How are parents curbing the back-to-school spend?

By Daniel Culpan

As September fast approaches, parents everywhere are kitting their kids out for the new school year, with everything from school uniform to stationery on the back-to-school shopping list.

Finding cheaper ways of doing that is nothing new - but according to research from Quidco, many mums and dads are taking a particularly frugal approach to their spending this year, in an effort to offset the effects of the downturn on their family finances.

A survey carried out for the cashback site indicates that almost one in eight shoppers are turning to hand-me-down clothing, rather than paying full price for new clothes.

Furthermore, more than one in six adults in the UK said they'd consider getting the sewing machine out and trying to modify clothes themselves to save money, rather than heading to the shops - compared with 9% who said they'd have never done this before the recession, during times when money wasn't so tight.

Over a third of shoppers are also looking to rein in their monthly costs by regularly using vouchers and discount codes.

Image © iStockPhotos / Michael Phillips

Tags: school, parents, education, recession

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