The lists arrived via email the other day–what my children needed to buy to go back to school next month. There was the usual suspects on the list–spiral notebooks, multi-subject binders, pencils–which I could probably find in my sleep at my local office supply store. This year, though, there were some new and different requirements that made my budget-minded self shudder.

The first item was some fancy-schmancy calculator that my 7th grader would need in advanced algebra. I was too afraid to price it on the Internet ahead of time, for fear that its sticker will have three digits on it. The other item was something my 5th grader needed–color-coded spiral notebooks to correspond with subjects. The blue, red and green ones were no problem to find but a yellow-covered single-subject spiral notebook seems to be quite elusive in my hometown supply store, probably because all of the other parents of 5th graders have already been out to do their back-to-school shopping.

I searched up and down the aisles of the store looking for a yellow spiral notebook, finally stumbling across an employee who was crouched down, restocking erasers. When I asked her about the yellow notebooks, she looked down at the ground and shook her head.

“Follow me,” she said.

I wasn’t sure why asking about a yellow notebook was bumming her out. Then she stopped at a shopping cart piled high with bundles of shrink-wrapped spiral notebooks. The first notebook in the bunch was yellow.

“These are the only yellow notebooks we have,” she told me, laying a hand on the pile. “You have to buy the six-pack.”

This wasn’t all bad news–three of the other notebooks were red, green and blue, the colors we needed. But that meant we would have two notebooks left over, which hopefully my 7th grader would be able to use in one of her classes. (Her supply list is 5X as long as my 5th grader’s list and since she was at a friend’s house today, we’ll shop for her another day. Nonetheless, I’m hoping that two, single-subject spiral notebooks are on her list somewhere.)

About the time I was returning the other red, green and blue notebooks that’d we’d originally placed in our cart but no longer needed, I ran into a mom I know, who was also shopping with her 5th grader. We exchanged our hellos and then I began complaining about the fact that I neeeded to buy 6 notebooks in a bundle when all I really needed was 4 of them.

“I know what you mean,” she said, “That’s one of the reasons we started our own school supply box at home.”

“What do you mean your own school supply box,” I asked. “Do school supplies somehow magically appear in your box before each Labor Day?”

She laughed,” No. I mean, every June at the end of the school year, we take any leftover school supplies that are still in good condition and add them to our school supply box. We also add any extras from before-school shopping, like those extra notebooks you’re going to have, to the box. This way, when it comes time to shop, like we are today, I make sure I check our box first so I don’t end up buying anything we arleady own.

She also told me how she washes those stretchy-fabric book covers that are all the rage these days and then dries them on the line. That way she doesn’t have to buy new ones each year. And she condenses all of the unsharpened pencils and never-used highlighters into separate zipper-top bags.

Brilliant! Just brilliant. This is an excellent way to recycle and reuse school supplies and reduce spending at the same time.

Then it dawned on me: last year my now-7th grader came home from 6th grade with a never-opened pack of loose-leaf paper and two blank spiral notebooks–all of which were on her necessary school supply list but never got used. (Hey, when was the last time the schools actually updated their lists? You have to wonder.) Those supplies were still sitting on her bedroom floor, where she’d dumped her back-pack on the last day of school. (Note to self: get 7th grader to clean her room before the first day of school.) As soon as I got home, I was going to scoop them up and put them in a new “school supplies” box for our house.

My 5th grader just informed me that she, too, has a pile somewhere on her bedroom floor of left over school supplies from 4th grade. (Note to self: she needs to clean her room, too.) Great, now she tells me, after I’ve just spent $45 on new supplies? Well, once we get home, I’ll compare the new with the old, see where we’ve got any duplicates, and then do some returning tomorrow. Next year I’ll make sure I check our school supplies box before heading out to shop.