Those name brand clothing and of course the high price shoe stores are stocking shelves for the mass of students and parents who are preparing to go back to school.

Although public schools don’t require students to pay tuition to attend, the bill for kids to go to school is still hitting many families hard this year. Paying higher gas prices to travel back and forth to work has taken a toll on many peoples’ check books, and, with school just around the corner, parents are figuring out what they will be able to afford this year.

Statistics show that most people will be spending at least $600 for beginning of the year school supplies. The $600 included buying new clothing, new shoes, regular classroom supplies and computer equipment.

To help families purchase the supplies their kids need for school including clothes, shoes, classroom supplies, computers and computer equipment, Alabama started a sales tax holiday.

The holiday is for the whole state of Alabama and covers everything that a child could need for school. The tax holiday only applies to school supplies; however, things that are not needed for school are still taxed like normal. Items falling under the tax holiday include clothing that is priced at $100 or less, school supplies such as paper, pens, notebooks that are priced at $50 or less, books that are required by the school for students to read priced at $30 or less, text books priced at $50 or less and computers and their equipment priced at $750 or less.

The holiday may not save a family hundreds of dollars on their students’ back to school supplies, but every little bit helps and the average family spending $600 saves about $60. With today’s gas prices that $60 extra dollars may be you a tank or two of gas that you can use later.