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Selecting homeschool curriculum for the coming year is always exciting. Paying for it – well, not so much! So how do you save money on homeschool curriculum?
When I homeschooled, I decided what I wanted to use for each child without initially thinking about the cost. I wanted to use what would work best for each child, but I didn’t have a limitless source of money! Quite likely you are like me if you are reading this post and you are concerned about the cost of what you want to buy – especially if you have a number of children.
I know just how it feels to know what you want and realize it will cost more than you can afford. I homeschooled 4, and as we only began homeschooling when my oldest was 12, I had no “hand-me-downs” for the younger ones and had to buy for all of them at once. Sonlight was my main curriculum but I supplemented with many other cool things I found. And I learned to do it all on a budget!
Here are my best tips for you on how to afford the curriculum you want. AND be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of the post for a chance to win a Rainbow Resource gift card to help you even more.
1. Watch for deals
This means you need to sign up for the newsletters of your favorite curriculum providers. If you don’t, you will need to visit their websites regularly and you might miss out on a sale.
Tip: Be sure to sign up for FundaFunda’s newsletter so that you never miss out on any of our sales!
2. Library
I have no idea what I would have done without the library! I bought Sonlight’s Instructor Guides and would have LOVED to be able to buy all the books, but I couldn’t afford it. So we became regulars at our local library.
We didn’t just use the library for books, but also for DVDs. Our local library system had a lot of great documentaries. And don’t forget the libraries also give you access to digital books and movies and online courses and test prep too!
3. Swap with friends
I had a friend who was also using Sonlight, but her children were different ages and we often managed to just trade items we had and that saved us a lot of money.
4. Rainbow Resource
I must admit I got a thrill every time their huge fat catalog arrived in the mail. Many of the items they sell are cheaper than you will find them anywhere else.
5. Buy Used
I did visit local used curriculum sales but often didn’t find much of what I needed. So my next resort would be to look online in my all my favorite places:
- Homeschoolclassifieds.com
- Welltrained Mind’s Classifieds
- Amazon
- Ebay
- Homeschool Curriculum Marketplace Facebook Group
- Your local homeschool FB groups. We have a great local curriculum buy and sell Facebook group and you probably do too. Just search in Facebook.
6. Homeschool Buyers Co-op
I love the idea behind this website – to get “bulk buy” prices for homeschoolers! For many of the products, the higher number of people that buy something, the cheaper the item becomes. My favorite purchases through them were Meet the Masters – an art program I used with my youngest that we both enjoyed (it is for multiple ages) and Thinkwell courses (Math, Economics, Government).
In addition, you can create a free Homeschool ID Card if you join Homeschool Buyers Co-op and this gives you discounts at many book stores etc. (For a small price they will print and laminate it for you if you want – but you can print it our free yourself)
7. Rent
You probably know that many college students are now choosing to rent their textbooks and there are numerous places they can do that now. You may not know that there is now a place where you can rent homeschool curriculum – Yellow Bookhouse Rental. They can rent you some of the more expensive, but popular curriculum. They carry Sonlight, Teaching Textbooks, Apologia, Usborne, Bright Ideas Press and more!
8. Buy curriculum you can re-use
If you have more than one child, you can make choices now that will help you in future years, Of course, you can re-use all curriculum that ocmes in book form, and making copies of workbooks will preserve those for future years. But digital curriculum doesn’t take up any storage space in your home AND can be re-used. Take a look at the games and other teaching resources we produce as well as our self-paced web-based unit studies that you have lifetime access to and can be re-used by everyone in your family.
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I hope this post has encouraged you that there are multiple ways to save on curriculum and you can homeschool on a budget! If you have any more ideas, let us know in the comments.
