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0:02
Hello, you are listening to called the homeschool episode #273 Homeschooling on a Budget with Lee Nguyen.
Lee, welcome so much to the podcast today.
How are you?
I am doing really good.
Thank you so much for having me.
0:17
I'm excited about this topic.
It doesn't sound like an exciting topic, but I think it's something that needs to be talked about.
I yeah, I actually was thinking a lot about this one and just knowing that this interview was coming up.
And so I'm excited to dive in.
But before we do, tell the listeners a little bit about you, who you are, how long you've been homeschooling your kids, all the fun things.
0:36
Yeah.
So my husband and I have been married for 23 years.
We have three children, 21 year old daughter who has graduated obviously from home school and is out living on her own ish.
She lives and works in the ministry.
You have a 19 year old son who obviously also has graduated home school.
We finished him up actually in three.
0:53
It was just he was my kid.
That was just like we were done.
Well, not three years, three years of high school, not total of homeschool, but three years of high school and he was just wanting to be done.
So he's an entrepreneur and runs his own business and is still living at home and comes and goes and at all ours to do his business and everything.
And then I am left now homeschooling my final kid who is 16 and going now where this is the summer.
1:16
So we're in between the 10th and 11th grade years.
So yeah, so we are going to that.
We have been homeschooling for 13 years.
Well, I've been homeschooling for 13 years, pulled my daughter out of public school after second grade and my older son was in kindergarten after kindergarten for him.
1:32
And then my youngest went to like preschool for one year.
So he's been feel like he's my great example here because he's the one I've been homeschooling all the way through.
So it wasn't something we planned on doing, but we fell into it and we absolutely, we love it.
I am curious, I, I did tell you I was going to ask you this, but just when you've been other homeschoolers who've been homeschooling over a decade, right?
1:53
We're pre COVID homeschoolers.
So like before it was cool or before we had all the help and tips.
What made you, your family, decide that homeschooling was the right option for you?
For me, it never quite felt right When I put her, put my daughter onto the school bus.
2:09
She was five years old and they drove off with her.
It just didn't feel right.
I just was like, this doesn't feel like she's supposed to be apart, like apart from me.
We're supposed to be together.
And it was a nagging feeling.
And mostly it was just, it was our faith that just kind of called us wanting to raise our kids differently than just how we were proceeding.
2:29
So that was the that was kind of the, there was just like a final moment of like, let's try this and let's see what's the worst that can happen.
They're how old.
And it was also a little bit of my then kindergartner, who is now the 19 year old is an entrepreneur.
And I was like, he is going to be, we'll say in boats trouble all the time when he gets the 1st grade 'cause it was 1/2 day kindergarten and that was like his Max.
2:52
And I was like all day.
There's going to be there's going to be a riot every single day.
He's going to be leading some type of revolution or something.
And so, and then for my daughter, it was just school was very stressful for her.
She wanted to learn and it was stressful.
There was tests and she was crying before going to school in second grade about tests.
3:08
So that's kind of what there was a lot of different that a lot of different reasons.
They all came together and we decided just to give it a try.
That's awesome.
I love hearing everybody's origin stories.
That's so fun.
So I am excited about this topic of homeschooling on a budget.
3:24
So I'm in an interesting phase of life where I'm losing kids now, right?
And I didn't realize like how expensive they were until like, I'm now.
I just went grocery shopping today and I only had to buy 4-6 people, which sounds so funny, but my grocery bill was so much less money that I thought, Oh my gosh, how in the world have I been doing this for so long when all nine of us lived at home and we had extracurricular activities and we had whatever else going on.
3:55
People needed new shoes or all of these things.
And so I am so excited to dive in this topic.
I think I just was oblivious.
Like we just didn't spend money.
Like I know I've talked before, like we didn't go to the theater.
Going to the movies was a really big deal if we took all the kids to the movies, just different things like that.
4:11
So I'm excited to dive in with this.
What are some of your favorite things as you teach people about homeschooling on a budget?
What are some of your thoughts with it?
Like, let's just dive in.
The first thing is that you have to have a budget and you have to have those conversations with your husband.
It sounds so basic, but if you don't have a budget and you don't have a parameter, something that you're working with, if you go out and you buy curriculum for say $800.00 and your husband says, oh, I only budgeted 150.
4:39
Because sometimes they don't know.
They're kind of clueless and there's has to be a given, a given a take.
And then I know that for us, in some seasons, the budget was a lot smaller than it was other seasons.
Like you're saying, you've got this point too, and mine as well, like we're really only feeding like 1 1/2 kids right now.
4:56
How did we do it?
But having that budget is having that conversation.
I remember when we started having that conversation, I'll be totally honest and tell you that I just sat there and cried because I felt like it was all on me with the with the budget, with everything, with groceries and, and all of like you're saying the extracurricular is everything.
5:13
But when it comes to homeschool, is having a budget what is realistic for you?
And really looking at your season of life and then not comparing that budget to somebody else because they're maybe in a different season of life where they have a different income.
And that's OK.
We can all thrive and we can still do homeschool well no matter what your budget is.
5:32
Yeah, absolutely.
Because I know a lot of homeschool moms families are single income.
Is that the same for you guys as well?
Yes, so we didn't start off necessarily a single income, but by the time my daughter was about 6 to 8 months old, I was working a part time job and we were my husband and I weren't seeing each other.
5:48
And he was like, you do know that if you just stayed home and I stayed at work an extra hour, hour and a half and did overtime, like I'd make as much as you were making and you wouldn't have to go.
It's like, OK, let's let's try that out.
And I grew up in a, in a home.
My mom was a stay at home mom.
We all went to public school and she was a stay at home mom.
6:05
And so I was not unfamiliar with that.
I wasn't familiar with the day-to-day.
I knew she did stuff.
She wasn't just sitting around, you know, like the joke of watching soap operas and eating bonbons, that kind of thing, because she did canning and she took care of the house and and all these things.
But I never quite got to see how that all kind of fit together.
6:22
And but I got to kind of create that, create that path.
So yes, we've been on a single income since, well, I guess 21 years now and that income has changed and we've adjusted as that has adjusted as well.
What do you think with, I think with sometimes being on a budget, I don't know, sometimes with sometimes people look at money and like, oh, if you don't have a lot of money, that's so hard.
6:42
But I think sometimes there's some really neat gifts that come from being really intentional.
Like you're just saying, if you're saying we have $800 to spend on curriculum and your husband's like actually we have $150.00, to me, I think that makes you so much pickier with what you bring into your home.
6:58
What are your thoughts about that?
I totally agree with that.
There were years where we did not have much at all for the budget and it made me really creative and it made me think really seriously about what I was going to spend the money on instead of purchasing something because maybe this will work.
7:15
It was like, this is, I'm 100% sure this is going to work.
And I now I know things are much different now with everything being online.
Whereas when you and I started homeschooling, if you wanted to see a book, you had to see it from your friend or you had to go to a homeschool convention or something like that to actually see the book.
7:32
So I had to be 100% sure and seeing that book and looking and being like, yes.
And that took a couple of years.
It wasn't in the first year.
I didn't get it all figured out.
And I probably purchased way more than I thought that I need.
Actually, I think back to I think I bought for my youngest when he did start with his reading, I bought like three different reading programs and I didn't even realize that I had that I had quite done and recoup the money by selling it.
7:52
But yeah, I just think that it's it helps you to be creative and really focus on what do you really want to accomplish, what are your goals this year and what's going to come along, what resources will come alongside you to do that instead of just purchasing willingly all kinds of stuff.
Yeah, I, I don't know if your state has this, but the lot of states now have, well, they'll reimburse you or X amount of dollars for homeschooling.
8:17
And it's interesting because sometimes I see people like, I have $200.00 left to spend.
What should I get?
And it's funny because it's just a lot of times stuff you don't need or want, or then you have to store it and now you have to have a whole homeschool closet.
And, and so I just think sometimes even that mindset shift that it actually could be really fun to still homeschool on a budget or not thinking like, well, we will, we could create an amazing homeschool if we had all of this money.
8:43
But even that mindset shift of like money doesn't, isn't what makes us fun.
Like our attitude, our creativity, right?
Like going and getting cardboard and, and building something with it that you're like just gathering from your neighbors or go to the recycling plant or whatever that looks like.
I just think it creates so much more space of like, we've got to figure it out.
9:03
I don't know.
Agree, disagree.
Yes, I agree.
And I'll be honest and tell you that when we first started homeschooling and I had a very small budget and I had one friend who homeschooled who had a much bigger budget.
And I remember being jealous of her and I lost years there of wishing that I had what she had.
9:20
And it hindsight is 2020, right?
We can look back and be like, oh, I should have just enjoyed again the cardboard box that maybe we had to buy something.
We did get something new.
Or grandma gave us a box because she bought something new and they built a little Fort out of it or something like that.
At that time is just as as much fun.
9:37
And the fact that kids don't usually notice now, they might notice a little bit, like, how come so and so has all these toys that I don't necessarily have.
But I didn't find that they necessarily voiced it, that we just spent a lot more of our time at home.
We didn't take extravagant trips and we didn't go out to eat and we didn't go to the movie theater like you were saying.
9:56
We would wait for it to come out on DVD.
We'd go to, oh, what is that even?
There was like a, at some point a red box.
Is that the name?
Of yeah, it was not like Netflix, like Netflix used to be through the mail.
Yes, it was through the mail and then there was like this box and you go, you give it for like a.
Dollar box thing, yeah.
10:12
We would wait for it to come out and be on dollar.
I'm like, that's perfect.
We got we still got to watch the movie.
Who cares if it was six weeks after somebody else?
Everybody else got to watch it, OK.
Yeah, I think too, there is a book I love, Simplicity Parenting by Kim Jong Payne, and in it he talks about how children, like, have too much and too much stuff, too many choices, too many clothes, Right.
10:33
This.
We just live in a world of excess.
And so I think sometimes even with remembering that the kids don't need a lot, that really helps you to be intentional with where you're spending your money.
So like you're saying, maybe your kids would notice a toy.
My kids just know they're not going to get one.
All the neighbor kids right now, it's like way in to have an E bike.
10:52
And a couple of my younger boys are like, we really want an E bike.
And I was like, awesome, look at how much they are.
And then like, you should start saving for one.
So they went and were researching it and they're like the cheapest one we found was $800.00.
And, and like, all of a sudden it's, is it that important to you when you put it back onto them?
11:11
Or is it just one more thing we're going to have to store or one more thing, right?
And so I just think when we're going back to that book, the simplicity parenting when you have less, it allows children the space to just create, to just be and like helps your house not to be so cluttered.
11:27
So there's less anxiety.
There's less like so many things that I just think it's not the end of the world to not have a ton of money.
I completely agree.
And my kids, they didn't notice the years that their Christmas gifts might have come from a thrift store or from a kids consignment sale.
11:44
They didn't know that to them they're like, great.
It's not even in the package and it already has batteries in it.
Perfect.
I can just go in and start playing with this thing and and I, you know, again, looking back, you can say it really wasn't at the time, it felt so stressful and it can be stressful if the budget is that is that tight.
12:00
But you can homeschool.
You can homeschool nowadays very easily, completely free if you needed to, to do so.
And going back to that, when you said about your states, about the states reimbursing, I do not live in a state that offers that.
I've never, I've lived in two, homeschooled in two different States and neither of them have done that.
12:17
But I have heard of states that have done that.
So it's just never been an option for me.
It's always been, yeah, I live, I live in strict states.
I was going to say, you're Becky.
So they're the stricter ones, right They?
Are they are?
Yes, yeah, yeah, that's tricky.
This will be my first year.
12:32
I've never used any programs like that.
And then this, this year, I decided to apply for it.
And I thought, you know what, My kids want to take some speech and debate classes, and they're $500 or whatnot.
And I was like, I'd like to not pay for those.
So this will be our first year for that.
Yeah, that's great.
12:48
OK, so you have having having to have a budget, which I love so much that is so simple, but like I think so many people don't even think of that.
Like how much do I actually need to home school?
And I think I've made it work even with all seven kids for maybe $500.00 for the full year.
13:04
Maybe that doesn't include extracurriculars, but for all of our books and everything, I just got really creative.
But I love that, having a budget, not comparing someone else.
What else?
What are some other tips that you have?
The library, it's a great resource and I know sometimes you can go and be overwhelming.
13:21
You can just place things on hold, which is a great thing.
Now you can just put it on hold and then just so simply go pick it up instead of having to go in and losing everybody sometimes in the library.
But we always thought it was fun just to kind of get lost and in the library.
But you can buy curriculum used.
13:37
You can sell your curriculum that you have.
You can maybe sell it to a friend or you know, there's online resources or sometimes curriculum sales that are local to your area.
You can borrow from friends.
And I've done that.
I've done some trading with friends.
There's been we have one friend.
I'm thinking in particular, our kids are were stagnated in between and so she would use it would be a science or or math and she would use one and then then let me borrow it.
14:01
And we would just kind of the different levels.
We just kind of went back and forth.
And so really, really only purchased this is an even in high school.
In high school, this stuff can get to be more expensive.
And so for the math, I would just have to purchase half of the four years of the math curriculum or the science and she would end up purchasing the rest and we would just kind of trade back and forth.
14:19
So if you can find friends that'll let you borrow it or to trade, that's a good a good way of doing it.
Or like I said, I would sell sometimes and I would just use that money.
I wouldn't put it towards anything else.
It was just added to my homeschool budget and would just then be able to purchase new things.
So I would say if you feel like you need to purchase something, if you're going to invest in something, look at math and language arts.
14:41
And it also depends upon the age of the kids.
If they're in kindergarten, you can let it go.
I know that it's a really hard thing.
Yeah.
I'm sure you've talked to a lot of moms that are like, but I have to have the full extent of everything.
And it's our first year of home schooling and it's kindergarten.
You're like, no, just it's OK.
You can.
Yeah, yeah, you can slow down.
14:58
So math and language arts, if you're feeling like I need to have some type of curriculum because there are personalities and I was a bit of that too, was like, how am I going to teach the math if I don't have something?
And so I did choose to invest a little bit in math and then some in language arts and then we would just kind of piece together the rest of it.
15:15
But I wanted a math program that would teach them and I felt inept to be able to teach them math.
And so basically the program I purchased told me it was in bold word letters right there, told me exactly what to say.
And they were like, oh, OK, I'm like, wow, look, I can teach math.
So for me it was it was worth the budget that I had.
15:32
I would then start with the math and language arts.
And as you have multiple kids, you don't always have to repurchase, right?
So when it came to that math, it came to investing.
So 3rd grade was when we started with my daughter and I only for my other two, when they did third grade, I only had to buy the workbook for each of them and then that was it.
15:51
And that was maybe $20 and everything else I had.
So you can also think of it in that.
And sometimes the older one is a little bit more of an investment and then the other ones will just continue to come.
But my youngest is my cheapest 1 yet so far.
Yeah, that's funny.
Well, it's funny.
I didn't even let my kids write in the math book because I was like, I don't even ride.
16:09
Want to ride?
Buy a new workbook because they were all just one great apart, right?
And so I was like, I just for next year, I don't want to buy this new one.
So I actually would have him write a notebook.
And so they've laughed because my 13 year old, I will let him write in it.
And they're like, what?
16:25
He gets to write in the math book.
And I said yes, because his brother's six years behind him, like I'm just going to buy a new one in six years.
I'm sure it will be updated by then anyway.
But he has the originals from his biggest brother that's been passed down through every kid.
So it's, it's made it through six children.
So when you buy good stuff, right, it will last.
16:44
I love all of this of just to me, it's being really intentional too, with where we want to spend our money and our time.
And it's really that also that culture of your family of like, we have so much money, what do we want to do with it, right?
And is it that we want to buy really fancy books or is it like we want to save up for a trip or we want to do something else, right?
17:05
Just being really intentional.
Something I've been kind of popped up in my head too.
Is homeschooling on a budget that a blessing that comes from this?
Just even being on one income is having kids be more involved with finances in the idea of having them pay for things that they want.
17:24
So we usually do around 13 that they start paying for more of their own clothes.
If they want to be in more than one extracurricular activity, they're paying for it.
And I just found for my own family that that has helped us to be really intentional with how we are spending our money and like also helping to keep that those relationships in our family that we're not just like everybody's gone every single day and we're going to cost all this money.
17:49
So that's one way that helps us be intentional.
What did you do with your kids as they reached teenage years and finances?
The same as you as with the clothic.
I love that idea because we have done that as well.
My oldest was fine with.
I was more of I'll make sure you have your basics.
18:06
But if there's extra things, yeah, if you there's extra things.
I'm not going to make you walk around with no shoes or shoes that have all these holes in it and stuff.
Or if you want a certain shoe that's going to cost $200.00, like let's, let's split it.
Let's let's figure out, you know, what would be my budget.
And then you can, if you choose to make up for the difference, you can Same with some of the clothing.
18:26
My 16 year old is more into.
I don't even, I mean to me, the the the name brand of it, I don't think, I don't even know.
I'm like, I'm so old.
I don't even know what that name brand is.
But he works, he has a part time job and like if that's how you want to spend that money on having some other.
I'm like, it's just a white T-shirt with a couple letters on it.
18:44
I could get a marker in the white T-shirt from Walmart, but apparently that's not OK.
So yeah, this the same the same thing.
Just just letting them realize how much, you know, things do cost, but not making them feel also guilty that you know, they're a burden or anything to us that we are we are purchasing this.
19:02
But that's letting them know, especially as they get to be teenagers, they're going to get get out on on their own.
Some of the things that we have done is to purchase when it comes to not even homeschool, just food is in bulk, go and buy bulk meat.
And that way we'll just, we'll get a whole cow or a half a cow or a different season, different things.
19:20
And my 19 year old's looking, he wants to move out, but he's looking at the cost of how much everything.
And he's like, so how much did that cow cost you and how much you know, because he's saying that it's a savings.
But I'm like, yeah, but you got to save up for that savings as well.
And I think it's a good way of modeling to them so that when they do move out, when they do spread their wings and they move out on their own, they can, they can, they have an idea.
19:41
Doesn't mean they're always going to just like the staying up late and watching TV that you're saying doesn't mean they're going to follow that.
But they're like, oh wait, Mom and dad did have some things figured out.
Yes I do see that that really helps them when they move are moving out of how much things cost.
We did a teen class once with a couple of my kids and some other homeschool teens.
20:00
And I was like, let's meal plan.
So I made him write a menu.
And then we went grocery shopping where we didn't buy anything.
We just tallied it of what it would cost.
And they were like, they had fancy, fancy meals that they were doing and bacon on every like breakfast and just different things that were real, like steaks, just things that cost a lot at the grocery store.
20:21
And so they all left like, oh, I guess I live on ramen noodles, right?
But it was just this kind of funny thing to just show, you know, you can eat healthy and eat good food.
It just needs to look different, right?
Like, so how you were saying we buy half a cow or a full cow without saves a ton on meat.
20:36
We make a lot of food at our house, right?
Like we make our own bread or even our own pasta.
So just even trying to send money in all the different places.
So I love that just showing your kids like, hey, this is how much things cost.
So it's not as big of a shock when they move out of the house.
20:53
I had one more question with that for you.
And that I just, This is why I usually write it down because I space it too easily.
Oh, I was going to say and, and maybe I, I think too, because sometimes not everybody's on a budget, right?
With homeschool, just because you're a single income, some of you might have husbands making millions of dollars.
21:11
Maybe you are husbands homeschooling, whatever that looks like.
But I think still being intentional with all of these things.
And I've seen that some friends of mine who have larger incomes being very intentional with their kids and having them live these same principles where they wanted a hide designer shoe or whatever.
21:31
Like, sure, I'll go half with you if it's that important to you.
We're still doing mom haircuts or we're still doing whatever it is just to help teach them the principles of finance.
So I think when you have a lower income, it just kind of forces your hand, but also these same principles even if you do have a higher budget in your own home.
21:53
Absolutely.
And it teaches them to value things, especially when you get to teens.
If they're just given everything, they don't necessarily appreciate it, but if they had to work for that item, then they will appreciate it more.
And I think when it comes to homeschooling, I think it's good to have a budget no matter what.
22:09
Because if you, I remember feeling like I mentioned earlier, just jealous of anybody who could purchase whatever curriculum and can kind of change and, and realizing that that also added a lot to their day.
If you can spend, if you can spend $5000 per kid per homeschool year, you're probably recreating the school at home and you're probably filling up their day with a lot of extra stuff that doesn't need to be done.
22:31
And so I think it's good to have a budget lined out no matter what that is.
And even if you could have a higher budget and you take that budget down some just because it forces you, again, to be creative and to really focus on what is the most important things that we want to teach them.
It's not always the curriculum.
22:48
It might be other things, might be other resources that you want to pull in or things that you put together for free, or you want to focus more on trips and experiences than necessarily the curriculum.
But sometimes when you have a very big curriculum budget, you'll purchase all the things.
23:04
And then you're stressed out about all the things that are sitting there on your dining room table that you're like, we don't even have time to do all of this stuff.
And then you feel guilty you didn't do all of the things that you had purchased.
Or try to make everybody do them.
Like, I bought this.
We need to do it so people are done and crying and there's tears and you're like, but I spent so much money on this.
23:23
Right.
And I'm like, that's fine, you spent that money.
Let's just put it in a box for next year.
Nobody says you have to do it exactly this year because again, I have purchased over purchase things and then I've realized this is too much and just put it aside.
And then guess what?
I already have some of my stuff purchased for the next year from this year that I that I just didn't get to.
23:42
That's awesome, Kaylee, it has been so nice having you on here.
These have been so helpful, especially as we're getting ready for the new school year.
Where do people go to find you and find out more about you?
The hub of everything is at Little by Little homeschool.com.
You can get there.
If my podcast is called Little by Little Homeschool, you can jump there onto any podcast app, but everything is basically housed over at the Little by Little homeschool.com.
24:04
Awesome.
And I'll put that in the show notes as well.
Thank you so much for coming on here.
Thanks everyone for listening and I will talk to you next week.
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