How to Budget for Homeschooling {Free Homeschool Budget Printables}

Published:
May 25, 2021

Sarah Shelton

Contributor:
Sarah Shelton

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Shopping for curriculum sure can put a large dent in your bank account if you aren’t careful to budget ahead of time. Many new homeschoolers wonder how to create a homeschool budget. Use our free curriculum shopping budget printables to make sure you don’t go over your limit.

budget worksheets on background with test overlay

There have been times where we were able to buy everything brand new for each child. It was so exciting to get that big box of crisp, brand new books with that new book smell still on them.

There have also been many times where we would pray before we stepped into a used book sale and marveled at how God provided each book we needed. It didn’t matter if it was gently used or not, it was still something to get excited about.

The more children you have, and the older they get, the more expensive curriculum shopping can be. It’s important to plan out a budget ahead of time before you start shopping so you know how much you are able to spend.

How to Save Money on Homeschool Curriculum

There are a myriad of ways that you can save money on your curriculum for the year to stay in your homeschool budget. You can start your planning with a simple list of curriculum you need to buy and then go from there.

Shop Used Homeschool Curriculum Sales

Used homeschool curriculum sales are one of my favorite things about summertime. We pick up so many great readers and save on expensive textbooks. I’ve also participated as a seller and made enough to cover our curriculum for the following year.

Borrowing Homeschool Curriculum

I have some homeschool mom friends who I’ve traded curriculum with for years. My friend Sarah has a daughter older than mine and one younger, so we swap non-consumable resources that don’t violate copyright back and forth. 

The only problem with borrowing curriculum is if you aren’t organized, you can forget what you lent out and may not get it back! You can use our free book borrowing log to keep track of what you have borrowed and lent out so you make sure you get (and give) everything back.

Scratch and Dent Sales

I don’t know about you, but I love bargains – especially homeschool related ones! When you sign up to receive newsletters from your favorite publishers you may be notified of scratch-and-dent sales. I am on Masterbooks email list as well as Homeschool Adventure, and they have both had scratch and dent sales this year. Masterbooks actually does them often and it helps stretch my homeschool budget with their $2.99 sales!

Make Use of Your Public Library

I have actually discovered great teaching materials and even some homeschool curriculum at the library. When you need to source readers for a living books curriculum like Sonlight, the library is a great place to start. 

Purchase Non-Consumable Curriculum

When you are homeschooling multiple children, it’s super helpful when you can purchase a curriculum once and use it over and over again. Keep in mind that not all curriculum is consumable and some resources, such as workbooks have to be written in. 

Use Digital Homeschool Curriculum

I love receiving brand-new books in the mail like most people, but digital curriculum has many, many benefits! There are many ways you can make digital curriculum work for you.

  1. Digital curriculum is often priced lower than printed materials.
  2. You can re-use digital curriculum over and over with each child in your household.
  3. You can print extra copies when needed. This comes in handy when your child’s chicken-scratch writing needs to be improved upon.
  4. Storage is so easy with digital resources. The challenge is remembering everything you have saved on your hard drive! 
  5. There are affordable ways to print digital curriculum.

More on Digital Curriculum

Combine Subjects

There are some subjects that can be combined, such as history and geography. You can also combine reading with composition. Combining subjects means you don’t have to purchase as many materials. You can help your homeschool budget and save money to spend on supplies.

Make Use of Free Homeschool Resources

We have thousands of free homeschool printables here at Homeschool Giveaways. When you sign up for our newsletter list, you get access to our free subscriber library. You’ll find dozens of free unit studies, copywork printables, notebooking pages, and more.

How to Create a Homeschool Budget

In order to come up with a practical homeschool budget, you first need to determine what resources you need to purchase for a successful homeschool year. If it helps, you can break up your purchases into semesters as well to help spread out the cost.

  • homeschool curriculum
  • arts and crafts supplies: crayons, colored pencils, glue sticks, tape, construction paper, scissors, etc.
  • virtual homeschool classes
  • co-op classes
  • math manipulatives
  • supplemental books
  • readers
  • encouraging books for mom!

Free Curriculum Shopping Budget Printables

You can use our free curriculum planning worksheet and our homeschool budget printable to get started.

homeschool curriculum budget planner printable template for teachers

If you get overwhelmed by planning, budgeting and shopping for curriculum we have got you covered! 

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