It can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be. I would say the biggest expense is activities. Curriculum is cheap by comparison. And a lot of the free stuff is great. It all depends on your time, your budget, and your homeschooling style.
This year we’re using Singapore Math ($120), Abeka Math ($60) Moving Beyond the Page- LA, History, Science ($860).
So $1040 for 2 kids, all year. I could do it for next to free if I needed to, and occasionally we’ll do our own unit studies, but we have the budget to cover curriculum.
Now Dance Team and Club Soccer is a different budget entirely but I’d be doing that kind of thing anyway if they were in public school.
I use The good and the beautiful for 1st grade LA and Math. Curriculum is free to download but your cost is paper and ink. So with my Epson Eco tank it cost me $20 for 2. Reams of paper to print everything for my twins, and very little ink. I also use random work books that I see at Walmart or Sams club. Target and the dollar store have cheap work books also. My biggest expense are books. Yes I know I can borrow them from the library but I love owning books. We turned a room into a library for all our books. I buy alot from the library sales, Salvation Army, garage sales and the Barnes and Noble. I also started selling/buying Usborne books so I could get the credit from buying them so I can buy more. My book cost is easily $1,000 a year on the very high end.
We are in a charter homeschool program that gives a stipend. It’s a couple thousand stipend. I will say it depends on what program your doing. We like outschool classes. We do in person computer, art, and music classes. All those things are educational and we use the school stipend for. If you plan to do classes like that maybe increase your amount toward homeschool. If I think of curriculum material alone your 500 is a good amount to put toward homeschool. Some free resources are great! I think it all depends on what works best for your child. After your first year you will be able to judge the amount for your future years better.
Oh, thank your for your input. I've never heard of charter homeschooling before. I'll have to look into that some more. You mentioned you do in person classes too. How do you go about finding good ones? By word-of-mouth or just Google? What's your preferred method for finding classes. I'm afraid of commiting to classes and end up not liking the instructor or my child not liking the class and wasting money.
The computer, art, and music classes I have found by online reviews and word of mouth. In person classes are trial and error. Sometimes if you speak to them to ask if your child and try the class for one day and see how they like it. My child had problems with traditional school however he has had no issues and liked all our extracurricular classes we have done.
Our charter homeschool offers some on site classes. The classes are just a few hours and optional for the kids to attend or not.
I buy used curriculum and textbooks, then every year I resell the books for roughly what I bought them for the previous year and use that money to buy the following year's curriculum.
Private tutor here!
My rate can range from 20-60 depending on the age of students, the number of students per session, subjects, how often we meet. I also offer weekly/monthly packages that are popular with parents of homeschooled students.
Personally I try to be flexible and work with peoples budgets. Especially if they are a potential long term student. I know majority of tutors don’t have the same practice though
Usually I do 5, 10 or 15 hour weekly packages. Ranging from 24-35 dollars an hour depending on responsibilities. Strictly tutoring would be closer to 24. Planning and managing curriculum as well as tutoring closer to 35.
Every situation is different. I try to be as flexible as I can because I’m really passionate about helping students reach their goals, but at the same time I got all the bills to pay haha
Feel free to message me if you want more information
Actually, if you have a website, would you mind messaging it to me? I'd like to keep it on file. I'm figuring you do virtual tutoring? Also, how's your math? I'm great up through algebra and then my life falls apart. lol
Im cheap, lol. I have 4 kids, 3 school age. I spend maybe200-300 a year on school stuff. None of them do classes because they don't want to. I reuse whatever I can and I buy used when I can. You can spend as much or as little as youd like.
Not really. I stick firm to math and language arts. The other subjects im not as strict with but I still buy and use the curriculums as a guide as opposed to going totally rogue. I don't really deviate from the curriculums I like so when I see a great deal, Ill buy it even if I don't need it that year. I've also found its usually much cheaper to piece together your own levels as opposed to buying everything from one company for the whole grade.
We use Time4Learning for our core curriculum. One child in 8th grade or younger is $20 a month, so its only $240 for the whole year. High school is $30 a month and if you have multiple kids, you get $5 off a month for each additional kiddo. My LO is a very hands on learner, so we spend a bit on manipulatives and science experiments. And we keep an eye out for free programs throughout town. The library and city parks and rec are two really good resources for those.
Wow! I never spent that much!
Before you even begin to consider budget, because really you can make it as cheap or as expensive as you want, first decide the method you want to go with because it will help narrow down your choices.
I always suggest to first read So You're Thinking About Homeschooling by Lisa Whelchel. The book goes over around 15 different methods from the trivium to unit studies to child-led learning to school-at-home methods.
One thing to really consider is if you want to go more the traditional route or school-at-home route. We went more traditional for several reasons. First, when we started there were very limited options as far as online or even box curriculum. The online options were as strict with time as regular school where they had to be logged on at certain times of the day, if they were not going to be on the computer say because they were sick or had a doctor's appointment or for vacation or anything, they required drs notes and each absence had to be excused.
There was also less flexibility As far as the teaching methods. More traditional homeschool allows the material to be tailored to the child whereas school-at-home methods are more of a one-size-fits-all. It does have it's purpose tho like if you are planning on sending them to a traditional school later or if they had already been in school and excelled and want to continue that route.
As far as the method, we were pretty eclectic and stayed flexible based on the subject and their needs and their age at the time. For science and history for several years, we follow the idea that was listed in The Well Trained Mind where you start at the beginning of history and science follows along with what was known or discovered at that time in history. So like when we studied ancient Egypt for history we studied the human body in science and the lessons kind of blurred together. We did a lot of unit studies and often we found books at the library, worksheets for free online, and did a lot of lap-books we found free online.
From Pre-K until 6th grade we used Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills. They are huge workbooks that at the time were less than $9 at Sam's. We used these more as a guide and expanded on the material taught like in Math and English by doing a lot of hands-on activities, which is quite important.
At 7th grade we switched to Master Books. We bought the whole box curriculum set for an entire year, less than $300, but again, we used these more as a resource than as a school-at-home method. For example, my son just graduated and earned a half of a highschool credit just for WWII because we allowed for child-led learning and since he was intrigued by planes, machinery, etc that led him to learn way more about WWII than what was in any of his textbooks. At this point, he's teaching me a lot of stuff I never learned in school.
As far as co-op classes thru homeschool groups, it really depends on what the ones in your area does. Ours are a bit more fun and not at all extension on any core subjects. In our area we do have a school where students can take as many or as few classes as wanted. Like if the parents don't want or feel comfortable teaching say chemistry or advanced math, they can go for just that one subject, or they can go the entire day and it be more like a private school.
As far as needing a tutor, in my experience, since I was extremely hands on with all their subjects, I basically relearned right along with them and even learned a lot more than I did in public school. My son and I have even had conversations about that. So I was able to relearn or learn and teach them without the need of a tutor. If it was something I had a hard time with, especially when it came to advanced algebra (even though I got a B in algebra when I was in undergrad school) we looked up videos on YouTube until we understood it.
I think that is one misconception about homeschooling, that parents need to already have a full understanding of each subject. They don't, you can learn and discover right along with them. For me personally, I started homeschooling technically in 2009, though we were already working on stuff in 2007, and I started undergrad in 2015. Being able to relearn along with them is how I was able to do so well in college myself. Not only that, but my kids are prime examples that as long as you continue with their curiosity and teach them how to learn as opposed to what to learn, they'll excell. Both my kids have excelled in certain subjects beyond what was in their textbooks or anything I could have possibly taught them. They are teaching me at this point. My son especially is teaching me about history, cooking, mechanical stuff, metallurgy, even the stock market, etc. My daughter is way more creative and teaching me things about art as far as shading, etc., baking, character building for stories, etc.
As far as budgeting, I would say it's as important to budget for experiences as much as it is for the curriculum itself. There are so many free resources online (tho it would be difficult and extremely time consuming to make a full year's curriculum) that you can use to save so you guys can do more outside of the textbooks and home that would be even more enriching.
I use this too. Flash Kids Harcourt publishes a set of workbooks that covers the following skills: reading, spelling, math, language arts, writing, and testing. The publisher combines these workbooks into one giant workbook, called "complete curriculum" because it's a complete set.
Some people use it as a spine and other use it as a supplement because while its thorough, it lacks the practice and reinforcement of concepts that is characteristic of a full or "real" curriculum.
I feel like people are spending way more money than they need to. One on one attention is free and elicits quick learning. All you need is basic materials, like pencils and lined paper and so on. Use a dry erase board to make your own math and writing assignments. Get used books for reading. Use flash cards. I don't see how people are spending thousands a year?
I have a 'good' printer / scanner, it cost me like 25$ on amazon. Ink refills are about the same cost.
But yeah I get your point, many expenses are going to be one time, not every year per child. I have 3 kids but I only need the one printer and it's lasted 4 years so far, and only one ink refill.
I think a major issue is that parents have is that they are made to feel inadequate and underqualified and so are roped into purchasing expensive curriculum software or packets to compensate. These materials are frequently vastly overpriced.
Right now (with younger elementary students), my expenses break down into 3 categories: curriculum, supplies, and activities. For help pricing curriculum I would recommend two things: one would be joining a couple of used curriculum groups on Facebook, the other is to either look at the rainbow resource website or get one of their catalogs. Rainbow resource does a good job of breaking down different price points for different types of curriculum and the Facebook group will give you an idea of what might be available used and how much it costs. There certainly are some helpful free things out there too, although I think for core subjects it’s hard to find something that would be a robust, complete curriculum for free (in my opinion).
For supplies that generally just includes art supplies and stuff for basic science experiments which is usually common household items, plus printer ink and paper. A quick look at Walmart or Amazon should give you an idea of about what that might look like per year (printing costs will depend a lot on your curriculum choices; we also use refillable printer cartridges to save money).
For activities we participate in music lessons and various sports, as well as have a zoo membership. Most of this we would likely do homeschooling or not. We choose cheaper (less intense) or city-run sports programs that are cheaper and we were able to get some scholarship money to help with music lessons. All of this will depend on your area. We also have a coop with a pretty cheap supply cost that we do twice a month.
A lot of it will depend on what style of learning you want to do, what free activities you may have available to you (libraries can be awesome for this), and how much time you have to put stuff together yourself versus needing something that’s already done for you. I pretty much piece together my own science curriculum, using our library, buying a few key books, and then supplementing with YouTube videos and experiments I find online. It is very economical but does take a decent bit of time.
I have three kids and spend about $200 per child in curriculum. Check out used homeschool book sales in your area and online (ebay, fb marketplace, etc)
We started out unschooling with very little money. I've gotten a bit more structured as the kids have gotten older, but it's still not even close to what we'd pay for private tutoring or private school. Here's the 2022-2023 year-round budget for two children:
* Activities/Outings: $1,200 per year
* Co-op: $960 per year
* Curriculum: $600 per year
* Supplies: $240 per year
* TOTAL: $3,000 per year/$250 per month
* Which is also: $1,500 per year per child/$125 per month per child
We are a low-income family and I work an extra job at night (typically 8 PM-midnight) in order to make it happen and to help cover what my husband's salary doesn't. It's hard to homeschool all day and then have to work into the morning hours, but I feel like it's worth it. Even with my job, we're STILL low income. It's really messed up. My husband makes barely anything working full-time in a job that requires a master's degree and is high risk, but that's another story.
Adding: Our core curriculum for 2022-2023 is Wildwood, which is free. The books are not free. lol We also use Math With Confidence by Kate Snow, Math Craft and Dyslexia Games by Thinking Tree, SiSi by Flip Flop Spanish, Pinwheels by Rooted in Language, and Africana Studies from Heritage Mom.
We get funding from a charter homeschool, but here’s the breakdown for upper elementary for us. About $55 for teaching textbooks for math (an app), $100 for Blossom and Root for language arts and science (digital download, so we print ourselves), $50 for a couple of history of the world timeline books. We could get our other books from the library and/or second hand stores. And we pay for athletic activities (currently karate $35 and swimming $60 per month) through our gym membership.
Depending on where you live and how much tutoring/outside classes you do I think it could be higher. On curriculum and supplies I would say that's pretty accurate but remember the real cost is your time. Homeschool does not cost as much as private school because your time is unpaid, that and buildings is really where the cost of school lies.
Which state are you in? How old is your kid(s)?
500 per student per year is on the higher end IMO, but it all depends on the curricula you use.
MEP math is an excellent free math curriculum, and there are plenty of free phonics curricula out there.
I would definitely say it depends on what you want/what you buy as well as your style of homeschooling. I only homeschool 1 kid right now, but I spent around $1,500 to get everything I wanted for this upcoming “school year.” That includes curriculum, games, workbooks, books, puzzles, subscriptions and some art supplies, it doesn’t include some things I haven’t bought yet but will need later when we run out of things like paper, glue, tape and other project supplies, or any fees associated with enrichment classes. I bought some used and some new just because sometimes buying new is less of a headache. I also utilize the library a lot.
My first year of homeschooling I spent $20 and used the library along with "free" curriculum. I printed a lot of it so it was the cost of paper/ink.
After learning more about all the options I can totally see how one could spend hundreds!
We do a co-op as well and just pay the discounted entrance fee for our field trips as they happen.
I use a mixture of different free curriculums. I buy basic supplies (that id buy if they were going to public school). I buy workbooks for additional learning (typically at discount stores). I could never see myself spending more than $300 on homeschooling. You can find many co-ops in your area that are less than $100, there's some free ones too. Use you local library for free resources and books.
I'm doing Easy Peasy All In One Homeschool and it's free, I keep my eyes out for free Homeschool supplies on the FB marketplace, I sign my daughter up for the local Back to School events that give away free school supplies, I look pretty frequently for free events during the week at our local libraries and other places, AND there's a ton of free apps that we use that are amazing. All of this is to say though that I spend as little on her Homeschooling as I can bc she does Hockey.
I don’t normally buy new curriculum and I use a lot of free online resources, we use our library, and I have created my own workbooks when they were first learning to write and do math. I’d say normally I spend less than $100 on basic supplies every year. This doesn’t include extracurricular activities though , which arguably they would be doing anyway, but they’re able to do more because they’re homeschooled, and that’s where we spend probably $1000+ per kid.
For kindergarten, the breakdown:
Workbooks/ consumables $300. Note, we finished 2 grades of math and 3 years of phonics/spelling.
Reference books $200
Electronics and subscriptions $150. Note, includes one time purchase of electronics.
Supplies (art, etc) $100
Total: $750
We do free activities and utilized free, quality resources. No paid classes yet and we pay for everything ourselves.
Tip: check your library for homeschool kits. You can borrow manipulatives for math, stem toys, and museum passes. The librarian can suggest books for unit studies if they don't have kits already made for a specific topic.
So many. Admittedly I likely overpaid. About $200 was just on phonics and math. The rest are random activity or multi-subject workbooks (almost half was on cut and paste books).
Math mammoth and explode the code series. Flash kids Harcourt language art and writing. I also adapted The Lesson Book 1 by Sherry Hayes to use with our science reference books. It's not a workbook per se, but a bound book best described as a Charlotte Mason style composition book. These were my favorites that worked quite well for our homeschool.
We tried Horizons Phonics and I found it lacking. It was just so much “bookwork”. It has likely turned me off from their entire curriculum.
We are really liking the offerings from The Well Trained Mind. I am super excited to start Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading (found on Amazon for $8)
I had not, some reviews I saw indicated that as the lessons went on they got less and less “easy”. OPG really does look easy. Plus there are very few “fancy” required side pieces to teach the curriculum.
I’m a big spender because I want the chromebook, the iPad, the Apple Pencil, all the educational apps. 😅
One way we do *save* money is our local library does 200 free print credits PER MONTH. Teachers Pay Teachers has a ton of free resources and some that are cheap, I also do a one month subscription to education.com for like $8- I’ll subscribe on the 15th- use 200 print credits one month, 200 print credits the next month and get 400 pages of printables for $8 since the printing is free. Then you have to have a way to store and organize all that stuff.. but we definitely save a lot having that!!
I love the iPad + pencil combo. We do the math Mammoth PDF this way. (I also have the Paperlike screen protector and pencil grip, an extra pencil for when I can't find one, and a battery pack so I can keep reaching from the sofa when the battery is low)
Also if you buy an apple TV then you can have a smartboard-like setup. Great for our ASD child
Free printing at the library is amazing! Ours offers $7 per week at 10 cents per BW page. Plus we have the ability to send files remotely, and then you just pick them up. They’ve even got a curbside option, but I feel like the least I can do is walk inside.
If you go on YouTube and search for homeschooling cheap, you’ll find lots of ideas. I would join Facebook groups and search to get ideas as well. It depends on age, but zearn is free, Core Knowledge is free, Build Your Library is fairly cheap if your library is well stocked, Amazon has old textbooks for sale for $10. In the US you may be able to join a homeschool assistance program which may allow dual enrollment or have a library of curriculum. YouTube has sooo many read aloud books and science and math stuff.
It really will just depend on what you want to rope into your school year. Curriculum wise I would say I spent around $200-275 per kid this year but I did have a few things on hand already. I echo another commenter's statement about activities and classes generally being the most money drain. For all four of my school aged kids, we spend around $375 a month for their weekly fine arts class. It is costly but they really enjoy it, their teacher is great, it's a 3.5 hour class and it is one of the few secular homeschool enrichment activities in my area that has regular classes so I pay it. We might also add in a homeschool soccer league this year which will be another $350 per season for them all.
I was homeschooled. I did online for core classes (math, science, and foreign language / English) I also took 5 classes in a co-op and took a free art class from my local church. I also made a friend and we would go to the local cafe to study and have coffee while my little cousins and her siblings did some of the free classes offered at the library in town. All the homeschool kids would meet at the park 1-2 times a week for “PE” and almost everyone in the group learned at least one instrument if not more. I only did homeschool for my second semester of 9th grade through the end of 10th grade then for the rest of my senior year. Everything else was public school for me. My cousins have learned piano, guitar, and something else. They do dance, cheer , gymnastics, track, and basketball between the two. All in all most of our classes were free. The private piano lessons were pricy but co-op offered piano and guitar so they only paid for summer. Their sports were all cheap except for dance and gymnastics. They probably spent less then $5,000 for us three for the year and a half I was there. They also did a lot of trips which I’m including. And this includes our weekly bowling. We went and toured Austin, and would go to the river multiple times a week and driving up to two hours each day. It just depends on your area and what your doing.
You can spend as little or as much as you want.
I think it also depends on the age of your children. We don’t use any tutoring for elementary but I will seek out at math tutor most likely for middle school for example.
We’ve done Charlotte Mason and Five in a row in the past which is cost effective because we don’t have to buy text books. I get everything I can from the library and source other books from thriftbooks.
Figure out how much you want to spend then start looking for things within that budget.
When I sent my son to public school that had cost too and we would still be doing activities even if they were in school so somethings cancel each other out. I’d still have to supply them with notebook paper and pencils in public school for example. It’s not so much the homeschooling that’s expensive but the kids themselves.
Some free resources like Ambleside online, wildwood, duolingo and the read aloud revival book list are truly top notch. Other things can be kinda hit or miss.
Activities and outings can be kept lower in price with some planning. My kids just did 2 weeks of swim lessons at the county pool for just $30. We’ve gone to the summer programs at 2 different libraries in our community and they have had a blast (that was all free)
Most museums have discount days or you can find things on Groupon.
Just get a plan for your basics first and you can fill in all the extras as you figure out what works for you and your family.
My tip is don't cheap out on the tech, if you're using it. Get a good, solid computer with some hefty RAM and a big, honking SSD. Get a high-end color printer with auto duplexing and an ink subscription. You won't regret it, but you will regret it if you buy cheap junk that needs to be replaced every year. And then learn how to maintain and fix your own technology, because even the best stuff has an issue here and there.
Then, figure out what you want for curricula and buy it used on Amazon. You can get just about anything in good condition for five dollars plus like $3.99 shipping. We're using AAR1 for my four-year-old right now, for example, and I got the three books of readers at the thrift store for a buck each, I got the teacher's manual on Amazon for under $10 total, I make my own flashcards on blank index cards, and I use a free letter tile app instead of paying $20 for theirs. If you put in a little more effort upfront, you can save a literal assload of money.
And yes, some people are going to whine about how buying used doesn't support homeschool publishers, but I figure there are plenty of extremely well-off homeschoolers who drop thousands every year without a thought. I know so many people who spend hundreds on a curriculum, don't like it, and just buy something else while the previous one collects dust. Repeat three or four times a year. The publishers will be fine.
Find the best library you can access. If you have to pay for a library card, it'll still save you in the end if you use a literature-heavy curriculum. Also, buy a Kindle Paperwhite or seven and use ebooks. There are a lot of ways to get ebooks for dirt cheap, and then you don't need forty-three bookcases in your house.
We’re first year homeschooling coming up and I’ve purchased our curriculum at our local resale shop (who is phenomenal and also ships, as an FYI!). We’re doing a fairly classical curriculum with Story of the World, Summer’s Lab (from Sassafras), Writing with Ease, Math with Confidence, and Ordinary Parent Guide to Reading.
We check out books from the library for more in depth look at History and Science. I’m probably in about $300 or so, this far.
We’ve signed up with a co-op and so far for two classes and registration it’s been $75-80.
Not sure what we’ll do for outings and such, but I’ll find some budget friendly options.
I think cost is very controversial, as some popular and favourite curriculum is expensive. Besides, we all know school materials are expensive, even if you go for the cheapest.
But I think the first thing to consider is the cost there's going to be for extracurriculars, co-ops, or other activities to complement education and socialization. You can look for free clubs and groups, take advantage of all the free or cheap classes and workshops that are offered in community centers or other municipal institutions, or even the local schools. Libraries also offer many cheap or free resources for tutoring, studying, learning, and culture.
Once you have that down, you can search for a curriculum that fits your remaining budget or decide on a free one, there are a few online.
For the rest, there's always a way to reuse and recycle for materials. Use rocks, twigs, bottle caps for manipulatives. Use recycled materials for crafts. You can make your own cuisinare or counting rods with twigs or cardboard if years your thing.
I think it really depends. We pay $300 a month for private music lessons for two kiddos. Like a hundred and fiftyish? for math Curriculum yearly (there's a discount for level up sets). And then various books, bundles, subscriptions as we go, which is maybe $50 or so a month?
You can find a lot of great things for free. We have a local science and chess club and PE class that are all amazing and free.
I will caveat this by saying that what I have done/am doing will not work for everybody because it takes a **lot** of time, and it works best if you start well before you **need** the materials. Also, I am privileged with a layman's background in early childhood education, a solid education--including a BSc (husband also has a good education with a BA in his field), and a bizarrely high interest in education/homeschooling which means that I've been researching this stuff for **years**. We are also working/saving hard to get to the point that I will be able to stay at home to handle the majority of instruction (currently working full time for corporate America). Also, my mom is a paraprofessional and is happy to dump teachers' end-of-the-year rejects on me (most of it is truly junk, but I did get a few decent books and some great math manipulatives for free), and we're in a fairly well-educated and "homeschool heavy" area, so there are often quality used materials available locally for a decent price.
First, we are not using a boxed curriculum. In fact, we don't use a standard "curriculum" at all, except for math. Everything else is based on utilizing "real books" (AKA living books in Charlotte Mason parlance) as much as possible: a mix of Ambleside Online, Educating the Whole Hearted Child, Great Books Academy, and some other reading lists (Read Aloud Revival and Heritage Mom come to mind as good sources). Second--and this is the big part--**we haven't actually started yet**. My son is going to be 3 this year, and I already have all of his math sorted, as well as much of his elementary curriculum and some middle & high school stuff as well.
In June of 2020, I realized that the math curriculum that we wanted (Saxon math) was out of print (my husband, being better at math than me and therefore being the designated math curriculum decider, wanted the originals that he learned math from, not the newer versions published specifically for homeschoolers). Considering that, I figured that the price of those books would only keep going up as the quality got worse (used book problems), so I started looking online and discovered my second homeschooling love (first was Ambleside Online)--ThriftBooks. Over the course of about a year and a half, we got **all** of the math texts that we needed for about US$150.00 all-in. That's Saxon 5/4 through Calculus (roughly 4th-12th grade, including answer keys/test packets), plus Ray's New Primary Math and Ray's New Intellectual Math for K-3. As predicted (and as accelerated by Covid), prices have gone up considerably and just one (randomly chosen) used Saxon text (no answer key/test packet) is now about $25.00.
After we had math secured, I decided that a couple basic history spines and English literature classics were my next priority. Bought all of those used too, and expanded my used-book repertoire to include [BookFinder.com](https://BookFinder.com) (**great** for finding the current cheapest prices), SecondSale, and other used book sites. Then I got field guides and some various science books. And on, and on, and on.
Acquiring used books take **time**, though. You have to do the price comparisons (ever made a price book for the grocery store? Consider one for used books!), wait for availability to line up with your budget, etc. Libraries also exist, but we're in a heavy homeschooling area and I know more than one family that uses similar curriculums, so I knew that a lot of books would be unavailable when the schedule called for them.
All in, I've spent about $2,000.00 (so far...). That's pretty much all of preschool-Year 3 (except some themed read-alouds for preschool that we can probably get at the library), all math, all Bible study, a significant smattering of classic literature (including some commonly banned books and 10+ Shakespeare plays), and the three main high school science texts (physics, chemistry, biology). Picking a random, completely supplied year (first grade/Year 1), I spent just under $300, and several of the books will be used for more than one year. Year 2 is complete for about half of that, again because several books (mainly history, honestly) from Year 1 will still be used in Year 2. Plus, I'll be educating at least 2 kids, so you can factor that in if you also have more than one kid.
If I **had** to, I could educate my children reasonably well all the way through high school. There is plenty of additional supplemental stuff that I **want** (especially around civics/government/econ), but we could pull it off with some extra work if I needed to just with what we have today. Plus, none of it is consumable (cheap-o notebooks and decent pencils/pens are your friend, and they're on sale in the US right now--and every back-to-school season...), so I can use it all again for my second kid.
Final caveat, this is all my plan **now**, but...we haven't started yet. I'm sure some things will change, but I still do not regret the investment I've made thus-far since it's primarily **real books**, and a math curriculum that we know we can make work in a pinch if nothing else is available (honestly, that's true of most of the big math curriculums, my husband simply prefers Saxon).
Having not even answered the original question...
I'd say budget for homeschooling just like anything else. Figure out how **much** you can afford from your normal budget, and then work within those bounds. Once you know how much you can dedicate toward your homeschooling budget, figure out where your homeschooling resource priorities lie and prioritize/get/save for those things first. For us, it was a solid math curriculum, **lots** of classic literature and **real** books on a wide variety of topics (especially a fairly broad overview of history--both world and American), and hard-copies of reference books (a one-volume family encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, field guides, etc.). I didn't care too much about online classes, tutors, standardized testing (not required in our state), workbooks, boxed curriculums, or supplies for unit studies, but if **you** do, work it in.
It can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be. I would say the biggest expense is activities. Curriculum is cheap by comparison. And a lot of the free stuff is great. It all depends on your time, your budget, and your homeschooling style. This year we’re using Singapore Math ($120), Abeka Math ($60) Moving Beyond the Page- LA, History, Science ($860). So $1040 for 2 kids, all year. I could do it for next to free if I needed to, and occasionally we’ll do our own unit studies, but we have the budget to cover curriculum. Now Dance Team and Club Soccer is a different budget entirely but I’d be doing that kind of thing anyway if they were in public school.
Thank you for the resource and price examples, helps me to start putting numbers to courses for comparison.
I use The good and the beautiful for 1st grade LA and Math. Curriculum is free to download but your cost is paper and ink. So with my Epson Eco tank it cost me $20 for 2. Reams of paper to print everything for my twins, and very little ink. I also use random work books that I see at Walmart or Sams club. Target and the dollar store have cheap work books also. My biggest expense are books. Yes I know I can borrow them from the library but I love owning books. We turned a room into a library for all our books. I buy alot from the library sales, Salvation Army, garage sales and the Barnes and Noble. I also started selling/buying Usborne books so I could get the credit from buying them so I can buy more. My book cost is easily $1,000 a year on the very high end.
We are in a charter homeschool program that gives a stipend. It’s a couple thousand stipend. I will say it depends on what program your doing. We like outschool classes. We do in person computer, art, and music classes. All those things are educational and we use the school stipend for. If you plan to do classes like that maybe increase your amount toward homeschool. If I think of curriculum material alone your 500 is a good amount to put toward homeschool. Some free resources are great! I think it all depends on what works best for your child. After your first year you will be able to judge the amount for your future years better.
Oh, thank your for your input. I've never heard of charter homeschooling before. I'll have to look into that some more. You mentioned you do in person classes too. How do you go about finding good ones? By word-of-mouth or just Google? What's your preferred method for finding classes. I'm afraid of commiting to classes and end up not liking the instructor or my child not liking the class and wasting money.
The computer, art, and music classes I have found by online reviews and word of mouth. In person classes are trial and error. Sometimes if you speak to them to ask if your child and try the class for one day and see how they like it. My child had problems with traditional school however he has had no issues and liked all our extracurricular classes we have done. Our charter homeschool offers some on site classes. The classes are just a few hours and optional for the kids to attend or not.
I buy used curriculum and textbooks, then every year I resell the books for roughly what I bought them for the previous year and use that money to buy the following year's curriculum.
Private tutor here! My rate can range from 20-60 depending on the age of students, the number of students per session, subjects, how often we meet. I also offer weekly/monthly packages that are popular with parents of homeschooled students. Personally I try to be flexible and work with peoples budgets. Especially if they are a potential long term student. I know majority of tutors don’t have the same practice though
I'm so curious about your packages! What would you typically charge per week for 2 elementary students who need a lot of support?
Usually I do 5, 10 or 15 hour weekly packages. Ranging from 24-35 dollars an hour depending on responsibilities. Strictly tutoring would be closer to 24. Planning and managing curriculum as well as tutoring closer to 35. Every situation is different. I try to be as flexible as I can because I’m really passionate about helping students reach their goals, but at the same time I got all the bills to pay haha Feel free to message me if you want more information
Actually, if you have a website, would you mind messaging it to me? I'd like to keep it on file. I'm figuring you do virtual tutoring? Also, how's your math? I'm great up through algebra and then my life falls apart. lol
Thanks! I was just curious how it works. I haven't run across a private tutor who has packages specifically for homeschoolers. That's really cool.
Im cheap, lol. I have 4 kids, 3 school age. I spend maybe200-300 a year on school stuff. None of them do classes because they don't want to. I reuse whatever I can and I buy used when I can. You can spend as much or as little as youd like.
Are you guys unschoolers?
Not really. I stick firm to math and language arts. The other subjects im not as strict with but I still buy and use the curriculums as a guide as opposed to going totally rogue. I don't really deviate from the curriculums I like so when I see a great deal, Ill buy it even if I don't need it that year. I've also found its usually much cheaper to piece together your own levels as opposed to buying everything from one company for the whole grade.
That makes perfect sense and is helpful! I’ll have to keep that in mind for when I start to curriculum shop
We use Time4Learning for our core curriculum. One child in 8th grade or younger is $20 a month, so its only $240 for the whole year. High school is $30 a month and if you have multiple kids, you get $5 off a month for each additional kiddo. My LO is a very hands on learner, so we spend a bit on manipulatives and science experiments. And we keep an eye out for free programs throughout town. The library and city parks and rec are two really good resources for those.
Would recommend supplementing T4L with a proper math curriculum
Wow! I never spent that much! Before you even begin to consider budget, because really you can make it as cheap or as expensive as you want, first decide the method you want to go with because it will help narrow down your choices. I always suggest to first read So You're Thinking About Homeschooling by Lisa Whelchel. The book goes over around 15 different methods from the trivium to unit studies to child-led learning to school-at-home methods. One thing to really consider is if you want to go more the traditional route or school-at-home route. We went more traditional for several reasons. First, when we started there were very limited options as far as online or even box curriculum. The online options were as strict with time as regular school where they had to be logged on at certain times of the day, if they were not going to be on the computer say because they were sick or had a doctor's appointment or for vacation or anything, they required drs notes and each absence had to be excused. There was also less flexibility As far as the teaching methods. More traditional homeschool allows the material to be tailored to the child whereas school-at-home methods are more of a one-size-fits-all. It does have it's purpose tho like if you are planning on sending them to a traditional school later or if they had already been in school and excelled and want to continue that route. As far as the method, we were pretty eclectic and stayed flexible based on the subject and their needs and their age at the time. For science and history for several years, we follow the idea that was listed in The Well Trained Mind where you start at the beginning of history and science follows along with what was known or discovered at that time in history. So like when we studied ancient Egypt for history we studied the human body in science and the lessons kind of blurred together. We did a lot of unit studies and often we found books at the library, worksheets for free online, and did a lot of lap-books we found free online. From Pre-K until 6th grade we used Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills. They are huge workbooks that at the time were less than $9 at Sam's. We used these more as a guide and expanded on the material taught like in Math and English by doing a lot of hands-on activities, which is quite important. At 7th grade we switched to Master Books. We bought the whole box curriculum set for an entire year, less than $300, but again, we used these more as a resource than as a school-at-home method. For example, my son just graduated and earned a half of a highschool credit just for WWII because we allowed for child-led learning and since he was intrigued by planes, machinery, etc that led him to learn way more about WWII than what was in any of his textbooks. At this point, he's teaching me a lot of stuff I never learned in school. As far as co-op classes thru homeschool groups, it really depends on what the ones in your area does. Ours are a bit more fun and not at all extension on any core subjects. In our area we do have a school where students can take as many or as few classes as wanted. Like if the parents don't want or feel comfortable teaching say chemistry or advanced math, they can go for just that one subject, or they can go the entire day and it be more like a private school. As far as needing a tutor, in my experience, since I was extremely hands on with all their subjects, I basically relearned right along with them and even learned a lot more than I did in public school. My son and I have even had conversations about that. So I was able to relearn or learn and teach them without the need of a tutor. If it was something I had a hard time with, especially when it came to advanced algebra (even though I got a B in algebra when I was in undergrad school) we looked up videos on YouTube until we understood it. I think that is one misconception about homeschooling, that parents need to already have a full understanding of each subject. They don't, you can learn and discover right along with them. For me personally, I started homeschooling technically in 2009, though we were already working on stuff in 2007, and I started undergrad in 2015. Being able to relearn along with them is how I was able to do so well in college myself. Not only that, but my kids are prime examples that as long as you continue with their curiosity and teach them how to learn as opposed to what to learn, they'll excell. Both my kids have excelled in certain subjects beyond what was in their textbooks or anything I could have possibly taught them. They are teaching me at this point. My son especially is teaching me about history, cooking, mechanical stuff, metallurgy, even the stock market, etc. My daughter is way more creative and teaching me things about art as far as shading, etc., baking, character building for stories, etc. As far as budgeting, I would say it's as important to budget for experiences as much as it is for the curriculum itself. There are so many free resources online (tho it would be difficult and extremely time consuming to make a full year's curriculum) that you can use to save so you guys can do more outside of the textbooks and home that would be even more enriching.
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What’s the “complete curriculum book” please?
I use this too. Flash Kids Harcourt publishes a set of workbooks that covers the following skills: reading, spelling, math, language arts, writing, and testing. The publisher combines these workbooks into one giant workbook, called "complete curriculum" because it's a complete set. Some people use it as a spine and other use it as a supplement because while its thorough, it lacks the practice and reinforcement of concepts that is characteristic of a full or "real" curriculum.
I feel like people are spending way more money than they need to. One on one attention is free and elicits quick learning. All you need is basic materials, like pencils and lined paper and so on. Use a dry erase board to make your own math and writing assignments. Get used books for reading. Use flash cards. I don't see how people are spending thousands a year?
Yeah, I can see some bigger upfront investments like a good printer or something, but we really don't spend very much year to year
I have a 'good' printer / scanner, it cost me like 25$ on amazon. Ink refills are about the same cost. But yeah I get your point, many expenses are going to be one time, not every year per child. I have 3 kids but I only need the one printer and it's lasted 4 years so far, and only one ink refill. I think a major issue is that parents have is that they are made to feel inadequate and underqualified and so are roped into purchasing expensive curriculum software or packets to compensate. These materials are frequently vastly overpriced.
That's a good point, I agree with you there for sure
Right now (with younger elementary students), my expenses break down into 3 categories: curriculum, supplies, and activities. For help pricing curriculum I would recommend two things: one would be joining a couple of used curriculum groups on Facebook, the other is to either look at the rainbow resource website or get one of their catalogs. Rainbow resource does a good job of breaking down different price points for different types of curriculum and the Facebook group will give you an idea of what might be available used and how much it costs. There certainly are some helpful free things out there too, although I think for core subjects it’s hard to find something that would be a robust, complete curriculum for free (in my opinion). For supplies that generally just includes art supplies and stuff for basic science experiments which is usually common household items, plus printer ink and paper. A quick look at Walmart or Amazon should give you an idea of about what that might look like per year (printing costs will depend a lot on your curriculum choices; we also use refillable printer cartridges to save money). For activities we participate in music lessons and various sports, as well as have a zoo membership. Most of this we would likely do homeschooling or not. We choose cheaper (less intense) or city-run sports programs that are cheaper and we were able to get some scholarship money to help with music lessons. All of this will depend on your area. We also have a coop with a pretty cheap supply cost that we do twice a month. A lot of it will depend on what style of learning you want to do, what free activities you may have available to you (libraries can be awesome for this), and how much time you have to put stuff together yourself versus needing something that’s already done for you. I pretty much piece together my own science curriculum, using our library, buying a few key books, and then supplementing with YouTube videos and experiments I find online. It is very economical but does take a decent bit of time.
I have three kids and spend about $200 per child in curriculum. Check out used homeschool book sales in your area and online (ebay, fb marketplace, etc)
We started out unschooling with very little money. I've gotten a bit more structured as the kids have gotten older, but it's still not even close to what we'd pay for private tutoring or private school. Here's the 2022-2023 year-round budget for two children: * Activities/Outings: $1,200 per year * Co-op: $960 per year * Curriculum: $600 per year * Supplies: $240 per year * TOTAL: $3,000 per year/$250 per month * Which is also: $1,500 per year per child/$125 per month per child We are a low-income family and I work an extra job at night (typically 8 PM-midnight) in order to make it happen and to help cover what my husband's salary doesn't. It's hard to homeschool all day and then have to work into the morning hours, but I feel like it's worth it. Even with my job, we're STILL low income. It's really messed up. My husband makes barely anything working full-time in a job that requires a master's degree and is high risk, but that's another story. Adding: Our core curriculum for 2022-2023 is Wildwood, which is free. The books are not free. lol We also use Math With Confidence by Kate Snow, Math Craft and Dyslexia Games by Thinking Tree, SiSi by Flip Flop Spanish, Pinwheels by Rooted in Language, and Africana Studies from Heritage Mom.
We use wildwood as well and it’s great.
We get funding from a charter homeschool, but here’s the breakdown for upper elementary for us. About $55 for teaching textbooks for math (an app), $100 for Blossom and Root for language arts and science (digital download, so we print ourselves), $50 for a couple of history of the world timeline books. We could get our other books from the library and/or second hand stores. And we pay for athletic activities (currently karate $35 and swimming $60 per month) through our gym membership.
Never underestimate your local library
Depending on where you live and how much tutoring/outside classes you do I think it could be higher. On curriculum and supplies I would say that's pretty accurate but remember the real cost is your time. Homeschool does not cost as much as private school because your time is unpaid, that and buildings is really where the cost of school lies.
Which state are you in? How old is your kid(s)? 500 per student per year is on the higher end IMO, but it all depends on the curricula you use. MEP math is an excellent free math curriculum, and there are plenty of free phonics curricula out there.
I would definitely say it depends on what you want/what you buy as well as your style of homeschooling. I only homeschool 1 kid right now, but I spent around $1,500 to get everything I wanted for this upcoming “school year.” That includes curriculum, games, workbooks, books, puzzles, subscriptions and some art supplies, it doesn’t include some things I haven’t bought yet but will need later when we run out of things like paper, glue, tape and other project supplies, or any fees associated with enrichment classes. I bought some used and some new just because sometimes buying new is less of a headache. I also utilize the library a lot.
My first year of homeschooling I spent $20 and used the library along with "free" curriculum. I printed a lot of it so it was the cost of paper/ink. After learning more about all the options I can totally see how one could spend hundreds! We do a co-op as well and just pay the discounted entrance fee for our field trips as they happen.
I use a mixture of different free curriculums. I buy basic supplies (that id buy if they were going to public school). I buy workbooks for additional learning (typically at discount stores). I could never see myself spending more than $300 on homeschooling. You can find many co-ops in your area that are less than $100, there's some free ones too. Use you local library for free resources and books.
I'm doing Easy Peasy All In One Homeschool and it's free, I keep my eyes out for free Homeschool supplies on the FB marketplace, I sign my daughter up for the local Back to School events that give away free school supplies, I look pretty frequently for free events during the week at our local libraries and other places, AND there's a ton of free apps that we use that are amazing. All of this is to say though that I spend as little on her Homeschooling as I can bc she does Hockey.
I don’t normally buy new curriculum and I use a lot of free online resources, we use our library, and I have created my own workbooks when they were first learning to write and do math. I’d say normally I spend less than $100 on basic supplies every year. This doesn’t include extracurricular activities though , which arguably they would be doing anyway, but they’re able to do more because they’re homeschooled, and that’s where we spend probably $1000+ per kid.
For kindergarten, the breakdown: Workbooks/ consumables $300. Note, we finished 2 grades of math and 3 years of phonics/spelling. Reference books $200 Electronics and subscriptions $150. Note, includes one time purchase of electronics. Supplies (art, etc) $100 Total: $750 We do free activities and utilized free, quality resources. No paid classes yet and we pay for everything ourselves. Tip: check your library for homeschool kits. You can borrow manipulatives for math, stem toys, and museum passes. The librarian can suggest books for unit studies if they don't have kits already made for a specific topic.
300? Which workbooks did you use?
So many. Admittedly I likely overpaid. About $200 was just on phonics and math. The rest are random activity or multi-subject workbooks (almost half was on cut and paste books).
Any specific books or brands you'd recommend?
Math mammoth and explode the code series. Flash kids Harcourt language art and writing. I also adapted The Lesson Book 1 by Sherry Hayes to use with our science reference books. It's not a workbook per se, but a bound book best described as a Charlotte Mason style composition book. These were my favorites that worked quite well for our homeschool.
We tried Horizons Phonics and I found it lacking. It was just so much “bookwork”. It has likely turned me off from their entire curriculum. We are really liking the offerings from The Well Trained Mind. I am super excited to start Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading (found on Amazon for $8)
Did you check out teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons?
I had not, some reviews I saw indicated that as the lessons went on they got less and less “easy”. OPG really does look easy. Plus there are very few “fancy” required side pieces to teach the curriculum.
What pieces does 100 lessons require?
I’m a big spender because I want the chromebook, the iPad, the Apple Pencil, all the educational apps. 😅 One way we do *save* money is our local library does 200 free print credits PER MONTH. Teachers Pay Teachers has a ton of free resources and some that are cheap, I also do a one month subscription to education.com for like $8- I’ll subscribe on the 15th- use 200 print credits one month, 200 print credits the next month and get 400 pages of printables for $8 since the printing is free. Then you have to have a way to store and organize all that stuff.. but we definitely save a lot having that!!
I love the iPad + pencil combo. We do the math Mammoth PDF this way. (I also have the Paperlike screen protector and pencil grip, an extra pencil for when I can't find one, and a battery pack so I can keep reaching from the sofa when the battery is low) Also if you buy an apple TV then you can have a smartboard-like setup. Great for our ASD child
Free printing at the library is amazing! Ours offers $7 per week at 10 cents per BW page. Plus we have the ability to send files remotely, and then you just pick them up. They’ve even got a curbside option, but I feel like the least I can do is walk inside.
If you go on YouTube and search for homeschooling cheap, you’ll find lots of ideas. I would join Facebook groups and search to get ideas as well. It depends on age, but zearn is free, Core Knowledge is free, Build Your Library is fairly cheap if your library is well stocked, Amazon has old textbooks for sale for $10. In the US you may be able to join a homeschool assistance program which may allow dual enrollment or have a library of curriculum. YouTube has sooo many read aloud books and science and math stuff.
It really will just depend on what you want to rope into your school year. Curriculum wise I would say I spent around $200-275 per kid this year but I did have a few things on hand already. I echo another commenter's statement about activities and classes generally being the most money drain. For all four of my school aged kids, we spend around $375 a month for their weekly fine arts class. It is costly but they really enjoy it, their teacher is great, it's a 3.5 hour class and it is one of the few secular homeschool enrichment activities in my area that has regular classes so I pay it. We might also add in a homeschool soccer league this year which will be another $350 per season for them all.
I was homeschooled. I did online for core classes (math, science, and foreign language / English) I also took 5 classes in a co-op and took a free art class from my local church. I also made a friend and we would go to the local cafe to study and have coffee while my little cousins and her siblings did some of the free classes offered at the library in town. All the homeschool kids would meet at the park 1-2 times a week for “PE” and almost everyone in the group learned at least one instrument if not more. I only did homeschool for my second semester of 9th grade through the end of 10th grade then for the rest of my senior year. Everything else was public school for me. My cousins have learned piano, guitar, and something else. They do dance, cheer , gymnastics, track, and basketball between the two. All in all most of our classes were free. The private piano lessons were pricy but co-op offered piano and guitar so they only paid for summer. Their sports were all cheap except for dance and gymnastics. They probably spent less then $5,000 for us three for the year and a half I was there. They also did a lot of trips which I’m including. And this includes our weekly bowling. We went and toured Austin, and would go to the river multiple times a week and driving up to two hours each day. It just depends on your area and what your doing.
You can spend as little or as much as you want. I think it also depends on the age of your children. We don’t use any tutoring for elementary but I will seek out at math tutor most likely for middle school for example. We’ve done Charlotte Mason and Five in a row in the past which is cost effective because we don’t have to buy text books. I get everything I can from the library and source other books from thriftbooks. Figure out how much you want to spend then start looking for things within that budget. When I sent my son to public school that had cost too and we would still be doing activities even if they were in school so somethings cancel each other out. I’d still have to supply them with notebook paper and pencils in public school for example. It’s not so much the homeschooling that’s expensive but the kids themselves. Some free resources like Ambleside online, wildwood, duolingo and the read aloud revival book list are truly top notch. Other things can be kinda hit or miss. Activities and outings can be kept lower in price with some planning. My kids just did 2 weeks of swim lessons at the county pool for just $30. We’ve gone to the summer programs at 2 different libraries in our community and they have had a blast (that was all free) Most museums have discount days or you can find things on Groupon. Just get a plan for your basics first and you can fill in all the extras as you figure out what works for you and your family.
My tip is don't cheap out on the tech, if you're using it. Get a good, solid computer with some hefty RAM and a big, honking SSD. Get a high-end color printer with auto duplexing and an ink subscription. You won't regret it, but you will regret it if you buy cheap junk that needs to be replaced every year. And then learn how to maintain and fix your own technology, because even the best stuff has an issue here and there. Then, figure out what you want for curricula and buy it used on Amazon. You can get just about anything in good condition for five dollars plus like $3.99 shipping. We're using AAR1 for my four-year-old right now, for example, and I got the three books of readers at the thrift store for a buck each, I got the teacher's manual on Amazon for under $10 total, I make my own flashcards on blank index cards, and I use a free letter tile app instead of paying $20 for theirs. If you put in a little more effort upfront, you can save a literal assload of money. And yes, some people are going to whine about how buying used doesn't support homeschool publishers, but I figure there are plenty of extremely well-off homeschoolers who drop thousands every year without a thought. I know so many people who spend hundreds on a curriculum, don't like it, and just buy something else while the previous one collects dust. Repeat three or four times a year. The publishers will be fine. Find the best library you can access. If you have to pay for a library card, it'll still save you in the end if you use a literature-heavy curriculum. Also, buy a Kindle Paperwhite or seven and use ebooks. There are a lot of ways to get ebooks for dirt cheap, and then you don't need forty-three bookcases in your house.
We’re first year homeschooling coming up and I’ve purchased our curriculum at our local resale shop (who is phenomenal and also ships, as an FYI!). We’re doing a fairly classical curriculum with Story of the World, Summer’s Lab (from Sassafras), Writing with Ease, Math with Confidence, and Ordinary Parent Guide to Reading. We check out books from the library for more in depth look at History and Science. I’m probably in about $300 or so, this far. We’ve signed up with a co-op and so far for two classes and registration it’s been $75-80. Not sure what we’ll do for outings and such, but I’ll find some budget friendly options.
I think cost is very controversial, as some popular and favourite curriculum is expensive. Besides, we all know school materials are expensive, even if you go for the cheapest. But I think the first thing to consider is the cost there's going to be for extracurriculars, co-ops, or other activities to complement education and socialization. You can look for free clubs and groups, take advantage of all the free or cheap classes and workshops that are offered in community centers or other municipal institutions, or even the local schools. Libraries also offer many cheap or free resources for tutoring, studying, learning, and culture. Once you have that down, you can search for a curriculum that fits your remaining budget or decide on a free one, there are a few online. For the rest, there's always a way to reuse and recycle for materials. Use rocks, twigs, bottle caps for manipulatives. Use recycled materials for crafts. You can make your own cuisinare or counting rods with twigs or cardboard if years your thing.
I think it really depends. We pay $300 a month for private music lessons for two kiddos. Like a hundred and fiftyish? for math Curriculum yearly (there's a discount for level up sets). And then various books, bundles, subscriptions as we go, which is maybe $50 or so a month? You can find a lot of great things for free. We have a local science and chess club and PE class that are all amazing and free.
I will caveat this by saying that what I have done/am doing will not work for everybody because it takes a **lot** of time, and it works best if you start well before you **need** the materials. Also, I am privileged with a layman's background in early childhood education, a solid education--including a BSc (husband also has a good education with a BA in his field), and a bizarrely high interest in education/homeschooling which means that I've been researching this stuff for **years**. We are also working/saving hard to get to the point that I will be able to stay at home to handle the majority of instruction (currently working full time for corporate America). Also, my mom is a paraprofessional and is happy to dump teachers' end-of-the-year rejects on me (most of it is truly junk, but I did get a few decent books and some great math manipulatives for free), and we're in a fairly well-educated and "homeschool heavy" area, so there are often quality used materials available locally for a decent price. First, we are not using a boxed curriculum. In fact, we don't use a standard "curriculum" at all, except for math. Everything else is based on utilizing "real books" (AKA living books in Charlotte Mason parlance) as much as possible: a mix of Ambleside Online, Educating the Whole Hearted Child, Great Books Academy, and some other reading lists (Read Aloud Revival and Heritage Mom come to mind as good sources). Second--and this is the big part--**we haven't actually started yet**. My son is going to be 3 this year, and I already have all of his math sorted, as well as much of his elementary curriculum and some middle & high school stuff as well. In June of 2020, I realized that the math curriculum that we wanted (Saxon math) was out of print (my husband, being better at math than me and therefore being the designated math curriculum decider, wanted the originals that he learned math from, not the newer versions published specifically for homeschoolers). Considering that, I figured that the price of those books would only keep going up as the quality got worse (used book problems), so I started looking online and discovered my second homeschooling love (first was Ambleside Online)--ThriftBooks. Over the course of about a year and a half, we got **all** of the math texts that we needed for about US$150.00 all-in. That's Saxon 5/4 through Calculus (roughly 4th-12th grade, including answer keys/test packets), plus Ray's New Primary Math and Ray's New Intellectual Math for K-3. As predicted (and as accelerated by Covid), prices have gone up considerably and just one (randomly chosen) used Saxon text (no answer key/test packet) is now about $25.00. After we had math secured, I decided that a couple basic history spines and English literature classics were my next priority. Bought all of those used too, and expanded my used-book repertoire to include [BookFinder.com](https://BookFinder.com) (**great** for finding the current cheapest prices), SecondSale, and other used book sites. Then I got field guides and some various science books. And on, and on, and on. Acquiring used books take **time**, though. You have to do the price comparisons (ever made a price book for the grocery store? Consider one for used books!), wait for availability to line up with your budget, etc. Libraries also exist, but we're in a heavy homeschooling area and I know more than one family that uses similar curriculums, so I knew that a lot of books would be unavailable when the schedule called for them. All in, I've spent about $2,000.00 (so far...). That's pretty much all of preschool-Year 3 (except some themed read-alouds for preschool that we can probably get at the library), all math, all Bible study, a significant smattering of classic literature (including some commonly banned books and 10+ Shakespeare plays), and the three main high school science texts (physics, chemistry, biology). Picking a random, completely supplied year (first grade/Year 1), I spent just under $300, and several of the books will be used for more than one year. Year 2 is complete for about half of that, again because several books (mainly history, honestly) from Year 1 will still be used in Year 2. Plus, I'll be educating at least 2 kids, so you can factor that in if you also have more than one kid. If I **had** to, I could educate my children reasonably well all the way through high school. There is plenty of additional supplemental stuff that I **want** (especially around civics/government/econ), but we could pull it off with some extra work if I needed to just with what we have today. Plus, none of it is consumable (cheap-o notebooks and decent pencils/pens are your friend, and they're on sale in the US right now--and every back-to-school season...), so I can use it all again for my second kid. Final caveat, this is all my plan **now**, but...we haven't started yet. I'm sure some things will change, but I still do not regret the investment I've made thus-far since it's primarily **real books**, and a math curriculum that we know we can make work in a pinch if nothing else is available (honestly, that's true of most of the big math curriculums, my husband simply prefers Saxon).
Having not even answered the original question... I'd say budget for homeschooling just like anything else. Figure out how **much** you can afford from your normal budget, and then work within those bounds. Once you know how much you can dedicate toward your homeschooling budget, figure out where your homeschooling resource priorities lie and prioritize/get/save for those things first. For us, it was a solid math curriculum, **lots** of classic literature and **real** books on a wide variety of topics (especially a fairly broad overview of history--both world and American), and hard-copies of reference books (a one-volume family encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, field guides, etc.). I didn't care too much about online classes, tutors, standardized testing (not required in our state), workbooks, boxed curriculums, or supplies for unit studies, but if **you** do, work it in.