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July 17, 2025 • 15 mins

Let’s get real about homeschool budgeting—because it’s not just about receipts and rows on a spreadsheet. It’s about building the life and learning we actually want. In this Budget With Me for Next Year episode, I’m breaking down every dollar we’ve spent (and are planning to spend) on homeschooling. Yep, real numbers, real categories, and a full walkthrough of our actual homeschool spending spreadsheet.

✨ Whether you’re new to homeschooling or just tired of guessing where the money goes, this episode will give you clarity, confidence, and a few solid strategies to keep your budget in check—without killing the vibe.

Inside this episode:
💰 A look inside our actual homeschool budget spreadsheet
🧾 What we’ve already spent—line by line
🎯 How we set flexible goals that still keep us on track
📦 The spending categories we actually prioritize
🛒 My go-to tips for adjusting without overspending

Budgeting doesn’t have to be boring. Let’s make it make sense—so the numbers support the magic, not suck the joy out of it.

👇 Have budgeting questions, want to know more about our categories, or need spreadsheet tips? Drop them in the comments or message me—I’m here for it.

🎧 Subscribe, share, and leave a review if you love honest homeschool talk that doesn’t shy away from the real stuff. Let’s plan a year that works—on paper and in real life.

#BudgetWithMeForNextYear #MakingEverydayMagic #HomeschoolBudget #HomeschoolPlanning #RealLifeHomeschool #SecularHomeschool #HomeschoolMoneyTalk #HomeschoolOnABudget #BudgetBreakdown #HomeschoolSpreadsheet

 

-💖Shanna

Just a mama making magic!

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey there.
Hi there, ho there.
Welcome back to Making Everyday Magic.
My name is Shanna, and if you're new, herewe are a homeschooling family of four
wrapping up our eighth yearof homeschooling.
Head into our ninth year of homeschoolingfor the 2025 2026 homeschool year.
I will have an eighth graderand a fourth grader,

(00:21):
and I have recently purchased
the bulk of what we will needfor next homeschool year.
And today we are going to have
what I feel like is consistentlyone of the
most popular

(00:43):
videos that I do every year on my channel,
and we are going to discuss budgetfor next school year.
Let's go.
Through.
Before we goany further, guys, please scroll down.
Hit the big red subscribe
button, turn on the bell for notificationsand give this video a thumbs up.

(01:04):
As always, you can find me right downin the comments or over on Instagram
at Making Everyday Magic.
So if you are new here,we do this every year.
There's certain videos we do every yearbecause homeschooling is cyclical.
And so some of the thingsyou do every year.
So when I share curriculumfor seventh grade next year
I'll share a curriculumfor eighth grade and so on and so forth.

(01:26):
One of those things, as well as planningand clearing out
and setting up a cart and turning overour homeschool space, all of that.
One of the videos that is very popularand common every year and consistent
is our homeschool budget.
Something that I like to dois share with you my actual numbers,

(01:46):
the real dollars and centsthat what I am spending
and to I am intending to spend or whatwe allocate to spend.
Now, before we talk about that,I it's very important to me
that cost is not a barrierto those who want to homeschool.
Now, I recognize that cost is a barrierin many ways.

(02:07):
As far as if you can still put
food on the table and keep a roofover your head by choosing to homeschool.
But I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about the actual costof materials and supplies.
I'm a huge fan of finding, recommending,and sharing with you
free or low, low cost, but incredibly
high quality, valuable, robusteducational resources for your homeschool.

(02:32):
What I share are my numbers.
How we got to my numbers, I will explain.
This is what we do for our homeschool.
It is not commentary for what you do or
or even a recommendationof what you should do.
Every single homeschool budget is a very
personal decision based on your familyor your family's needs.

(02:55):
I'm not saying you should spend more,and I'm not saying you should spend less.
I am saying this is what we do.
It has nothing to dowith what you choose to do
for your homeschool, or whatyou're able to do for your homeschool.
This is just what we do,and I enjoy coming here and sharing
because I do feel like it is every year,consistently a wonderful jumping off
point to share resources that really dopack in a great amount of value.

(03:21):
So whether that is a free resourcethat is incredibly amazing
or whether it is a, you know, a high end,more expensive resource,
as long as you canget the value out of it.
And I feel like this always opens upa wonderful discussion on the way
people are saving money, which I think
is very important in this economyand in this day.
And also the places where people are like,

(03:42):
you know,I chose to splurge a bit on Xyzzy.
I really paid off and it was fantastic,wonderful for my family.
So it is just another toolthat I like to share.
I like to share my own real budget numbersbecause I do feel like that is helpful.
Especially when people don't knowwhere to start or don't know what's normal
or reasonable or any of those things.
So for me, this is what we like to do.

(04:05):
This is how we like to share.
And I'm again,
it is not at all a commentary on anyonewhose life is in a different situation.
So I think it's very importantto start with that conversation.
Okay.
So let's talk about the numbers.
I will give you a look insidemy spreadsheet
in just a moment,because I went through and
I figured out what all we spent.

(04:26):
So if you don't know if you are new here,
we have homeschooled the entire,
like, educational career of my girls.
The littlest one since pre-K.
The big one since kindergartenand before that.
Because I did work outside of the homeas a hairstylist.
We did do, like, a mother's day outprogram.

(04:49):
So, like, two days a week,
you know, morning to early afternoon,something like that.
So the way that we decided
how we would come up with our homeschoolbudget number is that
we took their Mother's Day out program
was $2,000 a year for the full year.
And if you prepaid, you got a discount.

(05:09):
So we just took the $2,000that we were already spending
for child care, and we just slidthat into their education.
So we just checked it waswe were already accustomed to spending it.
It was alreadythe number that we were comfortable with.
It was already something that was justkind of like a nice whole round number.
And so we just took that and kind ofmoved it over and purposed it differently.

(05:32):
So because of that, we and we've consistedwe've actually up to at all.
But we'll get to that in a minute.
So we consistently every year,
have $2,000 per child
to spend for their homeschool educationmaterials.
That is just what we chose to do.
That's how we chose to do it,and that's why we chose to do it.

(05:53):
I have to tell you,I have never once hit that number.
Not one time, not ever.
And that is including, science classes.
SometimesI'll throw some of their extracurriculars
into that bucket,but not always, because for me,
that's thingsI would be spending as a parent anyway,
so I don't feel like itfalls under the homeschool umbrella.
But I might do more of that
this year because of just the waywe're restructuring our homeschool.

(06:16):
For my brain and our life practices.
So I might do more of that,but it might not.
But I went ahead and I've got myspreadsheet ready to go, ready to fill in.
I've got my numbersthat I've already spent.
What I'm anticipatingto spend on a couple more things,
and I want to take you alongas we fill in my spreadsheet
with my real numbers, both of whatI anticipate and what I've already spent.

(06:38):
And therefore you can get a look at whereI'm at, what I'm doing.
So if you ever wonder later in the year,how did this happen?
Where did she go? What did you spend?
I do have all of these videos here,
so I've got my planning, my ordering,my budgeting, my using, and I will,
as I do every year, shareas much of the individual pieces
and dedicated videos as I can.
But if you have any questions,

(06:59):
if there's anything you want to seeearlier on, let me know
and I will move the thingsto the front of the list,
because I do try to get like language artsand math toward the front of the year
to share early,
and then also again to let you knowhow it's gone toward the end of the year.
And like I said, I am a huge fan.
Low cost or no cost resources.
If you've followed us for this past schoolyear for 2024 2025, homeschool year,

(07:22):
you know
one of my absolute favorite thingsit may be my favorite science we have ever
done has been the American Chemistry
Society's absolutely free middle schoolchemistry curriculum.
I go out of my way to share freeand low cost resources.
If you are looking for somethingin the elementary age,
I have a video that I shared.
I want to say it was about a year ago.
I'm completely free.

(07:42):
Same thing with middle schooland same thing with high school.
So girls are just out.
There are wonderful, invaluable resources.
You guys always, always, alwayscome through and help me build the lists
and help me share resourcesthat are amazing and high value.
So I am curious, go ahead and drop on downin the comments if you feel comfortable.
It's fine.
If you don't, I would love to know.

(08:04):
Like, what's your ballpark?
You know what?
What are you spending?
Do you do,you know, 100 bucks per kid per year?
Some people go no, spend years,which I think is completely admirable
and amazing.
This is just how we choose to spend it.
And things that we've fallen in lovewith, that we love to continue using.
So that is where we're at now.
Let's pop on overand we'll fill out my spreadsheet.

(08:28):
All right.
Let me
go ahead and clear this.
Oh there we go. No fun. Okay.
So I got my scrunchie pulled up.
I'm going to grab a lot of the bigmess behind because there's a lot,
now okay, so here we go.
Are you ready?
I got this gorgeous blank spreadsheet.

(08:50):
I have my list of whatI have already spent.
If you are unfamiliar,this is the same thing
I've used for years.
In years,I've got all the way back to 22, 23
how I used it.
I am really bad about going back in.
Oh 2324 had I must have donethat, went in a different program.

(09:11):
And then last year,I'm really bad about going back
and like continuing to update itas if I buy things throughout the year.
I am very bad at that.
But I try, I try.
Okay, so I'm going to get this all pluggedin and we will look at my numbers.
If you see I've got a win.
What how much it costs.
And then my husband set itup, to like, auto
math it for me so I know it's left.

(09:34):
And then I've got colorcoded stuff over here
because there are some thingsI don't actually know yet, so I am just.
You know what?
I didn't put down any of the dateson when I spent this stuff.
That was
last Thursday, I think. So.
Yes, I think it was fair, say,or maybe it was the 15th.

(09:58):
Okay.
I really don't remember.
We're going to call it for 15. Okay.
So for 15
okay.
So I'm going to start withsome of my big ones.
You know what I'll startwith the first one I did timber Doodle.
Now this is not broken out by CAD
because I am a bad personwho just didn't do that.
There you go.
See? It's auto populating with my.

(10:19):
I got to take my braces off.
Yeah, that's,auto populating with what I spent.
Now, if you guys, watched that video,you can see all of these videos
where I did,
did the planningand the ordering, the whole nine yards.
I do have all of that.
This is just the next in our series.

(10:39):
It's my planning series. It'swhat I always like to do.
And then I will have another kind of roundof planning series in the fall
of, like, turning it over, getting ready,making our schedules like all of that.
Because it is enjoyable.
Now, Denison is still a projected course,
so I will go back and colorcode in Indiana.
Teachers pay teachers. Oh no way.

(11:01):
This is the date field.
And I can tell the teachers,hey, teachers.
And then I'm just going to get myselfa note for Crash Course.
I don't like that little thing.
Crash course.
Because that's three different classes,
like tests and kind of guided watching.

(11:23):
Dang it.
I keep putting everything in thereon that.
And Amazon
wound up being 24, 35.
I do think I'm in ordera little bit more from Amazon.
Because I'm thinking instead of doingbinders, of doing like the little discs,
so they can make their ownkind of like disc round spirals

(11:44):
and advanced and noble.
They have the exclusive Myrtle Junior,which was important to my babe.
Okay,now, these are also projected numbers.
And that is because
I don't know how much I'm goingto spend on science yet,
but it'll be about $500.

(12:07):
And then also, I have no ideahow much I'm going to spend on classes.
Okay.
For both kids, it can be as littleas like $100 dipping on how many,
how many kids we get to fill the class.
Or it could be much more than thatfor the year.
And so I am just factoring in $500to give myself peace of mind.
As you can see,we've barely cracked our budget.

(12:27):
So let me go through and I am going to,
go ahead and color code these things.
Okay?
So that, will make me feel goodand I will fill this out
a nicethis color and this can be this color.
And I justI like color coding it because it helps me

(12:50):
understand what I've got going onor what is still outstanding.
And that makes me happy.
Wow. Everything is, like, kind of communalthis year, which is wild.
But we'll see how it works out.
This one was also both.
This one is my We Babe
all three color. That's really cool.

(13:11):
And then these will be everybody as well.
So isn't that kind of nice?
I am debating on includingand I haven't decided yet,
some of their music theory workbooks.
So I may go ahead
and throw that in the homeschool budgetbecause they are learning that

(13:32):
and I don't know yet,but I might throw a piano in here or two.
We'll just see how it shakes out.
It doesn't matter though, because to me
it's an extra curricularI would have been paying for anyway.
So we will see. So for right now.
Okay, so here we go. Let's go over here.
So we have the currently spent.

(13:53):
Let's do that.
So you know you can do math. All right.
So this is what we are looking atcurrently.
There we go.
Look at me okay.
So currently we are at.
We are at $2,094.
And that is assuming Denison is a set fee.

(14:13):
So I know that's going to be the number.I just haven't bought it yet.
And then the science classes,it just really depends on how that goes.
So that is where we are for right now.
What color.
Oh that's fine.
Bright green like my there we go.
Oh the bright green linguine okay.
So that's we're at right now.
And I feel really good about it.

(14:34):
This is how we budget.
This is what we do I will save this.
And be completely done.
And that is our budgetand how we're shaking out what we've spent
so far for the upcoming2025 2026 homeschool year.
For our fourth graderand our eighth grader.
Thanks for coming along, guys.
Well, guys,
I hope that you found any of that helpful,entertaining, or informative.

(14:55):
If you did, please scroll down, hitthe big red subscribe button,
turn on that bell for notificationsand give this video a thumbs up.
As always, you can find me right on downin the comments
or over an Instagramat Making Everyday Magic again.
If you are comfortable to share,let us know
down in the, in the commentswhat that looks like for you.
Do you have a number that you'rewilling to share?

(15:16):
A percentage?
Is it total?
Is it per capita? How are you doing it?
Do you maybe prioritize differently?
Do you say,
you know, 50% of our whole homeschoolbudget is devoted to language arts?
Because that'swhere you really want to spend.
How are you doing it?
We could even go like a friend.
Like Google review like restaurant style,
like dollar signs,like $1 sign to $3 signs.

(15:38):
Like which one is it?
I would love to readsome of your feedback.
So let us now. Bye guys.
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