I am one of those who buys all throughout the year with coupons, sales, clearance, at yard sales etc. I also make things each year.
The one thing I don't do, that I should, is to keep track of what I am spending that will be used for gifts. I started to a few years ago then fizzled out.
Below you will see an example of art sets that the grandchildren are getting this year. Each year at the beginning of the school year, we all know that Walgreen's, Office Max, Wal-Mart etc all have supplies that you can buy cheaply. Nothing in these boxes did I pay more than 25 cents for, and the majority of it I paid from 1 cent to 10 cents for!
Inside each box is a folder with 40 sheets of notebook paper, a spiral notebook, a ruler, a box of 24 count crayons, a protractor, ever sharp pencils, pencils, pens, bottle of glue, a glue stick and a sharpie marker. The oldest 4 grandchildren do get a box of colored pencils. I didn't have enough markers, so each box I had was split in half and put among the boxes. I made a total of 6 of these boxes. What was left I split up between my neice and my 3 yr old grandson.
