Research leading up to this year's back-to-school season shows Canadian parents are feeling the pinch as the cost of living soars.
A survey by P-C Financial says forty-six per cent of Canadians are more worried about their finances during this back-to-school season than in previous years.
According to NerdWallet, Canadian parents who plan to do back-to-school shopping this year expect to spend an average of five-hundred-twenty-four dollars on those purchases, as more than a quarter intend to buy fewer school supplies than in previous years due to inflation.
More than half say they plan to shop during sales events for those purchases.
Montreal mother of three Anne Zarifa (zah-REE'-fah) says she tries to get ahead of the annual Labour Day weekend rush by starting her spree in early August, which also leaves more time to search for deals.
Zarifa says the biggest key to her strategy each back-to-school season is shopping second-hand.
She relies on online platform Poshmark, where sellers advertise items they no longer need, at a usually more affordable price than Zarifa says she finds at her local mall.
Natasha Macmillan, director of everyday banking at Rate-Hub-dot-C-A, says taking inventory to identify supplies that can be reused from the last school year should be the first step to cutting costs.
After that, it's best to establish a budget because she says ``it's easy to quickly go overboard.''