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Save with Back-to-School Tax-Free Weekends and AAFES

Updated | Michelle Nati
back-to-school tax-free weekends

During the back-to-school season, there are plenty of ways to save money on school supplies, clothing, and computers. We explore some of the options below.

Tax-Free Weekends

Certain states have a tax-free weekend to coincide with back-to-school shopping. The dates can vary; some are just a weekend, and others can be up to a month. Tax-free items usually include items such as:

  • Clothing
  • Computers
  • Software
  • School supplies
  • Books
  • Footwear

Back-To-School Tax-Free Weekends

Your back-to-school tax-free holiday may be happening soon if you live in one of the following states:

  • Alabama
  • Arkansas
  • Connecticut
  • Florida
  • Iowa
  • Maryland
  • Massachusetts
  • Mississippi
  • Missouri
  • New Mexico
  • Ohio
  • Oklahoma
  • South Carolina
  • Tennessee
  • Texas
  • West Virginia

AAFES Tax-Free Weekend

If you shop at AAFES, you can gain additional savings during their tax-free weekend promotion.

AAFES normally offers tax-free shopping as an everyday benefit to military families. During tax-free weekends, they will be offering an additional discount.

The percentage off will be based on your state and the state tax rate. During their tax-free weekend, you can save that additional amount. This is valid for in-store purchases only on clothing, shoes, computers, and school supplies.

Visit the AAFES site to learn more.

Exchange Price Matching

Take advantage of the Price Matching available at your local Exchange. AAFES (Army and Air Force Exchange Service), NEX (Navy Exchange Service), and MCX (Marine Corps Exchange) all have this program. You can apply this to Express, Class Six, Car Care, Troop Stores, and shopmyexchange.com.

CONUS and non-foreign OCONUS facilities cannot price-match online sites other than shopmyexchange.com.

The price match must be from a local competitor.  This means they must be a retailer doing business in the community where the Exchange is located.

The item must be identical in brand, manufacturer, features, size, color, and manufacturer’s model number. Items must be in stock on the selected authorized online retailer’s website when the price match request is made. You can visit the Exchange official site for more information.

You can also check if any of your favorite companies offer free shipping during the back-to-school season. Many stores will also be offering special deals during this time of year.

Back-to-School Discounts for Military Families

These include student and military discounts to help you save this coming school year.

Operation Homefront’s Back-to-School Brigade

Since Operation Homefront launched this campaign, it has distributed 630,000 backpacks. It and Dollar Tree have joined forces to give out these supplies to military children nationwide. Through August 6, customers can donate supplies to the program at over 9,300 participating Dollar Tree locations around the U.S. Visit Operation Homefront to find out if there is one near you.

Tutor.com

Tutor.com offers online tutoring and homework help. DoD service members, civilian personnel, and all dependent family members from kindergarten to college/adult can use it at zero cost. With Tutor.com, you or your child can connect with a live expert 24/7.

Before this special offer, dependents in grades K-12 of the following qualified:

  • Active Duty Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines.
  • Active/Full-time or Deployed National Guard or Air National Guard, or Reserves.
  • Wounded Warrior/Survivors
  • Coast Guard who are attending schools operated and funded by the DoDEA
  • Department of Defense Civilian personnel currently deployed to CENTCOM AORs, including but not limited to Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.

This program is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense and Coast Guard Mutual Assistance. For more info, please see the Tutor.com official site.

Apple Military and Student Discounts

With Apple, you can find both student and military discounts. The Education discounts apply to MacBooks, iMacs, and iPads. Military discounts may apply to MacBooks, iMacs, iPads, iPhones, Apple Watches, Apple TVs, and Apple Music products. Offers and options are subject to change at any time.

For more info, please see the Apple official site for .edu pricing or the Apple official site for military discounts.

Scholastic

Scholastic is an American publishing, education, and media company known for publishing, selling, and distributing books and educational materials. They have free printables for all ages. These printables cover reading, writing, math, and science, starting with Pre-K.

For more info, please see the Scholastic official site.

Backpacks

You can find military and student discounts on backpacks at stores such as:

Shoes with Military and Student Discounts

Military discounts:

Student discounts:

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About the author

Michelle Nati is a contributing writer to CollegeRecon who has written about higher education and finance for Granita Media/Big Edition site Work and Money. She's also written law content for Leaf Group's Legal Beagle site and is a ghostwriter of non-fiction books. She lives in Los Angeles and spends her spare time combing flea markets for vintage photos and decor and playing with her dogs, Jellybean and Jukebox.

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