Homeschooling When Money Is Tight

“The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith”. ~Billy Graham

Homeschooling is a leap of faith and in particular a financial leap of faith.  While some families homeschool on two full time incomes, most do not.

Having faith for financial provision is easy when  you have money, but what about when you are struggling. Do you quit a full time job?  Keep working? Work part time? There is no one answer.  Every family has to work through this and come up with a plan that works best for them.

When I homeschooled, I quit my job as a public school teacher and took the plunge into the unknown.  We didn’t have a lot of disposable income.  I worked with what we had and stretched our income in ways that I didn’t know were possible.

When money was tight, I always told my kids that we were rich in love and were simply going through a cash crunch.  When I said that, it meant that we didn’t have any extra money and don’t ask for extra’s.

I also told them we were not poor because I didn’t want to to feel bad about our finances.  And we weren’t poor.  All of our need were met.  We simply didn’t have all of our wants.

One year summer was upon us and I needed to buy curriculum for the upcoming school year.  I usually scrimped,  made up as much as I could and used the free library resources whenever possible.  Remember that when my kids were in elementary school, the free resources and worksheets on the internet were not available and I had to be inventive. I had some of the money I needed, but not all of it.  I began praying.

We were having special meetings at church and  on this particular night it was my turn to work in the nursery.  I had been praying that day and when the service was over a man came to pick up his child and gave all of the nursery workers a $100 bill.  Out of the blue, he felt that God had placed that on his heart.

Talk about an answer to prayer, not to mention a confidence builder.  And that $100 was what I needed to order the curriculum we needed for the upcoming year.

Brave homeschool mama, God loves you and He will meet your need.  Maybe he won’t have someone give your money, but maybe He will.

So look for those opportunities for God to bless you, because God loves you and if He wants you to homeschool or do anything for that matter, He will provide. Remember that 2 Corinthians 9: 8 says,

“And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work”.

This is just one of many stories I can tell about how God has met a financial need.  What about you?  How has God met your need?

 

This blog post is a follow-up to a parenting resource that I wrote entitled 7  Scripture Prayers To Pray Over Your Homeschool.  To receive a copy, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the link.