Ways to Stretch an Art Room Budget

There are many ways in which an art teacher can stretch the designated budget for an art classroom.  It comes down to being thrifty, spending wisely, and finding resources that cost little to nothing!

Being thrifty doesn't necessarily being cheap. Good quality items don't need to be sacrificed for thrifty shopping.  By finding supplies in unlikely places such as garage sales, thrift stores, and secondhand stores, art materials can be bought for cheap and still be in near-to-new quality.  Finding a great deal on art supplies can be a big boost to your classroom budget.

Spending wisely also greatly affects the budget of an art room.  Shopping in big Box stores often lead to higher prices for name brand materials, when equally good off brand products might be available from other retailers.  Paper for example is fairly cheap, but when buying in bulk can lead to a hefty sum.  Instead of shopping through a big box store who is the middle man, go directly to a paper factory and buy in bulk there.  More often than not you will get a handsome amount of paper in many different colors, types, and sizes much cheaper directly than through another vendor.

And in an even more economical fashion, it is always great to save some money by using your resources.  Find all of your available resources to material that might not be seen directly as art materials,but can be used in such ways.  My mother for example eats a lot of lean cuisine meals and the containers work great for little cutouts, beads, buttons, and other little craft supplies.  Egg cartons are great recycled materials that work for paint trays.  Looking at the materials you already use in your everyday life can easily be used in the art room.  Going around to all of the other classroom teachers and asking for any old crayons or colored pencils left behind can become a collection bucket and used in the art room.

It's all about being smart and knowing how to use your materials and wen needing new materials, the different avenues of getting them.  An art room budget doesn't have to be a nightmare when you are thrifty and a savvy shopper.