The Challenge

I created this blog to challenge myself to keep our home school costs as low as possible. The 2010-2011 school year was our very first year of home schooling and I definitely bought a lot of things we didn't need, didn't use and could have found for free.

So I am starting early this year getting mentally prepared for the 2011-2012 school year. I want to limit our costs to $20 per month. Now, I have not yet decided how I want to work that out. Is it going to be $20 exactly EACH month? Can I carry over or borrow from other months? Am I just going to give myself $240 in June (we home school year round and our year starts in June) to work with for the year? And am I going to do this per kid or combined? Since my younger child is going to be attending preschool out of the house next year, I don't know if I will include him for the 2011-2012 budget. I can't decide the best way to go about this but I am leaning towards $240 in cash that we can use throughout the year because there are so many home school sales, library sales,e tc, during the summer months. I will probably be able to buy most of what we need for the whole year by the end of August.

So what am I including in my $20/month challenge?
Craft supplies: glue, yarn, scissors, card stock, crayons, markers, paint, etc.
Curriculum: Anything we do not already have, any subject. The only thing I plan to BUY is language curriculum that I really enjoy. Everything else is free online!
Games: supplies to make folder games, puzzles, educational board games, educational toys.

What am I NOT including in this cost:
Lessons: Dance, swim, basketball, cheerleading, etc. These are things we would be doing whether or not we home schooled and therefore I am not counting them in our costs.
Paper and ink: I use the printer for so many things, it would be impossible to track how much was used for school.
Things we already purchased: I went overboard last year and bought too much stuff. I am going to try to make use of what we have but I am not counting previous expenses into my costs.

Why I am writing this blog:
Giving your children a high quality education should not break the bank. I am planning to not only journal my journey into cheap home schooling. I want to share every resource I find along the way with you.  Plan to see a lot of links to free and cheap resources, ideas, and more.