How to Stretch Your Homeschool Budget

Homeschool budget. Do those words make you cringe? Are you homeschooling on a shoestring budget? Need some ideas for frugal homeschooling? This post includes 6 simple tips to stretch your homeschool budget — without sacrificing a quality education.

Don’t miss the Back to Homeschool Giveaway at the bottom of this post!

Frugal might be a popular buzzword right now, but for our single-income homeschooling household it’s a necessity. Frugal has been a lifestyle for us since I quit my day job in the last trimester of my pregnancy with my oldest daughter almost 20 years ago. I haven’t regretted a single moment of being a stay-at-home mom, but it has definitely had an affect on our budget.

When we first began homeschooling, the high prices I saw in the curriculum catalogs scared me. There were so many great resources I wanted to get, but we just didn’t have the funds. Over the years I’ve learned how to get the resources we need for free or low cost.

6 Tips to Stretch your Homeschool Budget

Here are a few budget-friendly tricks I’ve learned:

Plan ahead as much as possible.
If you can help it, don’t wait till you absolutely need something right now. That way you can watch the sales and have time to compare prices and get the best deal when it’s available.  I know that’s the ideal way to do it and it doesn’t always happen that way, but just keeping that in mind as you watch for sales (like end of the year or back to school sales) will help. You might consider using a homeschool planner that has pages specifically for curriculum planning and budgeting.

Shop the sales.
I’ve found that homeschool curriculum companies tend to offer 2-3 big sales per year.  There are also the big back to school sales at places like Wal-mart and Target every year.  I stock up on pens, pencils, paper, and other school supplies then. 

One of my favorite things are the three-prong pocket folders that I get for 10 cents. We use these for lapbooks, notebooking, making our own activity books for holidays, making our own coloring books, book reports, and other projects. They’re so versatile and so inexpensive when I stock up ahead of time at the sale! Personally, I like to make a trip to the Dollar Tree a few times a year to find low cost items and supplies we can use for homeschooling, too. {You might want to read my post: Frugal Homeschool Organization Tips Using Dollar Tree Supplies}

Check out the best homeschool Black Friday to Cyber Monday deals in my post that I update every year!

Make it yourself.
There are many great homeschool manipulatives for math or for Montessori that I just can’t afford. After making a wishlist of what would really help our girls learn, I decided to make whatever I could myself. Things like homemade playdough and paint are not only cheaper, but they are generally more healthy because I use all natural ingredients instead of chemicals and dyes. One of my favorite homemade manipulatives are sensory bins.  Here is an example of a very inexpensive yet fun sensory bin I made for my daughters: ocean-themed sensory bin.

Buy used.
I’ve had great luck with buying and selling used curriculum. I’ve used eBay as well as some online groups. Search “used homeschool curriculum” on Facebook and you’ll see there are several groups dedicated to the topic. Not only have I found curriculum we’ve needed for half the cost, I’ve been able to make a little money by re-selling things that haven’t worked for us or that we no longer need.

Borrow or trade.
Are you in a local homeschool group? Organize a “barter day” where you all bring in and trade curriculum. Right now we’re borrowing a science text from a homeschooling friend.  All I had to do was buy the supplies to do the experiments and the notebooking journal to go along with it. That saved me a lot of money!

Utilize the Internet.
Khan Academy, IXL, and Teaching Textbooks all offer either free curriculum or generous free trials. 

Lapbooking companies like Knowledge Box Central are excellent, low-cost sources for supplemental and stand-alone curriculum. You can also find free lapbooks around the internet.

Many homeschool bloggers create free or frugal resources, as I do here on Heart and Soul Homeschooling. I offer lots of freebies, like this lapbook, bookmarks, and the subscriber library if you sign up for my email list.

If you’re willing to be flexible and invest some time in finding the resources, you can homeschool for free by using the Internet and your local library. I’ve made a Pinterest board for free educational websites and another one for other free homeschool resources.

By being resourceful and adjusting some of my expectations without sacrificing a quality educational experience, I’ve learned how to reduce the sticker shock of homeschooling and do it all frugally!

What frugal tips can you share?  I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

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Back to Homeschool Giveaway

Even though it feels like summer just started, a new homeschool year will be upon us in no time! Have you started planning and prepping yet? Preparing for a new homeschool year is an exciting time, but it can also create feelings of overwhelm and stress! What curriculum should we use next year? What supplies do we need? And how are we going to pay for it all?

Many homeschoolers live on one income and have to stick to a strict budget that doesn’t always allow for much wiggle room. That’s why I’ve teamed up with a group of amazing homeschool bloggers to make getting ready for your new school year just a little bit easier and hopefully a little less stressful for you. Our hope is that we can bless a few homeschool families (although we wish we could bless many more) and ease a little of that financial burden and help you check some extra things off your homeschool wish list this year.

To enter for your chance to win, simply use the Rafflecopter form below to enter.  Now I know this is quite a few entries, but each of these bloggers has generously chipped in their own money to make this giveaway possible, so I hope you will take the time to do all of the entries.  And hey, the more entries you do, the better your odds are of winning!

Giveaway ends July 21, 2023 at 11:59pm ET.  Must be at least 18 years of age.  Must be a resident of U.S. or Canada to enter.  Selected winners will have 48 hours to respond to email notification to claim their prizes or another winner will be drawn.  By entering this giveaway, you agree to be added to the email lists of the participating bloggers (see the Terms & Conditions on the Rafflecopter form).

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Sara

Author/Speaker/Consultant at Heart and Soul Homeschooling

Sara is a homeschool mom to 3 creative girls. She holds a degree in Social Work specializing in early childhood development, which led to her interest in individualized educational options like homeschooling. She believes that learning should be a lifelong adventure, not just a checklist to get through. She is a writer, avid reader, introvert (INFJ), and dreamer of dreams.

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