For families with school-aged children, March has always been a dreadful one for their budgets. But with inflationary pressures now greater than any time in recent memory, parents say they feel stretched like never before.

Lee Mi-jung, a 45-year mother of a high school freshman, just spent 400,000 won on her child’s school uniforms alone.

The price rise has been more dramatic than I had imagined. I considered buying secondhand school uniforms, but instead bought them at a discount through a bulk purchase,’’ she said.

I will also have to spend another 400,000 won on tuition and textbooks for each semester. It’s a lot of money but I do want to provide the best for my child when it comes to education.’’

A set of school uniforms for spring and winter generally consists of jackets, shirts, vests, cardigans and skirts or pants, and cost around 300,000 won when buying the products of major brands like Ivy Club and Smart. Add spare shirts, pants and skirts to the list and the spending quickly rises above 400,000 won, Lee said.

The high prices of school uniforms at middle and high schools have long been a target of frustration and ridicule. The plot of the cable television teen drama, Shut Up Flower Boy Band,’’ recently had their characters singing and dancing in the streets to raise the 1.8 million won they would need to buy their school uniforms.

According to Statistics Korea’s recent report on consumer prices for February, the prices of school uniforms rose by 13.2 percent for boy’s and 14.2 percent for girl’s compared to a year earlier, representing the biggest hike in more than two decades. In comparison, the overall consumer price index (CPI), the country’s official measure of inflation, came in at 3.1 percent for the month, representing a 14-month low.

School uniform makers have long been accused of ripping off consumers by raising the prices of their products faster than the elevation in cost.

The size of the school uniform market is valued annually at around 350 billion won (about $314 million). More than three-fourths of the market is controlled by the four major brands of IvyClub, Smart, Elite and Skoolooks. To spark price competition and lower the burden on consumers, government officials have been promoting bulk purchases of uniforms but similar price tags between the companies show that the moves aren’t working as prescribed.

The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has recently been investigating price-fixing allegations, although the firms said that decisions to increase prices were based on the elevated costs of raw materials. They also say it’s hard to lower the costs when they make different uniforms for different schools, which takes mass production out of the equation.

Textbook prices also jumped by an average of 43 percent last month, adding to the financial stress for parents, according to official figures. The government had controlled the prices of textbooks authorized for use in high schools but liberalized them starting this year. The price of stationery rose as well with notebooks up 5.1 percent, books by 5.5 percent and writing equipment by 11.1 percent.

Higher spending on students was just one of the factors that have been leading to an acute squeeze in living standards for households here.

While the pullback in the growth of headline inflation was due to a significant decline in meat prices, which soared to record highs last year after a devastating foot-and-mouth disease outbreak ripped through the country, consumers didn’t have much to cheer about other than cheaper barbecue bills.

The prices of petrol rose by 7.9 percent, while the prices of ``jeonse’’ rents jumped 6 percent, marking the highest rise since December 2002.

Jeonse, a financing tool unique to Korea, is based