How much do you spend?

[cheappearls]

I'm very new at homeschooling. I actually have 2 years before ds HAS to be taught or put in school but I want to plan ahead now so when the time comes I'm not trying to scrambling everything up.

I'm going to start really saving up now for it since I know the first year is going to be the most expensive with buying things. But I want to know how much I should plan on spending after that initial part.

I am thinking about using the Charlotte Mason method but more towards flexible, almost unschooling.

How much a year do you spend on all your homeschooling supplies?

[my4littlebuffaloes]

Well, I am homeschooling 2 kids. I put $50 aside each month for school supplies. I also usually pull $500 from the tax return to get the bulk of my curriculum. I use the $50 a month to order anything that comes up throughout the year. So I guess that totals $1100, which seems like a lot, but I bet I spent more than that on this years stuff. but I did a big spanish program purchase, that I won't have to do again. it varies I guess.

My first year I only spent around $400. I borrow a ton of stuff from the library. I print things off the internet and I borrow sometimes from friends. I think that you can spend as much or as little as you want. When i did K with my dd I spent a total of $100 on the entire program. that is very inexpensive. It just varies so much.

Good luck with it!

[Missy]

almost nothing at all!

The curriculum i use is provided to me by cova. It is the K-12 curriculum. it's great. lots of states have a similar one.

[betharoo0]

I never thought of setting the tax return money aside... thanks Jennifer.

[Neeley]

I have never really thought about what we spend. Anytime I am out and find something that may interest the kids, I pick it up. I did get LifePac for DD last year but we are not real happy with it so we did not get that again. They have several workbooks that cover their basics, plus some supplimental ones for things like penmanship, Spanish and very specific parts of history. His books probably cost about $50 total. We live in a huge college town and there are always college books at yard sales for less then a dollar. History and science books are ones I buy off of the college kids and let my kids learn from them. The internet has so many sights to print off worksheets for free as well. Our biggest single expence is paying our cover school dues each year (requirement in our state to have a church based cover school) and that is only $100.
Now that I have written it out and started to think about it we spend roughly $250 a year including our cover school fees but that is just for books and workbooks. The beauty of homeschooling is that not all learning has to come from a book. So there are many other expences associated with their learning.

*DD takes two co-op classes once a week $40 a month
*DD has early admission to a university here and they give dual enrollment students their first class(count as school and college credit) for $90 a semester. Any additional classes per semester go back up to their regular rate of $1200 per class.
*We joined the zoo for $40 per year plus an additional $25 for unlimited train rides and we do a zoo trip about every two to three weeks.
*They do homeschool bowling that costs $7 a week per child, Homeschool rollerskate day once a month $5 per child.
* Once every week or so I drop them off at the library for about 30 minutes to an hour. Obviously that is free
*Our city is filled with museums,civil rights monuments, Shakespeare Theatre, etc....All of these are either free or have a small fee for admission.
We spend more on the activities than we do on books/workbooks.

[cheappearls]

That's what I was thinking Neeley. I want the bulk of their learning to be outside of workbooks. I've found a few sites with free worksheets too so I plan on using that.

I'm thinking I'll be spending $50 a month, give or take a little bit. I'm planning a trip to the library this weekend to see what they have. I haven't been to this library yet but I'm hoping they have a good selection of things I can use.

Thanks ladies!

[Valerie in WA]

We have a very relaxed, almost unschooling style. I buy workbooks for math and language, but for all other subjects, I use real books, not text books. I spend about $300/year, which also includes fun things like CD's that teach math facts.

I pay $30 a month for a co-op PE class ($15 each).

I also set aside a horrific amount of money for lessons. Are you ready? $1800 per year. It's kind of an obsession with me, as we never had money for stuff when I was a kid. My older dd is a gymnast. That runs me about $50 a month, but will be doubling soon. Both kids do swimming for a few months in the spring and summer. Sometimes one wants to do ice skating or ballet too. At some point music lessons will be coming out of this fund. I also take out of the $1800 for a Zoo or Science Center membership. I've never yet used all of the $1800, but I like knowing it's there.

[Neeley]

We have a very relaxed, almost unschooling style. I buy workbooks for math and language, but for all other subjects, I use real books, not text books. I spend about $300/year, which also includes fun things like CD's that teach math facts.

I pay $30 a month for a co-op PE class ($15 each).

I also set aside a horrific amount of money for lessons. Are you ready? $1800 per year. It's kind of an obsession with me, as we never had money for stuff when I was a kid. My older dd is a gymnast. That runs me about $50 a month, but will be doubling soon. Both kids do swimming for a few months in the spring and summer. Sometimes one wants to do ice skating or ballet too. At some point music lessons will be coming out of this fund. I also take out of the $1800 for a Zoo or Science Center membership. I've never yet used all of the $1800, but I like knowing it's there.

Don't feel bad Valerie. We spend around $3000 a year on baseball alone for DS. Then another $1000 to $2000 on football, softball and basketball - depending on how much new equiptment is needed. In the past there have been the dance lessons, voice lessons, swimming etc... We average between $4000 and $5000 a year on the kids activities and all that goes along with it. DH is a lot like you in that his parents did not always have the money for him and his brother. This is what I would call one of our "indulgences".

[warramra]

I would have to say around $200 for this year. I still have $ we put aside last tax refund for curriculum. This our 3rd year, I have a 2nd grader & K4 - so we still in the very relaxed stage. I use a math curriculum and grammar - approx $50 this year and the grammar is two year program. Biggest purchase this year was Hooked on Phonics box set from Wal that I am actually using with two children right now, and can use later with the other two. Beyond math, reading & grammar, I use whatever free or reduced resources I can find. I have found cheap unit studies in used bookstores, use library for reading materials. I can print handwriting (manuscript & cursive) sheets for free from internet. Use google - there are free unit studies, free kids programming streamed using a media player, worksheets, whatever you can want on the internet. Enchanted Learning has a membership fee of $20/yr but have found it to be well worth that with my kids - can also find things to entertain the 2yr old.

Additionally I budget $150 per month for activities and my 'rainy day fun fund' The girls do Choir ($35 for both), Piano group lessons $96/month for both and dd7 does 4 seasons of soccer - paid seasonally. Thankfully, my mother totally supports hs and helps with our yearly museum/zoo memberships as her gift to us.

[zakity]

We spend about $1500 a year total. We spend about $100 on math (Singapore Math) for a year. We spend about $100 a month on regular activites (rollerskating, bowling, lasertag, science classes, swimming, and an indoor play structure outing). We also do random field trips.

[kaykwilts]

I homeschooled my kids for five years. They are now back in the public schools. The first year I think I spent too much. I quickly learned I could get most things used off the internet. I learned where the used boards were. I got some off ebay too. At the end I spent very little on new.

[smk0817]

I found a website yesterday called Homeschooling on a Shoestring. It had some very interesting ideas as well.

Stephanie