The kids have been home for the summer for several weeks now, so it's time for parents to start thinking about sending them back to school. This means we need to start saving money now for everything that they will "need" to go back to school.

From PR Newswire and PriceGrabber's Annual Back-to-School Shopping Forecast found that parents plan on spending LESS on school supplies this year.

48% of parents plan to spend $250 or more on back-to-school shopping, which is down from 56% last year.  25% will spend more than $500, down from 31% a year ago.

69% of parents plan to shop around online to get the best prices instead of just taking the kids to the store.  That's three times more than the number who did so last year.  About 41% will print out coupons, up from 33% in 2010.

Parents will also cut back by having the kids use their old electronics.  18% of parents plan to buy their kids a new laptop, down from 24% last year.  11% will buy a new phone, down from 13% last year.

10% will buy an electronic tablet like an iPad, which is a new item on the survey this year.

One area where spending is up from last year is clothing.  75% of kids will be getting new clothes this year, up from 70% last year.


How would $1,000 help Back To School this year? Enter the Back To School Showcase and you could win one of four prize packages valued at $1,000. You win, you choose!

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