Cut the hidden cost of after-school activities
Posted
Jan 16 2009, 08:35 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
The routine is familiar to many parents: You have an out-of-town school or extracurricular function, whether it be a sporting event or a club meeting, and after the event your child is hungry, so you solve the problem by stopping at the nearest restaurant and buying some quick (and fairly pricey) convenience food. Quite often, you'll indulge too.
Over the course of a season, this pattern can become very expensive. Looking back at my own school days, I can remember when I would have an out-of-town match every week for three months, and some weekend tournaments as well. This really added up.
Luckily, my parents found several good ways to cope with this, and listening to the wisdom of some of my frugal friends has taught me a few more tactics to use for these situations. Here are 10 tactics that can help you get through these costs without creating a crisis.
Plan ahead. On your way out the door, fill a thermos with soup and pack a sandwich and a piece of fruit or a granola bar for your child. This can provide a nice energy boost when your child needs it. One way to make this easier is to prepare serving-size freezer bags of soup in advance -- make a large batch, fill some small bags with enough soup for a serving, then freeze the bags. When you need it, just unfreeze it, warm it up, and put it in a thermos.
Have a lot of healthy but convenient foods at home. Another tactic is to simply make sure you have convenient but healthy foods available at home. Encourage your child to wait until you're home, then quickly produce these foods. Some good ones include homemade frozen burritos, grapes and bananas.
Talk to your child about the situation. Most teenagers are reasonable about simple things like this. Take a moment and talk to your child about the situation, especially if it's becoming a pattern. Point out how much money that adds up to over a season so that he or she sees that it's much more than a one-time expense of $10.
Encourage your child to use allowance money for this expense. If the child does not wish to wait a bit to satisfy a craving, encourage the child to use his spending money on it. My mother used this tactic with me several times and it was quite effective. She'd say, "We can wait until we get home or you can spend some of your own money now." Usually, I'd wait.
Talk with other parents. If other parents are feeling the same pinch, talk to them about the situation. You may find that they also want to break this routine and save some money. If multiple sets of parents have the same frame of mind, the culture of spending at such events can begin to change.
Coordinate efforts. One big thing parents can do is set up a combined effort to handle snacks after events. Have each child bring a dollar to the event. Then, on a rotating basis, a set of parents provides snacks for the whole team and collects the dollars. A big jug of juice, some sandwiches and some fruit can be perfect for this.
Budget for all school expenses in advance -- and involve your child in the process. At the start of the year, make a realistic budget of school expenses that includes extracurricular activities, and budget in advance for these costs. Get your child involved with this as well, so he or she can see the bigger picture of overall expenses for the year. Make such expenses a line item and talk about how to budget for them. Perhaps, right then and there, you and your child can come up with a plan that works for both of you.
Split the costs with your child. One plan is to split the costs of such incidentals. Perhaps you'll cover incidental food costs for a certain number of events during the year, and your child will cover the rest out of personal money. Perhaps you'll agree to a stipend for each event, with spending beyond that coming out of your child's pocket.
Create a "tit-for-tat" arrangement. Another option is to give your child a chance to earn such incidental money by doing chores. Perhaps two nights' worth of dinner dishes is equivalent to a meal out after a school event. That way, you're exchanging value with each other and giving your child a lesson in the value of work.
Cut back on school activities. If none of these tactics work, it's worth considering the possibility that your child is involved in too many activities -- or at least in too many expensive activities. Look into cutting back on an activity or two next year, giving your child more focus on the activities that are truly important while also giving your child more free time to explore his or her own interests.
Related reading at The Simple Dollar:
Do children really cause financial burdens?
An impulsive mood
The selling of gold
