{"id":388617,"date":"2026-07-28T03:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T03:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/388617\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T03:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T03:36:11","slug":"houston-families-stretch-back-to-school-budgets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/388617\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston families stretch back-to-school budgets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Back-to-school \"Back-to-school Back-to-school shopping by the numbers<\/a> <\/p>\n

The new school year is quickly approaching which means parents are hitting retail stores to get their children ready for the school year. FOX 26’s Karys Belger has more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

HOUSTON – Back-to-school shopping is underway, but for many Houston families, checking items off the school supply list also means finding ways to make their budgets go further.<\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

Parents and students told FOX 26 they’re changing how they shop this year by waiting for sales, comparing prices and reusing supplies they already own.<\/p>\n

“It’s definitely something that’s concerning for me,” Collins Otieno said while shopping for his two children. “That means I need to sacrifice on other areas of my spending… I guess that’s what every parent is doing right now.”<\/p>\n

According to the National Retail Federation, the average family with K-12 students is expected to spend $863.86 on back-to-school shopping this year, with total spending projected to reach $43.3 billion nationwide. The organization says affordability is the biggest factor influencing shopping decisions this season.<\/p>\n

Families shop differently:<\/p>\n

Victoria Rowsey, who is preparing to begin classes at Texas A&M University this fall, said the cost of getting ready for college caught her by surprise.<\/p>\n

“They’re a lot more expensive than I thought things were,” Rowsey said. “Now going to college, you realize, ‘Oh, you have all these things to buy,’ and it really adds up.”<\/p>\n

She said she’s taking advantage of online deals, plans to shop during Texas’ tax-free weekend and is reusing items like her backpack and pencil case to help lower costs.<\/p>\n

Otieno said he’s also changing his shopping strategy, planning to compare prices at local stores and wait for discounts before buying school supplies.<\/p>\n

Affordability drives decisions:<\/p>\n

The National Retail Federation says more than six in ten shoppers report seeing higher prices while buying back-to-school items. If prices are higher than expected, many consumers say they plan to:<\/p>\n

Compare prices between retailersShop at discount storesLook for coupons and salesBuy fewer itemsSwitch to less expensive brands <\/p>\n

The organization also found many shoppers are delaying purchases while waiting for promotions or spreading their shopping over several weeks to better manage their budgets.<\/p>\n

Texas tax-free weekend:<\/p>\n

Texas’ annual tax-free weekend runs August 7 \u2013 August 9, allowing shoppers to purchase qualifying school supplies, clothing, shoes and backpacks without paying state or local sales tax.<\/p>\n

For many Houston families, it’s one more opportunity to save before students head back to class.<\/p>\n

The Source: National Retail Federation (2026 Back-to-School Survey)<\/p>\n

News<\/a>Top Stories<\/a>Houston<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back-to-school shopping by the numbers The new school year is quickly approaching which means parents are hitting retail…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57,223,2053,216,393],"class_list":["post-388617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-tx","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}