Ms. Russo, 41, spent $200 on required supplies and $150 on clothing for him to attend kindergarten last year. This summer, she skipped sending the 7-year-old to summer camp and bought hand-me-down school uniforms to save money. She’s also hosting playdates to avoid going to water parks.
• A typical basket of 33 school items listed on Amazon jumped in cost by 5.45% over the past year, from $506.53 to $515.48, outpacing the most recent annual inflation numbers for all goods, market researcher Pattern reported July 20. “Money still feels like it’s going out faster than normal,” Ms. Edwards, 40, told The Times. “We’ve noticed a dip in prices recently for some things, but everything is still too high.”
The National Retail Federation estimates that parents of K-12 students will spend a record-high $41.5 billion on school supplies this year, averaging $890.07 per family. That’s up more than $4 billion from $36.9 billion last year and from the previous high of $31.7 billion, measured in 2021. Other analysts say parents could spend much less than they estimated to the NRF as they prioritize groceries over school.