If you have a K-12 kid, you are on track to spend an average of $863.86 on back-to-school this year, per the National Retail Federation’s July 14 survey. That is a record high. It lands in a summer where 78% of parents already tell NRF they expect higher prices. Total spending across families with K-12 kids will hit $43.3 billion.
None of that means you have to spend $864 yourself.
The average hides the fight. Only $146 of it is actual school supplies. The rest is $293 on electronics, $250 on clothing and accessories, and $174 on shoes, per NRF’s category breakdown. That is the tell. The school-supplies line is $146.45. The other $718 is what parents decide to buy around back-to-school, not what the school asked for.
Here’s what the tariff coverage is missing. The Trump administration’s next tariff wave lands August 1 on more than 20 countries, per public schedules, and back-to-school buyers already got the message. NRF’s data shows 62% of families started shopping by early July, tracking last year’s tariff-panic early buying almost exactly. Retailers front-loaded imports, so most of what is on shelves right now was ordered before the new tariff numbers existed. Which is why NRF chief economist Mark Mathews says “shoppers are keeping value front and center as they look for ways to make their dollars go further.”
Translation: prices on next week’s shipment will likely run higher than what is on the shelf today.
Cut half without shortchanging your kid
Reuse last year’s backpack, lunchbox, and calculator unless they’re broken. A functional backpack is not a school-year requirement. If it works, it stays. Sixty bucks not spent is sixty bucks.
Buy generic on the supplies list. The store-brand crayon works. The store-brand glue stick works. Deloitte’s 2025 back-to-school survey found 52% of parents anxious about higher prices this year, and supplies are exactly the category where brand loyalty is thinnest. On a $146 supplies run, going generic on the top ten items saves $30 to $50.
Time clothing and shoes for a state tax holiday. Sixteen states hold back-to-school sales tax holidays through the first three weeks of August. Texas runs August 7 to 9. Massachusetts, August 8 to 9. Maryland, August 9 to 15. On $250 of clothes and $174 of shoes in a 6% sales-tax state, that is about $25 saved for buying the same items three weeks later. Not huge. Real money.
Skip the new laptop. Electronics is the single biggest line at $293 per family. If nothing in your house is broken, do not swap it because it is July. The school did not ask.
What actually needs new
The teacher’s list. The one printed on the email your kid brought home or the one their homeroom posted online. That is the ceiling of what has to be bought. Everything else is retail selling you the season.
The move this week
Pull the teacher’s list. Cross off anything you already have. Buy generic on what is left. Skip the pre-planned laptop upgrade. Wait on clothing and shoes for your state’s tax holiday.
Cut two categories in half and skip the electronics reset, and you can bring $864 down to about $400 without your kid noticing anything was different. That is the actual back-to-school savings play. Nobody with a marketing budget is going to tell you that.
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