{"id":427541,"date":"2026-08-08T19:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/427541\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:20:09","slug":"school-supplies-really-do-cost-more-heres-how-much-prices-have-jumped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/427541\/","title":{"rendered":"School supplies really do cost more. Here\u2019s how much prices have jumped"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A shopper checks out Walmarts\u2019s school supplies at a store in Serra Mesa. (File photo by Chris Jennewein\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

Last week, I accompanied my daughter to Target to buy notebooks, pencils, markers, folders, and the long list of supplies she\u2019ll need for the school year that starts in less than a week.<\/p>\n

I went with her last year, too. And the first thing I noticed was the price of everything.<\/p>\n

Everything seems to cost more.<\/p>\n

As we walked through the aisles, I ran into Mar\u00eda Ibarra, who was shopping with her daughter, a seventh-grader this year. Standing in front of a shelf lined with notebooks, Mar\u00eda was trying to find options that would better fit her budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe these would work. They\u2019re a little cheaper,\u201d she told her daughter.<\/p>\n

The response came quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Mom! There\u2019s no way I\u2019m showing up at school with notebooks like those.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exchange made me smile, but it also reminded me of something many parents have already discovered for themselves: getting kids ready to go back to school costs more than it did just a year ago.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just a feeling. An analysis by Groundwork Collaborative and The Century Foundation found that the average basket of 21 essential school supplies costs almost $173.45 this year, a 7.7% increase<\/a> compared with last year.<\/p>\n

Some products saw even larger increases:<\/p>\n

Notebooks \u2014 by about<\/a> 23%.<\/p>\n

Notebook paper<\/a> \u2014 20%.<\/p>\n

Index cards<\/a> \u2014 22.2%.<\/p>\n

Lunch boxes \u2014 nearly 27%.<\/p>\n

Dry-erase markers and glue sticks \u2014 about <\/a>8%.<\/p>\n

No. 2 pencils, crayons, colored pencils and binders \u2014 between 5% and 7%.<\/p>\n

A few extra dollars per item may not seem like much. But when there are two or three children in the household, the total adds up quickly.<\/p>\n

And in San Diego, those expenses are arriving at a particularly difficult time. Many families are still dealing with high rents, rising utility bills and the steadily increasing cost of basic necessities.<\/p>\n

The list of back-to-school expenses does not end with notebooks and pencils. There are also backpacks, sneakers, clothing, calculators, headphones and, in some cases, computers or tablets that some schools recommend or require.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou come prepared to spend money,\u201d Ibarra told me as she continued comparing prices. \u201cBut every year it seems like your money goes a little less far.\u201d<\/p>\n

School supplies are not the only concern.<\/p>\n

\"Back-to-school<\/a>A shopper in the back-to-school section of the Walmart store in Murphy Canyon. (File photo by Chris Jennewein\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

The groceries many parents buy for school lunches have become more expensive as well. The same analysis found that staple lunch foods increased by nearly 11% on average.<\/p>\n

Among the biggest increases:<\/p>\n

Blueberries \u2014 as much as 48%.<\/p>\n

Sandwich bread \u2014 22%.<\/p>\n

Apple juice \u2014 20%.<\/p>\n

Oranges \u2014 17%.<\/p>\n

Several packaged snack foods \u2014 all up by double-digits.<\/p>\n

At Target, I saw parents comparing brands, reading labels and doing mental math as they shopped. Some were searching for bargains; others were trying to decide which items could wait until the next paycheck.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a familiar scene during back-to-school season.<\/p>\n

My daughter left the store excited about her new supplies, looking forward to seeing her friends again and starting a new school year.<\/p>\n

I left thinking about something else: how much the cost of something as basic as sending a child to school has increased in such a short time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A shopper checks out Walmarts\u2019s school supplies at a store in Serra Mesa. (File photo by Chris Jennewein\/Times…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[82456,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-427541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-back-to-school","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}