Back to School Shopping Is Becoming a Debt Habit

Back to School Shopping Is Becoming a Debt Habit for Parents

The bill is barely higher than last year. What has changed is that more parents are paying for it over several months, and quietly cutting back elsewhere so their children do not feel left out.

Dr Marina NaniEditor-in-Chief26 July 2026(Updated 27 July 2026)·1 min read

Illustration of a school backpack, notebooks and childrens shoes laid out beside a phone showing an abstract payment installment progress bar

Image: Nani Media House

For a growing number of families, the back-to-school shop is quietly turning into something you pay off over months rather than something you pay for once. Nearly half of households, 45%, now plan to use Buy Now, Pay Later for backpacks, uniforms and supplies this year, up from 39% last year, and almost one in three expect it to cover more than half of what they spend. The figures come from a survey of just over a thousand US shoppers carried out for the marketing firm Omnisend in June.

The shopping list itself has barely changed. Families with school-age children expect to spend around the same as last year, close to $858 a household. What has shifted is how parents pay for it: splitting an ordinary, predictable expense into installments instead of settling it in one go.