Average Cost of School Supplies for Minnesotans Seems Hefty

I'll admit that I haven't had to worry about buying any sort of school supplies for several years.  But I do see how the cost of basically everything has gone up...and in some cases significantly. And even though it is only July... end of July, it's time to think about back to school and getting your kids outfitted for the new year.  This is getting to be fairly costly, but I didn't realize how costly until I saw this average price.

Granted, the average cost has variables.  It's an average, with some higher and some lower.  But at the average cost, this seems like a very hefty bill.  And I can't imagine having to spend this kind of coin for the beginning of the year to get your kids ready for Back to School.

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According to the National Retail Federation, the average... AVERAGE cost for school supplies:

Families with children in elementary through high school plan to spend an average of $864 on school items, approximately $15 more than last year.

Just shy of a thousand dollars seems crazy!!  Like that should be on the high end, and only if you had kids going to a private school or something.  But this is the average price for kids in a regular public school.  Apparently they (NRF) is taking into consideration the possible hybrid learning of in school and at home learning as this is still a possibility since the pandemic in 2020. It was nice to get snow days every so often, but since the introduction of distance learning, those have mostly gone away.  That was the cool thing about being a kid and having bad weather.  You might get out of school for the day.  Now, that isn't always necessarily the cast.  Bummer.

I think this seems like a lot of money.  If you have school aged kids, does this seem to track with what you have to spend for Back to School?