Almost one in five parents said they plan to buy fewer items this year due to inflation and one in five said they'll dip into their savings to pay for supplies.
According to a recent NerdWallet survey, families expect to spend an average of $610 on back to school shopping and we've got great hacks to maximize those dollars.
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"Back to school shopping is especially stressful for a lot of parents this year because inflation is so high," said Kimberly Palmer of NerdWallet.
So here are five tips to ease your burden:
Number one: stick with school lists.
"Often people buy so much more than they need but there's usually a pretty limited list of what your child actually needs on the first day," Palmer said. "For example, they might not need that graphing calculator until second semester."
Number two: comparison shop.
"It is really easy to use browser extensions to do the comparison shopping for you. So, for example, you can use the Honey browser extension, or Camelizer, if you shop on Amazon," said Palmer.
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Honey and Camelizer track prices and alert you if an item goes on sale or if there's a cheaper price at another retailer. And at check-out, it will automatically apply the best promo codes to your cart.
"It does all of that work for you, so you can make sure you're getting the lowest price," said Palmer.
Tip three: check price match policies.
"A lot of the big retailers, they give you two weeks to price match. And if you see a price drop during that two week period, then you can actually get a partial refund for the item," said Palmer.
Target will price match and Walmart offers some limited price matching.
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Tip four: coordinate with other parents.
"You can actually save a lot of money on back to school shopping by buying in bulk. But you don't need those four binders. Instead, you can share them between the different parents, each of you pay a portion of the cost," said Palmer.
Tip five: shop during New Jersey's Sales Tax Holiday from August 26th to September 4th.
During that time, retailers should not charge you sales tax on school supplies, including computers with a sticker price of less than $3,000.
Sports and recreational equipment, including ballet and tap shoes, are also part of the sales tax holiday.