Our budget is always a work in progress and yours should be too, to some extent. Growing families have needs that change frequently. Your grocery budget will go up as your children enter school age and especially so for a family with teenagers. Comparing budgets is like comparing apples to oranges. While our grocery budget is currently $75/week it used to be $50 and I imagine as our 3 boys and 1 girl enter the teen years it will likely go up and possibly even double. You can see what a recent $75 shopping trip looks like over here.
Today however I wanted to touch on another budget item – extra-curricular activities. This category is new to our budget, when the kids were little trips to the Library and park were all we needed and they were FREE! Since we’ve moved to Oregon though we knew we needed to get the kids involved in a few activities to meet new friends and integrate ourselves into the community here. Our current budget looks like this…
- Travis – 2 mornings/wk preschool – $50/month
- Tyler – Soccer 1hr/week – $40/month
- Haley – Horse 4-H + 1 Riding Lesson – $25/month
- Cody – Taekwon-Do - 1hr/week – $55/month
- All 4 Kids – Awana 2hrs/week – $12/month in dues + books
We were able to get a deal on the Tae Kwon Do lessons through Living Social, for $30 he got 1 month and a uniform. That was a GREAT way to test the waters. I’d encourage you to keep an eye open, especially for swimming lesson deals in the near future. Did you see these summer camp deals on Plum District? Look for your city, they’ve expanded into many areas nationwide!
Since this is new to us, we’d love to hear more about how your family budgets for these extras. Do you divide it evenly and say each child has X amount per month? How do you cut costs in this area? Is this an area where you splurge? We’d love to hear more!
lynne March 23, 2012 at 11:50 am
Using coupons certainly helps to cover these expenses. I pay for chess $20/month and swim team$65/month, but for extra stuff, I always find plenty of activities through the parks and recreation department. Every city has one and you can find anything from free activities to low cost classes in athletic, cooking, computer, etc. Our library events calendar also has lots of free classes and activities that we can sign up for online.
Averi Hughes via Facebook March 23, 2012 at 12:09 pm
Stop Eating! LOL Just Kidding!
Natalie Smith Pruis via Facebook March 23, 2012 at 12:14 pm
We look at the calendar of when sports sign ups are scheduled. Then we either cut back that month on certain spending or we save monthly knowing what the cost will be approx. Planning ahead for sports is a great idea. They can be costly & stop families from doing them as well. Lots of sports organizations have scholarships too. Another way I have heard is for kids bray’s from family members giving towards a sporting fund. Lots of smart ways to do it for sure!
Trisha Evans-Ray via Facebook March 23, 2012 at 12:17 pm
Honestly we just make it happen. Our kids only get to pick one sport though…we can’t afford for them to do more then that. My oldest does Soccer and my middle child plays Baseball. The littlest one is still too little. If you sign them up for a league instead of say a community center sport it’s cheaper. The leagues you pay a one time fee, for the whole season, where the community center sports you have to pay monthly.
Anna Hartono via Facebook March 23, 2012 at 1:08 pm
I don’t know about sport but my kids joined band at school to learn new instrumental. My goal is not for them to be skillful but rather expose them to instrument. My daughter learns how to play saxophone from the band. I pay only 20 bucks a month. In case she is really interested, at that time.. I will have to think of budget..:) but so far it works.
Susanna Burke March 23, 2012 at 1:37 pm
It’s not something I really “budget” for, honestly. Some things have recurring monthly fees, classes like dance/gymnastics, etc., so those are built into the budget- but for things like seasonal sports, we just hope for enough money to cover it by the time signups roll around! And since our income varies a lot from month to month and is very unpredictable, most of the time this works out ok. I suppose if we had a regular paycheck and fixed income it would be easier/better to set a little aside into a fund specifically for those activities, but for now it just doesn’t work that way for us.
Danae H March 23, 2012 at 3:36 pm
This is something they were are just now encountering with our oldest daughter…she is huge into dancing (always has been), so we signed up for a 6 week course through the city to see how she liked it. I figure if it is something she really likes we can look into a year round thing. She does do preschool 3x a week, but for now we are just putting less into savings until our overall income increases as we saw this as a non-negotiable activity as she needed the social interaction this allowed for big time.
I like the idea of people putting money towards this stuff for birthdays! That may very well get used for my daughter’s next birthday especially if she really likes the dance class!
Valerie Biggs-Hernandez via Facebook March 23, 2012 at 9:04 pm
This is our first year having 2 kids in sports so its been a bit more money esp since they don’t fit in eachothers old cleats,and are different sexes BUT we just put the cash in an envelope since we have an idea what it will cost and what parties and so on will cost and for horse lessons we use the envelope system! Its 100$ a month and isn’t cheap but it lights up my daughters life so we save up and set it aside! Works wonders.
Molly March 23, 2012 at 9:14 pm
This has been a big topic for us. We have 3 boys all pretty much the same age, two 5 year olds and a 6 year old. We haven’t put them into any sports yet because when one asks they all want to do it. Which is fine but when we have to times one cost by 3 it just gets to pricey. I guess I just need to sit down and find a way to squeeze it into our budget. eek!
Michele March 23, 2012 at 9:22 pm
This is a great topic. Thankfully our charter school pays for Kung Fu, music lesson, and marching with the Concord Blue Devils, but unfortunately we haven’t yet created an envelope for those activities/sports not covered. Our middle daughter just started playing Club Soccer to the tune of $2500/year….RESULTING in me now putting together my application packet for a J.O.B.
Kari Stehmeyer March 23, 2012 at 11:47 pm
One cost saving method is to do rec leagues vs. comp teams. Also, I’m a big believer in used sports equipment. Then use things like shop the sales at Big 5 or use reward dollars like at Kmart to purchase equipment. Definitely pass down what can. Check on Craigslist for items as many folks try something out only to give up on it. I usually do like things like Red Plum and Groupon, but I have to say camps have gotten out of control in their pricing…the one on Red Plum was $100 for a $300 discount…well the dang camps offered by that company are more than a semester at college!!! The one in my local area – offering all outdoor activity (which I can do for free) was $4300!!! That’s not a deal!!!
Jolene March 24, 2012 at 6:55 am
Ditto on gently-used sports gear vs. buying brand new. I’ve saved tons of $$ at Play It Again Sports which is located adjacent to the Pleasant Hill Grocery Outlet. Play It Again Sports is a consignment shop for gently-used gear. Seems like a lot of kids end-up quitting a sport & parents will consign their gear (some of it BARELY even used!) to recoup their investment in gear. One of my sons is in his 5th year of Tae Kwon Do. I found all his protective gear (head gear, chest guard, shin guards, and a bag to tote it in) at this consignment store nearly-new. Also, for his mouth guard, I simply asked our orthodontist who was happy to supply one for FREE.
Kids learn valuable lifeskills in Tae Kwon Do–self control, respect for self & others, goal-setting, character building, etc. so I feel the classes are worth the expense. Instead of a fancy cell phone & expensive monthly plan, I own a really basic Tracfone & choose to use the $ for my son’s TKD expenses instead. (LOL, I’ve seen little 1st Graders with better cell phones than me!)
Kari Stehmeyer March 23, 2012 at 11:48 pm
Oh and one other thing…participate…early and often as a parent. Volunteer. You get to help plan, budget, schedule – these are all helpful when you’re juggling extra-curricular activities. If you’re a great couponer – offer to be the snack person for the team, in exchange for carpool to the practices.
Jolene March 24, 2012 at 7:02 am
I was in a Co-Op Preschool where parents rotate & assist the head teacher. Two benefits: reduction in monthly tuition, AND I got to observe my child in class (how he interacted & did the activities = peace of mind for me). Quick way to make a lot of friends, too.
Ryann Wyckoff via Facebook March 24, 2012 at 1:32 am
I make it a priority…lots and lots of good life lessons learned from team sports!