Why school supplies prices increased, how local parents are managing

Inflation and the Middle East conflict have been affecting groceries, gas and now school supplies.

If you were buying a lunch box or notebook paper, you may have been surprised by how expensive it is this school year.

Those prices have gone up nearly eight percent since last year. 

A recent study from The Century Foundation shows that families can spend about $4,000 per child on school supplies this year, which is 10.7% higher than last year.

The items seeing the highest jumps in prices are:

• Lunch boxes
• Notebooks 
• Notebook paper
• Index cards
• Tissues 

UTEP economics professor Tom Fullerton explains what could be causing this spike.

"School supplies are also impacted by higher oil and diesel prices," he says. "The diesel prices that cause school supply prices to go up because similar to groceries, school supplies have to be transported to all the stores throughout all 50 states, as well as the territories, and higher diesel prices inevitably be raised, the cost of transportation."

He also said it's not just transportation, but even packaging materials like plastic that are driving the costs up higher.

A Socorro ISD parent with a child in second grade and pre-k says she got ahead with her school supplies shopping by buying in bulk online on Amazon.

But, she did end up spending about $500 on what her children needed and on teachers' wish lists.

So to save, she tried to reuse supplies from her second-grader, like the backpack, lunch box and uniforms — which she says she found at best price for clothes at stores like Target or Walmart. 

But, she had to budget more this year, especially for classes requesting electronics like headphones for reading in class.

"We know that we have to budget a little bit more to make sure that the kids have what they need going back to school," said Victoria Enrique, mother of two. "So, just like everything with the prices and the increases that we've seen going on, we make sure that we build that into the budget that we need so that the kids don't go without the stuff and the supplies that they need to be successful."

Her advice is to buy supplies like composition notebooks and glue sticks in bulk online which can come at a lower cost.