Save Money in Your Homeschool with These 3 Secrets!

Do you want to save money in your homeschool? While it can be argued that homeschooling saves money, it’s also important to note that if a tight homeschool budget isn’t maintained, the costs can add up!

Homeschool supplies, teaching tools, and curriculum costs can quickly become a financial burden. I speak from experience because I had a season when I was on a first-name basis with the gentleman who delivered my Amazon purchases! Yes, I was ordering from Amazon that frequently!

Can you identify? Do you feel like you spend too much money on your homeschool? There are 3 tips that have saved our homeschool LOADS of money. Whether you apply one of these principles or all of them, they will tremendously impact your homeschool budget.

photo credit: © depositphotos.com / Gelpi

1- SIGN UP FOR SALES NOTIFICATIONS

If you’re considering purchasing a particular product or curriculum, sign up for the company’s sales notifications or emails. Many businesses offer sales periodically throughout the year. Newsletters are the best way to get notified when a product is on sale!

2- SAVE ON PRINTER INK

We use a lot of printer ink between worksheets, homeschool planner sheets, and my daughters’ assignments. I used to go through at least one B&W and one colour cartridge per month! Even though the ink for our HP Envy was affordable, the costs were phenomenal, especially with the amount of ink we used every month!

A little while ago, I found out about HP Instant Ink. Here’s how it works….

• With an eligible HP printer, you sign up for a monthly plan for the number of pages you think you’ll print monthly. The plans range from $1.89/month CDN (for 10 pages/month) to $63.79/month (for 1500 pages/month).
• Whether you print B&W and/or colour… the monthly cost is the same.
• The cartridges are shipped to you and replenished (by mail) before you even run out of ink!
• There’s a small overage fee if you go over your plan’s amount. I’ve never gone over.
• You can carry over the previous month’s unused pages to the following month.
• You can monitor your account and how many pages you’ve printed online!

As I said, this service has saved so much money. I subscribed to the $16.39 plan, which gives us 300 pages/month, and have been delighted with it! I even use this ink to print photos at home!

Also, HP Instant Ink offers one-month free trial! If you sign up, you’ll get a free month of service (and so will I).

Try HP Instant Ink here –>  http://try.hpinstantink.com/gtnZF

3- SEEK OUT HOMESCHOOL FREEBIES

There are plenty of places to find free homeschool resources. Look around and take advantage of all the free curriculum and materials available!

NATURE

Nature is my favourite place to find teaching tools and manipulative objects for preschool and kindergarten. A walk in the great outdoors can yield an abundance of rocks, leaves, sticks, flowers, and shells.

GARAGE SALES

Often, garage sales have boxes of free items. Sometimes, you can find some amazing treasures in those boxes! I’ve discovered binders, unused packages of paper, stickers, and even notebooks!

TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS

The Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) website is loaded with free resources. Did you know that before individuals launch their seller’s account, they have to first list a free product. Use the TPT search bar to seek out the freebies on the site.

BORROW

One of my favourite tips is borrowing materials from a friend or the library. Libraries are a great source for high-quality books and curricula.

BLOGS

Many bloggers create free resources for their newsletter subscribers. For instance, my newsletter subscribers can access an exclusive library of over twenty products, and I periodically add new resources. Interested?! Sign up for my emails here –> The Deliberate Mom’s Printables.

THE INTERNET

There are loads of awesome sites on the Internet! If you do a little research, you can have a whole curriculum of well-sourced information—all for FREE!

It’s essential to keep our homeschool costs reasonable. I have spent much time seeking out the best money-saving tips and tricks. In fact, I dedicated a whole chapter to money-saving tips in my book; My Kitchen, My Classroom: An Introduction to Homeschool.

REFLECT

There are many ways to save on homeschooling costs. What money-saving measures do you take to keep your homeschooling affordable?

Jennifer Bly

Author of My Kitchen, My Classroom: An Introduction to Homeschool and creator of The Deliberate Mom. Jennifer writes about parenting, homeschooling, her faith, and life with her husband and two girls. Jennifer has a Bachelor of Applied Human Service Administration Degree with a specialization in Early Learning in Child Care.