My second suggestion is to buy and sell used curriculum. Many support groups and state organizations have used curriculum sales. I have to admit that I don’t think I have ever sold a book in my 18 years of home schooling. For some reason, I can’t stand to part with them. Now I keep thinking I might need them for the grandchildren - even though none of my kids are married yet! (I think I need to read a Don Aslett book on clutter - but that’s another article.)

I thought it might be fun for those who don’t have an outlet for buying or selling used curriculum to try two different options at Crosswalk.com.

The first is to use the Crosswalk.com Classifieds. It is easy to do. The directions are fairly self-explanatory. The only other thing I would mention would be under "Category" to choose "Merchandise" rather than "Education." "Education" makes more sense, but it is not equipped to handle the choices we need. When you click on "Merchandise," you will have several choices. "Miscellaneous" is always a good choice, and there is also a "Wanted to Buy" section.  

Secondly, at the bottom of this article is an automatic link to Forums which says,  "You can discuss this article with other Crosswalk.com viewers here." If you click on the word "here," you will be linked to a discussion on this article. If you can’t figure out the “Classifieds area” or you want people to know you posted something there, you can write all about in Forums.

Do you have any other suggestions for saving money and cutting corners? I know we could all benefit from your suggestions. You can e-mail me at ztyler@crosswalk.com or post your comments in Forums (follow the same directions as above).

May God grant us wisdom and great blessing as we seek to be good stewards of both our children’s lives and our financial resources.

Zan Tyler is co-author of the book Anyone Can Homeschool and senior education editor for Crosswalk.com . She and her husband have three children and have been home schooling since 1984.