Kingston, Ont. families, students budgeting for back to school shopping – Kingston

September is quickly approaching and that means many families are gearing up for the return to school.

Derek Levac at Best Buy in Kingston’s west end says electronics are starting to move off the shelves.

“Laptops, tablets, depending on where they’re going and what they’re doing with their courses,” said Levac.”Lots of people coming and looking for new headphones to start the year.”

The purchases for the upcoming school year are balanced with budgeting, for many families and students.

Queen’s student Jorja Correia says her finances are very tight with inflation raising her costs to prepare for another school year.

“I try to work as much as possible, but when you’re a student it’s hard. I was even in a summer class,” said Correia. “Everything is just going up in price, textbooks, food, furniture. I’ve been getting everything from Facebook marketplace.”

At the Goodwill Thrift Store, general manager Mark Wensing, says he’s seeing more families come into the store looking at a range of items from clothes to furniture.

“We’ve noticed the Queen’s families starting to come in to grab some furniture,” said Wensing. “The school year seems to be starting a bit earlier. The younger families are taking advantage of our youth section, and we feature different items on sale.”

Wensing says for many families the necessity to have the essentials is outweighing the desire for those items to be knew.