Are You the Mom of a 7- to 12-Year-Old? If so Your Back to School Bill Could Top $400

It's time to get ready to send the kids back to school. This can be a time for many parents to rejoice. Yet, at the same time they are rejoicing they fail to realize the costs involved with school season starting up again. The start of school might not be quite as happy a time if parents are not prepared for the amount of money they are going to have to shell out. In a recent press release the Marketing To Moms Coalition revealed the results of a survey the conducted in early August. The most stunning result for many parents is that if you have just one child between the ages of 7 to 12 years old you should be prepared to spend $450 to get them ready to go back to school.

The press release indicated the various categories these expenses pile up in . The highest percentage of that money goes towards purchasing clothes. The survey revealed parents for school aged kids spend about one third of the back to school budget on clothes alone. Sports and exercise gear, for the athlete in your family is not quite as large a chunk of the total, coming in at 17% of your back to school budget for your child. That categories includes items such as sports equipment, shoes, and team uniforms. The next two highest spending categories were tied at 14% of your budget. These are school supplies and activity fees that you must pay for your child to participate in school activities.

"While the beginning of the calendar year is an opportune time for resolution making and priority setting, for back to school moms, the beginning of the school year is a new beginning for important family decisions," said Terry Lucie who is the Vice President of Marketing for Safeco Insurance and a Marketing To Moms Coalition Board Member. "For example, fully 63% of the school age moms surveyed plan to pack more healthy lunches for their children this year. In addition, with the large and disproportionate expenditures for back to school, moms are re-evaluating all of their family spending for the balance of the year,including the Holiday Season," Ms. Thompson continued.

The survey was conducted online via invitation in early August of this year. There were 1,278 mothers included in the survey and all of them had at least one child that was in the seven to twelve year old age range. It was revealed that while the average family spends $450 to send their one child back to school in that age range, if they have two children the bill can total close to $600. Parent's might be celebrating the beginning of the school year, but their wallet's certainly aren't.

SOURCES:

Prnewswire.com. "Mothers Will Spend Nearly $450 for Back to School 2007".
URL: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=ind_focus.story&STORY=/www/story/08-20-2007/0004648311&EDATE=MON+Aug+20+2007,+10:28+AM