LAWRENCEVILLE — Local shoppers say it is sales — not sales taxes — that mean the most when back-to-school shopping.

For the first time since 2002, Georgia legislators did not devote a weekend to giving a sales tax break to back-to-school shoppers. In tight budget times, the money could not be spared.

Shaunta Chapman said she didn’t even think about a possible sales tax holiday when she started shopping for her first-grader Brian.

“I wait until I see the sales in the paper and then I come out,” she said.

On a year without the holiday, she added, “You still get deals. It’s not bad.”

Jodi Scarboro, a Barrow County woman, has taken advantage of the sales tax holiday in the past, but she wasn’t waiting for a break this year.

Instead, she said, she just procrastinated in getting supplies for rising fourth-grader Mitchell, who starts school Monday.

“I find that the sales are better than just doing the tax-free,” she said as she scanned the aisles of Target.

Because school starts so early, she said she wouldn’t spend much on new clothes, focusing mostly on paper and pencils.

“We’ll buy a few things,” she said. “It’s stilly summer wardrobe because it’s still so hot.”

Brandi Rhodes, a mother of three whose youngest will start kindergarten this year, said she never worried about the sales tax holiday before, so she won’t miss it this year.

“I shop before it comes around,” she said, as her daughter Gracyn tried on backpacks. “We always miss it.”