{"id":2932,"date":"2014-05-15T08:00:33","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T08:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.andersons.com\/?p=2932"},"modified":"2023-01-25T21:48:08","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T21:48:08","slug":"use-it-or-lose-it-how-to-spend-extra-school-budget-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/use-it-or-lose-it-how-to-spend-extra-school-budget-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"Use It or Lose It: How to Spend “Extra” School Budget Funds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some schools have a strict policy that all budgetary funds need to be used by the last day of school (aka “use it or lose it”). If your club or group is in this fortunate situation and has some money left in your budget, check out these ideas on how to spend those extra dollars. Don\u2019t forget to brainstorm within your booster club, student council, PTA, or pep squad to come up with other creative ways to use a budgetary surplus.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Gifts and Awards
    \n<\/em><\/strong> \"Beeing-awesome-appreciation_award\"<\/a>Recognize hard-working teachers, volunteers, and\/or students with awards and appreciation gifts. Awards do not have to be fancy, since those extra dollars probably won\u2019t stretch too far. Pens<\/a>, neck straps<\/a>, notepads<\/a>, ribbons<\/a>, and award pins<\/a> are a few examples of quick gifts and awards you can hand out with a heartfelt “Thank you.”<\/li>\n
  2. End of Year School Dance
    \n<\/em><\/strong>Even a limited budget surplus can be used for a year-end celebration. Put your extra dollars toward a custom     banner<\/a> to announce the dance, simple decorations, and\/or appetizers, and punch. Students who may be stressing about exams will love this idea.<\/li>\n
  3. Orientation Supplies for Fall
    \n<\/em><\/strong>Get a jump start on the next school year and order custom     folders<\/a>, pencils, bumper stickers<\/a>, or key chains<\/a> for fall orientation. Extra school supplies will be appreciated when the new school year arrives; they will make your orientation planners\u2019 jobs a little easier.<\/li>\n
  4. New School Store Items\"Paw_Store\"<\/a>
    \n<\/em><\/strong>Stock up on     school store<\/a> essentials. Complete your year-end inventory to figure out what items you need. Then, use your extra funds to purchase custom water bottles<\/a>, backpacks<\/a>, school supplies<\/a>, novelty<\/a> items, and more. Custom apparel<\/a> is also a fun idea to help promote your school.<\/li>\n
  5. Event Door Prizes
    \n<\/em><\/strong>Your PTA or Party Committee is in charge of throwing the big events of the school year. Help them out and order small door prizes they can hand out as each student arrives. Or use those leftover dollars for a few \u2018bigger\u2019 raffle prizes.<\/li>\n
  6. Save It
    \n<\/em><\/strong>If you only have a small amount of extra money in your budget, and are undecided on how to spend it, save it instead. Put the money into an account for the next school year.<\/li>\n
  7. Spirit Week Supplies
    \n<\/em><\/strong>    \"Spirit_Week\"<\/a>Start preparing for next year\u2019s Spirit Week. Put those extra dollars towards buttons, beads, noisemakers<\/a>, and fan gear<\/a> to help boost school pride.<\/li>\n
  8. Combine Funds with Other Groups
    \n<\/em><\/strong>If you are part of a school that has a “use it or lose it” budget policy, there is a good possibility other clubs and groups are in the same situation. Talk to the head of each club and\/or group and combine funds to achieve one of the above ideas.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Does your school have \u2018extra\u2019 budget dollars? Spend them or save them using these easy ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Some schools have a strict policy that all budgetary funds need to be used by the last day of school<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,27,28,32,607],"tags":[238,267,453,456,459,473],"class_list":["post-2932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-school","category-school-dances","category-school-spirit","category-school-store-high-school","category-student-awards","tag-fundraising-2","tag-high-school-2","tag-school","tag-school-budget","tag-school-dance","tag-school-store"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2932"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5305,"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932\/revisions\/5305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}