Can someone who has a child at an independant school come and talk finances with me please?

[CanWeCantWe]

Have namechanged for this for obvious reasons!!

My dh and I would like to send our eldest to an independant school, but I am unsure if we can afford it or not.

Dh earns roughly £100k which includes an annual bonus and shares (although the yearly shares are locked in for 5 year periods).

Our mortgage is currently £1300. Other montly outcomings probably average out at another £500. We have £25k in savings. (have being using dh's bonus to reduce the mortgage).

The fees for the school we are thinking of are currently approximately £10k per annum but on top of that would be compulsory lunch at £2.30 per day, bus fares and then the uniform and gym kit etc etc.

So is it doable do you think from the above figures.

Thank you.

CWCW - there is another thread on here abou the fee rises this year, may be worth dipping into as school fees generally rise more than headline inflation rates. Do you generally save more than 15k pa, say 20k to be safe for future rises? If not you will need to think about what other things to cut.

The question is do you have £1000 spare at the end of each month?
If not, and you can't work out what you need to cut back on in order to get the spare £1000, then you may be heading for trouble.
BTW £500 for monthly expenses sounds very low are you sure you are including all the things you shell out on during the year? (house insurance, car insurance, council tax, etc etc etc)

School fees always increase annually (this year is no exception) and there are always additional expenses that you have to pay. That's why you are better off assuming £12k per year even tho' you say the fees are £10k

How many other children do you have ?
Will they expect the same treatment, is the child likely to want to go to University and have that funded by you too ?

I wouldn't entertain the idea myself unless I had 2 years fees in savings which you have and a plan B if the child hates the school and an understanding with the child that you are not a bottomless pit of money so if they go to this school they may not be able to keep up with the Blythe-Smiths and you will not be buying a smallholding by the name of Cornwall any time soon.

i think that you need to be really realistic. we are about to send dd2 to independent school as the provision for her dyslexia is totally dire where she is now. We probably have a little less in assets than you. However we know that this is the only one of our 3 that needs this, and we have the option of moving into a good state upper school in year 9. we can afford it only just but mainly by not doing holidays etc for the next couple of years. if i thought that it would be for the next 7, i couldn't embark on it!

Extras bother me the most, including the fact that the Duke of Edinbrugh trip is to NEW ZEALAND ffs, when DD1 will go the lake district! seems a little against the spirit of the DOE scheme if you ask me.

I think it probably depends on how much of the £100k is salary and how much is bonus and shares? On £100k salary, with the mortgage and outgoings you describe I'd say it's easily affordable.

Message withdrawn

I am leaning toward sticking with the state school and putting the £21k a year I save towards tutors, trips to NZ, buying their driving lessons, piano lessons anything else that may help them get through life, for me school is a tiny tiny (but important) part of life.