MSNBC has a 10 Tips story today on Back to School Savings. I’ve highlighted some of those ideas recently in other back to school posts, but here is a snippet:

Homework can be almost impossible to do these days without a computer and access to the Internet. If you’re thinking of investing in a personal computer exclusively for your child’s use, look for deals. There’s no need to pay top dollar for this purchase. Again, check out eBay and craigslist, and remember that refurbished computers are another option.

It is quite a sanity-saver to have more than one computer in the house, if you can afford it.

But there’s no need to get all the bells and whistles for a “secondary” computer. As long as it can type school reports via a commonly-recognized software program, go on the Internet to look up information and collect e-mail, what else do you need? A refurbished or hand-me-down one could work just fine.

My personal computer is my dad’s old Macbook laptop. It handles everything I need to do on a regular basis, which includes blogging (when I do that from home), working on my Sunday School lessons, on line banking, visiting my favorite bulletin boards and forums, playing music, instant messaging, and uploading my pictures to a photo lab.

There are very few times when I’m on my husband’s desktop computer. Mostly, that’s when we want to video conference. He’s got an auxiliary camera installed at his computer and there is no camera on my laptop. We also put the photo scanner / photocopier at my husband’s desk.

If you do want to purchase a new computer, be aware that some of the biggest discounts this time of year are aimed at college students. If there is a college student in the family, get the student ID issued or validated on campus for the fall semester, bring the ID with you to the computer store or campus bookstore and start asking for “student discount” pricing.