How much per month for homeschool and clothing?

[Lovedtodeath]

We are making out a budget and I think I put it too low. I combined clothing and homeschool expenses (supplies and curriculum). This is for a family of 4. Emily is going into 3rd grade and Jake is starting preschool. It does not include dance class or other outside lessons/therapy/tutoring. I would appreciate your opinions!:)

[Liz CA]

We are making out a budget and I think I put it too low. I combined clothing and homeschool expenses (supplies and curriculum). This is for a family of 4. Emily is going into 3rd grade and Jake is starting preschool. It does not include dance class or other outside lessons/therapy/tutoring. I would appreciate your opinions!:)

 

Depends in large part on the type of curriculum / resources you are using.

My agerage per child (one son) was anywhere from $300-$500. One year, we bought a rather pricey science package but it lasted for two years, however that jacked up the expense for the moment.

I never included clothing. He wore a lot of hand-me-downs and we bought whatever was needed. I do think though, homeschooling saved us a bundle in clothing alone. All the pressure to conform to the current trends passed us by. :001_smile:

[ScoutTN]

Our budget for HS for K is $300. Not including field trips or ballet.

 

Our budget for clothes for our kids (ages 5 and 3) is about $250/year for both. We do consignment sales so usually I can get most of their next season clothes and some toys for birthday or Christmas for the same or less than I make selling.

That leaves just underwear, tights, socks, swimsuits, some shoes and a few odds and ends to buy retail.

[QueenCat]

Clothing and homeschooling expenses are separate line items in our budget. For clothing, we spend about $1200/year, includes shoes too. For homeschooling, we spend about $150/month on tutorial and field trip expenses, $500 year on curriculum/supplies, and this year, we have dual enrollment expenses of about $2500-$3000 (tuition and books). So about $5000 total for homeschooling expenses. For one child. When the other was still in high school, it was higher but they only do the dual enrollment their senior year.

[QueenCat]

Oh, the clothing is for the whole household, not just the kids.

[Mimm]

Depends in large part on the type of curriculum / resources you are using.

My agerage per child (one son) was anywhere from $300-$500. One year, we bought a rather pricey science package but it lasted for two years, however that jacked up the expense for the moment.

 

I'm sorry, but is this $300-$500 per child per month or per year? If it's per month, what in the world is this being spent on?

[Dawn in OH]

NT. I changed my mind. Sorry.

Edited July 30, 2010 by Dawn in OH

[AnneGabe]

We don't do homeschool and clothes in one budget category but I can tell you the monthly amounts for each.

 

For homeschool expenses I have $1,000 a year, so around $83 a month.

 

This includes anything like the zoo, museum, arboretum, all office supplies, any furniture used for school, bookshelves, art supplies, ALL books for the kids- whether they're actual school books or just fun reading, any educational toys...

I thought $1,000 a year would be plenty but with everything it has to cover it goes fast and I have to plan carefully!

 

Clothes (and shoes) for 3 kids has been $50 a month. My son was a puke machine for the first year of his life so I spent most of that money on him! Also included in the $50 a month for clothes are baby blankets and cloth diapers.

 

If I added homeschool and clothes together I have $133 a month to spend.

[homeschoolally]

I do think though, homeschooling saved us a bundle in clothing alone. All the pressure to conform to the current trends passed us by. :001_smile:

 

:iagree::iagree::iagree:We have saved a TON on clothes by homeschooling.

[starwarsmomma]

I'm glad I have boys. LOL

 

Garage sales and resale shops for 99% of clothing.

Shoes usually at Academy during a good sale.

For 3 boys, I probably spend $300 a year total on shoes and clothing.

I spend about $100 a year on me, and hubby about $400 year on work clothing.

 

 

Budget for homeschool curriculum depends on the choice. I COULD homeschool for almost free... but I don't.

 

Plus, the older they get, the more expensive things tend to be. ARGHHH>. LOL

[Liz CA]

I'm sorry, but is this $300-$500 per child per month or per year? If it's per month, what in the world is this being spent on?

 

Good Grief. Sorry for being unclear. This was for the academic YEAR and was strictly for material, books ,etc.

Edited July 30, 2010 by Liz CA

[Mimm]

Good Grief. Sorry for being unclear. This was for the academic YEAR and was strictly for material, books ,etc.

 

:D Oh good. I was worried, there's no way I could do that.

[Lovedtodeath]

NT. I changed my mind. Sorry.

:) I was planning to make it a pole. I know, people are going to be afraid to answer and/or judge. I will set up a pole later. We do not do resale/consignment/garage sales, and this is for the whole family, not just the kids...

[Tutor]

Our annual budget for clothes & shoes for our family of 6 is about $200. Most of that is shoes as we buy most of our clothes used or trade outgrown clothes with friends.

 

For school supplies, we spent about $200/ year on books, paper, pencils, art supplies, etc (doesn't incl. outside sports or classes since we'd probably have done them whether or not the kids were hs'd) for all four when the oldest were still in lower middle school. Now that the oldest is in 8th grade and the second oldest in 7th, we'll be spending about $400/ year for all four. I'm only afraid it is going to get more expensive as we hit high school.

[WeeBeaks]

$75/mo for homeschooling

$40/mo clothing budget for all of us total (note I sew a lot of clothing)

[KellyinPA]

I budget $250 a month for clothing for our family of five. We never use that much money monthly so I have combined household type things along with it. Like sheets, towels, paint, decor type stuff. Homeschooling comes out of the Misc. category for now. Except for convention when I usually buy our curriculum and I just set aside a bigger chunk of money from a bonus of dh's or something.

[Lovedtodeath]

Thanks! I had $130 budgeted, but now that I have this Dave Ramsey book I see that based on a percentage of income that was a little low. He has clothing including maintenance in a separate category from tuition, etc., so I will have to work it out differently than anticipated, I think.

[Daisy]

I don't budget anything for clothes and shoes. I just take it from grocery money. But my guess is that it comes out to around $100 a year per person. We don't spend much on clothes and love to go to yard sales, Goodwill, etc.

 

Homeschool supplies I buy with our tax refund and usually spend about $400-500 a year.

[mommytobees]

I think this depends on the ages of your kids.

 

What I can spend on a 5 & 8 year old is SIGNIFICANTLY less than what I can spend on a 9 & 12 year old.

 

For school, I budget $2000 a year. Now, I spend (looking at last year's totals) about $200 a year in shipping (last year was $170), but I live in Japan. We also spend whatever is left over on activities here in Japan. This past year we had almost $500 left. Sooooo, on actual school products, I spent $1330.

 

Compare that to 4 years ago: I spent $465 on history, $130 on science, $40 on art, and $64 on math. Yes, money isn't the same due to inflation, but, if I were purchasing K & 3rd grades again I'd be spending much less.

 

Same with clothing. Pants for my son at the age of 8 (Gymboree: $15-$20 sale price & Sears: $15-20 for their in-house brand which come with the exchange policy) cost MUCH less than the current pants where I'm spending $30-$40 for a pair of pants for his skinny-butt self. Don't even get me started about shoes!!!

 

I think a lot of this is subjective to the age of your children.

 

Kris

[3lilreds in NC]

I have $100 per month for clothes for the 5 of us, and depend a lot on help from grandparents to make that work, frankly.

 

I also have $100 per month for homeschool. I try to keep it to about $600 for the initial layout for the next year's curriculum, so that I have $ for field trips and extra things that come up.

[PentecostalMom]

OMG...I have never really budgeted for these. Somehow, when we need something, we just make it work. Now that we are working on the Dave Ramsey plan, I can see I will have to rectify that. Wait till I tell dh tomorrow that I get to budget for curriculum, lol! Right now, our tentative plan is to buy next year's curriculum out of his "extra" check in December. He gets paid bi-weekly, so gets two extra checks a year. The other is already gone, we spent it on our anniversary trip before we decided to do DR. We will have to revisit this, and I will have to figure out how much I spend annually. How do you even do that?? The only thing I have invoices for is Sonlight. I have no idea how much I spent on the WTM boards, ebay, Amazon, etc. HELP!

[KS_]

I budget $80 a month for clothing and $70 a month for homeschooling (family of 4). We do occasionally go over, but I try to buy clothing only on sale, and if I can, on clearance (end of season, for the next year - which doesn't really work for slacks for dh for work. . .) The homeschool budget will probably have to be supplemented this next year a bit, as I'm signing up ds for an online course.

[Mynyel]

I don't budget for clothes or HS every month. We don't make enough for that. I garage sale/goodwill it for clothes (when and if needed) and then I save $1000 from tax return every year for HS. The only reason I may go over the $1000 is if I am selling my old stuff. I recycle that money.

[Lovedtodeath]

With Dave Ramsey you budget every dollar, including once a year expenses like license plates and once a year income like tax returns. :) Just a clarification.

[Mynyel]

With Dave Ramsey you budget every dollar, including once a year expenses like license plates and once a year income like tax returns. :) Just a clarification.

 

 

Ah yes... :) I have looked into Dave Ramsey. I would love to apply his stuff to us. However he would hate our situation as we operate in the red every month. (With just regular income) If it wasn't for our large tax return we would be in dire straights.

My dh and I both work but it still isn't enough. Dave would tell us to change our situation, we could, but it won't. happen. And it isn't me that wouldn't change :)

That's all I'll say there lest I open up a can of worms!

[ScoutTN]

OMG... I will have to figure out how much I spend annually. How do you even do that??

 

This is our first year, so I have just made a page in my hs notebook for expenses and tried to write things down. I just estimated for the things I'd already bought.

[Lovedtodeath]

Ah yes... :) I have looked into Dave Ramsey. I would love to apply his stuff to us. However he would hate our situation as we operate in the red every month. (With just regular income) If it wasn't for our large tax return we would be in dire straights.

My dh and I both work but it still isn't enough. Dave would tell us to change our situation, we could, but it won't. happen. And it isn't me that wouldn't change :)

That's all I'll say there lest I open up a can of worms!

Hey, I am not going to fault you for this. :grouphug: It's your business if DR isn't for you. I don't think he is infallible.

 

This is our first year, so I have just made a page in my hs notebook for expenses and tried to write things down. I just estimated for the things I'd already bought.

Yeah, just plan ahead what you will need and don't worry what you have already spent.

[DawnM]

I am a little more lax on clothing, but only because I put it in my yard sale and thrift store budget.....it is my "retail therapy!" ;) We have a fantastic thrift store that charges about $1 to $1.25 for boys' shorts, $2 for boys' pants, and often has .25 T-shirts!

 

But, we are also at BS5, so we aren't nearly as strict with our budget as we used to be.

 

I could easily get by with $25 a month in clothing for all of us per month. That is probably too much.

 

As for HS materials......my goal is to sell and then buy used, making it less than $300/year for materials OOP, but sometimes they doesn't work.

 

This year I have budgeted $50 per month to save up for curriculum. I may need to raise that to $75 at some point.

 

Dawn

[Catwoman]

I'm sorry, but is this $300-$500 per child per month or per year? If it's per month, what in the world is this being spent on?

 

I know the person who posted this came back and clarified that she spends that much per year, but if I divide our homeschool expenses into monthly amounts, I spend at least that much a month. It's really not that hard to do! ;)

 

I agree with the other poster who said that the age of the kids can have a lot to do with the amount of money spent. In my case, I was always looking for the "next best thing" for my ds, and regularly spent several thousand dollars per year on homeschool stuff (much of which is still in my garage, unused.:001_rolleyes:) I was a complete idiot, and bought way too much!

 

Now that ds is 10 and starting 7th grade next month, I've finally gotten more organized and will buy less for him this year. Part of that is because we're doing the BJU DVD program, which is only $999 for everything, including books. But if you factor in other things, like co-op art classes, musical instrument lessons, martial arts lessons, several overnight field trips, and other "fun-but-educational" stuff, the costs can escalate very rapidly. I'm also hoping to find an online computer programming, electronics, or children's engineering class for ds, as he has expressed an interest in them.

 

In our case, I don't mind spending the money, because it would cost me almost $30,000.00 per year :eek: to send my ds to the private school in our area, so I figure I'm still saving a fortune, and because my dh knows what the private school costs, he doesn't care how much I spend on homeschooling. (At least he gets to come along on the field trips... :D)

 

So, sensible people can spend a few hundred dollars a year and still provide their kids with an excellent education, and others of us spend a lot more to get the same results. I am so impressed with a woman I know who does KONOS and gets all of the books from the library and from used book sales, and her kids are amazing, but she is so much more organized and a much better planner than I am, so while that method works well for her, it would be a disaster for us!

 

Cat

Edited August 3, 2010 by Catwoman

[Lovedtodeath]

I know the person who posted this came back and clarified that she spends that much per year, but if I divide our homeschool expenses into monthly amounts, I spend at least that much a month. It's really not that hard to do! ;)

 

I agree with the other poster who said that the age of the kids can have a lot to do with the amount of money spent. In my case, I was always looking for the "next best thing" for my ds, and regularly spent several thousand dollars per year on homeschool stuff (much of which is still in my garage, unused.:001_rolleyes:) I was a complete idiot, and bought way too much!

 

Now that ds is 10 and starting 7th grade next month, I've finally gotten more organized and will buy less for him this year. Part of that is because we're doing the BJU DVD program, which is only $999 for everything, including books. But if you factor in other things, like co-op art classes, musical instrument lessons, martial arts lessons, several overnight field trips, and other "fun-but-educational" stuff, the costs can escalate very rapidly. I'm also hoping to find an online computer programming, electronics, or children's engineering class for ds, as he has expressed an interest in them.

 

In our case, I don't mind spending the money, because it would cost me almost $30,000.00 per year to send my ds to the private school in our area, so I figure I'm still saving a fortune, and because my dh knows what the private school costs, he doesn't care how much I spend on homeschooling. (At least he gets to come along on the field trips... :D)

 

So, sensible people can spend a few hundred dollars a year and still provide their kids with an excellent education, and others of us spend a lot more to get the same results. I am so impressed with a woman I know who does KONOS and gets all of the books from the library and from used book sales, and her kids are amazing, but she is so much more organized and a much better planner than I am, so while that method works well for her, it would be a disaster for us!

 

Cat

Yes. Thanks Cat! I wish you the best with BJU!

[Catwoman]

Yes. Thanks Cat! I wish you the best with BJU!

 

Thanks! We used it when ds was younger, but I strayed.... and all of my wonderful new curriculum ideas were met with complete and utter apathy. :glare:

 

So we're back to BJU. It will be so much easier for both of us. I was getting so stressed last year about whether or not I was covering everything ds needed, and just getting him to do his schoolwork was a nightmare. I know the structure of the DVD program isn't for everyone, but I think ds and I both need it. We can start after breakfast and be done for the day in time for lunch, which works out very well for us.

 

Cat

[Lovedtodeath]

I am very tempted, as our teacher intensive things aren't getting done much around here. :(

[bbsweetpea]

I do about $2500 a year on homeschooling for three kids. That includes any classes they may take, trips we take, books, curriculum, library fee (yes we are charged since we are outside of the city limits), supplies and the Mothers day out program 2x a week for my youngest (Sept to May).

 

Clothes I have a budget of $2000 - $3000 a year for the kids. I will admit that I LOVE to dress my kids in pretty clothes.

 

In order to pay for all of the above I also resell my kids clothes (always covers what I spend) and I resell curriculum and books that I am done with.

 

Out of pocket and on our budget is

 

$120 month for MDO (Sept through May)

$50 month for books, curriculum, trips and any classes (extra gets rolled over to the next month)

$40 in August for Library for one year

 

Everything else for school and the kids clothes gets paid out of my paypal account. I get this money selling the kids used clothes, toys and curriculum/books we are done with.