I hope you are not assuming that I spent $100/year on curriculum each year for each of my homeschoolers as individuals because we didn't. It was **less** than $100 for all three for their entire curriculum.
I don't know how we did it. Hm?...Recycled phonics, Saxon Math, grammar, spelling, and handwriting books that are now being used by the grandchildren and books from the library. How on earth did we manage?
By the way, our new little struggling church met for a time in a private school. Guess what? They were using the same Latin grammar books that I used as a kid. These rows of Latin books were published in 1947. Really! It's true. I bet no professional “educator” has ever asked anyone in the private school how they manage to do it.
I do my fair share of scrounging. I also "borrow" ideas and projects from the internet. I dislike teaching math with one worksheet after another, so I like to incorporate labs whenever possible. Good ideas don't have to be expensive, but they often entail some cost. I wish I could do more.
I agree that some useful resources from the past were needlessly discarded. Judging from what I see, I don't think penmanship is even taught anymore.