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" Last week, food blogger Robin and I decided to mix things up a bit with a post swap. I wrote a post for her about a local restaurant in my area that has a new initiative to serve local foods and give a portion of their proceeds back to local schools. And it seems schools are on Robin&amp;#039;s mind too. Here are her thoughts on smarter back-to-school shopping:   My son and I walked into Target yesterday, and he was filled with dread. The entire store was screaming &amp;quot;BACK TO SCHOOL!&amp;quot; It was quite depressing. For us, summer vacation isn&amp;#039;t half over yet, and the last thing we want to think about is back-to-school shopping. But, from experience I&amp;#039;ve learned that if I wait until the week before school starts, finding all the things on the school&amp;#039;s list will be almost impossible.  When you&amp;#039;re trying to shop eco-friendlier, it can be even more difficult. I can&amp;#039;t always get every item on my sons&amp;#039; lists in an eco-friendlier form. If I put some time and thought into it and start shopping a little bit at a time, I can do pretty well even with a budget.  My oldest is going into sixth grade this year (junior high!), so I&amp;#039;ve got a few years of back-to-school shopping experience behind me. I thought I&amp;#039;d share a few things I&amp;#039;ve learned with you over the years.  Buy durable, neutral backpacks. A good backpack can last for years. There is no need to buy a new one every year. Younger children may beg for backpacks with characters on them, but as a parent, you can say, &amp;quot;No.&amp;quot; The character backpacks tend to be made cheaply and sometimes don&amp;#039;t last the year. Even if it does last the year, your child will probably be uninterested in the character the following school year. Buy well-made, neutral backpacks that your child can use until it&amp;#039;s outgrown \u2014 not out-of-style.  Scan all the circulars. I&amp;#039;ve found some of the best deals for back-to-school items at grocery stores. One store in my area has recycled paper spiral bound notebooks and composition books each year on sale for $.19 each. I stock up. If you watch the circulars and pick up a few things each week as you&amp;#039;re out running errands, you can save a lot of money.  Reuse last year&amp;#039;s items. When my boys bring the contents of their desks home on the last week of school, I pull out the scissors, the highlighters that still work, the pencil cases, and anything else that can be reused and put them away for the next year.  Shop tax-free in some states. This is something I just learned about, but some states offer tax-free back-to-school shopping weekends. Considering the fact that most public schools require students to show up the first day of school with many of the needed supplies, this can be a big help \u2014 especially to big families.  Go light on the clothes shopping. It&amp;#039;s usually too hot the first day of school to wear any of the back-to-school clothes purchased anyway, so wait until a few weeks after school starts for clothes to go on sale. You can afford better-quality, perhaps eco-friendlier, clothing if you do this. Also, consider shopping thrift stores and consignment shops. If your child wants name brand clothes, you&amp;#039;ll be able to find them at a fraction of the cost and feel good about giving clothes a second life.  Just because something says it&amp;#039;s eco-friendly doesn&amp;#039;t mean it&amp;#039;s good quality. This is a trial and error type of thing, but I&amp;#039;ve bought pencils made from recycled wood that were next to impossible to sharpen, recycled material pencil cases that have fallen apart quickly, and other &amp;quot;green&amp;quot; school supplies that were a waste of resources and money. Sometimes, it&amp;#039;s better to buy a trusted brand that you know will last a long time, even if the item doesn&amp;#039;t have a huge &amp;quot;eco-friendly&amp;quot; sticker on it. Leave the kids at home. It&amp;#039;s really difficult to stick to only the items you need when the kids are with you. They&amp;#039;ll see things they don&amp;#039;t need and want them. It&amp;#039;s only natural. If you can leave them at home, you&amp;#039;ll shop faster and you won&amp;#039;t end up with unneeded items.   Related Articles: Back-to-School Resource Guide Back-to-School Fashion for Eco-Teens 5 Ways to Green Your Child&amp;#039;s Classroom "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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