July 24, 2025 • 6 mins
Ted Rossman of Bankrate says that while is inflation is down, this is still a very expensive time of year, but has some tips to save you money
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the Legacy Retirement Group dot Com phone line from
Bankrate dot com. It's senior industry analyst Ted Rossman. Ted,
I can't believe that we're already talking back to school.
I mentioned to my sons the other day that they've
got a lot of month, less than a month left
of their summer vacation before they got to go back
to school, and they just they gave me that blank stare.
But people are getting out to the stores and doing
(00:22):
some back to school shopping, and the way the economy
is is people are kind of changing the way they
shop for back to school. What have you learned?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
We found that thirty percent of back to school shoppers
are changing their buying habits because of inflation. That's actually
down from forty one percent three years ago. That was
when inflation peaked back in the summer of twenty twenty two,
and really since the beginning of twenty three, wage growth
has been consistently outpacing inflation, so people are feeling better.
(00:51):
It's still an expensive time of year, though. The National
Retail Federation says the average K through twelve back to
school shopper is spending eight hundred and fifty eight dollars.
That's down about twenty bucks from last year. One other
thing is people are starting earlier. They found a record
two thirds of back to school shoppers had begun making
(01:12):
purchases by early July, so.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Eight hundred and fifty bucks on average per student. What
does that include that? When we say back to school shopping,
are we talking about? You know, I always think, you know, notebooks, pens, pencils,
you know, backpacks, that kind of thing. But does that
include electronics and back to school like clothes and shoes
and stuff too.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yes, the National Retail Federations calculations do include things like electronics,
which are actually the biggest single line item, clothings another
big one, shoes, backpacks, pens, pencils, notebooks, all of that.
So it sounds like a lot. You don't necessarily need
to buy all of that every year, especially electronics that
might be at more every few years kind of purchase.
(01:55):
One tip for savings, My wife and I have two
young kids, and she loved the buy nothing groups and
they're on Facebook and other platforms, and oftentimes members of
your local community are happy to pass on gently used
items for free or no cost low cost. You can
get clothes, you can get school supplies, you can get toys.
(02:17):
That's an idea. Another good way to save is to
stack discounts. So if you are buying something new, use
a store promo, use a rewards credit card, go through
an online shopping portal like Racketin, use card linked offers
like Amex offers and Chase offers. You could potentially combine
all four of those on the same purchase.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
And one of the things that we do, speaking with
Ted Roschman by the way, from bankrate dot com, Ted,
one of the things that we do, and I've got
two teenage boys, I've got a senior in high school
and an eighth grader, is you know they start school
in August. There's no need to do a bunch of
back to school clothes shopping right now because they're still
wearing summer clothes in school. It's still hot. I mean,
(02:59):
they don't need new genes and new sweatshirts. Just yeah,
you got a couple of months before that, so you
could kind of wait and buy some stuff later and
spread out your costs.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
You can spread out the impact. Yeah, you can do
that with school supplies too. Maybe you even ask your
kids teacher, what do you really need on day one
versus what can wait until later in the year. But
absolutely with clothes, you can wait until you dust off
last year's fall wardrobe. Maybe some of it still fits
if you're lucky. I know, kids grow fast, but yeah,
these are always that you can save. I also wanted
(03:30):
to mention that Ohio is one of the states that
has a sales tax holiday, and that's coming up in
early August, and these are often timed around back to
school and that can be a way to save as well,
because a lot of the purchases that qualify tend to
be school supplies and clothes and computers and things like that.
So that's another one to keep in mind that could
go under that umbrella of stacking discounts and combining that
(03:54):
with some of these other strategies.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I'm glad you brought that up, because I was going
to if you didn't that. It's the sales tax holiday.
It's really expanded too. It used to be just a
weekend in Ohio, but now this year it's expanded to
two full weeks August first to August fourteenth, and it
applies to most purchases that you make. There are some exceptions,
exclusions but I mean, you can really save some money
(04:18):
if you go out and buy the stuff that you
know you're going to need, like a calculator or you know,
like we talked about folders and notebooks and pencils and
paper stuff. That is pretty much you can count on
your kids are going to need in the classroom exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
And the best part is that you can stack that
with other discounts, so you save a few points in
sales text and then use that rewards credit card and
you use the store coupon and maybe you find an
Amex offer or Chase offer or something like that, all
of a sudden, you've saved more than you realize. Another
thought is to involve your kids in the process too.
That's another thing I like to do around back to
(04:57):
school is to use it as a teachable moment and
use there's an opportunity to talk about things like budgeting
and comparison shopping, and if the kid wants to splurge
in one category, then maybe they've got to cut back
in another so that you still hit that overall budget.
This can be an opportunity to talk to kids about money.
Sometimes parents feel a little awkward about money topics, but
(05:19):
back to school can be a teachable, coachable kind of moment.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, and back to the sort of staggering your purchases.
I mean, you don't know, necessarily, especially as the kids
get older, exactly what the teacher is going to require
until you get to class. I mean, some of the
little kids, they'll send out a list before school starts,
and you need a box of tissues and those little things.
But as they get older, you may not know what
(05:43):
the classroom is going to require. You know, do you
really need a compass or a protractor for school? But
sometimes it's best to wait until you actually sit down
in the class and see what the teacher is going
to require for that class.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, sometimes you need to wait and see. The cost
tend to go up as kids get older, certainly by college.
The National Retail Federation says the average back to college
shopper is spending about thirteen hundred bucks. Now. A lot
of that, of course, is dorm furnishings and some extras
that you may not need for younger kids. But also
the stakes get higher when it comes to textbooks and
(06:19):
computers and calculators, And it's definitely an expensive time of year.
Even as costs have stabilized. This is still the second
busiest retail holiday, only Christmas time.
On the Legacy Retirement Group dot Com phone line from
Bankrate dot com. It's senior industry analyst Ted Rossman. Ted,
I can't believe that we're already talking back to school.
I mentioned to my sons the other day that they've
got a lot of month, less than a month left
of their summer vacation before they got to go back
to school, and they just they gave me that blank stare.
But people are getting out to the stores and doing
(00:22):
some back to school shopping, and the way the economy
is is people are kind of changing the way they
shop for back to school. What have you learned?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
We found that thirty percent of back to school shoppers
are changing their buying habits because of inflation. That's actually
down from forty one percent three years ago. That was
when inflation peaked back in the summer of twenty twenty two,
and really since the beginning of twenty three, wage growth
has been consistently outpacing inflation, so people are feeling better.
(00:51):
It's still an expensive time of year, though. The National
Retail Federation says the average K through twelve back to
school shopper is spending eight hundred and fifty eight dollars.
That's down about twenty bucks from last year. One other
thing is people are starting earlier. They found a record
two thirds of back to school shoppers had begun making
(01:12):
purchases by early July, so.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Eight hundred and fifty bucks on average per student. What
does that include that? When we say back to school shopping,
are we talking about? You know, I always think, you know, notebooks, pens, pencils,
you know, backpacks, that kind of thing. But does that
include electronics and back to school like clothes and shoes
and stuff too.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yes, the National Retail Federations calculations do include things like electronics,
which are actually the biggest single line item, clothings another
big one, shoes, backpacks, pens, pencils, notebooks, all of that.
So it sounds like a lot. You don't necessarily need
to buy all of that every year, especially electronics that
might be at more every few years kind of purchase.
(01:55):
One tip for savings, My wife and I have two
young kids, and she loved the buy nothing groups and
they're on Facebook and other platforms, and oftentimes members of
your local community are happy to pass on gently used
items for free or no cost low cost. You can
get clothes, you can get school supplies, you can get toys.
(02:17):
That's an idea. Another good way to save is to
stack discounts. So if you are buying something new, use
a store promo, use a rewards credit card, go through
an online shopping portal like Racketin, use card linked offers
like Amex offers and Chase offers. You could potentially combine
all four of those on the same purchase.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
And one of the things that we do, speaking with
Ted Roschman by the way, from bankrate dot com, Ted,
one of the things that we do, and I've got
two teenage boys, I've got a senior in high school
and an eighth grader, is you know they start school
in August. There's no need to do a bunch of
back to school clothes shopping right now because they're still
wearing summer clothes in school. It's still hot. I mean,
(02:59):
they don't need new genes and new sweatshirts. Just yeah,
you got a couple of months before that, so you
could kind of wait and buy some stuff later and
spread out your costs.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
You can spread out the impact. Yeah, you can do
that with school supplies too. Maybe you even ask your
kids teacher, what do you really need on day one
versus what can wait until later in the year. But
absolutely with clothes, you can wait until you dust off
last year's fall wardrobe. Maybe some of it still fits
if you're lucky. I know, kids grow fast, but yeah,
these are always that you can save. I also wanted
(03:30):
to mention that Ohio is one of the states that
has a sales tax holiday, and that's coming up in
early August, and these are often timed around back to
school and that can be a way to save as well,
because a lot of the purchases that qualify tend to
be school supplies and clothes and computers and things like that.
So that's another one to keep in mind that could
go under that umbrella of stacking discounts and combining that
(03:54):
with some of these other strategies.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I'm glad you brought that up, because I was going
to if you didn't that. It's the sales tax holiday.
It's really expanded too. It used to be just a
weekend in Ohio, but now this year it's expanded to
two full weeks August first to August fourteenth, and it
applies to most purchases that you make. There are some exceptions,
exclusions but I mean, you can really save some money
(04:18):
if you go out and buy the stuff that you
know you're going to need, like a calculator or you know,
like we talked about folders and notebooks and pencils and
paper stuff. That is pretty much you can count on
your kids are going to need in the classroom exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
And the best part is that you can stack that
with other discounts, so you save a few points in
sales text and then use that rewards credit card and
you use the store coupon and maybe you find an
Amex offer or Chase offer or something like that, all
of a sudden, you've saved more than you realize. Another
thought is to involve your kids in the process too.
That's another thing I like to do around back to
(04:57):
school is to use it as a teachable moment and
use there's an opportunity to talk about things like budgeting
and comparison shopping, and if the kid wants to splurge
in one category, then maybe they've got to cut back
in another so that you still hit that overall budget.
This can be an opportunity to talk to kids about money.
Sometimes parents feel a little awkward about money topics, but
(05:19):
back to school can be a teachable, coachable kind of moment.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, and back to the sort of staggering your purchases.
I mean, you don't know, necessarily, especially as the kids
get older, exactly what the teacher is going to require
until you get to class. I mean, some of the
little kids, they'll send out a list before school starts,
and you need a box of tissues and those little things.
But as they get older, you may not know what
(05:43):
the classroom is going to require. You know, do you
really need a compass or a protractor for school? But
sometimes it's best to wait until you actually sit down
in the class and see what the teacher is going
to require for that class.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, sometimes you need to wait and see. The cost
tend to go up as kids get older, certainly by college.
The National Retail Federation says the average back to college
shopper is spending about thirteen hundred bucks. Now. A lot
of that, of course, is dorm furnishings and some extras
that you may not need for younger kids. But also
the stakes get higher when it comes to textbooks and
(06:19):
computers and calculators, And it's definitely an expensive time of year.
Even as costs have stabilized. This is still the second
busiest retail holiday, only Christmas time.
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