Sacrifice – To make Sacred

To sacrifice is to make sacred. The question is often asked, “how does a family afford the privilege of homeschooling?” This is a great question and one that I am driven to be creative around, especially being a minimalist.

I am a firm believer in the importance of sustainability and being waste wise. This means in financial ways too. I work from home and we have our own business so we have not completely made a sacrifice of a whole income no…but we do manage our working hours around our children and are continually looking for better ways to minimise working “around” our children!

Some of the ways we reduce our expenses that have helped us a lot include!

• Not spending money on hairdressing
• Mostly eating at home and making most meals from scratch
• Buying bulk cleaning products including laundry powder, dish liquid (we use Abode)
• DIY cleaning sprays using vodka, water and essential oil.
• Buying bulk whole foods like nuts, dried fruit, baking goods
• Cloth nappies and elimination communication (saving nappies)
• Op shopping in advance for children’s clothes (bigger sizes)
• Not buying new, opting for second hand wherever possible & healthy
• Composting to reduce household waste by an estimated 50% (read Waste Not) – saving on fertiliser for the garden
• Taking a thermos to playgroups or outings with hot tea (minimise single use coffee cup landfill) or take a keep cup
• Use a jar with rubber bands around it for a keep cup rather than buying new

There are many ways you can become more frugally sustainable in the pursuit of making homeschool less financially stressful.

I feel that If you understand the value of homeschooling and it’s right for you, then you will make it happen. You will find a way! We have not had a single day of childcare in 5 years and we actually feel this saves us money. Why? Well…we don’t mind buying a once off piece of children’s furniture here and there to make our home more child friendly.

The way we see it, we are still ahead, saving far more on childcare expenses…not that we could do childcare even if we wanted to, as we have a “no jab no play” legislation in Victoria. And we wouldn’t vaccinate just to be able to use childcare or for some extra money anyway. We have too many reasons we choose not to vaccinate that it’s absolutely not worth it (the risk) in our eyes.

Other ways we save money for this is by growing food, not buying packaged food very much and when we do, we commit to recycling everything possible! We avoid using more than we need of any/all resources and certainly avoid buying new at all costs! We are not perfect. There are times when our children grow so fast that we forgot to op shop in time or found the op shops just didn’t have what our little ones needed.

There have been a few times I forgot my keep cup and didn’t bring a drink on the run, since becoming more waste conscious. But hey, even Greta has been seen eating packaged take away food! Just being honest.

We do our best with the time we have and we are working towards doing “less”. We feel this really helps keep unwanted stress at bay. I would love to know your cost and time savers.

If you’re a homeschooler, how do you make it happen? What creative ways do you have that help reduce financial pressure? Share your thoughts. I would love to have more of a conversation around this!