How do you make your budget for your homeschool?

[lonelyhomeschooler]

I'm curious to hear how other people go about setting aside money for homeschooling. 

In January, March, May, July, September, and November, I put aside $50. In February, April, June, August, October, and December, I put aside $25. It gives at total budget of $450. From there, I make the curriculum fit the budget.

What does your do? Do you put the money aside first, then choose the curriculum? Or do you choose the curriculum, then find the money?

[freesia]

I make a rough plan on December and we use that amount to set a budget—setting aside a twelfth of the total each month. 

[Clarita]

I make a list of the subjects I need to cover. I put down a thing that I can use for that subject. I use a different color to put down supplements (nice-to-haves) next. Hopefully my budget can cover the one thing I put down for each subject. Our curriculum expenditures tend to happen throughout the year my son is really asynchronous so the purchase all my curriculum for the year at one point in the year has never happened for me.

For me though, I need a "free" fall back plan for things, because I go over budget with supplements (mostly books), and self-education stuff. That's why I need my charter school, they make sure I have something for the necessary subjects. Without that option, I think I would keep a list of free (maybe not ideal) things I can use for certain subjects.  

[HomeAgain]

16 minutes ago, Clarita said:

I make a list of the subjects I need to cover. I put down a thing that I can use for that subject. I use a different color to put down supplements (nice-to-haves) next. Hopefully my budget can cover the one thing I put down for each subject. Our curriculum expenditures tend to happen throughout the year my son is really asynchronous so the purchase all my curriculum for the year at one point in the year has never happened for me.

For me though, I need a "free" fall back plan for things, because I go over budget with supplements (mostly books), and self-education stuff. That's why I need my charter school, they make sure I have something for the necessary subjects. Without that option, I think I would keep a list of free (maybe not ideal) things I can use for certain subjects.  

Ours was similar.

Make a list of needs by subject: the curriculum we wanted, extras we wanted, and what was already on the shelf that we would be using for the plan.  I would post the price next to it that I would expect to pay and consider the total my working budget.

I would then start looking for used items, and free material that would meet our needs.  By the time I was usually done, it was half the cost of new, at the very least, and some subjects I didn't spend hardly anything on.

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

We’ve always set aside equal amounts monthly. How much varies along with our income & needs. We count “electives” (outsourced classes & lessons) as part of this expense, but “extracurriculars” separately. 

Edited February 24 by Shoes+Ships+SealingWax

[caffeineandbooks]

I keep my budget looking trim by just considering the cost of my annual Rainbow Resource order, and excluding the cost of those Amazon boxes that keep showing up at my door all year long 😜

[ScoutTN]

I budgeted in December for the coming year, based loosely on the previous year. I did not spend monthly, but in a couple large clumps, then a few things as we went along. February and July for most spending.

Definitely used a prioritized or leveled list: needs, wants, icing-on-the-cake.

On the which drives the choices, budget or curriculum preference: In general I led with curriculum and tried to make the budget for it work. If it just wouldn’t, then I did more research to find other materials that would help me reach my goals. There are usually plenty of ways to accomplish a learning goal. Teacher is more important than the materials.

With youngers and courses completely at home, our costs were low. When we added some outsourced classes, costs went up rapidly.

I did not include zoo/museum memberships, piano lessons, etc. as school costs, though they are certainly educational. I did include a line item for field trips.

Edited February 24 by ScoutTN

[lonelyhomeschooler]

1 hour ago, Shoes+Ships+SealingWax said:

We’ve always set aside equal amounts monthly. How much varies along with our income & needs. We count “electives” (outsourced classes & lessons) as part of this expense, but “extracurriculars” separately. 

Our teeter-totter budget comes from the fact that our homeschool budget is counter to our Christmas budget. So in January, etc., we put aside $25 for Christmas, and in February, etc. we put aside $50 for Christmas. 

We don't outsource any of our academics, but we do count things like art supplies, music books in our homeschool budget. We don't count our extracurriculars towards our homeschool budget either because we would be paying for them anyway. 

[alysee]

Here in Canada we have a Child Tax Benefit that everyone receives except for the very rich based on how much you make, how old your kids are and how many kids you have. We use that to pay for extracurriculars and homeschool curriculum. We have 6 kids so we do get a significant amount each month. 

[prairiewindmomma]

Caveat first: It's very difficult to homeschool older grades on a limited budget.  There's always a time/money tradeoff, and the individual needs of the student may vary so much that books aren't easily handed down, etc. For my eldest, pretty much any curricula could have worked. For some of my children with learning differences, I really did need intervention level materials, and those tend to be pricey.  We've homeschooled a variety of kids, in a variety of ways, at a variety of different price points. As I've gotten more experienced as a teacher, I think I could pretty much only buy math workbooks for elementary school and do a fine job educating my kids....I could easily homeschool for $50/kid those years.  I've also had years where we spent more than $450 on just high school level lab chemistry. That said, our kids' needs have always been met.  I have seen students harmed, educationally, when parents could not provide for their basic educational needs.  In those circumstances, where a kid needs intervention level materials but cannot access them, or where a parent is spread so thin on time that a student is left to go feral, I think homeschooling is often inappropriate. 

In our current situation, where I've already been homeschooling for a bazillion years, I look at what is on the shelf around January or so, see what will be appropriate for my students for fall, and make a rough sketch of what is needed.  When I have needed to spend more to buy materials for a new level (high school level math and lab sciences), and know that is coming up, then I adjust the savings plan so that funds are in place.  In some years we used "extra paycheck" dollars (normally get two paychecks a month, we set aside third paychecks).  In other years we used tax refund dollars.  Currently I'm closer to a monthly level pay budget allotment system. 

 

[Meriwether]

I have always bought what I wanted and then adjusted other spending accordingly. When we were just getting started and had small children, we just lived frugally all the time. After my husband started getting a yearly bonus, the school stuff came out of the bonus and just affected other things that came out of the bonus. Those things tended to be more wants than needs (because I wouldn't feel comfortable budgeting needs out of something that might not come), so then it became easier to pay for more expensive things. High school is indeed more expensive than elementary school.

[lonelyhomeschooler]

19 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Caveat first: It's very difficult to homeschool older grades on a limited budget.  There's always a time/money tradeoff, and the individual needs of the student may vary so much that books aren't easily handed down, etc. For my eldest, pretty much any curricula could have worked. For some of my children with learning differences, I really did need intervention level materials, and those tend to be pricey.  We've homeschooled a variety of kids, in a variety of ways, at a variety of different price points. As I've gotten more experienced as a teacher, I think I could pretty much only buy math workbooks for elementary school and do a fine job educating my kids....I could easily homeschool for $50/kid those years.  I've also had years where we spent more than $450 on just high school level lab chemistry. That said, our kids' needs have always been met.  I have seen students harmed, educationally, when parents could not provide for their basic educational needs.  In those circumstances, where a kid needs intervention level materials but cannot access them, or where a parent is spread so thin on time that a student is left to go feral, I think homeschooling is often inappropriate. 

In our current situation, where I've already been homeschooling for a bazillion years, I look at what is on the shelf around January or so, see what will be appropriate for my students for fall, and make a rough sketch of what is needed.  When I have needed to spend more to buy materials for a new level (high school level math and lab sciences), and know that is coming up, then I adjust the savings plan so that funds are in place.  In some years we used "extra paycheck" dollars (normally get two paychecks a month, we set aside third paychecks).  In other years we used tax refund dollars.  Currently I'm closer to a monthly level pay budget allotment system. 

 

I think the argument about whether or not homeschooling is appropriate is very dependent on circumstances.

Locally, the schools don't care. If kids learn, that's fine. If kids don't learn, they're sat next to the kids who knows what they're doing on EOCs with explicit instructions to cheat. The math and science textbooks are primarily the flexbooks from CK12. All math starting with prealgebra is done solely with a calculator. There are no science labs whatsoever. Neither physics nor calculus are available. History and geography are taught by having the students copy something pretty similar to Sparknotes. Spanish is mostly watching Disney cartoons with subtitles. 

Given what my kids would get at the schools they would attend, I'm going to say that even if I have to give them a less than ideal education due to budget constraints, it's not educational neglect.  

[Slache]

I create the next school year's plan in February and set that aside from the tax return. 

[73349]

I keep a budget line each for "curriculum and supplies" (which also includes standardized testing), "outside classes," and my child's two main extracurriculars (one of which is a fixed amount every four weeks). I try to add each month knowing I will want to nail things down in late winter. As I pick a resource, I make a note of how much it will cost and when. I'm generally paying out of it in chunks from March through June.

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Edited August 30 by kathyl