<p>Even club sports in “cheap” sports like volleyball cost easily $5K a year (national teams, not including travel). D was very lucky to have a locally subsidized club option when she played, $500/year. But the girls in the teams they played against were paying $2500 (regional level). When that club went away, she stopped playing, just not possible for us to pay what all the other clubs were charging. Since her HS team is composed almost entirely of girls who play year round on such clubs, she finally chose to drop the HS team as well. Not a big deal, she has another sport (that also has super expensive club option but it’s new enough in our area that she can play on the HS team without the year round commitment). </p>
<p>Of course these are choices - we made them and unmade them as our budget permitted - just wanted to say the amount is not atypical for club sports around here.</p>
<p>As a family that makes NO WHERE near $250,000 year, I have to say that I cannot understand nor feel bad for families who spend $5000 or $50,000 for EC’s and then whine about no fin aid. If you saved that $5000 over just the high school years you would have a nice $20,000 sitting in the bank for college. </p>
<p>No one pushes the button on travel sports, etc. except you, the parents. If you choose to and can afford to, wonderful. But no whining about being short on cash for college. I suppose if you are lucky (and I think a lot of parents/kids think this will happen) those $$$$ devoted to EC’s will result in scholarships for sports/music/etc at D1 schools or private school music departments or whatever. </p>
<p>Here was my thought. Spending money on my kids’ music ECs prepared me for paying college costs…plus once they were at college, the money for the HS EC part was simply deferred to college costs. </p>
<p>We paid $9000 one year for one of our kids, and that didn’t include a new instrument. </p>
<p>We spent some real bucks on Boy Scouts–even though it didn’t cost anything to be in the troop. There was lots of gear, uniforms, and ultimately, some really cool travel. Rec sports (baseball and soccer) weren’t very expensive.</p>
<p>Dance is EASILY $5K a year in my house. And thank God my daughter quit pointe. As oldfort mentioned, those shoes are expensive and not made to last.</p>
<p>Fortunately, she recognizes the sacrifices we have made for her to dance at the level she is. Her college options (all of which are decent “fits”) are cheap, cheaper, and cheapest, with a state flagship being the most expensive.</p>
<p>And I would also echo zoosermom’s statement. It has been worth every last penny to get to see her perform–and hopefully we will continue to do so in college.</p>
<p>The problem in trying to go off season is kids are usually in school. We did that a few times around Thanksgiving time going to Europe. We got some good deals, but we couldn’t be gone for too long.</p>
<p>Yeah, when we’ve gone to Europe it’s usually on school vacation times. We also usually stay at least 10 days. Usually have had to get two hotel rooms. It adds up fast. We’ve never managed to keep it at 8K.</p>
<p>Off season doesn’t work for us either. We spend considerably more than $8K for a week (although we usually do 10 days-two weeks ). Nice hotels are our biggest expense. Where do you stay?</p>
<p>It’s been a few years but I have done VRBO and inexpensive hotels. We stayed at a villa outside Florence that was probably $150/night (in March, over spring break). If you stay at places where you can prepare at least some of your own meals you can save a fortune (I do that when I travel in the U.S., too). Two weeks is also a luxury–10 or 11 days is the max we have done (usually a week sandwiched in between two weekends). No offense but some of you are sounding an awful lot like the $400K “poor” people. :)</p>
<p>In any event, my original point was that $25K is a lot to budget for travel in a year, and it’s possible to take several good vacations with a lot less. </p>
<p>Last time I was in Europe was 10 years ago and a group of friends rented a house in the Netherlands. I think I paid about $100 a night for my room in the house. Airfare was around $700. It was spring, mid-April. Obviously some people will spend $500/nt for a hotel and others will spend $100. Some will eat at sandwich shops, some will do expensive meals out. If you can afford to do it a certain way and that’s your preference, no judgement (unless you want to complain about paying for college…).</p>
<p>When I first went, I was 17, and a friend and I split a (private!) hotel room in Paris for $5 each,paid around $15/nt for a spotless hostel in Brussels. I’m sure even hostels are a lot more than that now.</p>
<p>I used to be able to get flights to Europe for 400-600, but now with all of those taxes, security add on, fuel surcharges, flights are over 1000. I checked my flight tonight to London, actual flight cost is 450, but other add ons are 500+. I used to travel to Europe when Euro was 1.2 euro/dollar, instead of the other way around.</p>
<p>There is almost no place in the world that has hotels that doesn’t also have apartments or houses for rent. There’s also a lot to be said for staying in more residential areas and walking or taking the train to the (more expensive) city center–sometimes you get a much better and more authentic experience than when you stay at some swanky tourist hotel. Shopping at local markets and bakeries is fun, too.</p>
<p>^ esp if a family has to get two rooms, a house or apartment almost always makes more sense for me. AirBnB has some wicked cool places in Europe, as does Flipkey, etc.</p>
<p>Actually, we are heading to AUS and NZ soon, and we are staying in for the most part at caravan parks (campgrounds that take trailers and tents). A number of them have fully-furnished heated en suite cabins for under $100/night.</p>
<p>When we went to Masada two years ago, we stayed at the hostel at the base of the mountain. Had a nice, spotless double and an excellent kosher dinner & breakfast included. A number of hostels have upgraded in recent years for folks who want inexpensive accommodations but don’t want to sleep in a large common room.</p>
<p>When we travel, we tend to make lunch our main meal and pick up local foods along the way for snacks & picnicking. Travel is our big splurge, but we like to do it as reasonably as possible so we can go more often.</p>
<p>We got lucky on the ECs. The guys didn’t do stuff that cost a lot. Karate was $80/mo plus a couple local tournaments a year. Football gear was a couple hundred per season. S1 just used the computer we already had.</p>
<p>One of my nephews played travel baseball for many years. Paid off with athletic scholarships, but that is definitely the exception.</p>
<p>Our car insurance is about $1300/year with S2 on the policy. Property taxes are just over $4k. No fancy cars. Once S2 graduates, it will feel like we’ve gotten a giant pay raise. </p>