Homeschooling budget?

[Hunter]

Actually, this is why I started this thread. I to needed to have a bit of a rebellious/reckless phase, but it is not what is best for my family and long term goals. So, here we are, back to a budget. ;)

 

After I posted, I got a little worried, I might be hijacking your thread. I'm relieved this is within what you want to talk about.

 

I was thinking that I should fill out a year's worth of lesson plans using only what I already have. Then when I consider buying anything, it will mean, that either the new thing, or the scheduled thing is going to be wasted.

 

If I don't need something for at least 2 months, it needs to go on the wishlist and assigned to the month I intend to buy it, no more than 6 weeks before it is scheduled to be used. Nothing can be purchased without looking at the year's schedule.

 

My only problem is that I really want to buy Professor B on the 1st. I do have math resources here that are usable, but I don't like where they are heading, and I really would like to start with what I think I want to finish with. I'm trying to figure out whether I want to give myself one last big purchase before I settle down, or draw the line in the sand here.

[swellmomma]

I can't give a fair estimate. I usually spend $500 over and above the funding I receive for 4 kids, last year my funding was $2175 for 3 of them registered. Next year I am looking at $4200+ in funding for the 4 of them but am using the funding to buy laptops with PO#s so I will likely still go over that budget for little things.

 

It all depends on your method/focus/priorities are. For me we use sonlight, a lot of living books, many science kits, and specialty kits (like crops for rediscovery) etc meaning we spend a lot more than say someone just getting the bare bones stuff. If I did not have funding for stuff I owuld likely make myself stick with about $150 per year per child and use stuff that could be done with all of them together for many things.

 

Even with my high level of funding that does not include fieldtrips, extra currics etc.

[Love2teach0307]

I am spending about $350 this year for curriculum for 4th grade - and I'm very excited about our choices. My budget is $600/yr or $50/month for curriculum, field trips and co-op classes (I help teach some to lower my cost). For my little one, we are taking two years slowly to do a full K5 curriculum so she won't need anything major except some field trips.

 

My first two or three years, I spent about $1000/yr and a lot was unnecessary. Now I make smarter choices with better curriculum and more non-consumables and we've hit our stride. My Achilles Heel are thrift store and used book sales. I love rescuing unwanted books and giving them a comfortable and loving home. Basically, this year I stopped buying used books and just used the books we have at home and the library. BUT, in June I have 3 used curriculum book sales to go to in my area, and I have my list ready. Can't wait!!

[Jennifer.1203]

This is my 2nd year homeschooling. The first year I bought an all in one curriculum. This year I am branching out and getting a variety of subjects from different places. So my cost has went way up. Plus I am buying now for more then one kid. A 1st grader, prek'er, and tot school. For all my curriculum I am estimating $800. Then another $200 for supplies. I am trying to buy a lot of nonconsumables though so the next kids can use them.

 

I am bad and didn't budget monthly though. I just planned to use the summer to buy everything. I didn't realize how much it was going to cost though! So this next coming year, starting Sep., I am going to budget $50 a paycheck. That will be $1300 for the year, but I want that to include curriculum, supplies, and field trips.

[Herdingmycats]

This is a good thread. My situation is a little unique in that I have 1 homeschooled and 2 in public school. However, the 2 olders have been homeschooled in the past and all 3 will be home next year. The one who's home spent 1 year in school. They got put in school because I had a once in a lifetime opportunity to go to grad school. It didn't work out for them. Long story long...

 

Anyway, for comparisons sake, I'm making my lists and plans for next year and I estimate that to school all 3 (a first grader and 2 fifth graders) is going to cost about $600 in books and supplies. Meanwhile, in the 2011-2012 school year, I spent about $450 for lunches for the 2 who were in school. Their extracurriculars won't change and our district has 48% of their population below the poverty line so supplies and whatnot were very cheap.

 

 

 

What will be the biggest budget buster, I think, will be travel. I'm prone to spontaneous trips and I've dearly missed doing them while the youngers have been in school.

[TxMama]

I look at the cost to send my kids to private school and aim for 10% of that cost. Around here, 10K for private school for 2 kids. So I budget for $1000. I do not include costs for uniforms, etc. that a previous poster mentioned but that's an idea!

 

Thinking of homeschooling budget in relation to spending the kids to private school really makes sense to my dh. Having a limit forces me to really look at purchases and prevents me from just buying the flavor of the week to check it out.

 

The eldest child cost the most to homeschool since you have to purchase those large 1x expenses. I also budgeted more when I was homeschooling highschoolers.

Edited May 27, 2012 by Wendy B.

[cookfamily6]

I have always waited till the summer too and it just makes it so hard. This year I started much sooner buying curriculum that I need. (we are getting rid of most of what we were using and starting will all new stuff this year though so it is a bit worse) I think as soon as I get this years done I will start putting money back every paycheck so that it doesn't seem like I'm breaking the bank to get the year going ;)

 

This is my 2nd year homeschooling. The first year I bought an all in one curriculum. This year I am branching out and getting a variety of subjects from different places. So my cost has went way up. Plus I am buying now for more then one kid. A 1st grader, prek'er, and tot school. For all my curriculum I am estimating $800. Then another $200 for supplies. I am trying to buy a lot of nonconsumables though so the next kids can use them.

 

I am bad and didn't budget monthly though. I just planned to use the summer to buy everything. I didn't realize how much it was going to cost though! So this next coming year, starting Sep., I am going to budget $50 a paycheck. That will be $1300 for the year, but I want that to include curriculum, supplies, and field trips.

[AbbieJack]

I spent around $250 this year for kindergarten on things that we would not have bought had we not been homeschooling.

[MomatHWTK]

We tend to select the materials based on the income at the time. Sometimes we've had other expenses and the budget was very small, other times we've been able to spend more. But for us, the amount I can and do spend is directly related to what our income after bills, etc. is. If there's a very expensive item that I feel we really need, we use the Christmas $ that relative send and save up.

[2squared]

We tend to select the materials based on the income at the time. Sometimes we've had other expenses and the budget was very small, other times we've been able to spend more. But for us, the amount I can and do spend is directly related to what our income after bills, etc. is.

 

:iagree: I usually am able to select the materials I want to use, but I keep our subject list short.

 

For example, I selected RightStart as our elementary math program b/c I think it is the best math program available. The manuals are reused every year, but I have to purchase the worksheets for each kid each year. It's not the cheapest option, but it's not the most expensive either. I add in Singapore CWP, but I don't supplement in any other way. I don't have umpteen other types of math manipulatives or misc supplements.

 

I don't cover history or science formally until 5th grade. The youngers read through library books until then. I selected what I consider to be the best history program for my rishing 5th grader. I didn't purchase any extras or supplements to go with her history program.

 

I budget $100/month for homescooling expenses. Some months that money has to go to other expenses, and some months other expenses are cut so I can spend more on homeschooling.

[happypamama]

This year I spent a couple hundred dollars on books and curriculum for my three older children. A lot of that will be reused. Less than another hundred for consumable supplies, including printer paper and ink. I only budget about $20 a month for other stuff -- trips, co-op fees, other consumable supplies, etc. -- because that's what we have available. Gas prices directly correspond to what free/inexpensive opportunities we take. I do have multiple excellent public library systems, and I use them heavily; I also use a lot of free stuff from the internet, or from our co-op's lending library, or from my mom's shelves, or from things I picked up years ago dirt cheap at library sales.

 

I'm realizing that I may not spend a lot of money, but I spend a lot of another currency -- my time and energy. It takes time to put it all together for free, to track stuff down, to look at what the libraries have, etc.

[laughing lioness]

We have spent anywhere from $500 to $2000 in a year, depending on what we were doing, living, how many kid we were schooling. - the $2000 year included 5 kids, incl a high schooler, preschooler, microscope and lab supplies- no outside co-ops or on-line classes).

 

This year we'll only spend about $2-300 on actual curriculum (includes a rising Senior, rising 7th, rising 4/5th) but we'll spend around $450- $800 on outside classes (still trying to figure out a couple of on-line classes).

 

That's not including travel my ds 17 will do for a couple of programs, but he's paying for those himself (programs and travel-would have added up to around $1600 this year).

 

I'm not including printing paper, or office supplies in that. We do go to the library a couple of times a week- we live out of county so we pay $60/yr for that privilage.

 

I did lose a huge amount of curriculum in the fire, so even though we've homeschooled for 21 years, I don't have a lot of the stuff I had saved, which was carefully chosen and kept. That being said, there is always new, amazing curriculum (like WWS and First Form). I've done a lot of buying, selling, trading, giving away curriculum over the years and there is a lot to be said for upgrading (there just weren't the excellent plethora of choices 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago) For me, I've given up looking for "fun" stuff and go directly to the vendors that I know will lead my kids down a logical, sequential path of skill building. That costs money, so no matter how much I'm working at "cutting back" or trade reviews for curriculum, etc. there will always be curriculum/classes that we'll invest in.

 

I'm also not counting any private lessons/sports.

Edited June 3, 2012 by laughing lioness

[daffodil]

My budget is $25 a month/$300 a year for homeschooling expenses. That doesn't include things like our zoo membership, sports, library fines...

Edited June 3, 2012 by daffodil

[Hunter]

I filled out a fresh

, and that really helped me get focused. I ended out buying some Professor B. And I bought 3 of the Evan-Moor geography workbooks that are out of print and on sale. I wanted Spelling Plus and Easy Writing more than the geography, but now was the time to buy the geography.

 

I'm going through my bookcases, and thinking about the seasons and rhythms of the year, and trying really hard to cut my spending back for the whole year.

 

At some point I'd really like to buy some Daily Science workbooks, but I have nice things already and I need to use what I have. Bedell is an organizational nightmare, but if I don't stress and just take it as it comes, it all gets covered in the long run. And my students and and I love Bedell when we use it. I don't now how we got distracted from using it. I just hope volume 9 gets written soon to complete the set, and I think I'll rest easier with the haphazard presentation of topics knowing that it is complete.

 

I had SUCH a hard time deciding between buying the Professor B or not. I REALLY stressed over the decision. Buying it, made me feel like I was cheating on my new decision to cut back.

Edited June 3, 2012 by Hunter

[Carrie12345]

We haven't broken it down, but we hover around $1,000 for curriculum buying season and probably average another $20-30/mo on paper, ink, "extra" books and what not throughout the year.

That's for 3 school aged kids. We haven't done 4 yet!

[vwsmith]

Fun thread. Love seeing how others do it.

 

We budget $2200/year. This includes all curriculum for my one official (by state standards) homeschooler, classes (music, ballet, year-long gym & swim) for 2 children and supplies needed (swimsuits, new leotard or ballet shoes, etc.), museum and zoo memberships, supplies (ink for our laser printer, cardstock, pencils, art supplies, etc.), extra books to supplement or for fun reading, for moments when I find an incredible deal on curricula for the future (e.g., I found SingMath Standards 4a txtbk, wkbk, hig, and tests in perfect unused condition at the library sale for a total of $2!!), and homeschool conference registration. Then I take the leftover and divide by 12 months and that gives me a monthly spending allowance for the little extras that might come up (field trips, concerts, etc.).

 

Now, I'm only really spending for 2 (6 and 4) but will eventually have a 3rd (she is only 18 months) to worry about as well. Of course, I'm hoping the cost doesn't go up too much as I'll really only be buying new curriculum for the oldest (with the exception of consumables). But time will only tell :)

[Jpoy85]

I spent over $1,000 at Tax Return time...id say throughout the year maybe $20 a month after that?

[sewingmama]

Ok I will not tell you what we spent last year because after reading this thread it's almost embarrassing. But I will say we spend approximately $100-$150 per month on books and supplies, these are in addition to curriculum.

 

 

:001_smile: I spend about this too - and I have only 1 child doing K.

 

I tend to buy the more expensive curriculum (MBTP, IEW, our music curriculum was $175)

 

She's my first so I don't have anything to pass down. I don't anticipate it will cost anywhere near as much for my DS in K next year because I will have most everything.

 

I have to teach 8 subjects per state requirements -if I only taught the 3 R's I am sure it would be a lot cheaper in K

 

Our library is useless -I have to buy all our required reading books

 

I have to buy all our curric new - there isn't much going secondhand in Australia and most of it is not the curriculum I am looking for

Edited June 3, 2012 by sewingmama

[FairProspects]

Fun thread. Love seeing how others do it.

 

We budget $2200/year. This includes all curriculum for my one official (by state standards) homeschooler, classes (music, ballet, year-long gym & swim) for 2 children and supplies needed (swimsuits, new leotard or ballet shoes, etc.), museum and zoo memberships, supplies (ink for our laser printer, cardstock, pencils, art supplies, etc.), extra books to supplement or for fun reading, for moments when I find an incredible deal on curricula for the future.

 

Oh my goodness, this wouldn't even cover lessons for 1 child for the year in our area let alone touch curriculum, memberships, or supplies! I'm not really sure what we spend on curriculum, I'm afraid to add it up. :001_unsure: I'm thinking I will have to soon though, since dh has been commenting on all the Amazon purchases.

[KAM]

We usually buy everything at once and spend around $1200-$1300, for 4 kids. We use Sonlight along with TWTM recommendations so it isn't cheap- but I tell myself we are building a nice library:).

[Murphy101]

My budget is involving a lot of beans and ramen.:glare:

 

Dual enrollment College books, drivers ed, music lessons for 6 different instruments (thank heavens it's just for recreation! I hope my kids grows up to be a pro type classes are INSANE expensive), CAP (just got home from buying what they need for their first encampment - $400 for 2 kids), foreign language materials (Latin for kids is actually pretty inexpensive) but we try to attend foreign language events too and those add up. (French dinners, German festivals, etc) ballroom dance lessons are a moderate expense.

 

So to sum:

 

The basics shouldn't be terribly expensive.

 

But the "extras"? Those can be devastatingly expensive.

[Hunter]

My budget is involving a lot of beans and ramen.:glare:

 

 

 

When it gets down to tea and toast here, this is my bread recipe, in case anyone needs it :lol:

 

Dissolve 2 teas of yeast in 1 cup warm water. Let sit 5 minutes.

 

Add 1/3 cup white bread flour and 2/3 cup whole wheat flour. I use King Arthur. Beat HARD with a tablespoon to develop the gluten in the bread flour.

 

Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon honey, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Beat.

 

Add 2/3 more whole wheat flour, and maybe a little more until you have a soft dough.

 

Dump 1/3 whole wheat flour onto the counter and drop the soft dough onto it and coat in flour. Knead, only coating with enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands and the counter. Knead for about 5 minutes or until your frustrations are out. It might require about 1/3 cup more flour.

 

In the dry winter the loaf only takes about 2 cups flour altogether and sometimes a bit less. In humid weather it can take up to 2 1/2 cups.

 

Shape dough into a round loaf.

 

Grease the lid of this cast iron dutch oven. Place round loaf in the greased lid and cover with the upside down pot. Let dough rise about 2-3 hours in a warm kitchen and longer in a cool one. Uncover pot for a few seconds every hour to let the dough breathe.

 

Place pot in cold oven. Turn oven on to 350 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove pot. Remove cover, being careful of any steam escaping. Return lid and loaf to oven for 30 more minutes. Bread is done when you can knock on the top and bottom.

 

Have everyone fill up on bread. Spend food money on education.