LOS ANGELES — When August rolls around, Gloria Ponce braces for the line she knows she'll need to add to the family budget. The San Gabriel mother of six shells out hundreds of dollars every summer to get her four school-aged kids ready for the school year with new supplies, clothes and shoes. The expenses include accessories, backpacks and pencils and total around $300 to $500 per child, she said.
It's a financial strain on her family that's worsened this year as high inflation rates in recent years have ramped up the price of basic goods. "We always end up putting money aside a few months before because we know this is going to hit us like a ton of bricks," said Ponce, who has three children in Los Angeles public schools and one in a charter school. Ponce is hardly alone.
Los Angeles parents will spend almost $200 more this year than last on back-to-school expenses and nearly double the national average, according to a survey conducted by consulting firm Deloitte. One mother reported spending around $30 more on the same backpack and lunchbox she bought last year. "I can absorb that, but so many families don't have that luxury," she wrote in a Facebook thread on back-to-school shopping.
"What are they supposed to do?" The Deloitte survey found that Los Angeles parents are spending an average of $921 per child on back-to-school shopping compared with a national average of $586, which was slightly lower than last year's national average. More than half of Angelenos surveyed .