How far in advance do you purchase material?

[Treece]

I am always curious and so I would like to know :)

[moominmamma]

Depends. When I'm trying to use up umbrella school learning allowance funding, or if there's some amazing 70% off deal, I'll sometimes buy "someday, someone" resources. 

Otherwise I only buy things that are for immediate use. If my kids are impatiently waiting for them, so much the better. The motivation built by the anticipation of filling a strong current interest makes the materials much more likely to be fully used.

Miranda

[AAK]

I have on occassion bought something because it was really "neat" even if the girls weren't ready for it yet.  However, I have found that it is best to just buy for the current year.  We may discover that what I thought would be "perfect" is really not. . . I have a better chance of being right if we stick with our current year.  I have no idea how their learning styles, skills, and interests may change.

Amy

[onyxravnos]

I try to limit myself to the current year and no more then 1 year above it so there is some wiggle room as to the resources I have on hand. Although I just bought a few things that there is NO WAY I can use for at least 2 years but they were on clearance and just so cheap I couldn't pass them up.

[edwardsmom]

For notebooks, binders, pens, craft materials, etc I'll stock up at a good sale, so that might be a couple of years worth.  But for everything else, I buy it as we need it.  I completely second what Amy said: my ideas of what's a good match and what works for us changes as we grow.