Shopping for crayons, glue, and notebooks is as fun as ever. If you like your devices, it’s getting even funner.

Here are nine ways to save big bucks on your back-to-school bill, without leaving the comfort of your jammies.

1. Cash in Your Old Electronics

Got to Nextworth.com and check to see how much your kaput devices — like calculators, cell phones, and computers — are worth. Now, if you turn them into certain Target stores, you can get a gift card, which you apply toward school supplies. Go to Target.Nextworth to check to see if your store is participating.

2. Open a School Supply Registry

Don’t laugh. The beauty of registries is that they eliminate the burden of unwanted Stuff. With MyRegistry.com, you can add items from any website on the Internet. This is a great option for teachers, families with several school-age kids, and for web-savvy grandparents who want to help their little students get ready for school.

3. Get Social

Twitter and Facebook are great places to find deals offered to a brand’s social-media fan base, says consumer and money-saving expert, Andrea Woroch. “Like” or “Follow” the merchant and keep an eye out for coupons and sales announcements.

4. Compare Prices on Your Couch

My favorite shopping site is Google Product Search. Just type in what you’re looking for and it will show you a bunch of companies who sell it, for how much, and even if they have a store nearby with the item in stock.

5. Get Instant Cash Back

Don’t buy anything online without seeing if you can get a quick rebate through sites like Ebates or Upromise. Upromise by Sallie Mae is a rebate site focused on giving you discounts and cash back for college on all kinds of products including back-to-school supplies.

6. Don’t Forget Those Easy-Peasy Coupon Codes

It takes just a second to open another browser window and check for promotion codes. I usually use RetailMeNot, and I end up finding a working coupon about half the time. Not bad for a two-second stop.

7. Compare Prices on the Fly

I only use my cell phone for emergencies, but Andrea Woroch says you can tap into your mobile phone for savings when you are out and about with apps like RedLaser. Red Laser allows you to scan bar codes and look for cheaper prices online or at other retailers.

8. Get Sales Flyers by E-Mail

“Big stores like Staples and Kmart have huge sales on school supplies,” says Meghan Hammond, a teacher in Cape Cod, Mass, but you have to time it right. if you don’t want to stop by the store to pick up the circular, just sign up to receive weekly deals by e-mail. (You can always unsubscribe when the season’s over.)

To get you started, here’s the sign-up form for Staples and OfficeMax.

9. Buy a Discounted Gift Card

Unused gift cards sold at below-market value are being called the new coupons by Donna Freedman at Get Rich Slowly. There are a bunch of gift card aggregators out there, but Donna recommends trying Gift Card Granny for the deepest discounts. Don’t find what you need? Maybe you could sell one of your dusty cards and use the proceeds to buy a new pack of pencils.

I like how bringing back-to-school shopping into the modern age can spice things up, as well as cut down on our bils.

Do you have favorite ways to use technology to save on school shopping?

Amy Suardi loves to write about ways that save money and make people happy on her blog, Frugal Mama.

Join big membership stores (Sam’s Club/Costco) to save on items you need by buying in bulk. They also offer great prices on electronics and games! #deal #savings

If you resolved to save money this year, join every membership program at the stores you shop and sign up for their newsletters that can email you weekly and daily deals on items you want to buy! #organize #savemoney

Start saving this year with a Change Jar – a simple jar that you add your daily change to can add up by the end of this year! #savings #organize

Faster returns – As soon as you realize that your purchase was the wrong size, wrong fit or just wrong in general, place the item and its receipt immediately by the front door or mudroom, or put it in your car. The longer it sits in your closet or in your house, the quicker you’ll forget and the sooner it turns into pricey clutter

In celebration of Earth Day 2010, Oransi is offering 25% off their eco-friendly and affordable Robby Wash high efficiency laundry detergent balls.

One Robby Wash hypoallergenic laundry detergent ball lasts up to 120 washes replacing 75 lbs. of traditional laundry detergent and saves more than $100 annually. The Robby Wash has been used for years in Europe but it’s a new green laundry product for U.S. consumers.

To purchase the Robby Wash laundry ball online, click here and enter the coupon code “Earth” at checkout online from Thursday, April 22 through Monday, April 26 to receive 25% off the normal price of $32.95. I can’t wait to order mine!

Okay, so what you’re doing is working for you.  You’ve got a scheduling system that you like, you’ve found a desk that gives you the room and storage that you need.  But that doesn’t mean that you should stop looking for solutions and new things to try.  You never know what might work for you.

And chances are it’s in your home right now.  That end table that you never use in the living room?  It would make an instant shelf in the closet.  And the glass shelf in the bathroom?  All of a sudden, it’s a new portable device holder in your office.

It could just be the missing piece that makes thing run that much smoother or makes life that much easier.

And it didn’t cost you a dime!

Two Might Be Better Than One

Beth Dargis, creator of My Simpler Life, recently posted about using 2 monitors in her office.   Even though my fella uses 3 at his office, I was amazed that Beth, an organizing and simplicity expert thought it was time-saving.

Huh.

It made me rethink it for sure.

Repurpose Your Furniture

Recently, I saw a television stand remade into a lovely table and storage unit for the bedroom.  I wouldn’t have thought of it, but now I can see how reusing furniture made for something specific can really be useful.

Interesting.

I bet that butcher block will fit right beside the washer and dryer – instant storage and organization!

How A Mug Became So Much More

Often when you need something to hold something else, you look to traditional boxes from organizing stores.  But really, you have a ton of containers right in your own home.  I’ve been using food jars, plant pots, coffee mugs and recently a tall noodle bowl my Mom gave me for Christmas to hold my pens, markers and other assorted office supplies.  The box that notecards my fella gave me came in remains in my rolltop desk as a little drawer to keep clips and other small desk items.

It doesn’t have to come from Ikea or an office supply store for it to be a great solution for storage.  And what’s nice about using something special like things people have given you is that you get to use and enjoy them all the time, instead of just for the occasional cup of tea or bowl of soup.

Those Thousands of Reusable Bags

Now that we’re not using plastic ones anymore, it seems that households are now bursting with reusable bags – more than they could possibly use to do all of their weekly shopping.

Why not keep some on your doorknobs so that if you need to transfer items from room to room, you can toss them in the bag and take them when the bag is full or when you’re next on your way to that room – especially great for trekking stuff to the basement or attic!

I also like using the ones with the flat bottoms for storing magazines and file folders.  They slip right in and stay organized without having all that bulk of bankers boxes.  You can easily move them when you need them (what I nice way to retrieve your tax files, don’t you think?).  And it goes without saying that the prettier, the better.

These are just a few ideas.  I’m sure once you start looking around your house, you’ll see a bunch of things that can be moved and reused.

And just think of all that money you’ll save.  Maybe you can get that new pair of wedge sandals after all…

Stephanie Dickison is the author of the recent book, The 30-Second Commute: A Non-Fiction Comedy About Writing & Working From Home, which covers her career as book, music and restaurant critic.  She has been a journalist for over a decade and now spends much of her time writing about travel, food, beauty, style and celebrities for various publications and websites.

When she’s not writing, she’s eating, cooking, organizing, filing, making lists in sumptuous notebooks (you must use your beautiful journals) and colour-coding her ever evolving calendar.

She is one of the few writers still using technology AND paper.  But at least her paper is organized into pretty file folders…

http://www.stephaniedickison.com

We all know that the library is the primo destination for saving money on reading. But sometimes we don’t live near a library, the book we want is not available, or we’d like to linger over it for more than two to four weeks. What’s more, we can’t go to a library to unload a boxful of books that have been gathering dust on our shelves.

Online book swapping can solve all of these problems. And websites dedicated to exchanging books are proliferating these days, with names such as Paperback Swap, Book Mooch, Novel Action and Whats On My Bookshelf, to name just a few.

How Does It Work?

• Most swapping sites work on a point system where you earn points for donating books and you spend points for receiving books.

• Transactions are done via the U.S. postal system and members usually pay shipping costs.

• List books you want to trade by simply entering the book’s ISBN number.

• When someone requests a book you’ve listed, you mail it out. When you request a book, you get it delivered to your mailbox.

Pros and Cons of Book Exchange Websites

Sounds good, but what’s the catch?

Disadvantages

• While postage costs can be low (especially if traders use the less expensive book rate), online swapping is still more expensive than using the library.

• A few users report getting damaged books that were not declared as such on the listing.

• Even though some sites provide you with labels, you have to package up books and get them mailed off.

Advantages

• You can keep books as long as you like, or trade them back whenever you want.

• Even with shipping costs, you generally pay less than buying used books from places like Amazon.com or Half.com.

• If you don’t like a book, you can simply trade it again.

• You can declutter while helping someone else and getting “new” books you want.

Book swapping is probably not going to score you the latest hit on short notice (unfortunately, the library usually comes up short there too). But if you enjoy reading, you have books to purge, and you like to save money, online book swapping is worth a try.

Which Site is Best for You?

For a review of four book exchange websites — Paperback Swap, Swap Tree, Book Mooch and Bookins — see this article by the Wall Street Journal, or this thorough comparison of Paperback Swap and Book Mooch at Gather.

Have you ever exchanged books online? How would you rate the experience?

Amy Suardi writes about saving money & making life better at Frugal Mama.

Photo credit

I am very excited to say that the Buttoned Up team is going to be working with White Cloud over the next six months trying out many of their products and learning a lot about how we can all save time and money – and who doesn’t want to do that?

We are also going to be working with some great fellow bloggers that we will introduce you to as well.

They are an amazing group of women that you will probably enjoy hearing from too. Each of us has our unique point of view but all of us are committed to giving our fellow readers great information, tips and ideas that we all use ourselves.

So now on to our first challenge.

We were sent a very pretty box of paper towels this weekend. Inside the box are two rolls of paper towels: (1) Roll A; and (2) Roll B. Our challenge is to try them both and see which if any we prefer. Later on, we will learn (as will all of you) if we chose White Cloud or something else. Now I must say this is a bold move and an impressive one from White Cloud because they are setting us loose to see what we prefer and while of course, they hope, we choose their product, they have no control over if that is the one we like best. What that says to me already is that they have a great product and are very confident we will think so too.

How should we go about ‘testing’ the paper towels?

I clean but would not consider myself a cleaning expert. Should I put the towels through some sort of torture test? What criteria am I going to use to see which one I prefer? After much thought, I decided to go for a 3 prong test:
(1) Visual Inspection
(2) Feel and Texture Test
(3) The Lincoln Test (more on that later)

Visual Inspection.

This is an easy one. Roll A is bigger and has more sheets. Roll A’s sheets are also perforated at half sheets so I don’t have to use an entire sheet if I don’t need one. Roll B’s are not.
Winner: Roll A

Feel & Texture Test.

Both feel like typical paper towels. They are not too soft but also not too rough. They both seem to have the right texture to absorb water and spills. Winner: Tie

The Lincoln Test.

This is the real torture test of use. I let my 21 month old nephew, Lincoln, come over and spill a few things around our kitchen. It didn’t take long. He managed to spill things like orange juice (sticky and needs some scrubbing), water (how much will the towels absorb) and even some crumbs that needed to get picked up. I then went to work cleaning up. Some of the time I wet down the towels, sometimes I used them dry. It was a very close call. Both worked well and I would buy either one for picking up stuff BUT I must say that because Roll A is a bigger roll (means I run out of them less often) and I could use ½ sheets if I needed to, they were my favorite. Winner: Roll A

Of course the one piece of information missing here is the cost.

If Roll B were significantly less expensive than Roll A, then they might be the one I prefer. But for now, if I assume that Roll A and Roll B cost about the same then Roll A is my winner! It has more sheets, works well and lets you have more flexibility in how big of a sheet you use.
(Cant wait to see what brand I chose!).

Give White Cloud a try. They are sold at Walmart and are a great value. If you go to their site they also offer some great coupons as well. Let us know what you think.

1/21/10 UPDATE: Roll A (MY PICK) is the new White Cloud Green Earth 100% recycled paper towel roll. WOW! Great Value and help out the earth! I am soooo happy I like it that much!

Disclosure: This is sponsored content and we have been paid to do this post. That being said, we do not blog about anything we do not believe in and White Cloud did not edit our post or direct our content in any way.

If you spend the bulk of your week working, examine your workday expenses. Instead of going to eat out every day, pack a nutritious lunch and try to take public transportation to avoid parking fees.