Back to School Deals Are Starting

If you think right after Fourth of July is early to start advertising back to school (I sure do), just keep in mind that Kmart and Sears are already putting out Christmas merchandise.

As annoyed as I am to have retailers telling me that school is nearly upon us when summer has actually barely begun, I'm not too annoyed to cash in on the deals, at least the ones offering FREE STUFF. Over the next few weeks, pretty much every drugstore and office supply store will be offering certain items -- pencils, folders, etc. -- for just a few cents each. Here are the ones I've seen so far:

• Through Tuesday at CVS, get numerous school supplies FREE after ExtraBucks, including scissors, pens and notebooks. This means you pay for the stuff up front and are given a note on your receipt good for more purchases of the same amount at CVS. If you already have ExtraBucks in your wallet, as I do, all you pay out of pocket is the tax.
• Target is advertising lots of supplies for 50 cents each including colored pencils, markers, notebooks and pens.

Offers other than school supplies:

• Kellogg's is offering a rebate deal called Fuel for School, where you if you buy 10 Kellogg's products in a single transaction you can send in a receipt for a $10 rebate. There are ways to combine coupons and sales to spend less than $10 on the 10 products, making this a moneymaker. I haven't found my perfect deal yet (it will probably involve my weakness, Pop-Tarts, when it comes along), but I definitely plan on doing the deal before it ends 9/30. Print the form here.
• Through Thursday, Old Navy is offering free shipping on any order that contains a kid's item (but you can add adults stuff too) with the code BTSCHOOL.

Photo by Claudia Snell, used by Creative Commons license.