough! And that list is not at all exhaustive. It is really worth it to check out your local used site before heading out to the mall for some back-to-school spending!