Last week, I accompanied my daughter to Target to buy notebooks, pencils, markers, folders, and the long list of supplies she’ll need for the school year that starts in less than a week.
I went with her last year, too. And the first thing I noticed was the price of everything.
Everything seems to cost more.
As we walked through the aisles, I ran into María Ibarra, who was shopping with her daughter, a seventh-grader this year. Standing in front of a shelf lined with notebooks, María was trying to find options that would better fit her budget.
“Maybe these would work. They’re a little cheaper,” she told her daughter.
The response came quickly.
“Oh, Mom! There’s no way I’m showing up at school with notebooks like those.”
The exchange made me smile, but it also reminded me of something many parents have already discovered for themselves: getting kids ready to go back to school costs more than it did just a year ago.
And it’s not just a feeling. An analysis by Groundwork Collaborative and The Century Foundation found that the average basket of 21 essential school supplies costs almost $173.45 this year, a 7.7% increase compared with last year.
Some products saw even larger increases:
- Notebooks — by about 23%.
- Notebook paper — 20%.
- Index cards — 22.2%.
- Lunch boxes — nearly 27%.
- Dry-erase markers and glue sticks — about 8%.
- No. 2 pencils, crayons, colored pencils and binders — between 5% and 7%.
A few extra dollars per item may not seem like much. But when there are two or three children in the household, the total adds up quickly.
And in San Diego, those expenses are arriving at a particularly difficult time. Many families are still dealing with high rents, rising utility bills and the steadily increasing cost of basic necessities.
The list of back-to-school expenses does not end with notebooks and pencils. There are also backpacks, sneakers, clothing, calculators, headphones and, in some cases, computers or tablets that some schools recommend or require.
“You come prepared to spend money,” Ibarra told me as she continued comparing prices. “But every year it seems like your money goes a little less far.”
School supplies are not the only concern.
The groceries many parents buy for school lunches have become more expensive as well. The same analysis found that staple lunch foods increased by nearly 11% on average.
Among the biggest increases:
- Blueberries — as much as 48%.
- Sandwich bread — 22%.
- Apple juice — 20%.
- Oranges — 17%.
- Several packaged snack foods — all up by double-digits.
At Target, I saw parents comparing brands, reading labels and doing mental math as they shopped. Some were searching for bargains; others were trying to decide which items could wait until the next paycheck.
It’s a familiar scene during back-to-school season.
My daughter left the store excited about her new supplies, looking forward to seeing her friends again and starting a new school year.
I left thinking about something else: how much the cost of something as basic as sending a child to school has increased in such a short time.
