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All right, school is in session 
and now the expenses start 

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coming in hot and heavy, right? 
School supplies, fees, sports, 

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clothes, fundraisers, school 
pictures. 

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Before you know it, you swipe 
the credit card. 

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So today I'm going to give you 3
hacks to handle back to school 

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expenses without debt so you can
feel confident about sending 

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your kids back to school without
the extra money stress. 

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Welcome to the Debt Rebel 
Podcast where we discuss the 

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insurance and outs of personal 
finance for families so you can 

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eliminate the burden of debt, 
create financial margins, and 

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learn a new way to interact with
your money. 

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I'm your host, Jules the Budget 
Nerd and I have been in your 

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shoes. 
My husband and I have paid off 

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over $107,000 in consumer debt 
until we finally threw in the 

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towel and decided it wasn't for 
us. 

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Throughout our journey, we 
learned another way to do life 

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without debt and that's my hope 
for you. 

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You can learn more about our 
story and see full show notes on

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my website, 
julesthebudgetnerd.com. 

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That's JEWLZ, the budget 
nerd.com. 

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Now let's dive into today's 
episode. 

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School is in session and we have
a little bit of a break. 

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New routines and that also can 
mean we can completely train 

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wreck our spending because 
there's a lot of expenses that 

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come up, especially at the 
beginning of the school year. 

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This is something that we work 
on every single month in the 

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Alliance coaching program. 
But today I want to talk to you 

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about ways that you can save 
some money but still accomplish 

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a goal. 
Because that's what I love is 

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being able to do the thing but 
not spend as much, but also to 

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provide for your kids. 
Because there's a lot of things 

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about back to school that are 
really, really great and 

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exciting. 
And it is a time of transition 

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and change, not only in our 
routines, but in the seasons 

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too. 
So a lot of things can come at 

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us and I know for myself, it's 
really easy to overspend, 

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especially in back to school. 
Our youngest is in first grade. 

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And so a lot of things are like,
OK, do we actually need these 

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things? 
Or sometimes there are things 

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that are absolutely your your 
kids going to need that for a 

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successful school year. 
And so it's really important to 

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think about those things, but 
remember that you're not 

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failing. 
Most families don't plan ahead 

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for this one. 
But today we're going to talk 

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about a better way of doing it 
and ways that we can plan ahead 

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and actually, you know, 
accomplish the goal. 

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OK, so First off, one of the 
things that's super OK. 

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So the first one, this is a 
really easy one to do for back 

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to school. 
But also I suggest this one for 

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like the holidays and birthdays 
and all that kind of stuff. 

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But we're going to focus today 
on back to school. 

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And that's a sinking fund. 
That's just a category, a line 

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item in your budget that you put
a few dollars aside every single

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month. 
But you start, you either do it 

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year round or you get started 
earlier in the year. 

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So for example, so if you start 
in March and you put 20 to $50 

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in that category, then you'll 
have over $150.00 by August. 

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So some stuff to think about is 
kind of looking at what last 

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year's expenses were. 
That's a great way to figure out

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how much you're actually going 
to need and then work the 

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problem backwards. 
So depending on how many kids 

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you have and how and what types 
of activities and things, if you

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participate in school photos, 
that kind of stuff. 

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Fundraisers are a big one. 
That's actually kind of a hot 

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button for me. 
That's another episode. 

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But these are the kind of things
that we talked about inside the 

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Alliance coaching program. 
Also every single month is we 

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make sure we factor those things
into our budget because when 

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those things come up, then we're
less likely to go to our credit 

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cards because we have that money
set aside. 

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Another one is to actually look 
through close before you go 

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shopping. 
So I said this is this is 

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twofold. 
So one is know what you need and

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know what you have and then set 
a budget for that before you go 

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shopping. 
So I know a lot of families 

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might do it a little bit 
differently and say, OK, we're 

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going to get these shoes. 
You know, we need we need new 

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shoes. 
So you go get shoes and you're 

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like, Oh my God, shoes are so 
expensive. 

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But if you have a number set 
aside for for each child and 

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stick to that, whether you use 
cash or debit card, it's going 

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to help set you up for success. 
And so some places that we love 

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shopping when it comes to back 
to school. 

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But I would say year Round 2 for
ourselves is second hand stores,

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thrift stores. 
If you haven't had a chance to 

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listen to episode 44 of the show
interview a couple of amazing 

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gals that have just between 
friends sale here locally, but 

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it's nationwide and they've got 
some great tips about how to 

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save money but provide for your 
family. 

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And so it's really, really cool.
Also keeps things out of the 

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landfill. 
So that's a really cool thing 

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about second hand stores is just
and also clothing swaps. 

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I know I'm going to be 
participating in one here 

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shortly with one of my mortgage 
friends and I'm really excited 

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about it. 
Just being able to refresh our 

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closets without having to spend 
a bunch of money. 

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And then of course, clearance 
racks. 

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I am all about clearance rack. 
There's some good stuff on 

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there. 
And you know what the really 

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cool thing is about that is 
that's a great way to find stuff

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that's like from the season that
maybe we're currently in because

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they're trying to move that so 
they can make room in the stores

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for for the upcoming season. 
So retail is always one season 

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ahead of the calendar. 
So that's why right about now 

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it's we're coming into fall time
and you're seeing Christmas 

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stuff that so and then that 
third thing is just is reusing 

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and inventorying what we have 
first. 

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So one thing we noticed this 
year was there were some 

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supplies that my daughter 
didn't, she was asked to bring 

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those, but then she didn't use 
them. 

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So they were returned to us this
last year. 

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And so we just saved those for 
this year. 

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And then just going through 
sometimes you don't absolutely 

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have to buy brand new things. 
It could be, you know what, 

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maybe you've got a notebook that
has a couple pages out of it is 

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send that the kids won't know 
everything is used by the first 

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time you open it up and a couple
pages missing out of a notebook 

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is not going to be the end of 
the world. 

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And so that could those can be 
some really great ways to save, 

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but just look and see what you 
have on hand. 

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I know for us, or that's a 
really easy place to overspend 

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is because we're thinking what 
we actually have already that we

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can just send send with hers. 
Depending on what your school 

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system looks like and if you 
have very specific things that 

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you need to bring or if it's 
just general things, maybe you 

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can reuse. 
I know we've used reuse 

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backpacks from year to year now 
with young kids. 

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I know that having having a 
backpack two years in a row was 

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like, OK, all right, teaching 
our kids to, you know, take care

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of our things. 
That's something that we're 

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trying to to install in our 
daughter right now. 

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So that and those things last, 
just kind of checking to see 

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what you have on hand could save
you maybe 30 bucks, maybe 40 

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bucks. 
And that's something you can 

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take that money that you would 
save on those school supplies. 

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You're still getting the school 
supplies that your child needs, 

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but then you can take that money
and put it towards your 

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emergency fund or that debt if 
you're trying to eliminate your 

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debt. 
So the cool thing about that is 

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all of those things are possible
without using a credit card. 

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So you don't need to pull out 
that credit card so that you can

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pay for back to school if we 
plan ahead just a little bit 

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with that sinking fund. 
So 20-30 dollars a month really 

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isn't a lot in the big picture. 
It's going to save you a huge 

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amount of stress and interest in
the future if you just use your 

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debit card or cash for that and 
then set that spending limit for

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yourself. 
So you know, all right, this is 

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these are the guidelines I have 
set for us when we go shopping. 

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And then maybe if you have some 
other things lying around that 

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you haven't used yet is send 
those with your kids. 

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And so they are getting the 
school supplies that they need. 

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Everything doesn't have to be 
brand new. 

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OK, so even if you only do one 
of these, you're going to be 

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better off than you were last 
year. 

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So you won't be putting those 
school supplies, you won't be 

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putting those things on a credit
card, and you're going to be 

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farther ahead than you were last
year. 

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And that's a huge victory. 
So don't want you to lose sight 

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of that. 
And also, I just want to say 

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thank you so much for the 
feedback on the last episode, 

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the mom guilt episode. 
This one kind of lines up with 

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that because we can have so 
much, we can have so much 

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baggage behind what we think 
back to school needs to look 

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like and what we want to provide
for our kids. 

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So if that's an area that you 
struggle with when it comes to 

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spending, because we're talking 
about providing for our kids and

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you haven't listened to that 
episode, I would highly 

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recommend you go back and listen
because it's been it's been a 

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really popular one That's 
episode 76. 

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But if you are ready to stop 
feeling behind with your money, 

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I do have a free guide for you. 
It's called the Debt Rebel 

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Starter Kit and it it will just 
help you take control. 

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It'll help you start building 
your emergency fund and find 

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money that you might not have 
realized that's in your budget. 

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And then it's going to help you 
create that emergency fund, but 

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pay off that debt faster than if
you were doing it by yourself. 

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So you can grab that at Jewels 
the budget nerd.com/starter kit.

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That's JEWLZ the Budget 
nerd.com/starterkit. 

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I hope this episode was a 
blessing to you. 

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And also remember that this is 
about progress over perfection 

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and you're doing amazing. 
Mama, talk to you soon. 

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Thank you for listening to the 
Debt Rebel Podcast. 

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00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:34,720
Now, if you want to take your 
next step, check out my website,

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00:09:34,800 --> 00:09:39,400
jewelsthebudgetnerd.com. 
That's JEWLZ the budget 

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00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:41,840
nerd.com. 
I've created a bunch of 

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00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:46,480
resources just for you, so hop 
on over, check it out and we can

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00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:49,240
connect more there. 
If you love today's episode, I 

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00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:51,720
would be honored if you would 
hit that subscribe button and 

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00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:54,800
leave me a review. 
And remember, every step towards

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financial independence is a 
rebellion against debt. 

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So stay strong, keep pushing 
forward, and fight the good 

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00:10:00,960 --> 00:10:03,600
fight until next time. 
Debt rebels stay resilient.