| Type | Comments Since You Last CheckedArticle | Source | Last Checked |  |
 |
Newsvine is msnbc.com's social-news community where you can discuss stories, publish your own column, and connect with other news lovers.
SCHOOLS add a ton of unnecessary expense. To be on the drill team - drill team, NOT cheerleader - costs $400 just for the uniform. I had to regretfully tell my daughter no. Band instruments and uniforms? Forget it. The fundraisers are even worse.....they tried to make us pay for a trivet with my daughter's artwork on it. I told them we would keep the trivet, would NOT pay five bucks for it, and sent them a reminder about copyright infringement. They not only demanded school supplies - they wanted certain brands. (Are magic markers really that different???). Parents need to start standing up and saying NO to ridiculous demands.
#1 - Wed Apr 15, 2009 9:42 AM EDTHusband and I raised 4 children, the oldest is now 25. We are now raising our oldest grandson, he is 7. Money was always tight when all of the kids were home, we constantly had to compromise. Do you really want a room of your own, or would you rather have a room at college? If they wanted something special, they worked for the money. When they were old enough to get a job in the summer, they paid for their own clothes, etc. We, as adults, had to learn how to cut spending. We took very few vacations and hardly ever went out to eat. All of our past experiences have helped us to be prepared for this new economy. We always wondered what was wrong with us, everyone else had a new car and took vacations and we were still struggling to save a little bit of money every month. We didn't realize that a lot of people were living beyond their means. We haven't had to cut back on spending for any of our grandchildren because we never over spent in the first place. We hand down grandson's school clothes to a younger grandchild and they are grateful. I have saved a lot of money over the past few years by not taking our grandson with me shopping. When he has saved enough money for a special purchase, we make a trip to the store just for that item. We started saving for grandson's college shortly after he was born. Yes, his 529 is down, but it is there and we are still adding money monthly. Sometimes it seems that it is the adults that are more dissappointed with money than the children, the old "we will do better than Mom and Pop did" thinking. Children just want to feel safe and loved. My husband will be working well past retirement age so that we can raise our grandson and send him to college if he wants to go. We haven't taken a vacation in 11 years, I wouldn't trade the happiness and love of our grandson for all the vacations or money in the world.
#2 - Wed Apr 15, 2009 11:46 AM EDTSpeaking of school fees, what about this business of "renting" textbooks? The local school expects parents to pay $200 for textbook rental. When asked who owned the books, the response was that the school board owns them. So parents are renting them from the school district! Ridiculous!
Cut out some of the other garbage that happens at the school that is unnecessary. The last month of school, all they do is play games and watch movies! My son can do that at home and save the school district a ton of money in expenses for that last month! They should just close a month early if they aren't going to be actually studying.
#3 - Fri Apr 17, 2009 1:23 PM EDTI don't think we were bad about indulging our children when we could have. They never had their own TV or Nintendo. They did have dance lessons, they played sports, we had cable TV, and I was priviledged to be a stay-at-home mom and just worked part-time when they were all in school. When my husband lost his job for the first time, we were totally taken by surprise, but we had savings and other means to continue without making too many changes. Boy, were we naive! If we could go back in time, I'd do a lot of things differently to make the money go further.
Now we don't have cable TV, no one has taken a dance lesson in years, new clothes are a twice a year treat practically, and eating out is a rare occasion. We both have full-time jobs now and we're able to support our daughter's high school band expenses - her only luxury!
We help our college daughter with her expenses as much as we can, but she works, has gotten a small scholarship, has taken out a student loan, and lives at home.
I do regret that my youngest hasn't been able to do all of the things her older sisters did because we had money and jobs when they were younger.
#4 - Mon Apr 20, 2009 3:46 PM EDTYou're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |
Log In | Register
I cut my kids' allowances in half, and cut their clothing budget by a third. They're dealing with it.