3 Ways to Save Money by Reusing Homeschool Items

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Let’s face it, homeschooling can be a burden on our pocketbooks! You might be living on one income, and choosing to homeschool usually means you are financially responsible for your child’s education. Therefore, finding ways to save money means relieving financial pressure for your household.

3 Easy Ways to Save Money by Reusing Homeschool Items

1. Save Printer Paper

We do a fair amount of printing here in our homeschool. We often find we need to print something, like directions, but then the use for that paper is done. Or I mess up a setting and print on the wrong printer or print the wrong pages.

Whatever the case, I find that we could throw out a lot of printer paper that is printed on just one side. Instead of throwing this paper out, we keep what we call “the scrap pile.” We keep a pile of all of this paper that is still good on one side sitting out so it is easy to access.

You can use this printer paper to make shopping lists or as math scratch paper. You can even let your kids use scrap paper to make pictures; it usually doesn’t matter to young kids what the back of the page looks like. You might not save money in huge amounts by doing this, but it also helps you feel better by not being wasteful with little things like this, doesn’t it?

Other things you can do with scrap paper might be:

Make paper airplanes
Do a paper mache project
Build something for a science project
Use it as painting paper
Do a mixed media project

2. Use Sheet Protectors

Especially if your children are younger and learning to write, sheet protectors and dry erase markers can come in very handy.

There are tons of free printables available on the web. By using a sheet protector and dry erase markers, you can save money on having to buy paper and printer ink by not having to print so often. Printables are great for mazes, color by numbers, search a words, and printing and cursive handwriting practice.

When you take trips or do homeschool outside, you can have a binder for each child filled with activities that suit him or her. If it’s sheet protected and includes a host of colorful dry erase markers, you can reuse it time and again.

3. Save Binders & Folders

At the end of each school year, you might find that you have tons of folders and binders filled with work. Many of these can be emptied and the contents thrown in the recycling bin (think spelling lists, endless math problems, etc). The binder or folder, however, can be saved. By either not writing on the binder or folder or by using pencil on labels, it is easy to reuse them the following year.

For instance, I have a spelling binder for my son where we keep his work each year. At the end of the year, I empty the binder and place it on the shelf to be used again for the next year. With binders that contain work we want to save, I cut up a pipe cleaner and loop the pieces through the holes in the paper to keep it together and store, and I put the binder back to use again!