3 on the ice
so, yes, I can understand where you're coming from. Lots of things that add up:
a) I have a dressmaker that lets me stone the dresses; saves a fortune.
b) I get new skates during the annual "end of season" inventory clearances.
c) Troll the end of year dress sales; buy them then.
d) Buy tights in bulk when you can get the BOGO deals.
e) Prioritize lessons and put together a cost-effective coaching package. By NOT having my one kid do dance, we have saved thousands of dollars in terms of coaching, costuming, partnering and test fees over the years - plus allowing for more rapid progression through freeskate. As is noted in another thread, this was also due to the fact that the kid didn't like dance ... however, by choosing a discipline and focussing on it instead of doing multi-disciplines, we were able to use a bit less ice time as well. Have we lost out by not doing dance? No - we just had the "stuff" that dance would have taught taught as skating lessons, which was way cheaper and worked better for us (yes, we have someone teach Figures ! as well as moves in the field
) as it was all "freeskate" focussed. My other kid does do dance, as she's not competitive - which definitely gives me a guideline on how much we saved by making that decision to not do dance for our other kid. We use specialist coaches - which saves us cash - as one intense 15 minute lesson with a "plan" for the week is very cost effective, and allows our (more expensive) freeskate coach to use her lesson time more wisely and effectively. If money was unlimited ... maybe we would have had dance in there too, but, frankly, just wasn't in the budget.
f) We don't do every comp; we do the ones that matter, and save on entry fees. We don't do every seminar; we do the ones that matter.
g) Less popular times save us on ice fees.
h) Budget. Make sure you know how much you have to spend, and stick to it; also, like they tell you for weddings, add about 15 to 20% on top of what you expect to give yourself a buffer for unexpected expenses ...
However, the reality is that it is expensive. If you have a kid going to nationals/competitive skater, you're going to pay out money. If you have a more casual skater, you can also pay out money ... but you may be more flexible as the pressure isn't as high.
Note too that once you move up in equipment, you're pretty much locked in. Maybe that jump from Aces to Gold Seals doesn't hurt too much the first time - you can save up that money- but, when you realize that you're going to be paying that amount for the next pair, which with a kid may be in 6 months or less ... maybe you could stay in Aces for a bit ... same thing with moving to an expensive boot - going back is difficult, waiting for a bit may be okay.