What's your yearly budget?

[whiskeywife]

For high school curriculum and supplies. I'm trying to set a budget but I'm not sure what is realistic.

 

TIA

[G5052]

If you teach everything yourself, probably less than $500 if you really, really choose carefully and are able to borrow some things. Less if you have another coming behind who can use the same books and equipment.

 

I'm running closer to $1000+/year per kid because of outside teachers for subjects where mine have surpassed my skills. And yes, that includes used books and cutting corners where I can. I own a lot of science equipment, so that hasn't been a significant expense yet.

[Candid]

Two years ago with a fifth and eight grader I have $2300

Last year with a sixth and ninth grader I had $1900

This year I have, so far, with a tenth and seventh grader $2200. This year includes one online course, and I haven't bought my Chemistry kit yet, I expect to spend $200 or so on that.

 

Until this year we used Singapore Math and Science materials (youngest is still using them but no cost since I had them from his brother) and for most humanities we use Tapestry of Grace which is book intensive and uses a lot of separate books many of them not cheap.

[marbel]

How many kids do you have? How many outside classes do you take? Do you count extracurriculars in your budge?

 

In 2011 it looks like we spent about $3500 on two kids. I had a few curriculum purchasing errors. (Not too expensive, but of course they all add up.) This did include outside art and speech classes. I buy books used when I can. That year we also bought some science supplies, one-time purchase.

 

Just for reference, I count some things as home education expense that others may not: Boy Scouts, museum field trips, prismacolor pencils and other art/craft supplies, our yearly membership to our local arboretum, many books other than what would be labeled "curriculum." Oh yes, HSLDA membership of $115.

Edited July 12, 2012 by marbel

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

We just don't have that kind of money!

I work part time just to make ends meet on the basics of food, shelther, clothing!

 

We are not doing any outside classes. (This year we MIGHT do dual enrollment for one class.)

 

I've spent about $200 on books and curriculum for next year. I need to buy about another $200 worth. I need to send in our tuition for our umbrella school. Another $200. We'll need paper, pens, binder. 12th grade ds NEEDS graphing calculator......

 

So... $700 - $800 for two high school students.

[elegantlion]

Our budget is tight as well. I've spent about 500.00 for 9th grade. That's no outsourced classes and I still need to spend about another 80.00 for stuff after school starts.

 

I try to figure out what I want to do and how, and then find the most cost effective way to reach that goal. I don't have a problem with spending 100.00 - 150.00 for one subject if it's the most effective method for us.

 

At this point outsourcing is not cost effective for us, because I'd have to cut too much from other areas of the budget.

 

Ideally I'd like to have about 1000.00 to 1200.00 for my own self-ed and one child, but the purse is empty this year. It makes it easier to spread out the expenses over the year. I work part-time and my check basically pays for school stuff.

[Jenny in Florida]

I'm on track to spend about $300 for my son's 10th grade year. If all goes well and we actually do everything I'm preparing, he'll have eight credits:

 

- Modern U.S. History

- Chemistry (with lab)

- English/Literature

- Spanish II

- Algebra II

- American Government (1/2 credit)

- Food Science (1/2 credit)

- Creative Writing (1/2 credit)

- Intro to Computer Programming (1/2 credit)

- Art and Music History (1 credit for the combination)

 

That amount does not count the co-op classes he might take, because I'm considering those enrichment and social time, not "school." But those will cost us $50 per month for as long as we do them.

[AHASRADA]

I plan on about $2,500 for my high schooler, almost completely outsourced. One OM course ($850), 2 Keystone online courses ($400 each) and 2 American School correspondence courses (~$200 each), plus some electives and supplements.

 

If I were teaching everything myself, I would probably budget closer to $1,000 or less.

[marbel]

So, I got a little edgy looking at other comments, so I went back and took out everything that's not directly homeschool related, even though I consider it so. I guess my kids would be in Scouts, YMCA, etc even if we weren't homeschooling.

 

So, about $1000 per year per child. That includes an art class that cost $500 for the year per child and speech class which was $180 per year per child. These are typical prices around here (Philadelphia area --> fairly high cost of living.)

 

I feel a little better now. ;)

 

It was a good exercise for me to separate that out!

[Jenny in Florida]

Just for reference, I count some things as home education expense that others may not: Boy Scouts, museum field trips, prismacolor pencils and other art/craft supplies, our yearly membership to our local arboretum, many books other than what would be labeled "curriculum." Oh yes, HSLDA membership of $115.

 

So, I got a little edgy looking at other comments, so I went back and took out everything that's not directly homeschool related, even though I consider it so. I guess my kids would be in Scouts, YMCA, etc even if we weren't homeschooling.

 

I was thinking about this when you made your original comments.

 

Our rule for teasing out "curriculum" expenses is not to count anything that we would have to pay for even if the kid was in school.

 

So, I don't count choir tuition, usually, because choir is an after-school activity in which both homeschoolers and schooled kids participate. I don't count dance or voice lessons for the same reason. (My son's buddy who attends a local public school magnet program for performing arts is required to take voice and instrumental lessons outside of school, and his parents have to pay for them.) And I don't count school supplies like colored pencils and notebook paper and binders, because public and private school students here have to provide their own, too.

[justamouse]

Wow, that's a hard question.

 

I've never really had a budget, I just try not to spend a lot. :001_smile: I do it more of as a priority list. Do I absolutely NEED it? *need*. It gets purchased. Then I patch and piece things together from what I have from when the others went though that grade (which is a lot), I check used bookstores and I haunt the library sales. If I can take the idea of what I want and patch it together in a less expensive way, then I do that.

 

Thankfully because I've been doing this so long, I have a lot to pull from. THis year I bought about 700 worth of Teaching Company DVDs CDs and books for them and me-but those are not things that I am using as curriculum, they're for the family library. That is, by far, the largest overall purchase I've made in all my years of homeschooling, but they're getting bigger and into higher grades and I need it to I can be an effective teacher. (I got them all on e-bay, btw, for chump change in comparison to what TTC wants).

 

I have one thing to purchase for actual curriculum this year, and next year I will also only have one thing to purchase. I buy all year long at used books stores and sales to build the library.

[TippyCanoe]

.

[TheApprentice]

For just my high schooler, I spent about $800 and that's including an online course. I can already see that price going up next year.

[Joani]

I haven't quite finished planning yet, but it looks like it's going to be around $1100 for my 9th grader. The big ticket items are an online class and a chemistry lab set. Everything except the online course, chemicals, lab manual and a couple workbooks will be reusable for my younger kids, so hopefully I won't be paying 3x this when I have three in high school.

[Calm37]

I will be spending $700 for two high school students, same grade, no outside classes. They will each be doing their own history course this year, so that added about $100 to the expense.

[Lori D.]

High school does cost more, because many factors add up:

- more expensive textbooks, programs, and materials for each class

- extra costs for standardized national tests; test prep classes or programs

- tuition fees for outsourced class (on-line class; local co-op; community class; at a high school; dual enrollment; etc.)

- cost for tutoring or lessons (sports, music, art, etc.)

- fees for extracurricular or curriculum support programs, camps, activities, opportunities, etc.

- expense of specialized or advanced equipment; musical instrument, etc. to support a student's special interest

- travel expenses (community service, regional sports, music camps/events, standardized testing centers, etc.)

 

I have read that a good rule of thumb for high school is to plan on spending:

- $25-30 per student per year for supplies (notebooks, paper, folders, binders, pencils, pens, etc.)

- $100 per student per year for miscellaneous (SAT/ACT/PSAT test fees, prep materials, gas/travel, transportation to community service, etc.)

- $100-150 per high school class (i.e., 1.0 credit class)

- $200 per extracurricular activity (this will be significantly more -- $1000s more -- if the activity is advanced music/theater, club sports, etc.)

 

So, for 5 classes (credits) plan on budgeting $500-750; for 6 classes (credits) plan on budgeting $600-900. Budget more if you are outsourcing or using specialized materials. And then, budget extra on top of that for any extracurriculars. What usually happens is, that while you can borrow programs from a friend, or buy used curriculum for several classes, things like science labs/supplies and foreign language programs tend to run you higher than the average, wiping out what you saved on literature or math... And if you have a student who is advanced or has special needs, you will be paying top dollar...

 

 

There have been a number of past threads on homeschooling for a reduced cost; try an advanced search with "free" as the search titles only option; and try tag searches for "free education"; and, "free curriculum". Welcome to homeschool high school planning and budgeting! :tongue_smilie: Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited July 13, 2012 by Lori D.

[flyingiguana]

Less than 100/yr for two kids, not counting music lessons, instruments, and music.

 

We use the library a LOT. And we have a good library.

 

For textbooks, we use college textbooks. If I have to buy them, I'll get a used older edition. They're usually virtually the same.

 

We don't use high school books because they've never worked well for us. We do have a curriculum library at a local college, so we've had the opportunity to try out a lot of high school texts.

 

Most of our costs are paper and pencil. We do use the computer a lot, but I don't count that as an expense because we'd have it anyway. There's a lot of free stuff online. Way more than we would ever get round to using. It's actually kind of frustrating that we can't use more of it.

[kroe1]

A Beka out-of-the-box for 9th was about $600. We already own BJU Spanish, Better Chinese, and Rosetta Stone. We really do not use that much in basic school supplies.

 

For us, the big bucks are spent on science lab. That is easily running about $2000 this year. But it is totally not needed. We consider it our family hobby.

 

:)

[Murphy101]

I'd start at $100 per subject at home and $500 per subject outside the home. Extraxurriculiars add approx $500. It might go over or under in of those areas, but that's approx what it's been averaging out to for us. And that's actually very cheap.