Back to school is a gold mine for retailers
Back to school is the second busiest retail time of the year, second only to Christmas. We’ve all seen the commercials with happy families skipping up and down stores aisles filling up shopping carts with knapsacks, lunch boxes, note books, pencils, pens, etc. Unfortunately this happy picture is not indicative of many Canadian families for who back to school is a terrible financial burden.
What RetailMeNot.ca says about back to school
- 92% of Canadians agree that purchasing back to school items can be a financial burden on families
- 91% believe that back to school shopping is becoming more expensive year after year
- This year, Canadian parents are expecting to spend an average of $472 on their child for back to school shopping, $143 more than what they expected to spend last year ($329)
- University students are the most expensive to shop for with those parents expecting to spend $1,630, compared to $412 for high school students and $318 for elementary
8 Tips for beating the financial stress of back to school
- Only buy what you need. Reuse items when possible. If the knapsacks and lunch boxes are still good from last year, reuse them. The same goes for pens, pencils and other school supplies.
- Hand down clothing or do a clothing exchange with your friends. It’s a common sense way to save money.
- Create a budget and stick to it. We can’t stress enough the importance of a budget to maintain control of your finances.
- Search for the best prices: Don’t just walk into a store and pay full retail price. Search online, look for coupons and promo codes and wait for sales.
- Shop any time of year you find a sale and put the items away for back to school. Shop the Boxing Day sales or Thanksgiving Day sales and put away the clothes, shoes, knapsacks, etc. for back to school. It’s a great way to save money.
- Designer brands are not a necessity. Although many parents feel pressured into buying the latest designer brand for their kids, it’s not worth going into debt for.
- Go shopping with a friend and split bulk purchases. Buying in bulk is not always cost-effective for a single family but if you can split a bulk buy with a friend you may be able to save a considerable amount of money.
- Pay with cash. When you shop with a credit card it’s easy to lose track of your spending and then next month you’ll get a bill that you can’t pay.
What to do if you have too much debt and back to school costs will put you over the edge
If back to school is a financial burden, then you need help from a debt professional now before your situation becomes critical. The Ira Smith Team is here to help. Meet with us for a free consultation. We’ll evaluate your situation and come up with a solid financial plan so that Starting Over, Starting Now you can be well on your way to conquering debt.