It's pretty well known that teachers don't have the highest salaries. Yet it takes a lot to teach a child each year. Schools do have budgets and materials they give out but I have yet to meet a teacher who doesn't have to pay for supplies and resources out of their pockets. I'm still learning but I do feel like I've learned some good tips for getting what you need.
At the beginning of the year I think you really need to think about what you're going to put on your supply list for parents. Coming from a low-income area I knew that I wouldn't get everything so I put things that would be used all year and kept it to a pretty short list. I didn't put anything on my list that would greatly affect the year if any of my students didn't bring in.
One of the hardest things to get has been a good supply of books. Even though I thought I had a lot of books, my kids went through them pretty quickly. I've been able to add in a couple of new books every week or two by using Scholastic points and Kellogg's rewards. You get Scholastic points for every purchase your students make and can redeem them for free books. They also give out free book coupons, I used these to get a class set of books that I am going to give out for Christmas. Easily I have gotten close to, including the class set, 50 free books from Scholastics. With Kellogg's it takes a little longer to get free books but it still helps. You save codes from the inside of their products and enter them online and get a free book for every three applicable codes.
Another good way to get funding is through Donors Choose. You can create a project for resources, a guest speaker or a field trip and then anyone can go to your site and donate. With these projects I think it helps to think about when you need the materials and how much your project costs. If you need them sooner then it's better to focus the project and keep it within a few hundred dollars.
While all of these seems like a lot of work it absolutely saves money. I still spend money on my class for crafts and specific lessons. In the past month though I have been able to cut back significantly on my out-of-pocket spending.
