Parents Are Sharing Their Higher-Than-Ever School Supply Shopping Receipts For 2024

As a bookish kid, going back-to-school shopping was one of my very favorite things to do at the end of the summer. There was a simple joy in picking out new notebooks, pens, pencils, folders and, if you were really lucky, a new Trapper Keeper. But for some parents on TikTok, the cost of back-to-school supplies has gotten out of hand, and they’re sharing their receipts.

TikTok user @cramer.crew, who goes by Christy, shared her annual haul for two kids. It’ll look familiar to anyone who’s received a supply list from a school teacher— dry erase markers, folders, notebooks, glue sticks, tissues and paper towels, that sort of thing. Many if not most of the items were store brand (specifically Target, which another mom in her area had calculated to be the cheapest), not name brand. “Christy” didn’t make any purchases of big ticket items, like electronics, and didn’t count backpacks or lunchboxes, which she purchased elsewhere. Some items, like her older child’s backpack and calculator, were reused from the year before.

Nevertheless, her total came to $170.23.

“Absolutely insane. Insane!” she concludes.

Another parent, @addi_archers_mommy, “Harlee,” expressed her frustration as well.

“I just spent about $100 on my first grader’s school supplies,” she declares. “And they wouldn’t even let me buy anything fun.”

She went through her haul, highlighting the specificity of the items requested, noting that many were name brand. (Harlee didn’t always abide by the name brand request, which I get, but a teacher friend of mine has told me those requests are usually made when an educator has experience with a brand and knows that, ultimately, spending more up-front will save money in the long run as these items won’t need to be replaced as quickly.)

No one appears to be blaming teachers for this expense. In fact, in the comments of her video, Christy goes out of her way to express appreciation for teachers telling one commenter “Crazy how teachers are expected to provide it all.” And indeed, according to the National Educators Association, teachers spend an average of $500 to $750 on classroom supplies for our kids. It’s certainly not their fault that many education budgets do not provide for all the stationery and other items for a classroom of 20+ kids.

Between clothes and shoes, classroom supplies, and electronics, the National Retail Federation (NRF) estimates that the average family will spend about $890 for a K-12 student this year—$39 billion in total. Capital One Shopping Research puts the ticket price for school supplies alone at a little over $140 per household on average. The site also notes that the average back-to-school budget has increased 30% since 2018, when the average budget was $684.79, and a staggering 58% since 2007, when parents could expect to spend $563.49. While most people will lay this increase entirely at the feet of inflation, popping these numbers into the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator shows that pure inflation would put a 2024 budget at $853.73 and $849.91 respectively; close but distinctly lower than the actual $890 price tag.

Fortunately, data from Capital One and the NRF notes that the cost of school supplies has remained the least affected by inflation and price hikes over the past few years. So, yes, it’s expensive, but it’s not wildly more expensive than last year. Still, this is not a meager expense, and it leaves parents and teachers spending a lot of money at the end of a season already marked by expensive camps, childcare, vacations, and day trips.