Money, money, money . . . MONEY!

(or how to manage homeschooling as a single parent...)

By Linda

Managing finances and homeschooling is always a challenge, as any homeschooling parent can testify. Just attend one homeschooling conference and see the tons of cool resources one can buy. You will hear a cash register ring in your head (and the vacuum sound being applied to your wallet). As homeschoolers, we battle different financial struggles than do public schooled families. There, teachers and the school set parents up for various directly related school expenditures. Then, social pressure sets up additional expenses, indirect school expenditures (such as the ‘right’ clothes, shoes, accessories, sports, events, fundraisers, etc.).

As homeschoolers – we don’t have those influences (which is great) – but we also have no focus (which can be . . . not so good). As a result the world is our shopping arena. And I do mean the world; more on that shortly.

As a single parent, managing homeschooling finances is even a greater struggle; simply because, to have more money to do more activities or buy additional resources, one must work more. And if the parent is working more, well, they have less time to do homeschooling. At least themselves.

So for the sake of today’s discussion, let’s assume that you, as the single parent have the resources to conduct homeschooling using family, friends, and/or hired help (and that would be included in your budget). The remaining question is: how do you balance the rest of your homeschooling budget and choose where to spend your money?

Let’s consider the opportunities:  curriculum, field trips, classes/workshops, travel, event participation, crafts/projects, software, games and sports (translation: the world is your shopping center).

For our family, I use the process of elimination first. I decide what we will _not_ spend money on this year. In our case, as unschoolers, we have a very easy first elimination. We do not buy curriculum! This of course is a huge savings, as hundreds of dollars can be easily spent on the wide range of curriculum available. But that is where the ‘easy’ part ends.

So the next step is that I (pretend to) establish a ‘maximum’ budget. It looks something like this:

Field trips - $ 200
Classes/workshops - $ 400
Travel – hmmmm – perhaps we wont travel this year
Event participation – only free ones this year
Crafts/projects - $ 100
Software - $ 200
Games - $ 30
Sports - $ 100

I do this exercise in August – before the VaHomeschoolers Conference in Richmond.

Then I go to the conference and spend – well – let’s just say I wipe out any hope of staying in my budget in just one day of shopping. There are just too many cool project related materials for sale there.

Then, because I am on way too many homeschooling listservs, I sign up for field trips, classes, and events for the first three months, which further destroys my total budget (several fold).

Next, because ALL kids need exercise and some opportunities for the S word (yes, I mean socialization), we sign up for at least one organized sport. Living in Northern Virginia, by the time registration fees, uniforms, and equipment costs are covered . . . well . . . it definitely was not in the budget.

By mid-October, my annual budget has already been spent a couple times over, and I start to think “hmmm, maybe I better cut back”. Like seriously. So then we enter our dormant spending phase. This lasts until a couple weeks before the holidays, when in moments of madness (as in “insanity”), I decide that gifts will have an ‘educational’ theme. So I buy software, games, manipulatives that appear to be fun – but I know they are educational. And, yes, then I feel guilty and buy the wish list items – that have no educational value. So by now I have further exhausted my homeschooling budget AND my holiday budget.

Fortunately, by then it is January, it is cold, and everyone starts to hibernate. I behave myself from January through mid March. And then, well, spring is right around the corner, and I get the “hey! Wouldn’t it be cool to have a garden as a project this year?!” (Yes, in my insanity, I say this every year). So we take a short trip to the local garden shop (or two) and purchase enough seeds of various flowers, fruits, and vegetables to establish a small farm. Inevitably we find some new cool tool to buy, and of course we have to buy a couple plants for indoors – because we can’t wait until something actually grows.

This spring planting fever usually hits before the last frost, so then we have to go home with all these goodies and wait until we are sure there will be no frosts. By the time I am sure about that . . . it is mid- June. And if you know much about plants, you know that we will have missed the prime planting season. Oh, we will plant some things anyway – but the yield is quite dismal; making the garden project a very expensive experience.

Last, but not least are the summer activities (primarily related to a pool or two), which again in Northern Virginia, is not an inexpensive investment. While not specifically homeschooling related, it is certainly sanity related, because you must have something to keep them occupied during the long hot summer!

Then we are back to August; and the pretend budget.

Seriously, while all I have written is true (I am ashamed to say), there have been very lean times when we could not do the impromptu spending that I have presented here. In those years we had no budget, because there was really no money to spend. So we focused on opportunities that were free or extremely low cost. Funny thing is, we never lacked for something to do, or resources. We tapped into non-profit and government organizations who provide resources to teachers for free (online and in person); we participated in local free events, classes, workshops hosted by the county or cities; we played sports as part of networking opportunities (park days) or as part of groups organized specifically for homeschoolers (which tend to be more cost sensitive); we volunteered with non-profits enabling us to attend events as workers; we used the library for our only source of books (rather than building our own library); we participate in Freecycle where we could pick up free resources from the community.

These are all very valuable and feasible means by which to homeschool with minimal expense. We have had years where our entire “extras” budget for the year, which included homeschooling expenses, was under $ 200. We lived very frugally.

The bottom line (finance speak) is that with creativity and a little thought, cost does not have to be a negative factor when considering and executing homeschooling. In actuality, the money that is spent is usually more for the parent (to make them feel better) than a necessity for the child. There is a world of free and low cost resources out there! Leverage them, even if you can afford not to!

Linda is a multi-tasking (translation: crazy) mom of three, homeschooling since 1992, world traveler, dreamer, writer (baker, chef and bottlewasher).

Comments

[JoVE]

I am so glad that I am not the only one who can't stick to a budget.

But on the seeds front. You don't have to wait until the last risk of frost is past for everything. Some things are very frost sensitive, but stuff like lettuce grows quickly and can stand a light frost. Succession planting means fresh lettuce frequently. We are in Ottawa (check it on a map, very much further north) and plant lettuce in early April.