Ways to Save Money on Homeschool Curriculum & Supplies

 Here's a list of ways I've saved some money on our homeschooling adventures.  Hopefully there's something in here that can help you keep your costs down.  They are in no particular order.

Groupon and Living Social - You've probably heard of these, but 8coupons will list these and all similar deals by your zipcode, making it easier to keep track of them.  I've been able to get deals on Little Passports for social studies and deals on admissions for field trips.

Gift Card Granny - This is a site that compiles gift card resellers.  I've used this for office supply gift cards.  Depending on the store and the site you'll get a certain percentage off your purchase.  Since these get mailed to you snail mail this requires some advance planning.

Refillable Ink Cartridges - I can't imagine homeschooling and using off the shelf manufacturer ink cartridges.  I think that cost alone would pay for private school instead.  I use refillables but even remanufactured represent significant savings. 

Sharing - I shared my All About Spelling vol. 1 with a friend.  She liked it so much she decided to use it as well and said she'd let me use her vol. 3 so we each saved the cost of a volume.  For longer distance sharing try http://market.swap.com for books or movies.

Buy used - There are several options here.  Are you signed up for your favorite yahoo homeschool group?  Many of them allow selling items on certain days or exist just as curriculum listserves.  Homeschool classifieds, home educators resource, Educator's Exchange are all options online.  Addall and Alibris (emails coupons frequently) are online used booksellers for mass market books.  Also, be involved in your local homeschool organizations and coops, they often have used curriculum sales.

Buy in bulk - Homeschool Buyers Coop is an option that many have heard of.  Also, you can organize your own group buys.  A person at our homeschool coop organized a group buy for Nova Natural toys for a 15% savings for example.  Contact a publisher and find out what kind of deal they can give you for a certain number of copies to organize your own group.   Even if you only pair up with a friend, you split the shipping.

Free curriculum options - Homeschool Launch is a file sharing service for homeschoolers.
Currclick - has weekly freebies as well as frequent larger giveaways.  Many curriculum providers have email blasts or facebook freebies so sign up with your favorites.
 
Free classes & free audio books - The list here is rather long so I'm going to break these into a separate post.  Here is the post for free media.  Here is the post for free classes.

Please post a comment with your favorite homeschool money saving idea!

Update Oct, 2012
Try Freeshipping.org to save too.