The first day of school is rapidly approaching, and whether your children will enter the doors for the first time as a timid kindergartner, or you have a boisterous senior already planning the graduation party, the start of school means one thing: supplies. Lots and lots of supplies.

Pencils, pens, crayons, loose leaf paper (wide ruled, of course), binders, boxes of tissue and liters of hand sanitizer are tightly zipped into backpacks across the metro Atlanta area to prepare for a year of productive and germ-free learning. The cost of these supplies can add up though, so what’s a parent to do? Though Georgia will not have a sales tax holiday on school supplies this year, you can count on a myriad of sales from various retailers. The best strategy is to flip through sales papers or view the ads online. Often retailers will offer basic supplies for mere pennies in hopes that you’ll buy more once in the store. Stick to the supplies you need that are on sale and you can save a small fortune. Combine those sales with coupons from the newspaper or printed off the internet and you’ll get even better deals.

In addition to their new school supplies, residents of two of the Bowen Family Homes communities have brand new schools to look forward to. Elementary students from McGinnis Reserve will get to roam the newly surfaced halls of Roberts Elementary, located at 251 Buford Highway. High school students at Cypress Springs have a new campus to look forward to with the opening of Lanier High, located at 918 Buford Highway.