Cows Don’t Moo
I’m so excited to be writing for The Home School Village. When Stef put a call out for a writer to do a monthly post about homeschooling on a shoe string, I jumped at the chance!
When we started homeschooling, my husband had already been unemployed for over a year. Money was tight. Really tight. I knew I couldn’t spend hundreds of dollars on curriculum and extras. So, I sought out tons of free and extremely frugal ($5 or less) resources. I knew God would provide! And He did!
My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Jesus Christ. Philippians 4:19
This is our second year homeschooling and I spent less than $50 total for both kids (second grade and prek) this year!
You can teach just about any subject you can imagine for free or very, very frugal. You might not be teaching it with the most popular curriculum, it might take a bit more time to drive to the library and plan it out yourself and search for what you want. But don’t doubt that it can be done.
I splurged on one area of the greatest interest to my son, science. My oldest son is a science junkie! There was no question that science was the area I should spend my limited funds. So I splurged for the science of our choice, Apologia Zoology 1.
There are some things you should consider when deciding what to spend limited curriculum funds on.
- decide if there is a must have curriculum (like a specific curriculum that works for your child)
- search out ‘must have’ curriculum for a good deal or buy used
- gather all the free resources you can
- go through the free resources and see what will and will not work for your family
- make a list of subjects you could not find suitable free resources for
- look for used curriculum for remaining subjects
- consider PDF curricula or unit studies, they are usually cheaper
Is throwing it all together yourself a little more time and effort, sure. But sometimes, when money is tight, as it often is these days for so many families, that extra time and effort is much more affordable than cash.
I hope my posts here at Then HSV will help you save some money and let you see that you too can homeschool on a shoestring.
Sonita is a frugal, Christian homeschooling mom of 2 boys. She blogs at Cows Dont Moo
Thanks for sharing! I’d also like to add swapping curriculum with a homeschool friend or buying used. I have saved lots of money on costlier curriculum doing these two things!
Yes! I’ll be sharing how to find used resources in an upcoming post. It does save a TON of money.
Great post!! We’ve always been on a limited budget so I’ve tried very hard to get everything I need at minimal cost. My kids are two grades apart so reusing the curriculum for my second child always allowed me to save money by only having to get curriculum for my oldest. I rarely buy anything new either – only if it’s something I really need and I’ve scoured the internet looking for used and can’t find it.
There are many places to find used books online and that’s so helpful. I also have some friends who have kids in different grades than mine so we share books and just trade back and forth each year.
Getting by with a small budget is very possible – I can’t imagine spending hundreds of dollars every year!!
Me either! I spent about $50 for 2 kids this year (our 2nd year homeschooling) last year, being our first year, I did spend a bit more, but most of that was on manipulatives that will be used by both kids for years to come. Most of that was also bought used or at dollar stores!
Sonita,
I will enjoy this series. This is the first year I actually bought some used curriculum. The first used book I bought was the Apologia Astronomy book which was in good condition. I use to just buy what I could new and do w/o everything else because I didn’t want to buy used books. I have since changed my ways and picked up a few great and needed titles at reduced prices.