Frugal Family: Back-to-School Deals

On Tuesday, more than 12,000 K-12 students headed back to school for the 2011-2012 year in the Palo Alto Unified School District. For those kids, or parents, that still have some back-to-school shopping to check of their lists, we’ve scoped out the best deals.

1) Go back to school Silicon Valley style. Pre-K Letters and Numbers is a new app aimed at helping young children develop language and numeracy skills. A product of Palo Alto-based BrightStart, the app is now on sale for 99 cents, and available in App Stores in the Education category.

2) Want to pack your children some healthy school lunches? has two fruit deals, ripe through August 31. Local, organic cantaloupe is reduced from 99 cents a pound to 69 cents a pound. The biggest savings, though, are the organic white peaches, which have been reduced from $3.99 a pound to $1.99 a pound.

3) Want to also add a treat in those lunch boxes (or keep one for yourself)? Country Sun Natural Foods is offering a buy one, get one free sale on Newman's Own Organics Chocolate Cups.

4) Through Saturday, August 27 Rite Aid is discounting most of its back-to-school basics. With the store’s Wellness Card, you can find buy one, get one free deals on boxed envelopes, pencils or tape. Also, take 25 percent off regular priced items such as pencil sharpeners, staplers, staples, and scissors.

5) Are you or your kids enrolled in an art class? University Art Center has a slew of crafty deals, ranging from an acrylic painting kit for $27.95 to oil and acrylic brushes for $3.81 each.