TRying to live rich on a poor man's budget

[camismom]

YIKES! To add insult to injury I was just looking at Speedo swimsuits! I had no idea what those things cost!

[vickilyn32]

Amber moves up to toe shoes in ballet this year, and I dread finding out how much they cost. This girl better become someone famous so I can collect some of this money back.

[camismom]

vickilyn32 said:

Amber moves up to toe shoes in ballet this year, and I dread finding out how much they cost. This girl better become someone famous so I can collect some of this money back.

I HEARD THAT!!

[Kaiti]

Well, can I ask about insurance coverage for any of things your kids do?

For the parade we need to raise at least $20,000 to put it on. That includes security, insurance, bands, participant prizes. All of the little things you don't really think about.

Christy, you won't ruffle feathers if you ask. You might get a list rattled off, and some of the stuff might surprize you that has to be paid.

I just got a letter from the mayor of Alloway saying our insurance needed to be increased to $3,000,000---that's million-----per occurance :owe already carry a million dollar liability policy.

Um, we wrote him back as a committee and said we talked to our insurance agent and they said the coverage was "an exceptional amount already" And we told him we weren't going to do it

We got the treasurer's "engineer" of a husband to word it. :oIt wasn't pretty adn we haven't heard back since.

I am so sorry, didn't mean to go on like that :-[But question anything you put out for. If it's reasonable they'll have no porblen telling you so

[kstquilter]

absolutely question where your money goes. i do understand you don't want to ruffle feathers because sometimes it's our kids who pay with not being chosen for a particular team. i think if you do it with the right intentions and a nice tone of voice, you'll be ok.
i'm trying to remember how much pointe shoes are. they are expensive but getting the right fit is the main thing and not everyone can do it. it's worth a more expensive pair to get the right one otherwise you could end up buying 2 or 3 cheaper pairs that end up costing more in the long run. brittany has a very high arch and we would spend as much as 2 hours trying on every shoe they had trying to find the right one. and no, she won't be a ballerina and make any of it worthwhile except the good self image and confidence she got from the experience itself. it's a nice thought tho!
oh, and keep an ear open and listen to the kids and other parents. turns out the owner of the dance studio and head of the competitive team was a drunk. i didn't know until brittany had moved to the next studio. all the kids knew and i assume some parents did but i never had a clue. she stayed away from the parents but i always thought it was because she didn't want to answer questions about why susie wasn't on such and such a team when that awful dancer over there was. the awful one was sometimes my daughter too. it was very ugly sometimes but i do know other sports are as well. some parents just go off the deep end.
karen

[Kaiti]

That's a good point. I have come to realize that more $$$$ in some activities is better spent up front. Even thinking of the damage a poor quality could do to the toes.

I sit and talk to the kids and we as parents all knew what was what on Mikey's team this past year. We know they are trying ot build new fields, the only thing I don't like....it is going to sound really petty.

I dont' like the fact that at the fields, they didn't have a fountain or give out cups of water when it got hot. I took one of those 2 gallon jugs for Mikey and Tara's games so they wouldn't have to buy a bottle of water from the stand.

Sorry, sticking point with me. :-*we already paid the reg, plus with running the kitchen out to the club and NOT getting the bulk price, I still make a little bit..not much but thier prices are higher and they pay less. I KNOW they are turning a nice profit.

Rant done

[vickilyn32]

I know that the competitive cheer squad has a lot of paperwork they gave us, with a complete breakdown of where the money goes. Insurance is a big part of it. We dont have much insurance for the dance school, because they dont compete, just do the dance recital each year, but we still have some insurance for them. They have someone comming to the studio in November to fit for the shoes, so I will just trust them to get Amber in the correct size. I really doubt she will do much with it out of school, but if she goes to the jr college where I work, we have a very good dance team she can try-out for in 6 years.

[camismom]

Insurance is a good point... hadn't thought of that so thanks for bringing it up.