The Weight of Money

As summer quickly approaches, I’m starting to stress over what to do with the daughter. We have a standing camp commitment that fills two weeks, but those two weeks will go by pretty quick (especially since it’ll be our second child-free break as newlyweds). But after camp, then what and how to pay for it?

Previous years were simple: either I stayed home with her or I shipped her off to Oklahoma for the summer. Since all of our family is in Oklahoma, it worked out well as she traveled week-to-week to grandparents, great-grandparents, and aunts. But since we’ve decided she should stay home this summer, we’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do.

Summer Budget Overview:
Summer vacation is 10 weeks long. Her two-week, sleep-away summer camp is $985 and most summer day programs run $160/week. The sleep-away camp was paid for through child support payment (wow, they actually showed up for a full six months), so I’m not worried about that line item. However, we still need to fill the other weeks.

Summer Numbers:
If we do a day camp program for the entire time, it’ll run us $1,280 for the summer. In my current position, I’ll bring home $3,000 during that time (this is net minus retirement contributions). Summer income less summer camp fees is $1,720 of income for the summer break (certainly not enough to justify surviving there).

If I leave my job and stay home, I would need to find enough small jobs or save enough money to equal the $1,720 difference to call it a wash. This works out to $215/week. Some ways I could make/save that much:

• Stop commuting: I will save $170 a week.

  By staying home, the partner and I can trade vehicles and reduce commuting costs. My commute will be $35/week in my car, his is $175/week in his car. By trading cars and eliminating my commute, our weekly gasoline budget will go from $210 to $40. Over the summer, that will work out to $1,360 in savings.

• Reduce Eating Out: We can save $50/week by eating at home more.

  Since I’ll be home, there is no excuse for not cooking and eating at home.

• Save on Groceries: Save $50/week.

  Having more time to watch for specials and coordinate dinner plans will allow me to make better shopping choices.

• Take on more sewing work: $75/week.

  I’m currently making between $70-$150 a week sewing. I’d just need to be proactive in finding more customers, but it seems like I’m doing well at the moment.

With just those simple steps, I’ll have a net savings/income of $345/week, $2,760 over the entire summer.

Summer Decision
It seems like such an obvious choice: don’t work this summer. That is, until you notice one major flaw. Our income is already spoken for and summer camp is an above and beyond addition to our budget. Trying to save the difference between camp fees and income isn’t the real solution - finding another $160/week is.

Of course: I don’t want my job and am trying to get out of it, I don’t think I can find another $160/week (on top of everything else), and something will have to be sacrificed to make camp happen if I keep working. But if I can’t find another $160/week for camp, how am I going to replace the $575/week gross income that I’m making now?

This entry was posted on Friday, May 18th, 2007 at 12:53 pm and is filed under general. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.