Camps are expensive!! How do you finance?

[Anonymous]

How do you come up with camp tuition, that are around $250-300 a week? My DD is a rising 1st grader and I work full-time. For the first time, she needs to attend some kind of camps (full-day) all summer...I'm just surprised to see how expensive all the camps are....Summer Break is 13 weeks, and the camp would cost us at least $3000! How do you manage that? Do you save little by little over the year, just for summer camps? Do you use credit card to pay?

[Anonymous]

Bumping this since I am curious to know the answer.

[Anonymous]

most of the camps I looked at are 450-500 a week--so 300-400 sounds like a bargain! i am planning on sending my son for teo weeks at headfirst (500 a week) and then the rest of the summer do a DPR camp...those are $50 a week...also DCPS summer is not that long--camp starts June 21 and school starts Aug 23

[Anonymous]

You should call and ask some of the camps you are interested in to see if they offer scholarships.

[Anonymous]

What is DPR camp?

[Anonymous]

DPR camp is Department of Parks & Rec in DC. Mixed quality. Hard to get into, fill up very fast.

I try to get grandparents to watch kids for 2 to 3 weeks, plan a 1 week vacation. That brings it down to 6 weeks of camp. Use lower cost camps, like Evergreen, YMCA. Don't sign up for after/before care, use it on a drop in basis, and try to pick up early a couple of days a week. Or hire a babysitter to pick up at 3 pm dismissal, cheaper than after care and gives me a day/ week without a hard deadline for pick up.

[Anonymous]

Last year I set a budget of $2000 for the entire summer and ended up charging several weeks of camp. This year I've been saving about $100-200 a paycheck in our summer camp fund. I'm aiming to cover about 7 weeks of the 10 weeks off with camp and then my husband and I will each take off some time too. We did DC Parks and Rec summer camp at Chevy Chase for a few weeks a while back, it was super cheap, but you definitely get what you pay for - it was adequate.

PP - I share your feelings, I need to find the middle class dc urban mom group! I've looked at financial aid for camps, but it was geared toward low income families; however, $2000 a month for camp is way out of our budget!

[Anonymous]

ditto, pp. there is no way we can afford 3K to cover the entire summer and yet are not eligibile for aid. rats.

[Anonymous]

I budget it in at the beginning of the year. It is still cheaper than full-time daycare, which cost me $14K for one child last year.