AIBU to ask how much you spend on activities?

[swlondonmumof2]

Going through our finances, and have worked out that we spend about £550 just on DD's extra curricular activities, including travel there as it involves trains/driving so petrol to some of them. she is a super active child and loves everything she does but it seems excessive. We've already stopped piano, which was £90 a month... She's nearly 8. I'm basically spending more than half my salary just on her activities.

She has a younger brother who doesn't do anything like the kind of stuff she does (too young) he does football which is about £50 a month. we don't have lots of money really, but DH is adamant that she is passionate about all the stuff she does and it's the best use of our money... Part of me thinks when we were kids there was no way we'd have had this much... But on the other hand, if we can give her these opportunities why not? Interested in opinions...

Gosh it all adds up. My sons trumpet lesson & theroy is £30 per week, 3 children piano is £15 each per week, gymnastics is about £60 per half term 2 girls do this, it was 3. Son is a chorister so this probably costs us £50 per month in diesel. Rainbows is £20 per term and £30 for brownies. Plus on top of that swimming lessons are £60 per half term for 2 children. Hopefully my husband never adds it up. Thankfully my husbands earns a very very good salary.

Policom, Piano lessons are generally £15-20 per 1/2 lesson. The only way you can pay less is generally group lessons through school, or some teachers may offers s 20 minute lesson.

DS (10)
2 x karate (£12 p/w), swimming (£5), Cubs (£3), Dodgeball (£5), football (free) - so £25 per week, plus karate gradings/Cub camps etc.

DD (6)
2 x karate (£12), swimming (£5), Beavers (£3) - £20 per week plus gradings, camps as abide.

£36 per week for that DS1 does football training twice a week and a match at the weekends, Karate twice a week and lifeguard training once a week DS2 does football training twice a week, Karate twice a week and swimming once a week. So quite good value compared to some of these, gradings and equipment etc are on top.

£90 per year rugby (includes kit)
£50 per year rugby boots, gumshields etc
£10 per month / £120 per year Scouts
£30 per month / £360 per year karate
£60 per year karate gradings etc

About £700+ per year

If he does parkour as well that goes up to about £900 a year

Interesting to see the differences for the same clubs - I assumed brownies etc were the same everywhere but it seems not. Never totted it up until now so lets see.
DD1 age 8. (monthly costs)
Swimming £20
Brownies £8
Dance classes £40 (+ £50 for exams every 3 months)
Cornet lesson - free with school
Choir - Free with school
Total £68 + exams monthly

DS1 (age 7)
Swimming lesson £20
Beavers £14
Drum lessons £22
Dance lessons £40 + £50 every 3 month for exams
Choir - free
Total £94 + exams monthly.

From experience (grown up dd from 1st marriage) the lessons and clubs mostly stop when they start high school and discover the other sex and friends.

My eldest daughter does RAF cadets, £5 a month - total bargain with all the stuff they do. She bought herself a violin second hand for £30 with some Christmas money and gets lesson a week for £8. Youngest does dog agility, £24 a month. We all ride and have our own ponies as we live on a smallholding, and spend £50 a week on lessons, which is a lot but improves our riding no end. Minding our small herd (farrier bills, vaccinations and dentists bills for five ponies plus hay and bedding) comes in around £2000 a year. Luckily they are not very competitive and we only go to the odd show. It's a lot but I do it as well and have one pony and we don't take holidays to afford them, as they are very much a lifestyle! Activities are expensive but when my kids were casting around trying to find out what they liked and where passionate about, I did spend a fortune while they tried new things. I think if you can afford it then it is worth it as you never know what path these activities will put them on! But I think once they have tried everything, it is time to make a choice because to be really good at something you have to commit a lot of your time to it.

I've just totalled up our costs and for my 2 (not including travel/uniform/extras like scout camp) we spend about £800 a YEAR!
That's on football, basketball and scouts for ds1 and rugby, swimming and beavers for ds2.

I limit my children to 2 paid clubs each. So that's about £10-£15 every month per child.

I swore id never be that mum, im not super flush but i spend much more than i should on my 2 daughters horses, plus private lessons as their both at different levels but this is something we do on a daily basis with lessons once a week rather than 1 weekly horse session etc so guess the cost evens out.

But they both love it and i find the money, if she enjoys them and has potentional then do it, if shes just doing it for the sake of doing them then dont, and find one thing she really loves

My eldest daughter is showing, hacking, eventing etc and my 3 year old pootles about on her fat miniature shetland, their dealing with livestock on the stables and valuable life experiences and any amount of money would make that worth while.

Id talk to her, maybe see what she truly loves abd stick with that

I don't think it's ridiculous but then that's because I hope in future my kids will share my passion for horses which can easily cost in excess of £500 a month!!

As an adult I've spent most of my salary on my hobby, after villa and necessities. Since stopping I buy clothes etc instead which is neither necessary or gratifying.

Unless it's causing you financial difficulty or you have some better to spend the money on I don't see a problem. As long as she is grateful, committed and enjoying the activists.

Bills not villa!! 😂

Although it sounds a lot if you can afford it and she enjoys it then I'd keep doing it. She will most likely start dropping activities in a few years anyway to just focus on one or two.
My DS is still a toddler but does dance, music and forest school at nursery and gymnastics, tumble tots and singing/music outside of nursery. He absolutely loves them all and I wouldn't know what to drop if I needed to. Each is only one hour a week so less than one hour a day and he still has plenty of undirected play time.

Boys (6+10) both do swimming £4.75 and music £6. Older one wants to start Triathlon which is another £6. So currently £45/m rising to £70/m if we go for the extra club, and he will probably need equipment. The Triathlon events are £15-20 to enter, he did a couple last year but that will add up if he joins a club and competes more.
DD does 4 activities during the day which in total cost £11.50, so again about £45/m.
I think £135 is quite a lot to spend on 3 children's activities, £500+ on one is insane.
We're quite lucky that their school does lots of free clubs for an hour after school which gives them the opportunity to try out different things.

At the moment only Dd (3) is old enough to do activities

She does ballet

Costs us on average £25 per term which is quite reasonable once the uniform is all paid for

The uniform itself is £70! But once it's bought it's bought until the next size up

I want to get her into swimming but we can't afford it

mine are only in year 1 and 2. my son i spend £44 a half term on football and £5 a week for swimming club and my daughter i spend £5 a week on clay club as its the only one at her school she can currently do. £550 if half your wage does seem quite excessive if half your wage and spend no where near as much on your other child however if she enjoys doing all of them how can you begin to cut some off?

Gymnastics £98 per month, but she does 20hours per week so it works out ok

My dd 10yo currently doing football, drama and horse riding which is roughly £90 a month, the riding is by far the most expensive but the one she loves the most!!

op what you're spending seems crazy to me but I guess London prices are crazy!

Holy shit, I had no idea activities cost that much :o I can't afford anything near that, doubt I can even when my little one is at school!

I think it's great she's so passionate about her activities and it will benefit her in life

What I mean by that is the activities in particular the drama and singing build confidence.

I can't believe how much activities cost!!

My 3 have:
DS10 swimming £17 pm and English tutor £27 Pw
DD8 swimming £17 pm, Dance £5 pw, Brownies £30 a term and keyboard £7.50 a week (at school only 15 minutes!!!)
DD6 swimming £17 pm, Dance 4.50 pw, Rainbows £30 a term. Will also likely have an instrument is September also!

The only night we have spare during the week is Fridays

Before secondary school, my children done a lot of activities.
Sport: Swimming/ tennis/ horse raiding ...
Music: piano/ violin/ guitar/ flute/ saxophone/ trumpet ...
Drama School, Cadets...
Some is cheap, some is very expensive.
Now, when they are in secondary schools they balanced school activities/ homework and extra activities. They are enjoing what they are doing and good at school. All extra activities tought them to concentrate better at school.

Ds (7): £16 pm for street dancing, £8 pm for Beavers, then his main hobby is motorbike trials riding but that's a shared hobby with dh so we don't care what that costs but I reckon it's at least £300 pm not including the cost of the bike/ kit: repairs.

We are £25 per week for 4 dance lessons per week (3 normal lessons plus 1 private lesson) Violin is £5 (during school hours) and swimming £4 at the weekend.