How do you afford tuition!?

amother

Red

Wed, Jul 01 2015, 12:36 pm

Have only one baby so far and petrified to have more due to costs of tuition. I feel terrible and crazy for feeling this way but how can I go on to have a kid every 2 years knowing dh and I bring in x amount while tuition costs are not normally expensive? We would not qualify for any assistance yet we are currently still renting and saving up to buy a house. Houses where I live are not normally expensive. Can't move oot (I wish we could!) cause our jobs are here.
How do you do it???

mha3484

Wed, Jul 01 2015, 12:49 pm

We watch our spending. No vacations, new clothes are rare, only one car, DH works from home and watches the baby so we don't have to pay day care and we will probably never own a house unless we win the lottery or someone dies and leaves us a lot of money (unlikely). I get personal needs often for my birthday like coat, shoes, new clothes from a relative.

justforfun87

Thu, Jul 02 2015, 6:33 am

I am going to be burned for saying this but whatever. I went to school, I have my career, I work full time, and I have my income which is not going to be projected to be going up much more than it is now. The rest will just need to be made up by financial aid.

amother

Aubergine

Thu, Jul 02 2015, 8:32 am

amother wrote:

ummm, I dont . dh and I are both in low paid professions. Professional ones I may add. WE spent 7 years in college between the two of us.
Between us we bring in about 80,000. If I worked full time it would be about 90,000 but it would not be worth it to do so because childcare costs would be a lot more for my baby and we would no longer be eligible for free healthcare for the kids. BH we have an average to large family. I dont believe in limiting family size just becasue we chose low paying professions. We do our best and scholarships do the rest. Its just the way it is.
And I am going anon bec of all the people who are now going to tell me how irresponsible we are for having more kids tahn we can pay full tuition for. ie two kids. btw, I am not interested in that discussion and I will not bother responding to any such accusations or any comments on it at all. I just wnated to put it out there for the OP that you just do your best and Hashem does not want us to stop at two kids unless we are earning more Smile

OOTforlife

Thu, Jul 02 2015, 8:49 am

As someone who anticipates paying full tuition and making significant additional school donations, I have no objection to subsidizing the tuition of families who simply can't earn enough to cover their kids. I know that my higher earnings are not only due to my decisions and hard work, but also to starting out with advantages: highly educated parents, natural aptitude, physical and mental health, and so on. Not to mention that I benefited considerably from need-based aid myself in school. And a little in graduate school too. I have no desire to see people limiting family size solely due to tuition and I dislike the attitude of "If you can't afford them, don't have them."

But I do expect everyone to do their best to pay as much tuition as they can. The only way to cover everyone's kids (if feasible at all, which I have doubts about), is for everyone (with a limited klei kodesh minority excepted) to maximize earnings.

amother

Babypink

Thu, Jul 02 2015, 10:05 am

We bought our house while our kids were only in preschool. It's a modest house and it meant we needed financial aid for three years, but our incomes have caught up, and we now pay full tuition plus donations to the school and we have the security that comes with owning a house. Mortgage plus taxes plus insurance at this point is now less than what our rent would be if we were still renting. We can focus on saving for things other than a house. If we had waited till our incomes reached the level were at now, we would not have been able to buy a house because housing has gone up by much more. But we would be paying exactly what we're paying now for a smaller space and no yard, and the money would be going to a landlord rather than to (mostly) our own equity. We would be playing a never ending game of catch up and probably would eventually end up on scholarship anyway. I am not at all ashamed about having relied on aid for a few years. We have more than paid back what we received, and the school is better off for us owning our home and thus being predictable full tuition payers. I really don't mind younger families getting a break until they're more solid. Most people in this community are in that direction. I don't think people should have to limit family size or postpone childbearing because of tuition. This is not healthy for a frum community.

amother

Saddlebrown

Thu, Jul 02 2015, 10:53 am

We bought a very small house when newlyweds. I had savings from before we were married when I was working.
We are still living there 10 years later. Our mortgage, even with sky high taxes is cheaper then low rent. That helps a lot. On the other hand we will have to move soon as I have way too many kids in one room or build an addition. That will cost. And my home did not go up in value (it fell and is probably now close to what I paid for it).

Dh and I both work full time. We are very careful with our spending. Tuition were we live is not very expensive.
And we daven. Its all with Hashems help in the end.