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Six top tips for homeschooling on a budget


By Alan Beresford

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HOMESCHOOLING can put pressure on families' budgets but there are ways to help look after those pennies.

Homeschooling needn't be too taxing on the household finances. Picture: www.comparefibre.co.uk
Homeschooling needn't be too taxing on the household finances. Picture: www.comparefibre.co.uk

Kevin Mountford, the co-founder of the savings platform, Raisin, has drawn up six top tips to help those homeschooling on a budget.

Use packed lunches or cupboard items

Lunches do not have to cost a lot. Keeping children well fed during the day may be one thing, but overfeeding them is also another. If you’re not receiving free school meals, fancy lunches do not need to be a thing.

Sandwiches, beans on toast, eggs are all great items to have for lunch, so keep it cheap and cheerful. Switch it up during the week so children don’t get bored, and get them involved, too. Taking regular breaks from the national curriculum might make children more productive in the late afternoons.

Seek education tools online

There are plenty of free lockdown learning tools that your children can benefit from whilst still being educated from home which can cut costs. TV programmes also are broadcasted daily on BBC to help with children's curriculum, meaning costs can be cut on books, paper, and pens. Places like Audible are offering free books to children for educational purposes; learning doesn’t always have to be in the classroom.

Don’t overspend on school items

Just the basics will do the trick Some parents may feel as if they can’t afford high end felt tip pens, and this is totally okay. Dig out what you have at home, it will stop parents from spending more beyond their means.

Check locally for free services

Many small businesses are offering free printing services for children that are learning from home, so take advantage of this. If you can, try to avoid buying a printer and purchasing costly ink cartridges. If a day is not going as well as you had hoped, make sure you have colouring pages stocked – this might help when homeschooling gets a bit overwhelming

Seek any deals on bills

With electric bills on the rise depending on the size of the family, anxieties will be peaking of how much parents have to pay over the month, not mentioning the winter months are the hardest. Have a shop around to see if your electric bills can have anything included, Make sure to do what you can too; if laptops are on, cut down by switching the TV off.

Put commuting money into a pot

You might be shocked about how much money you actually spend on the school run. From driving to paying for annual/monthly/weekly bus passes, use that money elsewhere. It won’t seem like much, but as you pull this money back, it can be put into a savings pot and used somewhere further down the line.

Saving will undoubtedly be much harder given the current circumstances, but even taking smaller steps to save even the smallest amount can slowly grow to a lot of savings. You can even claim £124 back through government tax – find out how to do this at gov.uk



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