family of 5 living in SE on £30K can we afford £6K per year for ds1's school or am I bonkers?

[thenewgirl]

I have done the sums and I think we could survive month to month.

but

we are currently on 51K per year.

for ds1 to go to this school we have to move house (and to another county) housing costs would be the same but we would have less money due to change in job and have the school fees to pay.

it would not be forever as I am currently a sahm and will have earning power one day. also dh's new job would earn him more in years to come.

does this sound do-able?

I'm well up for it!

please tell me if I'm looking through rose tinted specks?

Agree with WW - if you can live on those amounts good luck but £100 for 'kids extra' - is that a month? No chance.

Mind you, people do live on that kind of budget, and much less, so it's doable if it's worth it to you.

I couldn't though - it's very, very tight.

hatrick, yes we do want it.
and yes we are willing.
I was kind of hoping for some positive encouragement from others who are perhaps going without in order to provide for their family what they beleive to be for the best.

the only difference to the future budget is pocket money.

we just throw the extra on our mortgage as we see it as savings.

bbit at all the piss takes though.

And the bills just seem waaaay too low. Every one of those outgoings seems too low to me.

holy shit

"Anthroposophy teaches that Negroes [sic] are at a baby stage of development, Asians are at an adolescent stage, and only whites are adults; it also teaches that while an individual's potential may be limited by his race, an individual's soul will reincarnate many times throughout the races. Steiner lectured in Germany, 1922: "If the blonds and blue-eyed people die out, the human race will become increasingly dense if men do not arrive at a form of intelligence that is independent of blondness." Steiner may have meant to challenge his listeners out of their own type of racism and into his own, but it is unlikely that many understood what he was talking about.

Waldorf proponents like to say that such ideas of Steiner are not taught in Waldorf schools, that it is only his teaching methods and ideas about child development that are employed in Waldorf education. But in 1995, the mother of a student in a Dutch Waldorf school was outraged to find in her daughter's notebook various racial stereotypes ("Negroes have a sense of rhythm" and "Asian smiles hide emotions") dictated to her by her Waldorf teacher. To the mother's surprise, "racial ethnography" was being taught as a subject to eighth graders. The Waldorf Schools Association responded that ethnography was being taught "with the intention to teach interest and warmth for the diversity of nations."[2]

"

from link below

you can't live on 24K net in the SE by the way .. not unless you can buy a house outright that is

twiglet why don't you go back and read my posts, I do know plenty of adults who have had a steiner education, and I know a few teachers too. I don't need to read any mn threads on the subject, I have never understood why people are so bothered by it if they don't have to send their kids there, I happen to think they are a perfect place to spend your school years, as does dh who did spend his school years in one!

twiglet please take your steiner bashing to another thread, it isn't relevant to my question.

Message withdrawn

I think it is rash to spend that much on education as a proportion of a very modest income, sorry.

well it's a moot point anyway because it really doesn't seem as though you can afford it

Agree with 'nuts' - just can't see how it can be done as it stands.

However, not sure if this has been mentioned yet - can't you up your income somehow? I know you want to spend time with yours dcs but could you get an evening job you start after your dh gets home? The obvious is a pub job but if you're in the London area, there are quite a few evening options, particularly with law firms and investment banks in the areas of research, presentations, etc as they work around the clock and hourly rates are pretty good - £20-35 per hour plus a taxi home. Working 5 hours a night, say 7-midnight, at £25 per hour would be £13,000 a year!

Not sure if this is relevant as I don't know what you did before dcs but making sacrifices in other ways might make it easier to achieve. I've had to do it and it's a killer but beats paying £1,000 a month full time nursery fees and never seeing my dcs.

Unsure about the comments re Steiner schools but would be wary that it is 'only' £6k you will need to contribute. How often can they change that. I heard about one of the London Steiner schools asking for extra contributions because their roof needed doing.

sally dont it is bloody ancient and taken totally out of context. go and see for yourself, don't take anyone else's word for it.

Twiglett

Thank you for that, I have always steered clear of Steiner threads on the basis that it was of no interest to me, ergo never read them.

I feel physically sick at your last post.

you should do the budget on martin lewis moneysavingsexpert site .. that will let you know if you can afford it .. it is worth it

steiner bashing? PMSL

try the budget planner here , its quite comprehensive.