In August, 2011, Mom Central Consulting and T.J. Maxx / Marshalls conducted an online survey of almost 1,000 moms designed to uncover our back-to-school shopping habits. While the majority of moms (oops, not me!) start shopping early, 25% wait until the last minute (oops, yes me!). A whopping 81% said that the rising cost of day-to-day expenses like gas and groceries has negatively impacted their back-to-school shopping budget. Here are some back-to-school shopping tips from Marshall’s:
1. When your budget is tight, don’t sacrifice quality. Instead look for quality items at bargain prices.
At a discount retailer, a $5.99 shirt was made to sell for $5.99. At off-price retailers, a $5.99 shirt was designed and produced to sell for much more.
2. Make up for reductions in quantity with some rockin’ styles.
If your budget dictates that you buy one sweater, instead of two, make that one a stand-out! Don’t settle for a “timeless classic”, go for the “Wow!”.
3. Pick one color palette so you can mix and match items to create different looks.Â
Rather than buy four, two-piece outfits, buy five pieces in the same color palette and mix and match them to make four different looks.
Mom Central gave me a $50 gift card and told me to go Back-to-School shopping for Rosie and see how much I could find. I expected to get maybe two sweaters. What do you think I might have found?
Here are some of the options, tomorrow I’ll share some of the Marshall’s trends of the season, reveal the price tags and show you what we put together for $50!
Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting (www.momcentral.com/mcc) on behalf of T.J.Maxx and Marshalls and received a gift card to facilitate my review and thank me for taking the time to participate. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing a material connection in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”