Money Mom Podcast
Welcome to The Money Mom Podcast—the ultimate guide for moms who want to take control of their finances, crush debt, and create a life of financial freedom and abundance. Hosted by Rachel Coons, a budgeting expert and mom of three, this podcast is your go-to resource for practical tips, mindset shifts, and empowering strategies to help you manage your money with confidence.
Whether you’re navigating grocery budgets, tackling debt, or dreaming of building wealth for your family, each episode offers bite-sized, actionable advice to make money management simple, stress-free, and even enjoyable. With relatable stories, expert insights, and a dose of mom-to-mom encouragement, you'll learn how to transform your finances—one small step at a time.
Tune in every week to discover how to save more, spend smarter, and feel empowered to create the financial life you deserve. Because when moms thrive financially, families flourish.
Money Mom Podcast
70: Back-to-School on a Budget: Smart Mom Hacks for Saving This Month
It’s that time of year again—new routines, new backpacks… and a lot of new expenses.
In this episode of the Money Mom Podcast, I’m diving into the real-life budget struggles moms face during back-to-school season and giving you practical ways to take the stress (and overspending) out of the equation. From school supplies and clothes to groceries and lunchbox prep, we’re covering it all.
You'll learn:
- When not to buy school supplies (trust me on this one)
- How to save BIG on back-to-school clothes (without sacrificing style)
- What to pack in your kids’ lunches to save money and keep them full
- Smart ways to stay out of Target and still feel organized
Whether you homeschool or send your kids off on the bus, these tips will help you feel more prepared, more peaceful, and way more in control of your money this month.
🎧 Tune in and start saving today—because August doesn’t have to blow your budget.
Get your FREE 2-Week Meal Plan HERE
xoxo,
Rachel
Where to find me:
Instagram: @heyrachelcoons
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Hello there and welcome back to the Money Mom podcast. I'm your host, rachel Kuhn, and we all know that it's back to school season. Holy cow, we're all sending the kids back to school. If you are not a homeschool mom, I actually know I have a lot of homeschool mom followers, which I absolutely love. And even if you are sending your kids to school or your kids stay home with you, I think this applies to everybody, because everyone's kind of getting back into the fall routine of a more structured time where we're back to school shopping, we're figuring out what the kids need for school supplies, we're figuring out food when it comes to packing lunches, all of those things, and so today, in this episode, I want to speak specifically to this season, the back to school. How do we do it without breaking the bank and feeling like our budgets are just out of control in the month of August or September whenever your kids go back to school, because there can be a lot of budget categories that get hit at once? You're looking at clothes and shoes, you're looking at supplies for school. There's also like activities and sports and PTA charges and clubs that your kids start Like. There's a lot of things where I'm just like writing checks and sending it to school and like do people still write checks these days? I don't even know if we're writing checks or if we're sending money via wire transfer, whatever it is. You're also looking at snack supplies, when it comes to sending kids to school with school lunches or snacks that they need to take. So it's a chaotic time. It is stressful, and if you are feeling this pinch of like I don't even know what to do because we don't have the money to pay for these things, or if you just are like annoyed that you're spending more money than you want to on these categories, this episode is for you and hopefully I can give you some really tangible, really helpful tips that will make you more aware of your spending and give you some things like oh, I can do this a little differently to save me money here, or delaying some expenses for later.
Speaker 1:We're going to go through all of that because we know that if you are feeling chaotic, if you're feeling stressed, we need to step back. We need to get a plan in place so that we know how to take a step forward and be successful in this season of life. So the first area, the first budget that we're going to talk about is the school supply budget where your kid and, again, I have four kids, so every single one of my kid is going to come home with a school supply list. Kid is going to come home with a school supply list. I always wait to buy school supplies until after my kid has started school. I don't stock up on crayons and glue sticks and whatever I think that they're going to need in school, until the kid brings home a sheet of paper with the actual supplies needed, because it changes and I don't know what exactly they're going to need and I can kind of sort through that list and inventory what we already have on hand, because most of the time you don't need to purchase a brand new box of crayons or sharpies or glue sticks if you already have them in your house right now. So the first thing that I do when that list comes home is I look through it and I go look in our cupboards and where we keep our school supplies and I try to piece together supplies from that list and then whatever we don't have, I'll try to fill in the gaps. Now here's a big tip that I have for you when that list comes home on the first, second or third day of school. Most of the time your kids do not need what is on that list until at least a week into school. You know they're like setting up systems. They're doing like get-to-know know you activities, especially for elementary kids. It might be different for middle school and high school, but my kids are younger I have my oldest is just starting middle school and so I like to wait until like a week after school starts. Wherever you are in your area of the country, most of the time those school supply items will go on massive discount. They're full price before school starts and then school starts a couple days later. They're going to put them all on sale to try and get them off the racks, and so we wait a little bit longer to go through and buy everything on clearance. You're going to save a lot of money that way.
Speaker 1:I also highly recommend being smart about where you shop for your back to school supplies. Amazon is going to be more expensive than if you would go to, like, the Dollar Tree. If you have a dollar store near you like, go do your back to school shopping there. They have the same exact items, like, manufactured in the same exact place and you're going to spend $1.25 at the Dollar Tree versus, you know, $3 or $4 at Walmart or Target or whatever. So where you shop matters. And so price checking what you're doing. And that's one of the reasons I like to shop online if I can, because I can kind of price check and see where I'm going to get the best deal and that's where we'll do our main essential shopping. And this is another place that you can get.
Speaker 1:It can get really a slippery slope where you want to buy a bunch of items, a bunch of extra supplies or whatever that looks like. I really try to just get the bare minimum. You know it's like pencils, crayons, glue sticks, erasers the basics that my kids need. I don't feel the need to send them with a bunch of extra supplies. I do also like to prioritize with my budget donations to the classroom. That's really important to me, it's a priority for me. I know not everybody has that room in their budget, but I would just recommend helping the teachers out with their school supplies so they don't have to purchase it out of their own pocket. Every year we designate a certain amount of money that I want to buy extra paper for the classroom or baby wipes or whatever. I'm always trying to donate to the classroom just to help the teachers out and hot take on this. I do think the more you can help your teachers, the more you can be involved in the classroom. The more you can if you have the space and time to volunteer, the more you can do that, I think, the better relationship you have with the teachers and the school and it just helps your child thrive in that environment. I've had some kids that I've had some hard behaviors at school, but I've always kept a really good relationship with my teachers because I show up, I'm there, I'm willing to give my time, energy and money if needed, and I think that is a big bonus for my kids. I think it helps my kids a lot. So don't come at me for that one, but I just think if you are invested in your children and your teachers, they're going to invest in you as well. Okay, so that's the school supply category.
Speaker 1:Clothes and shoes are the next category and we did a whole podcast episode on that. A lot about that in my last episode, where I talked about six things that I no longer spend money on or I don't like to spend money on. As a mom, this is one of those categories where I really try not things that I no longer spend money on or I don't like to spend money on. As a mom, this is one of those categories where I really try not to overspend in the clothing and shoe department, and I think back to school is the time that people are spending a lot of money on back to school shopping. My opinion on this is that why are we even going back to school shopping? Like I like to go get my kids one new pair of shoes because I think that they need it and they trash their shoes super fast. We're wearing sandals all summer and they need like actual, legit shoes for school, and other than that, we don't actually go back to school shopping. Actually, my husband said that when he was growing up, the only time he would ever go shopping throughout the whole year was at back to school and they'd go drop like $500 on clothes for him and he was like I hated it because then within six months I would grow out of those clothes and then I didn't have clothes. My mom didn't want to spend a bunch of money and so I would much rather shop sales when they're smart.
Speaker 1:Get my kids clothes when they actually need them and not do like this big shopping haul right before school starts. We get one pair of shoes and sometimes we'll go to like we just went to Goodwill and got a couple outfits outfits for the kids. They'll need to be in brand new clothes on the first day of school. You can probably find some outfits that are in their closet. Yeah, it's nice to be in like fun, fresh clothing, but you don't need five new outfits for the first day of school. You can just do one and then they can wear clothes you know that they've worn before. We don't have to like let's normalize our kids wearing normal clothes and not new, brand new clothing all the time.
Speaker 1:You're going to definitely save money if you cut out those big back-to-school shopping sprees. Again, this is one of those areas that you get to decide if that's important to you or not. For me, it's not important to me, and so I would highly recommend you evaluating that for yourself. And, if you do want to do some back-to-school shopping, check out local swaps or consignment stores or even Facebook. Marketplace is a great place to find really good quality clothing for much cheaper. I also think this is a really good time to talk to your kids about a budget and setting that number. Whatever you're comfortable with If you're gonna give them back to school shopping trip, set a budget with them and say, hey can see, oh my gosh, if I shop a sale I can get five shirts for the same price that I could buy one shirt for that same price and I'd much rather get a discount or maybe buy secondhand or just seeing how the dollar works and seeing how a budget works and how they can use it as a learning experience for themselves. I'm always very open about spending money and having conversations with my kids about that, because I think the more we can talk about how we spend our money, the more we can give words to experiences that we're having with our money and the better we can just have a overall plan with our children is very important.
Speaker 1:The next area that I think a lot of moms can stress about with back to school shopping and expenses is groceries, lunch prep, snacks and how to transition your budget to fit that. We have a whole course about this in the Money Mom Club, because I found it to be a big area that people were wasting a lot of money on when it came to their grocery budgets, and so we created Lunchbox Mini Course to help with that, to give you a system to have a planning place where you can create lunches and snacks without breaking the bank. But if you are someone who isn't in the Money Mom Club and wants some help, I highly recommend, when it comes to snacks and purchasing snacks, to not purchase pre-packaged snacks. So we're looking at sending our kids with whole food ingredients versus like a bag of goldfish or fruit roll-ups or you know. You know what I'm talking about when I talk about pre-packaged snacks. First off, they're going to eat healthier when they eat whole foods and you're not going to spend nearly as much money as you would if you were doing it the other way.
Speaker 1:I like to. Also, when I'm like in the kitchen, I'm in like a cooking zone, I'm making breakfast or I'm cooking dinner I'll like pre-make some muffins or some burritos or, like you know, you can make Uncrustables at home. Just a bunch of all like prep a bunch of things and then freeze it. My kids can go out and grab whatever snacks that they want Protein balls my kids really like those protein balls, so I have like pre-made snacks and lunches in the outside freezer that make it healthier, save me money and if I do it at the same time, it does save me a lot of time. So that's for lunches and snacks. That's what I try to focus on. And then also, it can get really chaotic with school back in session when sports start happening again after school activities. There's a lot going on and instead of relying on takeout meals and pre-made dinners, really using a meal plan for your week to simplify school night dinners so that you know what's happening every night of the week, what you're going to cook, and you can prep it while the kids are at school and keep it really seamless and an easy system, will save you a lot of headache when things get crazy during the week. So highly, highly recommend meal planning. You guys know I'm all about that Number two as we start to wrap up this episode that there are things that you have to purchase.
Speaker 1:There are things that you have to buy, but there's also a lot of optional items that we just think because everybody else is doing it, we have to do it too, and I'm not about that. I really think when you can get intentional with the things that you purchase and making sure that you're not just doing it because that's how you've always done it or that's what you think you have to do, and stepping back and saying, no, I'm going to take ownership of these purchases. I'm going to use whatever tools I can to save time and money and really making sure that I'm not spending more money than I want to that I'm comfortable with. Can I save money in other areas if I really want to prioritize expensive things during this time of year, because, again, it can be very stressful when all of these extra expenses start getting loaded on.
Speaker 1:You don't have to do it all, and I'm giving you this permission. You don't need a brand new wardrobe for your child. Your kid doesn't need every single school supply on the first day. You don't have to have a Pinterest perfect experience. You can if you want to, but you don't have to do that.
Speaker 1:And a peace of mind, feeling good about your financial situation, is much more important than the look of having it all together, being all put together because we're all putting on a show.
Speaker 1:Everybody is, and I think if you looked at, you know somebody who looks like they have it all together.
Speaker 1:Nobody has it all together. Just remember that we're all doing the best we can and you need to do the best you can. So really try to focus on the things that are important to you and the things that aren't important to you, and just try a couple new things from this episode, maybe this week or as you're going back to school. One of the things that you want to implement is meal planning, and if you want to get a meal plan, I'll drop my free two-week meal plan in the comments so you can go, click a button and add everything to your grocery cart and not have to think about a meal plan for the next two weeks. I'll help you out with that, but I would love to hear if you use any of these back to school savings tips, if you thought about anything differently, and I hope everyone has a wonderful time setting their kids back to school and hallelujah for structure and systems again. Okay, I'll see you in the next episode.
