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donnalynn
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| Posted: June 17 2008 at 6:39pm | IP Logged
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I was wondering if anyone works with a budget for their homeschool resources?
How do you come up with a reasonable figure to work with?
What do you include in the figure - books? supplies? music lessons?
I am really trying to discern what I really *need* versus all the goodies I just would love to have. 
Dh runs a five week summer day camp and right now it looks like he will have to cancel two weeks due to lack of enrollment. We'll be ok - but I am trying to be more conscious of what I am spending.
For weeks now, I've been lugging a tote full of homeschool catalogs and don't feel like I am getting anywhere! I'm afraid to buy anything at this point! 
One positive - I am really taking a second look at what I already have - I'm finding all sorts of things that I kind of forgot about!
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donnalynn
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mellyrose
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| Posted: June 17 2008 at 11:41pm | IP Logged
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I think budgets are amazingly personal. I wonder if that's why more than 50 people have looked at your question, but not replied? I think in many cases, some would think I spend too much on X, but not enough on Y -- but we've carefully discerned (well, usually anyway) where our money goes.
That being said, I do have a budget, sort of, for schooling. I tend to plan by season, though, and not annually because our income fluctuates.
I plan for a certain amount for summer camps/classes. This summer, thanks to a generous Christmas gift and a generous family member, that budget was $500. The boys each attended a one week camp at the zoo, will be attending a 4 week (1 day/week for 4 weeks) cooking class, and a 1 (4 days) week cartooning class.
I plan for "school" books and it looks like our text and work books will be about $175.00 for the fall. I'll likely order books again in January, since some of our texts are 1/2 completed, but that order will be closer to $100.
My parents have offered to pay for homeschool PE classes next school year for the boys which will be around $300. The boys will play fall ball which will be around $80 this year. I know Colin would like to play basketball this winter, and Nate wants to play soccer this spring, but time will tell whether we can afford that.
Art supplies, paper, etc. will run me around $100 for an entire year.
And then there are books. I buy many books, and we borrow tons from the library. I try to keep books for all 3 kids to around $30/month, which I just realized is $360/year. I think I spend more than that!
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Melanie in AZ
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: June 18 2008 at 12:39am | IP Logged
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I don't have a budget as in I get $X to spend on homeschooling..
But rather, I'll get together my lists of things.. the history books (fiction and non) I want and math books that are needed and whatever.. the sports, the whatever is above and beyond normal everyday needs (food doesn't count but needing to refinish wood floors or buy a new appliance might figure in)..
And then I prioritize and wish shop and cull down my shopping cart.. and think about it a while and then show my dh what I want to get and why we need those things.. and then as money comes available, we can purchase things.. so I find I tend to think at least 6 months ahead.. So that I have the things I want when I'm ready rather than when I'm ready getting the things I want.
Not much of a budget huh? but it's a process so thought you might find that intersting.
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All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Cheryl
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| Posted: June 18 2008 at 6:58am | IP Logged
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I usually project how much I think our homeschooling expenses will be and then use that amount for our household budget.
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Cheryl
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SeaStar
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| Posted: June 18 2008 at 7:07am | IP Logged
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I did sit down with my dh and work up a monthly hs budget for books, etc.
There are so many neat science kits, Montessori items, picture books, etc that I felt I need a realistic budget for two reasons:
1. For eliminating that "guilty" feeling every time I made an order
2. For accountability- keeping track of how much I spend, which helps me discern needs from wants
Dh and I sat down and looked at what private school tuition would cost and worked out a monthly figure from there. So far it has not been a problem for me to stay within that budget.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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tracym
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| Posted: June 18 2008 at 8:05am | IP Logged
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My dh and I are just starting to discuss this. We have not had a budget before but I would like to get one. I want to include money for field trips, plays and classes they may take. Plus, the books and supplies. I think this will help knowing what we can say yes to doing also.
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Tracy M- mom to Allen 12, Laura 9, Joeseph 7, and Anthony 4
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JenniferS
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I have never been able to budget hs money bofore. We have always taken the money we need out of our tax return. That being said, barring any major incidents(which major incidents seem to be a regular occurance around here), hopefully we will be able to begin a hs budget in the not so distant future.
Jen
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domchurch3
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| Posted: June 18 2008 at 8:45am | IP Logged
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This year it will have to come down to priorities for us. My husband withdrew from teaching at a week long summer band camp to be home while I'm on bedrest. That basically would have paid for everything I needed AND wanted for homeschool. I will have to prioritize. He said I could buy another core from Sonlight, but at this time that would mean strapping on religious formation materials, which I don't want to do. It may mean not having lovely new read-alouds to own but rather, checking them out from the library and buying only those that are in poor shape or not available.
The Lord will make known our true needs at this time and we know that the Lord will provide for them. I'm sure there will be seasons of plenty and seasons where we will have to do without and we will grow as a family through it all because the Lord wills it.
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Mackfam
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| Posted: June 18 2008 at 9:59am | IP Logged
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Donna -
We set up a budget in the summer for the next year. We have two categories we save for: 1. the big purchase for the next year, and 2. incidentals and picture books  purchased throughout the year.
We consider the number of children we have when we set up our figure for the next year. My dh is the ultimate decision maker, but he takes my input very seriously since I'm the one doing the teaching for the most part. His view is that since education is an investment, we want the children to have beautiful tools - within reason.
We take the figure we came up with for 1. the big purchase and divide it by the 12 months and make tuition payments to ourselves each month. This way, it is saved for throughout the year and a major crisis in April doesn't bump our $$.
Then, we allot a certain amount monthly to be spent on incidentals. It isn't very much, this year I think it will be between $30 and $50 a month, but my dh hasn't quite finished tweaking the budget. Obviously, this is really a luxury - and isn't necessary. But, I've found that if I don't budget a little bit of money to be used throughout the year, I end up stealing from our big pot of money and I don't have enough for the yearly buys. And, there's always a neat picture book/art supply/field trip that comes up in the middle of the year.
I start planning in March - before we even finish a school year. I sort of take stock of what worked, what didn't, make notes, start marking up catalogs. I make a list of goals and book/tool wants for each child. Then, the very week after we finish with lessons for the year, I disassemble the learning room and re-organize. It helps me to see what I've got already. I purge things that haven't been used in years. And, since I already have fresh on my mind the direction I'm going with the children, I arrange tools/books that would be useful to that end in a way that I can make use of them next year and during planning over the summer. I won't say I don't duplicate purchases - I have a couple of times and it's frustrating. But, planning this way is helping me to make use of resources we already have at home so that my expenditures are well placed.
HTH a little. 
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Jen Mackintosh
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stefoodie
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| Posted: June 18 2008 at 11:43am | IP Logged
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I used to have a budget of $200/month. Then I realized that some months just didn't work out that way (we spent more, because of field trips, or extra for lessons, etc.) -- and then months when we spent less but I felt "justified" in purchasing more just because I hadn't reached the budget, and looking back, the things I bought probably weren't all that necessary.
So for a while now I haven't had a budget, and haven't really bought any schooly stuff in several months. I did buy $100+ of educational games last month. And paid for driving lessons this month. And swimming and gymnastics... And come September, voice lessons.
But yes, it's really a personal thing. From time to time I've also tried the zero-budget for homeschool and rely completely on library and online resources... and we've survived. Until I saw the next post/recommendation/review and went off on a buying spree again...
What I'm really trying to do now is GET RID OF STUFF. I have way too many history spines, science books that can be borrowed from the library, unused programs that I hang on to JUST IN CASE there's a kid who may get interested ONE DAY....
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Rachel May
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| Posted: June 18 2008 at 12:35pm | IP Logged
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Jennifer, I like the idea of dividing the expense by 12. That makes the number more reasonable.
We don't have an all inclusive budget, but we are trying to project one right now. This is our approach:
In early summer I come up with our core curriculum and a materials list. This year it includes:
*Emmanuel Books (MODG spines, blank books and history reading books for the 1st 3 months)--about $250
*Latin for Children--$150
*Math U See--$100
*Noeo Science--$150
*Rainbow Resources--$150
That's about $750, and anything I buy, I commit to using 2 times so I can feel like our money wasn't completely wasted. I'm also going to ask for some money for play tickets, but I'll let Bill decide how many we can afford. He already approved this year's book list.
Our music lessons are $90/week for 3 kids, so we gave up some lessons this summer to offset the book expenses.
The rest of the money will come from our general household budget and will be worked in incremementally through the year. For example, the rest of the history readers I will put on an Amazon wish list and add to the cart through the year when I am buying other books so that I can get free shipping or I'll get them from the library. Field trips, sports and office supplies are all paid for from that same weekly budget.
So about $1000 this summer, $90/week for 42 weeks ($3780--yowzah! I didn't realize!), and about $600 for sports and extra curric= $5380. Plus, ??? for field trips. Around here we could put one kid in private school for about that instead of homeschooling 4. Bill says music would be the first to go if there were a money crunch. No kidding!
ETA: I also ask for 1 educational resource for me, like a how to lapbook book or the Charlotte Mason handbook, to improve myself as a teacher.
HTH!
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Rachel
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Paula in MN
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I've never had a budget. I just bought what I thought we needed.
I did get married last summer, after I had already purchased most of what I planned on using this past year.
I'm quite sure I will be given a budget this year.
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Paula
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donnalynn
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| Posted: June 19 2008 at 2:44pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for all the great thoughts!
SeaStar wrote:
I did sit down with my dh and work up a monthly hs budget for books, etc.
There are so many neat science kits, Montessori items, picture books, etc that I felt I need a realistic budget for two reasons:
1. For eliminating that "guilty" feeling every time I made an order
2. For accountability- keeping track of how much I spend, which helps me discern needs from wants
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Yes!! The guilt! blech - and it seems to go both ways - I don't want to spend too much but then I worry I am skimping because I'm not buying the $150.00 art program or pricey writing program. 
Going through what I already have has been great - and since I do some subjects in blocks I will see what we actually have time for rather than spend a lot now and not get to it later in the year. I think it all comes down to priorities and making an actual list.
I bought the whole set of Holling books last year at a convention and I never used them because I didn't have the maps. In my overall planning - I'm trying to be better about having everything I need and following through with resources we have on hand.
And I realized we spend a lot of money on music lessons  . It is a priority in our family but that means something has to give in other areas! I am going to try to put more money aside for the music commitments up front so I don't feel so strapped on a monthly basis.
This has been so helpful.
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donnalynn
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Willa
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| Posted: June 19 2008 at 3:17pm | IP Logged
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Two past threads on this:
"school" budget
The $$ cost of homeschooling
ETA one more:
Real Learning on a Budget
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Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Homeschool budget?
