Parents are facing higher prices as they prepare for the back-to-school season. Tiffany Aliche, a personal finance expert and author, joins "CBS News Mornings" with tips to save money as prices for school supplies rise.

As the back-to-school period approaches, families are facing higher costs, with average spending on school supplies exceeding $850 according to a recent survey. Personal finance expert Tiffany Aliche recommends that parents collaborate within their communities to share or exchange items like calculators, binders, and backpacks, reducing the need to purchase everything new.

Aliche also suggests stocking up on non-perishable supplies after major sales end, when prices often drop further. While inflation continues to drive up costs, she emphasizes that parents can find savings by buying in bulk, using price comparison tools, and leveraging local networks for hand-me-downs and shared resources.

Tips for back-to-school savings

All right, back to school season is upon us, and while parents, they may be eager to send their kids back to class, they might also be stressed about the rising and surprising costs associated with this time of year. In fact, Americans are planning to spend more than $850 on school supplies on average, according to a recent survey. Joining us with some money-saving tips is Tiffany Aliche, a personal finance educator and author of the best-selling book, Get Good With Money. Tiffany, good morning. Thanks for joining us. So, first off, how can parents shop smarter without hurting their wallets? Honestly, now is the time to lean into community, that if you're a parent, you probably know other parents, start that group chat, join that Facebook group, see what materials that you guys can kind of crowdsource together, so that way you don't have to take on the full expense. Now, that back-to-school supplies list is long. Are there some items that parents can get thrifty or creative with to save some money? Certainly. So, one of the things that I've seen the parents that I know do is that there are some items that year after year you can kind of pass on. So, this might be like calculators. These might be like, not notebooks, but binders, book bags, and so you can free-cycle those things by joining your local community parent groups to see, does anyone have those things available? It's like the hand-me-downs, but hand-me-downs for the whole neighborhood. That's one of the things you can do. Now, Tiffany, are there some off-season opportunities for parents to stock up on supplies for the future kind of get-ahead-of-the-game? Yeah. So, I am one of five girls, and my mother certainly, I'm sure, struggled during back-to-school time, but one thing I noticed that she would do is that when the whole back-to-school sales ended around September, late September, October, she would stock up on things that she knew we would need next year. So, these are pens, and notebooks, and pencils, things that are not going to spoil. So, you can get those things once the big sales start to diminish, and then the big, real big sales start to become a thing. And so, sometimes you can get notebooks for 25 cents once the big sales are over. Speaking of that, Tiffany, all of us notice that things are just costing more nowadays with inflation. Are we seeing that with back-to-school supplies? Is it costing more this year? It's probably going to, honestly. I think everything goes up in price, unfortunately, but there are tools that you can use to kind of mitigate, well, where can I find things at a better price? Can I buy in bulk, even though we know that tariffs might affect how much things cost? So, yes, back-to-school is going to cost you more, but you don't have to navigate it by yourself. All right. Some good tips. Tiffany Aliche, thanks so much for joining us. This Money Watch segment has been brought to you by AT&T Business. Connecting changes everything. © AT&T Intellectual Property.

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