Christina Jones had a mission: keep her second-grade daughter's back-to-school clothes spending from topping $100.

"We're just buying necessities – underwear, tops that can be interchanged with shorts – not outfits," said Jones, 38, of McKinney, who also has a son going into fourth grade. Her budget was down from $200 to $300 per child for the last two years, she said while shopping at the J.C. Penney store in the Village at Fairview.

About 55 million U.S. schoolchildren, including 4.7 million in Texas, are heading back to the classroom, and many will have fewer new outfits and be toting last year's backpack and lunchbox.

August sales at major chain stores are forecast to decline 3.5 percent to 4 percent from a year ago, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs. The council's weekly report, released Tuesday, said sales were down 0.9 percent last week from the week before and 0.6 percent from a year ago.

Even parents with the wherewithal to spend say they are cutting back, and some mock their old ways.

Jones said she used to spend $1,000 per child. "It was 2006! That's when we bought outfits, and each outfit had matching shoes and hair accessories," she said.

There's been no job loss in the Jones household. "We can afford to do that again," she said, "but instead we're saving for the unexpected. This year, it's two pairs of shoes, one for play and one for good."

Ruby Light, 37, of Sachse said shorts bought in May still fit her 6- and 10-year-olds. Last year, she spent $900 on back-to-school shopping.

"I'm spending about $300 less," she said while shopping at T.J. Maxx at the Village at Allen. "We're using one backpack from last year and a lunchbox, too."

Shoes were next on Light's list, but she was debating whether to wait until the weekend sales tax holiday. "You have to weigh your time vs. the tax savings," Light said.

During Texas' 11th annual tax-free holiday, between 12:01 a.m. Friday and midnight Sunday, purchases of most clothes, shoes and backpacks priced under $100 will be free from state and local taxes. And this year, school supplies have been added to the tax-exempt list.

The state comptroller's office estimates that shoppers will save $65.7 million in state and local sales tax. Some parents and retailers said the sales tax holiday is coming too close to next week's first day of classes at public schools across Texas.

Shoppers say they are using more coupons, watching for sales, sticking to essentials and shopping at stores where they can stretch their dollars.

The National Retail Federation said Tuesday that price rules, as sales or coupons have influenced 48 percent of purchases so far this season, based on an Aug. 4-11 survey of more than 8,500 households with students. The federation forecasts that families of students in grades K-12 will spend an average of $548.72 on school merchandise, down 8 percent from last year.

The survey also found that six of 10 American families with shopping left to do will head to a discount store.

That's been happening throughout the recession. Month after month, one of the few chains to report sales increases has been off-price retailer TJX Cos., which operates T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods and Marshalls.

The Framingham, Mass.-based company on Tuesday reported a 31 percent increase in second-quarter profit and a 4 percent increase in same-store sales.

The company was founded during a recession in the 1970s, and this year, with 880 stores in 48 states, it bought network instead of local television advertising to explain its off-price concept, said Laura C. McDowell, spokeswoman for T.J. Maxx and Marshalls.

Debbie Hardwidge, store manager of the T.J. Maxx in Allen, said she was expecting an even bigger crowd than last year because of the economy.

"If someone is going to spend $200, then they can save $16, and that's a pair of shoes," she said.

Damien Sanders, a senior at Sunset High School in Dallas, was shopping last weekend at T.J. Maxx and Ross Dress for Less in the Village at Allen and at the Ralph Lauren, Nautica and Guess stores at the Allen Premium Outlets, trying to make the $600 he had saved up go further.

"The recession hasn't hit us that hard, but we're here trying to save," said his sister Jazmine, a 10th-grader at Townview Center.

All this frugality is making it tough for retailers, said A.T. Kearney's retail consultants, who forecast that the back-to-school season is likely to be worse for retailers than in 2008 and much worse than in 2007.

"Unemployment continues to be high and consumer confidence low, so there is a significant group of consumers that cannot afford to buy or are afraid to buy," the consulting firm said in an update Tuesday. "There is a good chance that retailers will have out-of-stocks on the lowest-priced items in each category, but will be forced to mark down higher-ticket items."

Gwen Lawson-Digma, the J.C. Penney manager in Fairview, said shoppers were buying up hard-to-find special sizes last weekend. "There are 15 elementary schools in Allen alone," she said.

Renee Parr, 46, of McKinney was at the Penney store looking for ways to stretch her dollars.

"We're just trying to be smarter about how we spend," said the mother of three elementary-age children. She said she usually shops at higher-end retailers.

"I haven't tried Wal-Mart yet, but you never know."