<p>I wonder how many kids know how much an electric bill or water bill runs a month. Those can vary widely in different regions of the country as well.</p>
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<p>I found myself wondering that the other day. When we moved into this house 17 years ago, our income was 1/3 of what it is today. We had to borrow $15k from my parents to pay off the mortgage on the condo we were selling, because we had bought it near the top of the market, and so when we sold it we owed more than it was worth. We somehow managed to make the mortgage payments on this house, car loan payments, and still pay my parents back in under 3 years. </p>
<p>How did we do that? I don’t know, except that we didn’t have a cable bill (rabbit ears) or internet bill (didn’t exist) or cell phone bill (didn’t exist). That’s $300/month right there.</p>
<p>Lafalum- D was also on competitive dance team. I refuse to say how much it cost, H doesn’t even know. Have a basement walk in closet full of costumes!</p>
<p>We have neighbor girls who were baton twirlers. Those costumes were a fortune.</p>
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<p>I refuse to add up competitive dance, competitive cheer, school dance, school cheer…and I’m pretending that all those years of piano lessons just didn’t happen.</p>
<p>My older D is in a dance company; she’s only 11, so there’s many years to go with that. My younger D is expressing an interest too, but I keep telling her what a good soccer player she is, and why doesn’t she stick with that? ;)</p>
<p>"I’ll start: We moved nine times in thirteen years. It was good for the person whose job was being reloacted, but tough for the second earner. "</p>
<p>-I am so much related to this with opposite extreme. Lost jobs 8 times in the worst economically depressed region of the country. Could not relocate because of my H’s job. Had hard times, but found jobs and am employed at the best place that I have ever had. However, we do not have any problem with D.'s understanding, and she is the only dependent now. She went to UG that offered her awesome Merit $$, covering all tuition and lots of R&B, while she could have gone to $55k/year place. We are planning to pay for her Med. School in appreciation of her very hard work and understanding.</p>
<p>missypie–at our house it was voice lessons for 2 of the kids. One at a time was ok, but when they were both taking at the same time for a while, it hurt the cash flow!</p>
<p>Yep, did the voice lessons, too. Just getting ready to start new ones for the youngest at HS. </p>
<p>If only you could have a crystal ball and see what your child would be good at in the future and concentrate on that…or is the money for basketball, volleyball, soccer, softball still well spent in some way?</p>
<p>We did low-budget dance lessons. Avoided the expensive costume/spring recital gala! They had a show, and it was cute, but not over the top budget-wise.</p>
<p>And when they were real little, we didn’t spend much on extracurriculars. If they showed real talent at something, then we splurged on first-class training, but in general, we weren’t convinced the little darlings were Baby Mozart or Baby Agassi.</p>
<p>Wait, this thread is about what we <em>spent</em> money on, not how we saved. Tho I guess the two are related! Unless you can afford a boat AND a summer place AND a vacation in Lichtenstein.</p>
<p>My name gives it away: Daycare! </p>
<p>I just priced one out and it’s $16,300 for the year! There are cheaper ones…but do I really want an 8 week infant with the cheapest place in town?</p>
<p>I forgot another biggie…paying for all the additional classes and EC’s my kids were in during the highschool years. That alone could have paid for a year of private college, if not more.</p>
<p>I am laughing at the water and electric bill post. When all of our kids are home those bills go through the roof. They set the air down to 68 at night and they each take two to three showers a day…and I have not even mentioned the additional laundry.</p>