How much do your children's expensive hobbies cost each month?

[SocialSkills00]

if your dc has an expensive hobby, how much does that cost you monthly?

I spend approx £200 a month on horse riding. I thought that was bad, but a friend says she spends £500 per month on dancing (!) which includes lots of private tuition & competitions.

Drama, gymnastics and swimming for DD. About £200 pm.

DS plays one sport twice a week and it costs about £120 a year.

I pay for my Niece's dancing lessons it works out at about £100 a month plus I pay for her dance gear and other things that are needed. It isn't exactly cheap but I'm very happy to do it as my niece loves it and is very good.

🫢 may i ask your household income?

Competitive dancing she’s 8. It’s very expensive, not just the classes but the outfits, competitions, wkends away for competitions and costumes, trainers, dance shoes, uniform, etc. classes are £110 per month but sometimes there’s extra ones I have to pay for. With all the other things it probably costs more like £280 per month.
She only does team dances but is asking me to do quads and duos, I’ve said no as it’s often more time off school and extra days accommodation when competing as well as more money for more classes and extra costumes. I have heard some of the mums say they spend more on dancing than their mortgage, especially when you have more than one kid doing this. Thankfully my youngest just does the dance class that has a normal show for parents she doesn’t want to do competitions.

DD does about 14 hours I think of dance/drama etc
That's a couple of hours each night and then a long session on Saturday morning

I work full time - in fact part of the reason I agreed to her doing it is that it works instead of after school club really to keep her occupied while I get some work done. We have a lift swap system with other parents, and I can work flexibly so can fit my work around my share of the dance runs

Homework - she's amazing, she just knuckles down and does it whenever she has a spare moment because she knows there isn't time to procrastinate. She's normally also learning at least a couple of scripts of lamda exams /shows. And she's very much an extrovert so she always fits in time with friends every day too. She doesn't really have much time for watching TV /idly scrolling on her phone - but I don't see that as a bad thing!

Extra curricular activities, incl tutors, costs roughly £500 pcm for two children. It's 3k a year each, they are in state schools though.

I did some maths and I think it’s probably £600/month for my two kids - mostly dance, but my son has clubs most days and my daughter has a self defence class and a maths tutor. Some months are more though if there’s a grading or competition (my daughters dance team is a community one so they only do about a half dozen comps plus the dance World Cup this summer). Beginning of the year is 300-400 in uniform and random needs for tights, doboks, football boots, whatever.

For my daughter it keeps her busy and fit - she has no trouble getting her homework done, class is usually something like 6-9pm most nights so she has time after school. She has very little time to faff around on her phone or hang around the school gates vaping and that’s fine with me.

My son is 9 so no homework yet. All his clubs are only an hour or so a night so loads of time for seeing friends or gaming or whatever. He’s intensely social so wouldn’t want down time anyway.

Mine are adults now, but at it's height we had:
Riding I think this hit £42 pw
Swimming X2 £250 per term (? £25pw)
Football £110 a year (£2/ week)
Judo £ 4pw
Ballet £3.50
Netball Free
Chess club- £2 ? I think
11+ tutor - £35 pw

So about £150 pw- £600 ish a month ?
I remember agreeing to do an extra day of work to cover it all. Agree with others though was after school care that helped me work.

My little one has her own pony and I probably spend the same on her as you do for lessons. She’s a hardy Dartmoor so doesn’t need much! But it’s just the best feeling to see their bond. I love horses and they are such good therapy!x

It is hard fitting it all in. Dd is 10 and is probably at dance for around 20 hours a week and can be more of a big comp is coming up. She pretty much there every night. Can be 4-9 some nights. Competitive dance is brutal.

Sailing… at the peak of it, 80 a week traning, plus 120 a month for strength and conditioning PT. Plus membership of clubs, boat storage, boat purchase and I basically just transferred all my money to the shop that sold bits of boats and gear. Then there was competition entry, travel and accommodation.

I don’t regret what was spent, but as they have now taken a step back from high level competition I suddenly have a lot of time and a bit of money for other stuff.

@TartanMammy, I agree that the costs are obscene. My son is by no means a world-class athlete and shows no signs of becoming one. He started ice-hockey because of a Canadian friend and just absolutely loves it. We wanted him to have a sport and have tried out other things (football, baseball, swim-team) and he hated them all after the first practice.
These costs are for "travel team," but the costs for "recreation league" where you don't travel would be less but still significant.
Ice-hockey is REALLY expensive. And, not surprisingly, although we live in a Black majority city, every child at hockey is white and wealthy. It is also expensive in terms of parents' time - two or three practices a week, then the whole weekend gone to travel.
So yes, as you note, the vast majority of children would be excluded. And yes, that's not okay.

Climbing is costing around £375 per month for coaching and squad fees.
£150 for shoes (every 3 months ish).
Comp entry £20-£40 (average 1 or 2 per month from now til December).
Travel and accommodation depends on distance. £200-£500 for travel/hotel/etc for a weekend at a national comp, most are just a couple of hours in the car. Comp in France in the summer so adding a family holiday and some extra climbing, then another international in the autumn.

Aerial is £6 per week at local arts centre. Flying trapeze in the summer will be about £25 per session ad-hoc.

Eeek I thought £50/month for gymnastics was bad.

£1,300 pcm to put DS1 through uni!

They aren’t expensive really but add up!

about £60 on dance plus £200 a year on costumes
£25 on football plus £300 a year on kit
£20 on gym & swim membership
£10 on running club
and about to start martial arts

When our eldest was little he did horse riding , we had horses at the time , we still own his second pony who was purchased when he was 6 , the pony and the son are now into their thirties and the pony costs us £600 per month plus extras ( vets , supplements etc) .

I was paying £260pm for dance, £500 per term for swimming, £30 per week for gymnastics and £36 per week on piano lessons.
The kids decided it was all too much and asked for a break from clubs so they now do musical theatre once a week at £40 per month.
You’d think we’d have a ton of extra money every month lying about but it just gets absorbed into other things 🙃

Down to 1 kid scouting at 15/ month now
previously both were scouting.
1 was swimming at 28/month.
and 1 was doing afterschool sport at around 30-40

Approx £7k a year - not split across 12 months due to summer hols. 2 kids. Dance, theatre school, scouts, singing and music lessons.

I know loads of kids who do football and it seems to be one of the cheapest hobbies. Much less than my kids gymnastics etc

£2750 a month to attend a performing arts school. DC is exceptionally talented and has a scholarship but due to Labour's 20% VAT and them counting our small inheritance this year as "income" this is what we have to pay. It will cost us most of our inheritance but the government counts us as rich/elite/privileged on paper so we live on beans on toast in real life to let our DC live their dream.

However, we are realistic and expect this DC to never ever earn back the treating they have received in the arts. The arts world is incredibly poorly paid, especially women. You will find artistic directors/choreographers/production/directors paid huge amounts of money while the actual artists are paid peanuts on zero hours contracts. Its a mugs game. But our DC cannot imagine any other career. Its what brings them happiness and gives them life.

What else can a parent do but support this?

£30 a month on karate lessons - single fee, can train as much you like. That's it!

It applies to a lot of other hobbies too, but I strongly feel that sailing (dinghy and yacht racing) benefited me far more than my academic education in terms of the skills it gave me for success in the work place (leadership, team work, communication, swift decision-making). ( And i have two first class degrees!)

(Plus I had an absolute blast!)

Wow.
Some of these costs - dance especially - seem extortionate. Its just moving your body to music. I didn't realise parents would forking out hundreds on costumes (!). Also having to pay to watch your child compete in a dance competition seems like a liberty.
Eye opening thread for me...