Affortable Home School
Tips on How to Afford Homeschooling
You have made the leap. You are now a one-income family choosing to
school your children at home. Or maybe you are still in the deciding
stage. Besides all of the thinking about your children's welfare and if
homeschooling is right for your child and which curriculum to use, the
next thing on your mind should be FINANCES! Yep, it costs money to
homeschool, especially if you were used to two incomes and are now
cutting it back to one.
How do you do it? What are some ways to help you truly budget and
alter your lifestyle so you can make homeschooling work for you. Here
are a few of my favorite tips:
*Have a Commitment Party: Budgeting is not easy because it means
there will be sacrifices. If it were, we wouldn't have so many people
in dept throughout the Unites States. Homeschooling on a budget needs
the commitment and teamwork of you and your partner AND your children.
Make sure you are all on board and understand what living on a "budget"
means!
*Two months of Investigating: Take two months, and write down every
single expense. I mean everything, from the gum you bought at the gas
station to the plane tickets to see grandma and grandpa. The more
detailed you make these "reports" of your spending, the better you and
your spouse can sit down and realistically plan the budget. Yes, even
the splurge outfit you bought at your favorite store. Honesty with
yourselves is the key to having success with your budgeting process.
*Work on your Creativity: Maybe your budget it still a little tight
and you and your spouse are having a very hard time living without some
of the creature comforts you used to. That doesn't mean that you have
to stop homeschooling. It just means you have to be creative. Sell
things on EBay, have a garage sale, start a home-based business, do
some free-lance work for your old employer. There's plenty of ways out
there to make a few extra bucks.
*Leap, don't Hop: It's just like pulling a band-aid off. Rip it
quickly and never ever slowly pull it off. When you are ready to start
putting your budget into action, don't look back. Don't think of the
"better" days when things were easier. Also, be careful to hide some of
these feelings and emotions from your kids so they don't feel like they
are causing a problem or get a complex over money you spend on them.
Always remember that most good things in life take sacrifices. Some
of those sacrifices are big and some are small, but they are all worth
it when you do it for people whom you love!
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