Homeschool Organization: Creating A Homeschool Budget

One of the questions I think most of us forget to ask when we are in the midst if our homeschool organization is,

“Do you have a homeschool budget?”

Do you have a set amount going towards all homeschool expenses such as curricula, manipulatives and stationary? Do you have an idea of the total amount you need per year for running your homeschool smoothly? Or are you simply purchasing things as the need or want arises?

 

 

Today I am going to share with you how we created our homeschool budget and hopefully that will help you to get your homeschool spending under control because let’s face it- homeschooling can be expensive.

 

HOW TO CREATE YOUR HOMESCHOOL BUDGET

To start out I have 2 warnings:

1) Do not attempt to create a budget if you need to purchase things within 1 week (that just causes unnecessary stress) but do take note of everything that you buy to have an idea for next year.

2) The process of ‘guesstimating’ will be a bit harder for the first year of homeschooling but still try to do it.

 

Step 1

Before you start writing anything down on paper, you need to gather all the information you need. A quick list is:

Curricula costs per subject for the entire year (will you need 1 or 2) We use Foundations A and B for Kindergarten so that is 2

Manipulatives needed

Membership costs

Other possible expenses

 

STEP 2

Once you have an idea of everything that you need to start your school year, you need to research the prices. With the prices on hand, you are going to grab your sheet of paper and divide it like this:

 

What We Need To Start	Cost
Foundations A and B	$226
BJU Math K (Student and Teacher’s Materials)	$160.79
Manipulatives	$50
	Total: $436.79

 

Now that we know that we need to spend approximately $439 to start our school year, we divide that cost by 12. Your calculators should then tell you that you need to save $37 every month to meet your financial obligation. This is where it gets scary so stay with me.

 

STEP 3

The next step is to take our $37 per month and multiply it by 2.5 and so $37 becomes $91. Why did we do this? Let’s face it- in the middle of the year you may realize that you or your kids hate the curricula that you are using and so you have to purchase a new set whether new or used. Doubling this figure gives you a buffer and if you don’t spend that extra, it will simply accumulate for next year or you can use a portion of it to end the school year with a bang.

 

See it wasn’t that scary- you just created a homeschool budget that will be kind to both your sanity and your household’s wallet.