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How do you afford day camp
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Optione




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jul 20 2016, 9:56 pm
The money that I make working in the summer gets put away to pay for camp the following summer.
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gold21




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jul 20 2016, 10:30 pm
amother wrote:
Gold21 I have mostly boys.


Even more impressive then

Boys tend to have a lot of energy to burn lol
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saw50st8




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jul 21 2016, 8:29 am
gold21 wrote:
I think Camp Mommy only works well when the youngest child in the family is no longer a baby. Imagine a family with a 4 month old, a 2 year old, a 6 year old, and 8 year old twins (random ages, this is not my family dynamic).... I just dont see Camp Mommy working out.


It may not be easy, but it's doable. If you can't afford it, then it's a luxury.

The families I know who do it successfully all fall into that range. It also might be cheaper to put your youngest in daycare and have the older kids home with you to do things.

Sometimes, you pick what you can afford rather than what you would like to afford.
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zigi




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jul 21 2016, 8:34 am
with the fictional ages, its more like uncamp mommy, at least for me. I have things for the kids to do, craft supplies etc, lower key, park, library grocery shopping, 2 bigger trips a week. the toddler and baby can sleep in the stroller,
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amother
Tan


 

Post Thu, Jul 21 2016, 9:45 am
To the amother who has many boys, in my experience --with my young kids, my daughters need more constant entertaining"" in my mommy camp than
My boys bec. My boys can spend more time entertaining themselves!!
. also my children are similar ages to wat someone wrote would be "impossible" to have mommy camp!! But its very hard but I still have mommy camp and make sure to keep my kids busy --its hard but we don't want go into debt to pay for camp--the money that would've gone to tuition is used for other expenses(like insurance, put away money for diapers/baby food..) during the summer to "free up" money for tuition during yr .
.
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amother
Crimson


 

Post Thu, Jul 21 2016, 9:58 am
amother wrote:
I work full-time year round. That's why I need camp and that's how I pay for it. Am I happy with the solution? Nope, I'd love to spend one summer at home at least with my kids. (Brooklyn) and do all these fun activities, parks, sprinklers, museums, etc.

I don't understand how people that are staying at home or in the bungalows still need to send their kids to camp.........


They don't need to. It's a luxury.

To answer OP, I send the older two to backyard camp for one half, at 85/wk and have all my lil ones home doing parks, swimming, sprinkler. Second half everyone is home and we do lots of activities.
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amother
Lime


 

Post Thu, Jul 21 2016, 10:42 am
I work from 9 to 3 and dh works full time. Camp is not a luxury at all. My kids and I would go crazy being home all day. I have 2 kids 5 and 3.
One is in a cheaper backyard camp and one is in a more expensive bigger camp.
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amother
Mauve


 

Post Thu, Jul 21 2016, 10:45 am
Not a luxury. I work 32 hours\week and DH works full time.

I'm still able to get away with cheaper backyard camp options even with my schedule through my second grader. But once they get to bigger camps it does become very expensive. I like the simplicity and attention of the backyard camps.

I'm also grateful that Lakewood has boys School Camp through July. My boys have a great structured program that they love for much cheaper than camp would cost me.
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amother
Plum


 

Post Thu, Jul 21 2016, 11:04 am
OP

If you live in Flatbush you should be getting a decent percent back from both the IRS and NYS because day camp qualifies for the Child and Dependent Care Credit. (Unless you spent over $6,000 on other child care for pre K children or you don't pay tax to begin with)
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gold21




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Aug 11 2016, 4:30 am
saw50st8 wrote:
It may not be easy, but it's doable. If you can't afford it, then it's a luxury.

The families I know who do it successfully all fall into that range. It also might be cheaper to put your youngest in daycare and have the older kids home with you to do things.

Sometimes, you pick what you can afford rather than what you would like to afford.


Yeah I know I'm responding late, didn't check back on this thread til now

I don't see camp as a luxury the way you do, Saw50st8. Really, many moms would find it extremely difficult to do Camp Mommy with a big range of ages including a baby. Ok let's define impossible. Could you live in a one room apartment? Technically it's possible. We all have to make those choices for ourselves. A woman who could not handle running a Camp Mommy is not spoiled, lazy, or entitled; she is human and that's ok. No judgement necessary. Life is not black and white.
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amother
Chocolate


 

Post Thu, Aug 11 2016, 5:05 am
Did camp mommy at least one half of most summers. Fun but exhausting ! But always did it with other mommies or an older teen to help me. Sometimes with younger kids in day care.
Never had all the kids in camp at once, that would be waaay too much money.
My favorite activity was taking kids to the nice cool library and reading for hours.
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amother
Oak


 

Post Thu, Aug 11 2016, 5:50 am
I live in Israel, most children don't go to day camps.
I send my kids for some weeks and some weeks they're home with me.
Here, I feel like there is judgement on those moms sending to day camps.
they finish school at 1:30. My kids are home all year.
How we afford it? I find a cheaper day camp and send them there. We also don't go on big trips as most Israelis do.
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PinkFridge




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Aug 11 2016, 7:51 am
FTR, if this will devolve into the Camp Wars, we already have a 100+ page thread on that.
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saw50st8




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Aug 11 2016, 8:04 am
gold21 wrote:
Yeah I know I'm responding late, didn't check back on this thread til now

I don't see camp as a luxury the way you do, Saw50st8. Really, many moms would find it extremely difficult to do Camp Mommy with a big range of ages including a baby. Ok let's define impossible. Could you live in a one room apartment? Technically it's possible. We all have to make those choices for ourselves. A woman who could not handle running a Camp Mommy is not spoiled, lazy, or entitled; she is human and that's ok. No judgement necessary. Life is not black and white.


Where did I say it was easy to do Camp Mommy?

Like I said above, "Sometimes, you pick what you can afford rather than what you would like to afford."

(As an aside, the ever growing list of things people "need" are a huge problem and camp is definitely part of that. We are creating a society where luxury is viewed as necessity and no one can tell the difference anymore)
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amother
Apricot


 

Post Thu, Aug 11 2016, 8:22 am
I'm not in that position any more since my kids are all grown, BTDT.
You have to sit and do a budget and budget it in .
For me it was cleaning help, I can't live with out it.
This is what I did.
I use to work 1/2 day the school, that gave me free tuition (at the time if I would pay full tuition it would be $40,000 for 4 kids). My entire salary went to this.
Since I wanted a cleaning lady, I signed up to be an afternoon sub, it paid $50 a day, some weeks it was everyday, The least I ever worked was 3 days a week. This gave me enough cash to afford a cleaning lady, and I picked up my kids when I finished, so my kids always had me.
For me it worked out and made sense.
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sourstix




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Aug 11 2016, 8:30 am
Nope sorry I can't afford it. Each time we try to put in the budget something else comes up and my kids are home. I do the best I can. It gets crazy at times but I do what I can.
And I am sure proud that I keep to the budget and don't overide dh credit cards. It feels real good. Hats off to me!
That's how it should be. To either help bring in more and keep what is being earned to stay in as much as possible. I'm not saying it does. But I find that if a woman can help a man stick to the income and not go overboard she has done so much.
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Amelia Bedelia




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Aug 11 2016, 9:07 am
Here in BP, most day camps are at most $850 for all 8 weeks. Personally, I'm paying $575 for DD2 preschool day camp, and about $750 for DD1 elementary age (different camps), for the entire summer. DS is a lot more. How much are the Lakewood camps?
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causemommysaid




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Aug 11 2016, 9:08 am
I don't really have a choice about affording it. My husband and I both work full time.

It cost the same as tuition.
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sky




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Aug 11 2016, 9:56 am
I'm in Lakewood, but my girls in backyard camp, and boys have school through July.

girl backyard camp: $75\week * 9 = $675
girl backyard camp: $88\week * 9 = $792

Boys "school camp" = $250 + regular tuition (includes busing, not lunch) +
Boys Big camp - 4 weeks = $625 (includes busing) = $875 per kid (plus July school tuition)

My girls come out less than tuition, but my boys are more. When my girls phase out of the backyard camp I'm sure my expenses will increase. But for me its not a luxury because both DH and I work full time.
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gold21




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Aug 11 2016, 10:34 am
saw50st8 wrote:
Where did I say it was easy to do Camp Mommy?

Like I said above, "Sometimes, you pick what you can afford rather than what you would like to afford."

(As an aside, the ever growing list of things people "need" are a huge problem and camp is definitely part of that. We are creating a society where luxury is viewed as necessity and no one can tell the difference anymore)


When I was growing up (in the 90s) camp was considered standard and a necessity; it is not a new-fangled luxury item.

Heres my take on luxury vs necessity: Sanity is a necessity, we all have to know ourselves and what our sane selves can handle. Everyone has a different threshhold and comparisons are unfair, and judgey comments are even more unfair.

These are luxuries in my view: You need a nice chandelier for your living room? Well, no you dont, not if you can barely afford it. Its a luxury item. A basic lightbulb would do the trick. And would not impinge on your sanity either, unless you suffer from lightbulb-itis. You need matching clothes for all your kids? Not really, not if you can barely afford it, unless you suffer from Mismatched Kids Syndrome.

On the other hand, camp- its not something that people do to keep up with the Joneses or impress their neighbors. They send to camp because they truly deem it necessary for their family, even when money is tight.

As an example, I am up a large part of the night with Baby and with household stuff that I cant get to during the day; the nap I take after the kids are out to camp in the AM is what keeps me functional. Im sure there are things in your life that you could not manage without, we all value our sanity (hopefully) and know what we can handle and what we cannot, and being told that we should be able to manage better wont change anything.
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