What to buy - back to school

Since starting my global sourcing experiment I am slowly getting more organised to avoid any situations that require popping down the shops (to date my only requirement has been kids Christmas presents and last minute birthday gifts). Hence I have begun to think about back to school and all the things we will need for the new school year including uniforms, shoes, school bag, lunch tote and stationery. My research to date has found that all of the above items are better to be sourced from Australia as shipping adds too much to the purchase price. The exception however are school shoes - yep once again the US provides a great range of footwear for school at much cheaper prices even after shipping to Oz has been included! These are the shoes that I bought for my son,

Leather Hush Puppies$40.00 USD, similar shoe retails in Australia for $89.95

New Balance runners $32.95 USD, retail in Australia for $60.00

Childrens shoes

For those parents out there, you'll understand the parent guilt concept. Is their lunch box contents healthy enough, to timeout or not to timeout, is TV the ultimate evil when it seems like such a life saviour and on and on and on. On that list of course is the shoeing of the said child, will my child be permanently damaged if I don't put the correct shoe on them. But have you seen the price of children's shoes!! There isn't even that much material to them, especially when you are talking about shoes for a 2 year old. Luckily online shopping helps me alleviate that guilt, I bought the below Timberland shoes for both of my kids from their sale (it's coming into winter over in the US so lots of good summer goodies) www.timberland.com.

Toddler & Junior Hypertrail Fisherman Shoe

These are great shoes for summer as they feature gaps for air flow and have a water resistant coating so hopefully they will keep in reasonable condition. Very sturdy and supportive with a cover to prevent stubbing of toes which inevitably leads to tears. Good flexibility which means I actually get to keep them on my 2 year old's feet as she has an aversion to shoes. I bought the toddler pair for USD $14.99 and the Junior pair for USD $24.99, a bargain in my book.

Got a recommendation of a children's shoe brand? Let us know and we'll see what we can uncover.

Happy Shopping!