As my kids got older, I did notice, year-after-year, that the cost of sending them back to school was steadily increasing. Not only did I need to buy back-to-school stuff - but my kids were active in band, flags, gymnastics - and that added to the expense. I think how I ultimately dealt with it is that I refused to actually CALCULATE a total. I just handled the expenses one-day-at-a-time.
I suppose it is natural to assume that the cost continues (and will continue) to increase BUT it is still stunning when you add it all up.
According to a new back-to-school survey, moms and dads with children in grads K to 12 will be shelling out about $27.8 billion on back-to-school items this year, which averages to about $519 per child for things like clothing, supplies, computers and electronics.
As for where all that money’s going, clothing and accessories account for about 54% of back-to-school shopping, followed by school supplies (22%), electronic gadgets (13%) and computers and hardware (11%). But the largest amount of money spent will go to electronics and gadgets, with 22% of consumers intending to spend about $305 per person on them, to the tune of $800 million.
And while a lot of us are still basking in summer break, 60% of respondents say they’ll begin their back-to-school shopping in late July and early August, translating to $17.3 billion in sales. Those who wait tend to spend more though, with those putting it off until the last weeks likely to shell out, on average $889 a student, or $370 more than the average parent.
As for parents of college students, the survey finds they’ll spend $25.1 billion, or approximately $1,362 per student.