How to Stay Within Your Homeschool Budget

Let's start out first by asking if you have a homeschool budget. If your financial resources are unlimited, then you probably don't need one, but most of us don't have this luxury.

Decide/pray about what you think you should spend for each child for homeschooling. It is amazing to me how little and how much some people can spend on homeschooling. You WILL be able to homeschool with the resources that are available to you! Your homeschool budget doesn't have to be $2000 per year in order to be able to provide your children with the educational resources they need.

In this age of financial crisis, we have felt the crunch at our house. Here are some things that I have done to scale back our homeschool budget this year. Maybe they will help you.

1. Shop Thrift Stores, Goodwill, and Garage Sales - I'm sure some people don't even like entering these places, but that's what hand sanitizer is for! I am amazed at what I have found for homeschooling at these stores. You're not going to find a packaged curriculum, but you will find some great resources, craft items, supplemental books and literature.

2. Shop used curriculum fairs or online sites like Homeschool Classifieds. Once someone is done with their curriculum, they are more than willing to sell it to the next person in line. You can easily negotiate with people if you think they are asking too much or if you can't afford their price. Buying material that others are done with is a definite boost to any homeschool budget.

3. USE THE LIBRARY - I can't stress this enough! You wouldn't believe all the homeschool books that libraries carry. You can either use the item for 3 weeks and return it or decide that you do like this book and want to purchase it. Our library has it's book request system all online, so I can easily go in and request a book and manage when it is due with email reminders. It is great!

You can homeschool AND live on a limited spending plan. Your creativity might be stretched by your homeschool budget, but your kids might have the best year ever!

Budgeting!

If you have been avoiding making up or living on a spending plan, let me encourage you to just do it! Is all this budgeting talk new to you? Have you always wanted to keep track of your finances but didn't know how? Here's an article written by the creator of BudgetMap. I highly recommend this program for implementing not only a homeschool budget but also a spending plan for your family.

Three critical elements for successful budgeting

When you try your hardest and fail, it doesn’t seem fair. When you fail at something important, it is also painful — especially in budgeting.

People usually can not track their finances because they lack one or more of three critical elements. Are you missing any? Get these essentials and be on your way to success:

1. Motivation — If you are reading this article, you already have some motivation. How much do you need? You need enough for “takeoff.” The best way to get it is to continue education. Read articles, books, or take a budgeting course — your motivation will grow with your education. Education will build your confidence and help you form practical achievable goals. Goals have to be something you really want. You need goals for motivation.

2. Education — There are hundreds of books and courses to choose from. If you are short on funds, get the basics for free from the internet or a book on budgeting from a public library. The most important thing is to get started — an imperfect budget is better than no budget. You can change and perfect your budget as you get more education. Also, don’t wait for some special time of the year (like January 1st) to start. Get started now!

3. Implementation — All the knowledge in the world is useless if you don’t put it into practice. Many motivated people take the best budgeting courses but still fail because they lack this last necessary component. Writing out a spending plan is not implementation. Implementation is living according to your spending plan. To do this, you need a budgeting system that will help you track your spending as you make each financial transaction. Budgeting without a budgeting system is like flying an airplane without instruments — most people will crash. Whether you use a spreadsheet, special register, or software, choose the system that is easiest for you and you will be more likely to have success. Also make sure you get a system that fits your life style. If you use a combination of cash, checks and credit cards, make sure to get a system that can handle all three types of transactions.

Ask yourself if you lack any of these three essential elements for successful budgeting. If you do, make a decision to get what you need. As you get one, it will help you get the other two — motivation will help you get education, implementation will help you get motivation, etc. As you increase all three, you will move forward to financial freedom.

by William Schara C.P.A. — Author and creator of “BudgetMap — The Simple Way to Budget”. Want to get control of your finances? Find out more about budgeting systems at the BudgetMap web site.

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