NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Gas prices may have eased just in time to save back-to-school buying, which for many retailers is seen as the second-most important sales period after the holiday shopping season, according to a Gallup poll revealed Thursday.

According to the results, consumers polled said they intend to spend most of their recent gas-price savings and more on back-to-school items.

This could be an encouraging sign for retailers given the softness in last month's sales numbers that suggested consumer spending fatigue may be setting in a robust first half of the year.

In the July survey, 29 percent of consumers said they plan to buy more over the next six months while 19 percent say they plan to decrease spending. In June, only 24 percent of consumers said they planned to increase spending while 25 percent said they planned to decrease it.

Consumer confidence improved for the second month in a row, the poll showed. In July, 37 percent of consumers said they rated the economy as good or excellent, while 21 percent chose a rating of "poor."

And about half of all consumers -- 51 percent -- polled said they believe current economic conditions are "getting better," while only 38 percent said things are "getting worse." Consumers were evenly split in June over the direction of the economy.

A few weeks ago, Gallup reported that half of American consumers (49 percent) said price hikes at the pump were a burden on the wallet, and about a third polled said they were having to cut back significantly on household spending.

However, gas prices have eased off from their peak of an average of $2.06 a gallon hit on May 24, reaching a low of $1.90 a gallon to $1.92 a gallon a recently as last week, the report said.

The latest poll was conducted between July 8 to 11 and was based on results from 1,005 respondents. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.