How much do you spend on clubs?

[Stewberman]

We are a family that is big on hobbies. Four kids, all play instruments and do sport. I also have a PT at the gym which is expensive but the only way I can motivate myself to do exercise.

I totted everything up the other day and realised I spend £640 a month on hobbies. Is this just ridiculous or what I should expect when I have four DC and a personal trainer?

PS. Yes I know I’m lucky to have the money to do this but the pay off is that we never go on holiday.

DH goes to the gym on an off-peak membership. £17 a month. I go swimming again off peak. £39.

DCs are at private school so clubs are mostly free.

Or, it could be said DCs are at private school so it's absorbed within the £4 k a month we pay.

£5? a week. That’s just for me.

I go to a sewing group and pay £2 subs and attend a coffee morning another day. DH doesn’t belong to anything and isn’t very social.

Teen DS is autistic and has taught himself to play various instruments but he wouldn’t attend a formal music lesson even though we’ve offered. He spends easily a couple of hours a day on his music, playing and composing and longer at weekends.

He has dyspraxia and doesn’t do PE at school anymore. (Goes to the Learning Support room and does his homework instead.) So no sports clubs. We did pay for him to have about 8 1:1 x 45 min swimming lessons when he was about 11 and he’s a decent enough swimmer now.

Me -

Gym £195 monthly (for coached sessions)
Cycling club £6 monthly

Also subscribe to Apps like Zwift & Strava

Open water swimming £50 monthly but just in summer

DH -

Open water swimming £50 monthly all year round

DC age 7 -

Gymnastics £36 monthly
Swimming £64 monthly
Speech & drama £50 monthly
Ad hoc extra gym classes £12 per hour
Horse riding - £90 monthly

We also spend money on buying and maintaining sports equipment like bikes, kayaks, paddleboards .

We also spend money entering running & cycling events.

For us sport and activities are our thing and invaluable to our physical & mental wellbeing. Most of our friends we know through sport.

We're fortunate to afford it but it's a priority. For context we don't have things lots of other people have like NetFlix. I drive a 15 year old car, 90% of my clothes are second hand etc.

I have 2 children and spend around £200ish per month. That covers
2 x swimming
2 x beavers/cubs/scouts
2 x rocksteady
1 x football
1 x drama club

I no longer have music and swimming lessons - whoopee!

Choir is £25 per term.
Dance ranges between £180 to £480 per month depending on what's happening.
Gym is £34.

1 child.

Not the club itself but I easily spend 6-800 a month on my child's hobby. Lots of travel and kit involved!

Music is killer

DC1 plays four instruments and has private lessons for each. It's £100 a week just for music. Swimming (£20 p/w) / Language classes / chess tutoring all on top.

So DC1 probably £600 a month.

DC2 has golf lessons. Plus plays cricket in summer and football in winter.

We don't send our DC to private school and fund their extra curricular activities (and our super curricular trips) with the money we save.

If you allow £100 for gym membership and pt, then that’s £540 for kids. Ie approx £135 per kid, or for two activities each, £65 per activity. Maybe on the higher side of fees, but not so bad, although £640 is still a lot!

We must have been spending close when dc were teens. They both did piano, one did singing, one orchestral instrument each, orchestra fees, one dc football plus petrol for games, exam fees for music, accompanists, his sports and me, nothing

About £275 a month for DD and me. DH is hardly anything

It’s a bit low now because I am training for a multi day hike next summer so I am mostly walking up hills which is free.

We have horses too as others have mentioned.

Coaching, feed, farrier, shows/competing etc (not including the higher mortgage due to land etc so no livery cost) - £700 ish a month, a low estimate, for the other half

My hobbies circa £150 a month.

Daughter circa £100 a month (she’s only 4)

Me gym & swimming pool - £12.50 month

DS 14 months - about £40-50 month, swimming, toddler music class, toddler sport

Not much. DS plays rugby, about £100 per year for membership plus boots etc, and boxes for £5 per session. Other sports are free after school things. Most of our hobbies are outdoor activities so bikes, kayaks, fishing, that kind of stuff.

Teen 1 does dance and drama. Teen 2 does a sport and an instrument. About £250pcm excluding any kit but I'm glad they're teens with hobbies (and that we can afford for them to do these).

Child 1’football £35, sports class,£25 and athletics, £15
Child 2: Football £25, swimming £30, BBs £1.50 pw

so around £140

Hard to say because I pay in blocks and they vary….

something like £200-250 a month I think. 😮‍💨

covers swimming lessons once a week, cubs, tennis x1 a week, hockey x1 a week and another sport (bit unusual, won’t say as I think outing in context!).

that doesn’t include after school club or cub trips etc.

Tennis, swimming, Scouts are all fairly low cost, around £100 a month probably. 2 Kids doing Stagecoach plus the extra shows and opportunities is £2k a year but they love it so we keep paying it.

Nothing for me and dh. I can't even drag myself out of bed for Parkrun.

£640/month gives me palpitations OP! But whether thats ridiculous depends on whether its worth it for your family - only you know that.

We spend £120/month for me and DC8&4. We do a lot of sport and this also covers most of our school holiday activities and a good few bday/xmas presents. I keep costs down by finding and making use of what is good value locally, doing a lot of coaching myself and using any memberships I've paid for a lot.

DC8
Swimming £30/month (includes weekly lesson and unlimited swimming)
BMX youth club £7/session
Watersport youth club £70/year
Running club £25/year (includes races)
Cricket £2/session
Weekly school club £free
Parkrun £free

DC4
Parkrun £free
Swimming £free
Weekly school club £free

FAMILY
Tennis membership £50/year
Kit costs (bikes, balls, rackets, paddleboard etc) £250/year

ME
Swim membership £40/month
Running club £90/year (includes races)