Normally, I LOVE to go school shopping, but, yesterday was the first time I felt like I needed a cocktail afterward.
You see, this was our fair state's first Sales Tax Holiday. I've shopped this event before in other states, and, while there were more shoppers than usual, most of them seemed to keep their wits about them. Well, those that had wits to begin with, anyway. I'm all about savings, don't misunderstand. But, yesterday? Jeebus.
Need notebook paper? Buford says, "Let's get this here whole flat of paper, there's no tax!" Jane-Bob says, "Find you about 10 pairs of pants, there's no tax! Oh, and, call your aunt to come get us, we're out of gas, and, I don't have any more money."
I know I could have shopped another weekend, but, we have this tradition with another family, we take the kids back to school shopping and we all go out to eat, and, this was a day we were all available.
Besides, next time the budget doesn't balance, I want to see the government come crawling to me begging for my $10 savings back, and, I'll just have to say, "Nope. Sorry, you should have thought of that before. See how it feels?"
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I have grown to loathe school shopping. It was fun when they were in First Grade but it all went downhill from there. It's just painful.
We were able to take advantage of the Volunteer State on Friday, had to buy a bunch of clothes for the High School son and High School daughter...please pardon the sobbing, but High School son is a SENIOR! If you think seeing Busy Boy playing football is tough, just wait until your first-born is a Senior in HS, looking at colleges VERY FAR AWAY from home...we picked out senior pictures last week...sob!!
Yes I was all prepared with school supplies so I wouldnt have to go out on the tax free weekend....however DH had a revelation that his dad's birthday was on Friday (its on August 4th EVERY year, doofus) and so we had to go tromping out to Target for a birthday present. I didnt even go NEAR the school supply department, and I still needed a Xanax.
I debated and debated with myself: Buy the few things we actually need this weekend? Or not? Finally I thought, though it would be nice to save the 10% (Quicken would REALLY thank me), I will find the $$ elsewhere. I will stay home and think about how sane I am because I did not go to Target this weekend. The older I get, the more I abhor crowds. At this rate, I will be a complete recluse by 40.
This is the reason I am sooo thankful our school's PTA sells school supplies, and has them in a nice little bundle waiting for us at back to school night...I might not save much money, but I don't have to go and fight the crowds!
Those sales tax holidays are the best and worst thing ever. You save, but only if you don't hospitalize yourself afterwards for some much needed medication!
I'm glad your state doesn't tax the actual supplies. Here in the good old Lone Star they still do. Gee the kids don't need paper, pens, etc, but there is no tax on diapers and baby clothes. Hmmm, I wonder what message that delivers?
I totally cheat on the back to school shopping.. I go, without the kids, weeks before people start to freak out (we have no sales tax holiday in MN by the way). And, I usually go to Office Depot, where the prices are a little higher than T@rget & W@llmart & KM@rt - but there are NO PEOPLE!
And if there is one thing I can't stand while trying to decide which pens to buy is a person bumping me with the damn cart while there kids are screeming "Mommy I want" I sound like an old bitty, don't I?
While I worked at T@rge! for 9 years during and after college I learned that BTS shopping has been found to be more stressful on families than Christmas and we saw the very worse of a lot of people and I opened so many boxes of spiral notebooks!
Glad you survived the tax free weekend I took myself to the Ann Taylor outlet in Lebanon and it was a ZOO! WTF!
I used to like back to school shopping, when my dad was paying for it. Now I get the bare minimum I need to get through a semester because I'm paying for it by myself. Sorry your back-to-school shopping wasn't a good experience :(
I avoided shopping this weekend like the plague. I didn't even leave my house Sunday!
In the shoe aisle at Target on Tax Free Friday, I overheard another mother say, "They ought to be handing out Valium here today."
Amen, sister.
Texas started the Sales Tax Free weekend a few years ago the those financial giants that wanted to save that 8.25% (let me repeat...8.25%...$8.25 savings on $100 spent) began shopping at WallyWorld around 9:00 PM (yes, it was on the late news) and SAT ON THE FLOOR next to their full baskets until midnight when they could check out to save their few pennies. And then the BIG SURPRISE.....not ALL school related items are eligible! I avoid any retail venue during this wonderful weekend!!
I'm a boring school shopping mom now. I used to try and make a fun day out of it with the girls, but ever since the boy came around, it's too much of a hassle, so I'll get the stuff myself on my lunch break. Except for the 'exciting' stuff like bookbags, etc. My girls are noe too happy with this new plan.
Oh my. I hate back-to-school shopping, anyway, and someone this year we ended up making about 4 separate trips. I can't imagine what it was like with a sales tax holiday, especially with Tennessee's usual sale tax rate!
But I doubt it could have been any worse than our first trip ever to a Nasvhille Target when we moved our son to college and found out that The Big School in town also had their freshman coming to school that day. I still have nightmares.
I'm with Renee and others on this one. I go without the kids, before the sales tax holiday. I get the basics, and then anything a specific teacher asks for, we go get after school starts. I do let them pick out book bags, lunch boxes and other stuff that reflects their personality (my teenager's words) but the majority gets bought by me, alone, when the stores are quiet.
I'm into sanity...my own, that is.
I did my shopping on Friday in the Rivergate/Hendersonville area which wasn't too bad, except the school supplies isle. And it was like you said. I thought there was going to be a riot over the highlighters! :) I had a silly thought of running into Old Navy while in OpryMills at a movie...yeah...that thought lasted about 3 seconds when I saw the lines to check out were back to the dressing rooms! Hope you found everything you need! Happy New School Year!
Kim
I actually waited in the two-hour line at Green Hills Mall to buy a new Macbook. That was bad. The good part, though, was that they were offering free printers with Macbooks and I never would've known it if I'd bought it online. SCORE!
We've had the tax free weekend here in Texas for a while. I don't even bother. The $8 I would save on that $100 I would spend wouldn't even put a dent in the gas I would burn driving around looking for a parking space!
Wow. That's something they had here this past weekend in VA. I guess I lose out on the "fun" by going to the military base and buying things there tax-free all the time! I'm so glad that our youngest is a senior, but will I be when we get the pictures in a few weeks? I don't know. There's good and bad about back-to-school shopping.