Raising children doesn’t come cheap and back-to-school time is a solid reminder of that. That time of year is when kids need pretty much everything from new shoes and clothes to new supplies for the school year and the expense of all it adds up fast. That’s why some parents are willing to do all kinds of things to cut down on back-to-school costs.
A new survey of 2-thousand U.S. parents of elementary school kids reveals:
- Three-quarters would be willing to try “any” workaround to save money on school supplies.
- Staying under budget is the top priority for 77% of parents.
- The most common ways they try to keep costs down include buying school supplies whenever they go on sale during the year (49%), shopping at multiple stores to find the best deal (45%), hoarding school supplies throughout the year (37%) and shopping only when there’s a good deal (34%).
- But some parents are willing to try extreme couponing (22%), looking around the house for half-used items (16%), joining buy-nothing groups on social media (10%), trading supplies with other parents (9%) and a few would go so far as to try dumpster diving (5%) for school supplies.
- Another 12% admit to stealing supplies from their workplace to give kids for school.
- More than half (57%) would consider buying some supplies in bulk with a group of other parents and splitting the costs, for supplies like pens and pencils (67%), art supplies (59%), notebooks (58%), folders (54%), and desk accessories (47%).
- Overall, parents expect to spend an average of $280 on school supplies this year.
- While 95% of respondents prefer including their kids when shopping, 64% say they spend more when their kids are with them, an extra $101 on supplies, on average.
- Nearly half (44%) of parents say they’d consider just giving their kids money to buy their own supplies, but a lot of them think their kids would just buy snacks (42%), candy (38%) and games (33%) instead.
Source: SWNS Digital