You may be wondering what “Back to School” has to do with sweepstaking.

Supplies! This is the time to stock up on all of your sweepstaking needs. Most stores are running fantastic sales on school supplies for kids. You should be able to find great deals on the supplies you will use, all year round. I try to stock up for the whole year and then I don’t have to worry about running out of things.

Your standard 3x5 index cards usually run about 49¢-59¢ and if you hunt, you can find 3 or 4 packages for $1.00. Another item you will go through rapidly is pens. Many of the stores will have them greatly reduced or buy one, get one free. In the “Back to School” aisles you can go crazy with all of the fun things they have for children to draw, color, glue and paste with.

You can quickly decorate envelopes with the new glitter glues they have out. Colored markers come in a myriad of sizes, from the fine line, which is great for detail on your envelopes, to the huge ones that are easily used to turn plain white envelopes into polka dot wonders.

Stickers are economically priced and they are so easy to use for decorating. If you can find construction paper on sale, pick up several reams and store it for the winter months, when you have some time to churn out those homemade envelopes.

Colored pencils can turn a dull envelope into a masterpiece. Get some tracing paper, cut out a picture from a child's coloring book, and trace it onto an envelope. As you watch television, during the commercials, fill in your outline with your colored pencils. Wala!

And while you are scouring through all of those sale papers, keep a look out for sweepstakes. Many of your office supply chains and discount stores will be advertising sweeps. Run a check through a search engine for “back to school sweepstakes,” and you should have quite a few come up. I just did a search and on the first page, there were ten sweepstakes listed.

If you are serious about this hobby, then you should look at it as if it were a second job, which in reality, it is. Therefore you want to buy your supplies wisely, and remember, every penny you save adds up. Think of all the stamps you can buy with your savings!

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To read more from Editor and Author Sandy Lovern, please visit www.engaged-devotional.com and www.sweepstakessuccess.com.