In a low-key week in which there were back-to-school illnesses running rampant in our household, several sporting events, and I’m not including any household bills in our weekly spending. Just discretionary, everyday spending.
I had a conversation last week with a friend about how much we spend on sports. Her little girl is a competitive dancer, and it’s expensive. I reminisced about the exorbitant amount we spent when Addison and Charlotte were competitive cheerleaders, and I mentioned it’s just so much less expensive to have kids in school sports now. And then…Then I did the ‘what we spend in a month just watching our kids play sports 3x a week math’ on paper…and I was shocked.
Shocked.
Just for tickets, golf cart rentals, and game/match snacks for two golf matches per week and one middle school football game per week (Craig and I attend golf matches, and we all attend football games)…it’s $776 per month to watch our kids play sports 3x a week. My jaw literally hit the floor. That’s more money than the mortgage we paid on the house we built in 2005. I mean…honestly.
So, I thought, I wonder what I spend in a week, and decided to go through (that was tedious) and track our spending for the entire week. For seven days. That’s Friday, September 4th to Thursday, September 10. It was a low-key week because Craig was still sick, I hadn’t fully recovered, and we were still exhausted, so I’m not entirely certain exactly how accurate this is for a regular week, but here we go.
I’m not including household bills (you guys would literally die if you knew how much our electric bill costs every month…absolutely die). Just everyday spending (and I’m rounding up and down on the change because I’m not typing in all those decimals), and I’ll mention I went grocery shopping Thursday for the rest of the week because I was already out and didn’t feel like finding time over the weekend to do major grocery shopping, so that takes off about $400 because that’s what we usually spend on Sundays when we run to the store for the week.
Friday: $551
The day in general: Kids in school, no games, just football practice after school for Carter, Ava went to the high school football game that night, and we hosted our friends Kyle and Candy for dinner that night. I also ran some errands and did some light shopping:
Bath and Body Works: $102
Weekly on-the-way-to-school Starbucks trip for Craig & 3 littles: $30
Target: $48
Amazon: $50
Publix: $168
Sprouts: $25
Hair: $110
PERT test fee for Ava: $12
Ava football game ticket: $6
Saturday: $527
The day in general: A much-needed rest day lying by the pool, making homemade pizza for dinner, and watching the football game with our kids and Candy:
Lawn Service: $90
ATM: $100
Gas in the Yukon: $93
Publix: $58
Carter Hair Cut: $39
Publix: $48
Target: $99
Money for Ava to sleep over with friends and golf: $75
Sunday: $934
Day in general: We spent the day in Tampa with the twins, and Addison and Riley and went to lunch and grabbed a few quick items at International Plaza.
Lululemon: $40
Publix: $67
Cheesecake Factory brunch: $210
Dicks: $62
Sephora: $117
Football game tickets for the upcoming Florida/Ole Miss game: $438
Monday: $362
Day in general: No school for the kids; took Ava golfing at a small 9-hole course.
Golf Course: $65
Publix: $147
Gas in BMW: $70
Transfer to Addison for gas and dinner: $80
Tuesday: $343
Day in general: Golf match, football game, kids in school, pool service comes to service the pool on Tuesdays.
Pool service: $140
Spectator golf cart rental: $43
Publix for golf snacks/beverages for team: $60
Football game tickets: $30
Football game snacks: $20
Pub Subs for late dinner: $50
Wednesday: $12
Day in general: kids in school, picked Ava up early and took her to her PERT test at the college, read while she took her 2-hour test, took her back to school, NJHS meeting for twins, football practice for Carter, golf practice for Ava that ended up cancelled:
Dairy Queen blizzards for Ava and me while we waited on Char to finish her meeting: $12
Thursday: $52
Day in general: golf match for Ava, football practice for Carter.
Publix for more golf snacks for team: $30
Golf cart rental: $22
Total Spent for 7 days: $2,781
Final Thoughts:
It was 7 very low-key days in our house, and grocery shopping was done the day before I began adding our daily spending…and our grand total for the 7 days from Friday to Thursday.
I think I’m actually a little bit horrified because that’s a lot considering we didn’t do much this week, and it doesn’t include groceries or any actual bills, but welcome to life with four kids and their activities.
Tiffany Raiford 