"This year, I had most of the stuff," she said. "I usually buy on sale whenever I can, and then I store it."

Okazaki's careful shopping means it will cost her only about $10 to $12 to finish getting her 6- and 8-year-olds ready to return to Soto Academy this year.

Her position is one many parents would envy this late in summer, when the back-to-school expenses start piling up. While many school supplies go on sale right before school starts, others have to be bought at full price.

It would cost about $30 to $50 to buy all the supplies on some of the school lists posted at Longs or Fisher Hawai'i, but additional supplies, new clothes, shoes and electronics push the average back-to-school expenses much higher. According to a survey from the National Retail Federation, families are expected to spend even more than the average of $450 they spent on back-to-school items last year.

At some private schools the costs will be even higher. Tuition may cover the cost of supplies for the lower grades, but older students often have to pay for books, which can add up to hundreds of dollars each semester.

According to previous years' survey results, spending has been relatively stable, changing only about 3 percent since 2001. Spending dipped slightly in 2002, but since then has steadily increased.

Ellen Tolley of the National Retail Federation said detailed school supply lists account for some of the increases in spending. "There are some schools that require certain merchandise, specialized scissors or glue, or markers and crayons," she said.

For some older children, electronics have become requirements, rather than luxuries. "Scientific calculators can cost quite a bit," Tolley said. So can computers, which generally are not required, but many families say are necessities.

For retailers, back-to-school shopping is second only to the holidays in terms of sales.

A survey by the National Retail Federation last year found families with school-aged children planned to spend an average of $450.75 on back-to-school items: $206.24 for clothing, $84.44 on shoes, $74.04 on school supplies and $86.03 on electronics and computer-related equipment.

Following the national trend, many Hawai'i families say they hold off on buying everything so they can stretch their spending out over the entire year.

For some, the first thing to go is an entirely brand-new back-to-school wardrobe. Instead kids get a few new articles at the beginning of the year, and more clothes throughout the year as needed. As Glen Okura, father of a Wai'alae Elementary second-grader, pointed out, "if I buy them all one time, she'll outgrow it in no time."

Okazaki, mother of the two Soto Academy students, lucked out in the school uniform department. She typically buys her kids three pullovers, two T-shirts, two pairs of shorts and three pairs of black pants each year, "but now that my kids are two years apart, my younger one inherits the clothes," she said.

Hand-me-downs help the NaPier family save money on clothes, and school supplies, too.

With three children at Iolani, Patty NaPier said the big-ticket items are textbooks for her two older kids. If purchased new, books for son Zachary would cost $400 to $500. But Zachary, 17, said most students save money by buying books used or getting hand-me-downs from older siblings or friends.

"My middle child gets hand-me-down books from her brother, and the ones she can't get from him, he tries to find through a friend, or they sell used at the school," NaPier said.

In addition to clothes picked up at outlet shops in Las Vegas this summer, each NaPier kid will get one new outfit for the first day of school "just so they feel better about giving up the freedom of summer and starting school again," NaPier said.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.