question for "middle class" families: how much are your kids expenses once daycare is over?
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Anonymous
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Trying to plan. Can I assume I'll re-coop some of those daycare costs once they are in school?
I have heard aftercare, camp, etc. come with a lot of costs, but how much? |
Anonymous
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I think it depends greatly where you live.
I'm in NW DC and a full day (9-5) of summer camp is always $300+/week unless you use the Parks and Rec camps (which we did when our kids were younger but now that they're older they've outgrown the programming). DCPS summer is 9 weeks long. We take 2 weeks of vacation so have to cover 7 weeks each summer with camp so roughly $2500/kid per summer for camp. Then there's after care which runs us $265/kid/month at our public school. Then there are activities which are minimal for weekend rec sports (much more for travel teams but we're not there yet). |
Anonymous
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Aftercare - we don't use it (my work is incredibly flexible) but our school charges about $200/month until 6pm.
Camp - last summer camp was $375 a week if I recall correctly. It covered the hours of 7:30 until 4:15pm. Activities - we do about one at a time. Sometimes in the summer we do more if we don't do camp (again, my work is flexible). Gymnastics (weekly) - $90/month Soccer (weekly) - $150 a quarter Swimming (weekly) - about $200 quarter If your work is 8-6 and you need before and aftercare, I'd add a few hundred a month to those costs and you're set. You'll probably do fewer activities than we do. |
Anonymous
I haven't specifically figured it out - but we went from going into the red every single month (with daycare costs) to have extra every month. We are even planning a real vacation. 
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Anonymous
| I think for the early years of elementary you probably will, but the expenses climb as the kids get older. |
Anonymous
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Ha ha.
Extra-curriculars and aftercare/camps cost more than daycare, in upper elementary and beyond (because at some point they're able to go home and stay home by themselves, but then the cost of extras and study prep skyrockets anyway). |
Anonymous
| Even with all the costs mentioned, I don't see how we can't save money. We started at $420 a week and are down to $300 a week for daycare. Even with $300 a month for aftercare and $300 a week for summer that's still substantial savings - likely in the 8,000-10,000 range. I just don't see sports and the like making up the difference. |
Anonymous
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Before/after care= 400 a month
Summer camp= 3,000 for the entire summer |
Anonymous
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Parochial school tuition = approx. $8,000
After care = $15/day x 4 days x 39 weeks = $2,340 Piano lessons = $140/month x 10 months = $1,400 Kumon = $120/month x 12 = $1,440 Parks & Rec summer day camps = $170/week + $32/week for aftercare = $202/week x 9 weeks = $1,818 Parks & Rec Spring break day camp = $175 Parks & Rec sports teams = $120/year Girl Scout sleep away camp = $360 + $40 bus transport to/from camp = $400/week Summer pool membership = approx $100/family member = $15,793 What else? Food, clothing, shoes, school supplies, medical/dental/vision care, hair cuts, gifts, sports equipment, family trips, etc... |
Anonymous
this sounds about right. We do this for one child. I haven't seen any significant savings from when my child left daycare. In fact, I was paying a bit less per month for my child's last months in daycare in the preschool room then I was once she switched to school. |
Anonymous
Aftercare is more in the $400+ range. You also need to see if you need before care because school start times are later than daycare start times. And summer camp - depends on where they go but $300 to include before/after care is on the low end if you pick any camps other than county run camps. Sports become expensive because there are costs for joining the league, uniform, sports gear (ie tball/baseball - bat, mitt, balls, bag to carry stuff, helment, cleats), clinics in the off season (this is the case even at the rec level - they are usually just for fun but they still cost money). Depending on the sport, you may then get into year round play with more costs for joining or look for private instruction or more clinics. Dance, music, drama - these can be set fees for the year. For dance, we pay about $2K for 2 classes a week at one of the studio's. It's not fancy and we don't do competitions. |
Anonymous
Yes. You get a break from 1st to about 5th grade but then it gets even more expensive. Travel sports, activities, clothes, shoes all start to be 5x as more expensive as before. Then come the high school years with driving, car insurance, cell phone etc. |
Anonymous
Some people probably see some savings. But, sports is really expensive, as are those before and after school programs like chess club and languages. Add to that braces, the increased cost of food, which gets ridiculous when they hit about age 10 and doesn't end until they move out. If your child gets into a traveling sport or needs tutoring, that can be pricey. Then there are the extra admission costs when you are doing activities and taking vacations. Clothes cost more even if you are just buying the basics and you don't get much in the way of hand me downs after about age five or so. I can't really itemize everything, but I am one of those who feels like I don't see the savings from the end of daycare. |
Anonymous
| My son's aftercare and afterschool activities (tennis, piano, and Kumon weekly) add up exactly to what his daycare used to cost. And summer camps run about the same per month as daycare did. So no savings here at all. |
Anonymous
| There are none, it gets more expensive |