What does homeschooling cost?

Often over the years I see people say things like "I can't afford to homeschool" or "I'm using public school at home option, because it's the only way I can afford it."  I realize many of us spend more and may spend on things like homeschool co-op/groups, sports, dance, gymnastics, other activities that many, including myself, would consider the cost of homeschooling.

However, lets take a moment and just discuss the basics. What do you spend PER child, PER year on your primary curriculum? Mind you primary curriculum doesn't' have to be text books, after all there are many methods and many resources. I'm just interested in showing people what is "needed" for the very basics.

As you look at this keep in mind a couple of things:

1. This is the cost just for the primary curriculum/resources the family uses per child; per year. It's an average; an estimation.
2. This does not included the cost of sports, scouting, dance, or any other extra curricular the family may or may not use.
3. A family may not spend all of this at one time. Some families actually spread out the cost and buy things as needed. Like math materials this month and science next. Or they use an all-in-one program and make monthly payments.
4. If you are using one of the free programs (ambleside, old fashion, etc) please estimate what you spend on ink, paper, or whatever else you need to implement and use your curriculum.
5. All other basic supplies like pens, pencils, crayons, markets, writing paper is assumed to be on hand or the cost minimal and that does not need to be counted towards basic cost.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something.

PRINTING! UGH! The cost!

One of the down falls to homeschooling is the PRINTING! Our Lexmark printer sucks, literally! The ink cartages for it cost $50 (This is 1 black and 1 color cartage). That yielded us about 300 pages. If we were lucky!

I tried really hard NOT to print things because of the cost. When we switch to Ubuntu for our operating system we found the printer to even be more problematic. It's really NOT compatible with Ubuntu. So we we have been in the market for a new printer. We knew that no matter what we would get an HP printer, because they work the best with Linux.

We figured that we would just get a laser printer because DH knows that toner would give us better yields then ink. We didn't want flush more money down the drain on expensive ink replacements. We ran out to Best Buy and started looking at the HP options there.  It just so happen that an HP rep was in the store! This for us was luck because we were in the market for an HP product!

Best Buy had one HP laser printer on sale for $99 (reg. price $200). I told DH well that seem like a good deal. We knew that it was just black and that we really could not afford the color laser printers.  Not only that but there was no way we could afford a color all-in-one laser printer. (Our current model is an all in one and I love being able to copy things as needed).

DH grabbed the toner cartgage for the laser printer it was $80. Knowing that the toner was nearly the price of the printer made me ask DH "How many pages can I print before I run out of ink?"

He said you mean toner and started to look on the box. He then said we have to go to HP website to learn the yield, because that is what the box said.  I told him to find a sales associate and see if they will find out for you. He found the sales associate and learn from them that there was an HP rep in the store and the rep would be able to answer all of our questions.

The rep shortly learned that we actually didn't own a HP printer and that we were in the market for one. DH explained to him that we homeschooled and that I needed a printer that was NOT an ink hog because of the amount of ink we go through.  We told him what we had at home and what ink cartages it took and he knew how it sucks!! $50 per 300 sheets is a lot of money!!

We explained to him how it's an all and one and that we figure we would keep it and use it as a copier as needed. 80% of my needs come out of printing but I do make copies some what regularly.  He then directed us to the HP Pro 8500. It IS a inkjet printer, but it's cartages rock. The black cartages alone yields 2200 sheet of paper. That already is 7x better then our current print and very comparable to the $99 laser printer. The laser printer toner yields 1800 pages.  The HP Pro 8500 is an all-in-one and does color. It's cost today was $280 (reg. $400).

I listen to him share what the ink yield was on the 8500 and some of the other bells and whistles like how I can scan a piece of paper and email it straight from the printer. Or if I scan items it will automatically file it. So lets say I scanned a art project that web-princess made it would automatically file it in "web-princess folder" straight from the printer.  Bells and whistles that we didn't really need.

I then turn my head to another HP inkjet printer. It was an all in one printer that was $200. He said you don't want that printer. I said what do you mean? He said I'll be right back went around the corner, grabbed some ink cartages, and came back. He showed me  how the ink cartages were for the model I was looking at and then showed me the yield on those cartages: 500 pages. Then took me around the add pointed out the price of various models (including non HP products), the cartages for those models, and what the yield on those cartages.

So in other words that $200 HP inkjet printer was only going to give me 500 pages for  $35 a black cartage where the HP Pro 8500 was going to give me 2200 pages for $35 a black cartage.

500 would be better then what we have now but not that much better. The HP rep said that's the problem SOMETIMES with cheaper models. The models are cheaper but the ink often cost just as much or if not more then the printer.

He said I would either go with the $99 laser printer that we were looking at when we first came into the store, or this HP Pro 8500. Either one of them are going to give a x7 better printing capabilities per (black) cartage then what we get now.

He also then picked up a coupon that was sitting on the shelf and said that this coupon is good for the 8500 model. It was $50 instant savings. All we had to do is give them our old printer as a trade in with the coupon and get $50 off the sticker price. So now this $400 is going to cost $230. That $230 also included ink to start with.

So now we had to decided do we spend $230 on the HP Pro 8500 or $180 on the HP laser printer and toner. (The laser printer did not come with toner).  Was the HP Pro 8500 worth the extra $50 today?

Well lets see besides the fact that the HP Pro 8500 is an all and one (print, scan, copy, fax) and has color printing its cartages were cheaper. Black at $35 gave us 2200 sheets and the color cartages would give us 1700 sheets for $26 a piece. Not only that but each color, yellow, magenta, and cyan was it's OWN cartage. So we could only have to buy the color we need when we needed it. 

Yes if we needed ALL 4 cartages at the same time it would be about $20 more then just the BLACK laser toner replacement. However I doubt that we would need all 4 at once and DH said that fact that each color is it's own cartage will mean that over time it would save us money because you aren't always going to need to replace all the colors.

So we went ahead and got the HP Pro 8500 for $280 today (It will be $230 as soon as I give them my old printer)! Although we do NOT have it today! The model was NOT in stock so we have to wait for it to be delivered to the store for pick up. We did a store pick up because I have to go back with our old printer. We didn't have it with us today in the store either.

It made sense to do the store pick up. I'll go pick up the new printer and drop of the old on the same day. When I give them my old printer I will have $50 instantly credited to our account making our final price for the printer (and ink to start with) $230.

I'm EXCITED! I NOW feel like I can AFFORD to print! Not only that but there have been materials that I have been considering using for our curriculum. They are free materials I just have to print them off, but didn't do that because our printer sucked! Now with a printer that give me 2200 pages per $35 I will be able to print materials off vs. buying them.