In this era of high prices, parents are struggling to buy back-to-school supplies.
Recent surveys have shown that parents feel they are spending more on clothing and school supplies than before and may delay buying or paying for necessities in order to buy school supplies for their children.
Teachers are also facing challenges as the new school year approaches, with some being asked by parents to bring supplies and materials to share in the classroom, in addition to thinking about their own children.
“We ask parents, ‘What are you most worried about right now?’ and it’s inflation and the economic hardship that a lot of families are facing right now. When we talk about back-to-school, that’s one of the big concerns for American families because it really exposes how much pressure we’re under in this moment,” said Kelly Rodriguez, founder and president of the National Parents United.
A WalletHub survey last week found that 52% of parents plan to spend more money on back-to-school shopping than last year.
And parents and teachers are now pulling money out of their own pockets to buy classroom supplies.
“I got three different lists from three different teachers and now I have to go shopping,” Pascal Small, a California mother with three children in school, told The Hill.
“And most of our lists include not only things that I’m buying for my kids, but school supplies for the whole class. So our back to school shopping involves buying more than I could potentially need, more than what my kids need for school, because I feel like schools need to be well funded. I’m already struggling to make sure my kids have what they need for school,” Small said.
Inflation, a measure of price growth, has fallen this summer, but prices remain well above pre-pandemic levels. Prices for goods have risen nearly 21% since the pandemic began.
This year, parents could spend $586 per student, totaling about $31.3 billion across retail, according to a Deloitte study released last month, down slightly from last year, when parents spent $597 per student.
Lupin Skelly, Deloitte’s retail, wholesale and distribution research leader, told The Hill that parents were “starting the second school year with very high prices” and that “thrifty behaviour is much more prevalent this year.”
“So I think we’re seeing more people, especially in the lower and middle-income brackets, trying to stick to their budgets,” Skelly said.
“I think retailers are really aware of and concerned about what’s going on in this situation,” she added. “I think the idea is, ‘Let’s offer these great promotions early in the season.’ So we’ve certainly seen strategies to frontload sales and get people engaged earlier.”
But these strategies don’t have much impact until families find themselves in hardship elsewhere.
Nearly 50% of parents say they will forego household essentials like groceries or bills to cover the cost of school supplies, according to a survey conducted by Intuit Credit Karma on Thursday. That figure rises to 60% for Gen Z parents and 56% for millennial parents, who are more likely to forgo essentials in order to buy the back-to-school items their kids need.
“We generally do our shopping in the summer to prepare for fall, and if we find a really good sale, we take advantage of it and try to shop as smart as we can to save money,” Small said. “We try to get the best deals we can, and we buy school supplies in bulk ahead of time so we don’t spend too much, but things are still more expensive than they used to be.”
“Also, I have a family of five,” she added. “With three kids, expenses mount up. I may not be able to pay right away today. I may have to prioritize shopping for my kids, I may have to pay for home maintenance, electricity and water bills, and I may not be able to give my all to shopping for my kids’ school like I used to.”
There’s only so much parents can do to smooth out their budgets, and back-to-school costs may leave some students deep in debt.
“The cost of everyday items and services has risen over the past few years, which is likely why parents are being surprised by back-to-school shopping. High borrowing costs may be another big factor. Interest rates are high right now, making credit card debt expensive, and at least a third of parents know they’ll take out high-interest debt to cover back-to-school expenses,” said Courtney Aref, consumer finance advocate at Credit Karma.
—Tobias Burns contributed.
