Expenses

[LHB2020]

Hi! I'm a COVID homeschooler so this is all new to me. How do you track expenses? Do you have a separate card or account to pay for homeschool supplies? Do you use your regular account but keep track of expenditures via spreadsheets or money management programs? What has worked for you?

[Jean in Newcastle]

If you mean part of a household budget, I had a general idea how much I could spend on actual curriculum.  It got more expensive as the kids got high school age. 
 

(There might be places that give an education allowance but I don’t think that is common. It certainly isn’t a thing in my state.  We are on our own.). 

Edited August 14, 2020 by Jean in Newcastle
Typo

[LMD]

Welcome!

I'm also not sure what you're asking, homeschool expenses are just another line item in our household budget, I don't really keep track. We don't get any government money or reimbursement so there's no necessity for us to keep records like that. 

Eta - we budget for a bigger outlay at the beginning of the school year, then a smaller regular amount just to use as we go. I couldn't tell you off hand how much I spend per year though...

Edited August 14, 2020 by LMD

[purpleowl]

Welcome! 🙂 

We just have a budget category for homeschooling. There's no one reimbursing us for expenses. I was going to say I don't think that's a thing where I live, but I know there is one state scholarship (for kids with certain disabilities) that can be used by homeschooling families. I'm not sure of the details, but it would make sense that they'd want an accounting for how the funds are used.

Anyway, if you are in a place or working with a program that reimburses, I would think a spreadsheet would be sufficient for tracking expenses. 

[LuvToRead]

I don't track expenses either, but if I did I would probably keep the receipts in a folder and write everything in a notebook.  I may then transfer everything to excel.

[kristin0713]

I buy almost everything over the summer, except for some science supplies that come up during the year.  So there is really nothing to keep track of. I do keep the receipts because there have been times where we were able to get a discount for being homeschoolers and since my state is unregulated, the discount required proof of our curriculum purchases. 

[theelfqueen]

I agree that if you could tell us how you'll use the information, we might be better able to make suggestions. 

I'm another person who has a line in my budget for homeschooling... I use Mint to keep track of all the items in my budget. So I can recommend Mint as a good way to track a budgetary item.

When I first started homeschooling I tried to keep track of school expenses much more than I do now. As a longer time homeschooler, I have a harder time deciding what's "for school" vs "lifestyle". When my kids were in public school, j bought a lot of books - when I categorize every book I buy as school, I'm ignoring that. I bought pencils and notebooks then, too. So if I add them to the cost of homeschooling, it's accurate in that i use them for school, but inaccurate when assessing how much i spend on homeschooling vs what I would if my kids were in a brick and mortar somewhere. When my kids were in public school, we would take family outings to museums or cultural events, now I think of those things as a part of educating my kids... but I always thought that. So is that a school expense or a lifestyle expense? It's sometimes a hard call! 

[Loowit]

I start planning in the spring for what I want to do the following school year.  I set up a spreadsheet years ago and it has a worksheet for each school year.  I have it broken down by kid.  Then I go into our family budget and figure out when we will have the money to buy stuff.  Most years it is buying it slowly over summer break.  Some years we can get everything I wanted, and others like when DH was laid off we couldn't and I had to decide what was most important.

There is no reimbursement or tax breaks for homeschooling so it is for my own information. I do find it interesting to go back and see how much we have spent on homeschooling in the past vs. now.

[73349]

I don't keep track, but if I did, I would just note it in the same spreadsheet I use for tracking where we are in our materials (first link in my signature). So in the box at the top of the page that names the science book, I would make a note of how much I paid and where I got it from, and when; and the same for math, Spanish, English, history, etc.

[cintinative]

I track what I spend on Education in Quicken. I have a budget I am trying to meet/stay under.  It helps me because I can go crazy buying books on Amazon. 😃 Also I do sell curriculum so I can track the income as well as expenses.  

I do tend to keep receipts, but the longer I do this, the more I think it is unnecessary. Some things I definitely keep, like IEW receipts (they have a lifetime guarantee), and anything I think I might need to return.  Initially I kept a lot of receipts thinking they would "help" me later when I went to sell things again, but that has not been the case. It rarely matters what I paid for something used--what matters is what the current market will pay.

I hope this helps!!

 

[Meriwether]

2 hours ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

Tracking spending for homeschool and books would be terrible for my marriage.....just saying. 

My husband used to occasionally mention my homeschool spending. The last time he did, I compared it to the TKD spending. He hasn't brought it up in the last 5 years. LOL In case anyone gets the wrong idea, I believe couples should more or less agree about budgets. And I don't spend more than we can afford. I spend about the equivalent of TKD classes for Dh and the kids. I don't spend the equivalent of the tournaments. Or the uniforms. Or the testing. Or the gear. Or the gas money. Etc.

[LHB2020]

Thanks all for the replies. I asked because I heard about the tax deferred Coverdell Education Savings Account and figured I'd have to keep track of expenses to submit to the account for reimbursement.

[Jean in Newcastle]

5 hours ago, LHB2020 said:

Thanks all for the replies. I asked because I heard about the tax deferred Coverdell Education Savings Account and figured I'd have to keep track of expenses to submit to the account for reimbursement.

Only three states allow homeschoolers to use the Coverdell Education Savings Account:  Illinois, Louisiana and Minnesota.  (But that's from a 2015 internet article and I haven't found a source that is more recent.)