extra curricular activites - how much do you spend per child.

[ReallyTired]

Dd does gymnastics at £93 per term, Swimming is about £75 per term and violin is £132 per term. This means I spend £300 a term on extra curricular activites. Last year I spent £100 on holiday courses for her as well. Does it sound shocking to spend roughly £1000 on a child for extra curriuclar activites.

Ds does guitar for £200 per term, chess club is £7 per year, junior membership of the gym for £15 per month and the church choir is free. In the past I have paid for him to have swimming lessons and he used to do karate.

How does our expense compare with the mumsnet average? I realise the amounts we spend as a family are a drop in the ocean compared with private education.

About £60 per month for lessons. Another £150 for equipment, clothes for gym, swimming, tennis and rainbows uniform (Dd grows like a weed!)

We usually do a few riding lessons and other clubs in the holidays too.

Probably works out about £1200 a year. Dd is an only child though so probably gets a bit spoilt!

About £900 per year (I've not worked that out before, that's scary). That covers swimming, football, beavers and brownies and a few activity days in summer holidays for my youngest two. I would like them to do more, have a go at jujitsu something like that but its not feasible (financially or timewise).

If you can afford it, and your DC enjoy it what does it matter? Some will spend more, some will spend less.

^^ £900 is for two children btw.

£1,000 may sound like a lot, but it's not excessive IMO.

I pay £330 a term for drama classes and will pick up swimming and tennis next year.

If you can afford to spend that much and you see that DC get a lot from the classes - skills, friends, enjoyment - then keep doing it. Only when skill level begins to stagnate and enjoyment wanes would I begin looking at alternatives

Ds1is £65 Tae Kwondo, £75 scouts per year

Dd1 £1200 plus £50 approx comp fees gymnastics, £75 scouts

Ds2 £40 Tae Kwondo, £75 cubs, £300 swimming lessons

Dd2 £40 Tae Kwondo, £240 gymnastics, £300 swimming lessons

So in total approx £2,500 per year

Doesn't include fuel getting them there and back or replacement kit they may need though.....

As long as you can afford it and the child is benefitting from the activities, what does it matter? I think we pay about £170 /month for 2 children, some activities don't run during holidays so don't know how much per year.

You could look at it with the view that it's all a lot less than annual private school fees.

If you have the disposable income to spend that, then that's up to you how you spend your money. If you are going into debt to pay for it, you may want to cut back on some classes.

Hmm

DD - Brownies @ £30 a term plus one residential @ £45
- music lessons @ £90 a term

total = £405

DS - Karate @ £20 a week plus about £100 a year for grading, competitions etc
- Scouts @ £35 a term plus about £60 a year for camps
- music lessons @ £110 a term

total = about £1500

Scary looked at like that though I think if you have DC that have music lessons plus anything at "beyond a very basic hobby" level it does get expensive.

(DD chooses not to do other activities by the way, I am not deliberately favouring DS!)

DS1 does football. I think its about £14 per month ( 1 training session + 1 match a week). £168 a year
DS1 & DS2 currently both do drama which is £60 a term total. £180 per year
DS1 no longer has swimming lessons, but DS2 does, so thats £425 per year.

So about £800 a year at the moment, but it will go up and down obviously. We've done Spanish lessons, karate, tennis and so on in the past.

If they really want to do something, we will consider it, but we try and stay away from lots of stuff because they get so little time to play at home as it is. Apart from football matches on Saturday mornings, we want to keep weekends clear.

My daughter loves her activities.

I think our big expense is probably music. One to one instrumental lessons are expensive.

I think children need time to relax and be at home as well.

Ds1
Drum lessons -£128 per term
Piano lessons -£128 per term
Cubs -£40 per term
Samba band -£80 per term
Brass band -£25 per term (bargin!)
Street - £60 term plus exams

Ds2
Violin lessons - £128 per term
Street - £60 term plus exams
Musical Theatre -£60 term plus exams
Tap -£60 term plus exams
Swimming - £90 term
Choir - free

So a ridiculous amount and they do far too much - but we can afford it and they want to I wasn't a joiner as a child, dh was a choristor so they paid him. Somewhere it all went wrong....

£2638 per child per year.
Roughly.
4 activities
So £5276 per annum not including after school childcare or holiday care.

Provided children can cope with the demands on their time and get enough time to simply be children and relax, extra-curricular spending can only ever be a good thing IMO. You don't have to justify anything to anyone, only your DC's happiness and development.

There is a massive link between extra-curricular activities, networking and educational attainment. Sadly, this means that until children from poorer backgrounds can access the same opportunities being paid for by the parents of children from better off families, we will never have a true meritocracy or good social mobility.

I find that terribly sad, but as a parent I am not going to disadvantage my own DC out of a sense of fairness to those less well off. Although I spend significantly less than some of you! [Thanks lucky stars that neither child has expressed an interest in the more expensive activities.]

Works out at just under 1k a year!

MMA 2xs a week
Beavers 1ce a week
Swimming 1ce a week

Thats for one child!

-£80 a term for tennis for ds1&2 so £160
-£32 an hour for piano for ds1 so roughly £384 a term

• Rugby subs £3 a game for both so roughly £72 a term

-1:1 swimming lessons for ds3 who has asd£25 a lesson so roughly £300 a term

• £20 a lesson for violin so roughly £240

So about £1156 a term so I guess £3468 a year for the 3 of them but I also have a DD who no doubt will want her fair share like her older brothers. Sounds a lot. I don't remember doing anything extra curricular as a child.

Thankfully I only have DD3 still at school.

She does guitar lessons for about £150 per term, so £450 ish per school year.

Hockey is £160 for the season (almost halfway through at the moment) plus £45 for coaching and trials for county level. So £205 so far, not including kit.

DD2 is at a local FE College three days a week still, and needs her bus fare paid. This comes to £15 per week, so lets say £60 per month and perhaps around £180 (approx) per term. Is that £540 per school year??!!

Adding it all up is scary!!

DD has a discounted children's membership for classes that our local council run through their sports and arts centers. She does one hour lessons in drama, arts and crafts, keyboard and dance. They're bloody fabulous and all take place in brand new, state of the art buildings. If I wasn't 'classed' as a low income single parent I would pay £22.50 a month instead of £11.25, which is phenomenal value for money either way. They can do as many classes as they want and there is a huge range available.

It has varied over the years.
I think because I wasn't really able to do extra stuff other than brownies, I tended to let them do whatever fitted in.

At present:
Dd1: Drama, ballet, singing, piano (around £300 a term)
Dd2: dance, trumpet, singing, Guides, gym, orchestra (around £400 a term) (plus rugby and drama for free)
Ds: dance, violin, tennis, football, gym, Cubs (around £250 a term) (plus rugby and drama for free)

Ds' clubs tend to be cheaper for some reason.
Dd1's dropped down from what she's doing, she used to do lots more, but homework has somewhat taken over.

For both kids kick boxing it's £90 pcm.

They get 3 or 4 sessions a week for that. So it good value.

However since it's a contact sport, the gloves (2 pairs each for different type of competitions) head guards, shin pads, foot coverings have cost about £150 per child.

Their grading is £30 a time about every three months-ish then competition fees.

The classes themselves arent that expensive.

Dd also has guitar lessons at £11 per lesson.

Music lessons are indeed the killer.
DS:
£1000 a year lessons (he's doing music A-level so this is pretty much non-negotiable)
£250 youth orchestra membership
£250 blooming instrument insurance
£50 to £90 ish for exam fees
and (ouch) just about to cough up an extra £80 to £120 for someone to accompany his next exam, as apparently the piano part is a stinker!

I've just added it up. Bugger.

None of it is through school. £12 for extra maths (his choice, my idea of hell but his treat), £20 per week for piano, allowing for all the different holidays, etc, at least £1k.

Bugger.

Actually just realised I omitted a whole instrument from my calculation.
That'll be more like £2300 a year, then.

^bugger is indeed the word, Butter!

DD does Irish dancing, started off as a cheap hobby but as she has got good and is competing at a high level, it's eye wateringly expensive.

Lessons £40 per month - that is the cheap bit

Soft shoes - £38 - goes through a couple of pairs a year

Heavy shoes - £65 - think she is on her third pair this year

Wig - £70

Dress - ££££ - some of the big name designers are £1000+ - she has to make do with a second hand one but it is still a few hundred quid

Competition entry fees - £45 a time

Travel, accommodation etc

DS driving lessons and buying and insuring a car will probably be cheaper

Let's see, for DD who is 7..

Ballet £85/term x 3 = £255/yr
Art £240/term x 3 = £720/yr
French £80/term x 3 = £240/yr
Swimming £120/term x 3 = £360/yr
Gymnastics £65/term x 3 = £195/yr
Piano £240/term x 3 = £720/yr
Horse riding £260/term x 3 = £780/yr
Private tutoring £520/term x 3 = £1,560/yr
Brownies - no idea, not very much maybe £60/yr
So, not including any equipment, clothing etc... that's £4,890 per year

Luckily the other 4 are grown up!

Just under £1200 per year for two sports and two musical instruments, these are heavily subsidised rates.