Parents say back-to-school feels pricier than ever, with many spending $500+ on supplies and activities

The majority of parents (68%) feel pressure to spend on optional back-to-school shopping and activities, according to a new Yahoo/YouGov poll of 1,729 U.S. adults. And any parent will tell you, back-to-school spending goes well beyond the class supply list, as we shell out for everything from youth sports fees to after-school care and more. More than a quarter of parents (28%) anticipate spending $500 or more on back-to-school expenses, and 75% plan to spend over $100.

As the founder of The Purse, a publication about women and money, I love to talk to people about how they spend their hard-earned paychecks on everyday (and not-so-everyday) expenses. So, of course, I want to see what parents of school-age children are spending.

Enter the Bank of Mom and Dad, Yahoo’s special feature on the cost of parenting, as told through our back-to-school shopping receipts submitted by a range of families, from homeschoolers to sports moms to those spending tens of thousands on tuition and extracurriculars.

I also have a personal stake in this crazy shopping season. I have a son entering the fourth grade, and my mom-friend group chat is blowing up as we prepare for another school year.

Moms are carrying the back-to-school mental load

Perhaps it’s no big surprise, but the bulk of back-to-school shopping is managed by moms. The Yahoo/YouGov poll found that 63% of women say they do the bulk of back-to-school shopping, compared with 36% of men.

While many mothers I spoke to shared that their husbands do take on some of the burden of the back-to-school madness — filling out forms, making doctors’ appointments and signing up the kids for extracurricular activities — nearly all said the job of shopping fell to them.

“Perhaps we play to our strengths,” said one mom friend via Instagram DM. Maybe. But it should be clear to all the dads sitting on the sidelines: Preparing kids for a new school year is hardly a fun afternoon at the mall.

As one San Francisco Bay Area mom shared, there’s a lot of stress to find the correct sizes of clothing and the right in-stock school supplies, and then making sure she has the budget to cover everything.

The pressure is real

Even when the budget is top of mind, many families feel pressure to go big. And it’s not just friends and neighbors — or even social media — prompting this additional spending. The biggest culprit? Kids. The Yahoo/YouGov poll found that 68% of parent respondents feel the pressure from their kids to blow the back-to-school budget.

Children can be pretty persuasive, especially when they flash those cute dimpled smiles and say a sweet, “Please, Mama.” Who among us is immune? Until the credit card bill arrives, and we might start having second thoughts: 17% of the Yahoo/YouGov respondents said they may go into credit card debt to cover the cost of back-to-school shopping this year.

Setting expectations early can help prevent stress when it comes time to shop. A mother of two teenagers in Pittsburgh shared that she and her husband discuss the back-to-school budget with their 13-year-old daughter, who is very creative and sets out each year with a color palette in mind for her school supplies.

“With my daughter, we talked through things, and explained we weren’t paying double the price for [supplies] because they fit her ‘vision,’” said the Pittsburgh mom. Meanwhile, their 17-year-old son doesn’t really care about his supplies at all, and as a result, they spend a lot less on his back-to-school shopping needs.

’Tis the season for shopping

Just like pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks and giant 12-foot skeletons at Home Depot, back-to-school season seems to arrive earlier and earlier every year. I walked into a Staples with my 8-year-old son the week of July Fourth, and the retailer was already advertising back-to-school promotions. We were both horrified. “It’s too soon!” my son cried.

Yet, it’s not surprising retailers want parents to get started on their shopping early —and buying more often. Back-to-school is the second biggest shopping event of the year after Christmas, and research from the National Retail Federation finds that families with students in elementary through high school plan to spend an average of $858.07 on clothing, shoes, school supplies and electronics. That’s down slightly from 2024 ($874.68), and a big reason for the decrease is all the economic uncertainty around tariffs.

All summer the news has been filled with headlines about when proposed tariffs might go into effect and how they might impact the budgets of everyday Americans. The Yahoo/YouGov poll found that more than half (54%) of back-to-school shoppers are concerned about how these tariffs will impact prices.

As a result, many started shopping earlier this year, trying to take advantage of big semiannual sales like Amazon Prime Day (which ran for nearly a week this July), Target Circle Week and Walmart Deals. (Worth noting: 19 states also offer residents tax-free, back-to-school shopping events throughout July and August to further ease the burden.) But it’s hard to get a head start when you’re still waiting for the school to send the list of supplies your kid will need.

Costs can vary depending on the school

There is a growing number of schools trying to avoid inequity among students when it comes to school supplies. In some, the parent-teacher association coordinates shopping for all the supplies and asks parents to donate a certain dollar amount to cover their kids. The PTAs encourage those who can to donate more to help pay for children whose parents may not be able to afford the expense.

When schools do provide the supplies, it can change how kids feel about the season.

“Back-to-school shopping isn't exactly a high-stakes event in our house,” says a Silicon Valley mom with two elementary school kids. “Our public school is amazing and provides all the supplies, so my kids don't see it as a free-for-all for new stuff.”

Other schools will send out a wish list, asking parents to donate certain supplies that will benefit the whole class — but only if they can comfortably afford to do so. A parent in Northern California shared the wish list for her daughter’s Title I school, which included requests for 12 packs of composition notebooks and dozens of Elmer’s glue sticks.

But some families are finding that their schools are asking for even more support as the districts face budget shortfalls.

“If I contributed to every parent group, class rep, department and sports program, I’d be expected to give between $1,500 and $2,000,” says a mother of two high school students in Dublin, Calif. “I want to support the school where I can, but I just can’t manage that kind of expense at the start of the year.”

Expenses beyond supplies

But the price of backpacks and notebooks is often one of the smallest expenses this time of year. Parents are also paying fees for youth sports programs and tuition for after-school programs and making donations to various school-related causes. Once you take a look at those costs, the price of new sneakers seems like nothing to stress about.

And the older the kids, the bigger the expense. Elementary school families might spend a few hundred dollars, tops, for their kid to participate in a youth sports league. But middle school and high school parents find themselves shelling out much more. The Texas family I interviewed is deeply involved with their local chapter of the Future Farmers of America, showing cattle and broiler chickens. The daughter of the Pittsburgh family is an avid horseback rider, and their son plays baseball and golf. Both admit they spend thousands a year to support their kids’ activities.

Is there a solution to the madness?

I asked all the parents I interviewed how the back-to-school shopping experience was different from what they remembered from childhood, and across the board, they all agreed it was different.

Sure, some things haven’t changed. There’s still the worry about having just the right backpack or finding a fresh look so your kid will fit in freshman year. But 64% of respondents of the Yahoo/YouGov poll said they expected to pay for more supplies and activities than their parents did. This is likely due to a whole flurry of factors: tariffs and inflation, budget shortfalls at schools and the pressure many parents feel to make sure their kids are in the right activities.

As a result, there’s no easy solution to ease the back-to-school madness. It feels very much like a season where we must grin and bear it — and hope that we’ve budgeted enough so we don’t go into credit card debt to pay for it all.