What are the secrets of homeschooling on a tight budget? Here are my best tips to help you save money on your homeschool curriculum.
Did you know that it costs anywhere between $6,000 and $18,000 for kids to be educated in our public schools each year? Read the studies here, here, and here.
But for many homeschooling families, money is tight. Many of us are living on one income. Statistics show that homeschool families are spending an average of $600 per student. However, I have never spent that much in over a decade of homeschooling! In fact, we will homeschool five kids next year (including two in high school) for just over $500.
Here’s how to make it work and save money on your homeschool curriculum. Make sure you scroll down to the bottom of this post to enter the $50 Gift Certificate Giveaway from Build Your Bundle! And make sure you’re on my email list so you know when the sale is live!
(This post contains affiliate links, which means at no extra cost to you, I may make a small commission from purchases made from these links. Thanks for the support.)
Teach multiple ages together
When you can group several of your children together for a subject and buy one curriculum instead of many, then you can save literally hundreds of dollars a year.
Subjects like history, science, art, music appreciation, Bible, read-alouds for literature and unit studies work very well this way.
In all our years of homeschooling K-8th, my five kids have never had grade-specific science or history courses. Curriculum that we’ve used that has lent itself to multiple ages together include Mystery of History and God’s Design for Science. There is much more out there! Check out Cathy Duffy Reviews for more great suggestions.
Buy reusable curriculum
Another way to save money on homeschool curriculum is to buy resources that you can pass down to the younger kids. Try to stay away from consumable workbooks and resources that will be written in and you will have to replace each year. Most of our curriculum is reused time and time again, saving us mucho moola! This is another reason that I don’t use printables (and you shouldn’t either).
This is one of the many reasons we have loved the Writing With Skill curriculum for middle school. The student books are instructional, but the student does the writing assignments on his own paper and files it in a 3-ring binder. So at the end of the year, you have a whole notebook full of original narrations, outlines, short papers and research papers. But the next sibling can reuse the book the following year, no problem.
Use the library
This seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many homeschoolers just buy books without checking at their library first! I almost did this when purchasing curriculum for my 10th grader. We are using Notgrass American History, which also has a literature component to the course. I could have bought the literature pack from the publisher for $90 because it seemed easier just to have the books in our house for when we need them. But, after checking on our library website, I realized that I could borrow 9 of the titles from our library, we owned one already, and the other two were less than $4 each on eBay. So, by taking a bit of extra effort and using our library, we saved $82.21 on curriculum for our high schooler this coming year.
If you know what science topics you want to teach your elementary aged kids this year, make a list and have a library day before each unit. Stock up on free resources there, then use lots of hands-on approaches and lots of reading to cover the topic. History is so much more fun when learned this way too! Lots of life-sized timelines, dress-up and getting lost in story are much better (especially at the younger years) than expensive and boring textbooks.
Go simple during the early years
The older grades might require more of an investment if you don’t feel comfortable teaching higher level mathematics or science. You might be purchasing online courses or paying for dual enrollment at your local college. So, keeping the long view in mind, it’s a good idea to go simple during the early years.
Sure, you could spend over $600 from a reputable publisher and get a complete Kindergarten curriculum. If this fits your budget and your homeschool style, you should not feel guilty about this! Go for it and enjoy it.
But if you are needing to be more frugal in your homeschool purchases, then I would suggest a more simple approach for K-8th. Here’s how we’ve taken a minimalist approach to history this year. Or instead of an expensive literature curriculum for each grade level, why not give your kids the time and space to become readers. There are many ways to go simple. Find what you’re comfortable with and embrace it.
Check out these other posts about homeschooling on a budget:
Thrifty Girl’s Guide to Homeschooling on a Budget
Thrifty Girl’s Guide to Living on One Income
And make sure you join our tribe HERE so that you can have access to our free resource library!
Enter the $50 Gift Card Giveaway from Build Your Bundle
Hitting the annual Build Your Bundle sale is another fabulous way to save money on homeschool curriculum! The sale is coming soon, so make sure you enter this giveaway and get on my email list so I can tell you when it’s live!
If you’ve participated in Build Your Bundle in the past, you know what amazing resources are available at a steep discount. (And if you haven’t, you’re in for a treat!) Over the last six years, Build Your Bundle has offered homeschool families some of the best curriculum and resources from homeschool bloggers and companies around the world. Together we strive to infuse confidence into homeschool families while offering quality educational materials at unbeatable prices.
And this year will be no different!
In the past they have had bundles for Early Learning, Elementary, Middle & High School, Homemaking, Special Needs and much more. They also offer a Premium Product section with online courses discounted up to 50% off!
This month, Build Your Bundle is offering a $50 Gift Certificate to their upcoming sale starting May 11th. Past bundles have started at $9.95, so you can get a lot of curriculum for just $50! Be sure to enter this month for your chance to win and keep an eye on your emails from me so you know when the sale starts.
It is your responsibility to read the terms and conditions upon entering. Entering the giveaway signs you up for the following newsletters: Build Your Bundle, The Fervent Mama, Homeschool on the Range, Making Room 4 One More, The Art Kit, Beyond the Stick Figure, In All You Do, Hess Un-Academy, Heart & Soul Homeschooling, Hide the Chocolate, Simple Living Mama, Peace Creek on the Prairie, Clarissa R. West, and Orison Orchard. Enter in the form below! Each entry increases your odds of winning, and you’re sure to find some new bloggers to follow. This giveaway ends at midnight CST on April 26, 2020. a Rafflecopter giveaway
