When I was issued a Back to School Shopping Challenge, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to swing it.  Clothing two children under $100 at Walmart?  Always up for a challenge, I accepted.

The #WalmartFrugalHeroes I accepted was to clothe two children for back to school for under $100.

 Since we only have one child, I decided to get back to school clothing for Little One and a child in need.  I’m sure no one really thinks about their community having kids in need, but some families struggle to get their kids new shoes and clothes come September.  We’re by no means wealthy (we’re a farming family, for goodness sake!), but I believe that we need to help others as much as we can and when we can.

The interesting thing is that when I was Tweeting with the #WalmartFrugalHeroes hashtag on the day of our shopping excursion, and mentioned that I was buying items for a child in need, something truly amazing happened.  Thanks to the power of social media, a few other people on Twitter followed suit!  It was magical.

While I was blown away by the magic of social media, I was also blown away at the savings to be had on back to school items.  I’m not going to lie.  I love back to school shopping.  I love shopping in general.  Though Little One is only going into Senior Kindergarten, there was that rush of adrenaline as I entered the store and saw all the sales.  I know…Sad, right? I can’t help it. I love back to school shopping. There. I said it!

Apparently, Little One inherited her love of shopping from her Mama.

I’ve been trying to teach Little One how to tie her shoe laces for the past year and a half.  She can do it for the most part, but requested velcro shoes this year.  Why? She said, “I feel pressure when I can’t get my shoes on fast enough.”  That statement made me really sad and I told her we will work on tying shoe laces together every day until she can do it on her own.  This said, I honoured her request and got her velcro shoes this year.  It makes me sad to hear a four year old say she feels “pressure”.

She wanted me to post the shoes below on the blog because she said they had her name on them!  Not quite the same spelling, but close!

Back to School Outfits for 2 Girls All Under $100! Can we do it?

I was mentally calculating my total for all the back to school items in the cart.  For a second, I thought Little One was flipping me the bird, but she was actually doing her “YARRRRR! MATEYS!” pose.  Her way of saying that she had a feeling we’d make it within our allotted budget of $100!

We fared rather well if I do say so myself!  I couldn’t believe that I clothed TWO children for under $100!  Even after buying clothing and shoes for two kids, I spent a total of $94.50.

Little One learned a few lessons on our #WalmartFrugalHeroes challenge:

1. Frugal does not mean cheap.
2. When going back to school shopping, you can make your dollar stretch if you find deals and are smart with your spending.
3. We may not be wealthy, but we give when we can.
4. It feels good to think of others and help if we can.
5. Not only did we succeed at getting everything within our budget, but we also “passed it on”.

Little One modeling the outfit she wants to wear on her first day of Senior Kindergarten! Can’t believe that’s in a few days! Where did our Summer go?

Thank you, Walmart Canada for giving us this challenge!

Disclosure – We were given a $100 Walmart Gift Card in order to facilitate this #WalmartFrugalHeroes Challenge. All thoughts and opinions expressed on this blog are honest and my own.