The homeschool group I am leader of, has been hosting a used curriculum sale for the last several years. I always enjoy helping out during this sale. I love talking with new and veteran homeschoolers. Most of all though, I love SHOPPING at the used curriculum sale. I love books of all kinds and to have so many to browse through, I truly get giddy! I do try to be careful with what I purchase. I always try to purchase what we will use for the upcoming year. However, I have gotten carried away and have bought books that we didn’t use. Not only did we not use them, but it was a loss of money.
With saying that, I thought I would give you a few tips to help you out when you attend a used curriculum sale.
First thing you need to do is make a list of the books that you will be needing for the upcoming year. Look over what you have been using to see if you can still use any of the books from the previous school year. There have been occasions that I have been able to use readers and textbooks for a couple of years. Also, check your bookshelves. You could have possibly purchased a book the year or two before not even knowing that you would be needing it in the future. It could have been one of those impulse buys! {grin}
When you have checked your bookshelves, and still do not see what you need, ask around! We have a wonderful homeschool support group that will let others borrow books if they are not using them. Ask your homeschooling friends on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or any other social media. This past year, I made a comment that I was looking for books for Tapestry of Grace, Year 1 and had a friend send me all she had for that year! She saved me a lot of money just by me making a passing comment!
Now that you have checked your bookshelves and with your friends, double check your list and then make a budget. Yes, I said a budget. Even though you are going to a used book sale, you can still spend more money than what you need to. I often will go online and check out prices on used curriculum websites, just to get an idea how much money the books will cost that I am looking for. On my list, I will write the price of the book next to the name.
Once I have my budget, I take that amount of cash with me on the day of the used curriculum sale, along with my list. I also try to get to the sale when it first starts. Early bird gets the book, I mean worm. {smile} You are more than likely to get what you need if you do show up when the sale begins. I will walk around the sale doing a quick glance just to see if I can spot any book on my list and a price. There have been a couple of times I was looking for a certain curriculum and noticed that two different moms had it. One was cheaper than the other! Never hesitate to ask if the mom will be willing to drop the price if you feel like it is too high. More times than not, the mom will be willing to help you out.
Since I have been homeschooling for 10 years now, I buy a lot of my books used. By using these few tips I have been able to save us some money over the years.
Have you bought used curriculum and books for your homeschooling? Do you have any tips that you could add to the ones above? I would love for you to share them with us!