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.

Wow, I am very grateful to be in Finland now! Most expensive at the moment is DD's volleyball which is a couple hundred euros per year club fee, couple hundred a year for competition pass and insurance, and 70e a month for the team (which covers coach hire for games further away, closer games a few parents will drive and divide up the kids between them)

DS plays ice hockey. At 8 this isn't very expensive, maybe a couple hundred for the year for club fees, competition pass and insurance. His club lends him some of the equipment (skates and safety gear, we bought stick and helmet) and games are only against teams within about 1.5 hours drive so travel isn't expensive. But if he carries on it'll get a lot more expensive, especially insurance and gear.
He also does wrestling which is cheap right now but I looked at the cost of competition passes and insurance when he's a little older and its a lot, I suppose because there's a fair risk of injury - he's only been to one competition so far and managed to hurt his shoulder there. But his club only goes up to ten years old so hopefully he stops then.
His other hobbies - football, scouts and circus school are quite cheap.

£266 per month.
DS: 2 different history classses over zoom.
DD: acting, ballet and choir

Just been at a comp about 4 hours from home. It cost hundreds when you add up travel, hotel, food, drink, entry fees, spectator tickets etc. I think probably about £500 and that’s not including the new costume which was about £250. This comp wasn’t even in a nice town, never somewhere I’d choose to spend the weekend.

£250 for the costume

Was there an extra zero in that ? £2750 a month ? That is more than many private schools, surely this a typo ?

About £300 two kids doing competitive swimming. That’s club fees plus average for race fee entries. Then there’s all the kit which I haven’t factored into this monthly cost but probably costs around £6-700 a year.

Probably about £500 monthly average for performance swimmer. Fees, membership, race suit, gala entry fees, petrol / hotel to galas, dry land training cost, yearly winter training week aboard….. makes me cry when I think about it!

Similarly my dd does rowing. Really goid value, has learnt a lot in a short space of time and has really lovely lovely coaches and made great friends. It is £30per month, plus race fees. The kit is reasonable too.

My kids swim and that is also reasonable but you can always pay more for individual coaching etc.

DC1
£340 a term for performing arts class
£120 every 6 months for headshot updates
£170 per year (I think) Spotlight membership
£90 term swimming
£80 gymnastics 4 hours a week
Kit £100
Competition entry £50 x 3 times a year
£80 gymnastics camp, tickets to watch comps £50 each time.
£30 I think membership Scottish gymnastics
Madness but she loves it and she's very good at at it
She wants to do horse riding but I've said not just now!

DC2:
£40 grassroots tennis coaching
£120 ski lessons every now and then

DC2 doesn't really like clubs! Thankfully.

BMX racing. Probably 2-400 on hotels depending on if there is a National. 20-60 on race entry fees. Anywhere from 0-1000+ on bike parts a month. 100-250 on fuel depending on where races are. 300+ on coaching. So probably just under 1k a month. Terrifying but they love it!

Go karting. The costs are eye watering (thousands each month, lower in the winter due to seasonal championships) but a great experience, travelling around the country and competing in national events.

I'm guessing it might be a boarding school? And almost certainly private as well

Not as much as some people.

We pay £74 for 6 swimming lessons, for 2DC. So about £150 for a term.

DD goes to Guides and DS to Beavers (soon Cubs), both £15 per month, plus a yearly fee of £30.

My 9 year old grandson does karting. It seems to be an endless money-pit which my ex-h and I subsidise heavily, but grandson enjoys it so much we don’t mind. There was the initial cost of the kart, repairs after accidents or general wear and tear, the safety equipment is eye-wateringly expensive but necessary, track fees, even a place in the team tent costs £80 per day. My son has bought a bigger van to transport the kart and they save money sometimes by sleeping in the van on race weekends.

I wouldn’t like to put a definite figure to it, and months will vary, but I don’t think £800- £1,000 a month is far off.

DD rides and it’s £40 per half hour private lesson equalling £160 a month. She has a pony share at £450 a month. I’m jealous of everyone’s £25 lessons! Piano lessons at £180 a term. Gymnastics is £20 per week.

Just your average, bog standard hobbies here and it's still very expensive.

1:1 swimming for DC3 is bankrupting me. It's £39.50 for half an hour so £160/£200 a month.

She has SEN though and needs 1:1. Her DLA is spent on private (academic) tuition so I am funding this through household money. DC3 also does football but that is negligible at £20pm.

DC1 is at secondary now and all clubs are free. Barring swimming lessons which are £40pm

DC2 does ballet and football and swimming which works out as approx £160pm (ballet is twice a week, football is twice a week and swimming is club level but we pay a mixture of monthly / termly so I've just averaged it all out)

So its about £500pm for x3 kids over various clubs / lessons. Doesn't sound high compared to some but as a single parent (no CMS) who works PT it's a fortune.

Dancing / singing/ acting - averages out at about £400 a month including shows, competitions, costumes, shoes, uniform, lessons, tickets for shows, photos / videos etc
She also plays piano which is about £200 a month and then there is guides which is a lovely £12 a month but a bit more for camps.
So, it’s a lot. But it’s ramped up to this stage incrementally. We can afford it but we are at the limit of what we can afford now.

Just wait until you have your own horse…!! We were easily spending £500/month at one point and know of families who spend significantly more. It’s a crippling hobby and I was quietly relieved when DD decided that she wanted to live her latter teen years outside the equestrian bubble