creating a home school budget

We set a budget after tax returns each year and then go through and sell things we won’t reuse or didn’t love to make a bit more money. I’ve got 7 kiddos in 6th grade and under and our budget this school year was $500 total. It changes a bit each year but not much. We combine everyone where we can, buy reusable curricula, use the library, etc. When I had just preK and K ages the budget was $50, mostly paper and art supplies. I have known others who spend $500 or more per child per year. You’ll find it to be very individual! What grades are your children right now? I know of many free online resources for all grades in most subjects if you’re interested.

The way we have always planned our homeschool is to list any ‘individual’ materials for purchase – usually these are math or language arts resources – and then plan our other subjects as ‘shared’. So each child may have math, copywork, nature journals, their own Bible, maybe spelling or grammar, and a notebook of their own. I also like to buy some individual readers for each child who is reading independantly.

In shared or family subjects (for us: History, Geography, Bible, Art, French, Composer Study, Science) I work from a book and resource list that keeps building year after year. In tight years, I definitely check every book on that list to see if the library carries it or not. You will often find that the more old-fashioned a book is, or the more religious the tone, the less likely that the public library will carry it. Those are the books that I generally end up purchasing to add to our homeschool library.

If you are keeping track of books the really old fashioned way, you can just make a spreadsheet with the titles and a column for each of your children. You can check off the title as each child reads it, or use dates if you want to be super efficient. I take my book list with me to the library every week, as well as to book or garage sales – just in case.

As you get to know other h.s. moms in your community, you can often find that you can trade resources or buy them inexpensively second-hand.

I am a book-a-holic, but I can tell you that more isn’t always better. Get rid of anything that you aren’t using and be careful building that library. It is better to use 10 books a year and thoroughly use and understand them than to have 100 unused resources sitting on your shelf.

We use the library outrageously! I also shopped library sales and used book stores for classics to always have around. When we started homeschooling, frugal as I was, I made some fairly useless purchases. There isn’t always a way to know better, and I chalked it up to cheap professional training. We did not like getting presents from far away relatives for the kids and convinced a generous next-of-kin to give us a family gift certificate at a favorite, large homeschool catalog. As the years go by, we spend less because we already have things, I know more about what I am doing, and the children’s interests, talents, and learning styles become clearer. Also remember that a season of potential lay-off with small children is not going to last forever and you need very, very little that doesn’t come cheap or free for little guys. To keep track of books that you have read at the library and would like some help to remember, consider goodreads.com where you can record and organize and write memos to yourself on books.

And if there is something you need but haven’t found – you can try Book Samaritan.  They take a fair bit of time (I think they are getting a lot of requests this year) – so expect it to take a couple of months.

And a plug for them – send things you don’t need anymore to them!

Jenni – My sister is in Washington and if you choose to work under a charter school there (considered public school) you can get more than $1000 per child to use.  You lose the freedom of true homeschooling (more accountability measures, cannot spend any of the money on religious based materials, more testing to take, teacher to check in with regularly, etc).  My sister didn’t decide to go that direction, but some of her friends have and like the money.

I don’t think it is bad to spend more than we do (and would happily spend more if we could in some areas).  I look at it this way, right now we have more Time to spend than Money, so I pull lots together on my own.  There may be a season when my time is worth more and I’ll spend extra money to get preparations done for me.  

Tristan, yes we spend quite a bit out of pocket for our Christian resources, but what the program covers for secular stuff (art supplies, pens, paper, crayons, notebooks, swimming lessons, laptop & printer, etc) is pretty handy. I know why your sister likes it.

The only aspect of this particular program that I don’t like is the standardized testing. It’s so arbitrary. We do not teach to the tests, so I suppose we’re making all the homeschoolers’ stats wonky, but I don’t care to teach someone else’s random ideas of what my kids need to know at certain ages.

It’s hard to justify not taking the money since our particular contact teachers are all Christians and work hard with us to cover as much as they can without breaking the rules. They provide a huge library of resources and lots of fun field trips as well. We’re heading to a Christmas craft event tomorrow that is included (although it is potluck, yum) with our enrollment.

With one kinder and a 3rd grader, we got $3400 this year alone. Next year it’s more. I think I would be ever so much more deliberate with my choices without this allotment. But I’m obviously no help at all with budgeting…. 🙁

I guess I have twin budgets: by the paycheck (for needs that come up because I switch or find a nice deal) and yearly (tax refund).

Right now (paycheck), I’m making a list of what I need by priority, then seeing how far I can stretch the money pulled from that check. (Our income is irregular.) I look for good deals, at used book stores & thrift stores if I can, Amazon otherwise. So I wanted a hardcopy of 2 public domain books (b/c I like a real book) — one was $7, the other $22. I bought the cheaper one and will wait on the other, since I can read it off the computer screen. I also buy MP3s of hymns and folksongs monthly, and artist prints by the term — just before I need them. I’m also a book-o-holic, and am trying to only buy what I need, when I need it.

After Christmas, I will be listing what we need for next year before we get our tax refund and buy as much as I can then. I’ve started fully using Ambleside Online, so I’ll have to buy 2 AO years, plus a few other more expensive curriculums. I’m strongly considering a pair of Kindles for my older boys to use for free-reading. (I have an ereader, but its old and keeps having issues. Which is why I am buying a few more ‘real’ books this check. Books don’t lock up or have battery issues.)