Back-to-school shopping season is coming early this year. Oh joy!

This week office supply purveyor Staples (SPLS) officially declared “opening day” to the season with a promotional tie-in to American Idol winner Jordin Sparks and freshly commissioned research claiming 70% of parents polled wanted to know when they could start shopping for school supplies.

I don’t know about you, but in my New Jersey household where school starts after Labor Day, we typically save the school supply foray for sometime within 24 hours of the first day of school.

The fashion front is a different story.

With gas and food prices rising daily, retailers such as J.C. Penney (JCP), Wal-Mart (WMT) and the Gap (GPS) are paying careful attention to inventory levels in an attempt to turn a profitable season. For the first time I can remember, top quality summer clothing has been radically marked down long before the typical post-July 4th sale season. 

With warm summer temperatures extending well into October with each successive year, It can be tricky to figure out the best time to make back-to-school clothing purchases. Who needs to buy more?

But if stores keep their supplies tight, wait too long and there’s the risk of nothing being left in your child’s size when cooler weather hits.

Starting at age 9, my daughter was put in charge of her back-to-school budget for all wearable items. This is a liberal definition encompassing everything from underwear to a backpack.

I set a fixed dollar amount (typically $200) and my daughter figures out what matters most to her, followed be where and when she wants to spend the money. Her grandmother usually takes her on a small back-to-school spree that supplements my allocation.

This works beautifully.

Typically there’s one splurge item my daughter thinks she cannot live without, but she’s learned to be quite discerning in her purchases and is always aware of the running balance in her account. Last year it took her nearly to December to deplete the entire amount. Once the money is gone, anything else she wants must come from her personal stash.

Not only has this system turned into a great teaching tool. It’s liberated me from any decision-making responsibility.

In the words of Staples: Easy.

Will you be spending less for back-to-school shopping this year? Weigh in on The Exchange.