littlerain, I manage to offset a lot of my costs with my Freelance work. The ultimate goal is to make my Freelance stuff pay for the skating. Sometimes it goes in the black, sometimes in the Red, but I do have a master plan for making it work.
The trick is when unexpected expenses come up... I talked with my coach this week about how we go about testing. He charges an hour of his time to come with me on the test. This makes total sense, I am in no way begrudging this, but it's an extra variable. Plus there's Club Membership and Testing Fees, more variables.
And I use a lot of weekend Public Ice, which is really cheap but a bit of a gamble when it comes to how useful that will be. I have lists of what I practice on any given session: Main Ice Practice Ice is limited to things I need space on like Jumps, Power Stroking, Spirals and those kinds of things. Studio Ice Practice Ice is all about Edges, Figures, Spins and new turns, since that ice is usually really quiet and I can focus without needing a lot of room. Public Ice I use for very new things where I am touching the wall, or things I'm scared to practice alone. (Public Ice right now is all about BO3, Brackets and Rocker/Choctaw patterns, Loop Prep and Sit Spin Awkwardness.)
It's not so much How Much Ice Time you can get, but How you can best use the ice time available to you.