Last-minute shopping tips for back-to-school season that won’t break the bank

If you enjoyed every minute of your summer vacation or you were completely booked with fun activities, you might have some last-minute back-to-school shopping left to do before the bell rings this fall. If you are a little behind in checking all of your kids’ school supplies off the shopping list, you can still find some good deals online.

Online shopping is a great way to stock up on school supplies, especially if the rush of deal-seekers has left the department store’s shelves bare. So sit back at your computer at home – or at work on your lunch hour – and take advantage of the following ways to save:

1. Free shipping – If you can purchase all the supplies while at home and get them delivered to your door in time for the first day of school with free shipping, you’ve already saved. You didn’t have to spend any gas money driving around town, and if you put a value on your time, the savings will really add up. As a bonus, you didn’t have to take the kids with you!

2. Coupon discounts – If you think you lost out on all the sales in the discount stores with your last-minute shopping, think again. Plenty of online shopping sites like Ebates.com offer discounts for your online purchases – even at the same stores that sent out fliers and posted banners advertising discounts all summer long. Take advantage of these online savings to cut down on the cost of school supplies this year.

3. Cash back – Ebates.com takes the discounts a step further by offering cash-back opportunities based on your total purchase. For example, if you like to buy all your children’s clothes for the fall and winter months from Kohl’s, you can take advantage of the free shipping and discount coupons offered via Ebates, and then get a 3-percent cash-back check for your entire Kohl’s purchase when you’re finished shopping.

4. Wider selection – One of the biggest bonuses of online shopping is that it provides you with a larger selection of school supplies, which means you’ll have more opportunities to compare prices. If you’re able to purchase notebooks from one store for 5 cents cheaper than another, and then you are able to get $ 1 off a box of pencils somewhere else, you will be able to see the savings add up quickly.

Don’t regret that you enjoyed your summer to its fullest. Just be sure to hop online so you can get all the back-to-school shopping done in time for the first day of school, without having to worry about the prices.