Keeping the cost down

[pygmalion]

In the past two and a half years (my 2.5 year dance anniversary is Feb 6!), I have spent an obscene amount of money on dancing. I'm not going to give dollar figures, because it's astonishing even to me. Let's just say I could have bought a NICE car with the money I've spent.


And that made sense at the time. My goal was to get up to/through silver patterns in a specific mount of time, and I've done that. Now, though, it's beginning to dawn on me that dance is a lifelong thing for me, so I have to get the spending down to a long-term sustainable level.

What are some things you do to keep the dance costs affordable? I'll give an example. I only pay cash. I never charge any dance related expense, or borrow money from Peter (the rest of my life) to pay Paul (dance). What do you do to keep costs in check?

[msc]

I just try not to think about it :lol:

Oops, that's more denial than a solution, I guess.

[vey]

Oh, this is SO difficult. A general answer would be "to prioritize" but in practice it is so difficult to decide. I usually still have to spend some $ in order to decide what's more important and what's working for me :(
I only pay cash. I never charge any dance related expense, or borrow money from Peter (the rest of my life) to pay Paul (dance). What do you do to keep costs in check?
A little tip: I'm charging all expencies on credit card whenever's possible but I pay them out each month and on the earned cr.card points I get salsa CDs :lol:

[pygmalion]

That's a cool tip, vey. I hadn't thought of it that way.

msc, I guess the conclusion I've come to is just give up everything non-essential. Needless to say, dance is essential. :lol: All my new clothes are dance clothes. All my social activities are dance activities. Even the movies I rent are dance related. So basically, ALL of my discretionary income goes to dance. And frankly, I don't see that changing anytime soon. Gold level steps and technique are beckoning! :lol: :cry:

[golddancer]

In the past two and a half years (my 2.5 year dance anniversary is Feb 6!), I have spent an obscene amount of money on dancing. I'm not going to give dollar figures, because it's astonishing even to me. Let's just say I could have bought a NICE car with the money I've spent.


And that made sense at the time. My goal was to get up to/through silver patterns in a specific mount of time, and I've done that. Now, though, it's beginning to dawn on me that dance is a lifelong thing for me, so I have to get the spending down to a long-term sustainable level.

What are some things you do to keep the dance costs affordable? I'll give an example. I only pay cash. I never charge any dance related expense, or borrow money from Peter (the rest of my life) to pay Paul (dance). What do you do to keep costs in check?

Been there, own the Tshirt and the dance shoes,

When I started dancing my goal was and is Gold Level for a social dancer. In my area we try to keep dance events affordable.

I included group classes in my studies because the different partners helped improve my following and then did a series of level group classes offered by an instructor-- bronze, gold, silver. In that series we studies a specific dance for 4 weeks.

Private lessons are invaluable but if money is tight keep them to a minimum. If your instructor teaches group classes then attend their group class.

Check if there is a USABDA chapter in your area. Members get discounts and they have classes that are affordable. I know they helped me and our club has a dance once a month and practice times. check out link below if you are interested.

http://www.usabda.org/

[pygmalion]

That's a good suggestion, golddancer. The local USABDA chapter doesn't sponsor classes except for a beginner level freebie once a month, but there's no reason why they can't. One of my goals for this year is to get more involved in the local USABDA chapter, and that's one way I can help -- organizing dance classes I can take (for cheap! LOL)

Thanks for the insight. :D

[golddancer]

That's a good suggestion, golddancer. The local USABDA chapter doesn't sponsor classes except for a beginner level freebie once a month, but there's no reason why they can't. One of my goals for this year is to get more involved in the local USABDA chapter, and that's one way I can help -- organizing dance classes I can take (for cheap! LOL)

Thanks for the insight. :D

You are welcome! If you get your USABDA chapter to work up event they can sometimes get primo professonals to come teach workshops for reasonable $$$.

Keep on Dancing! :-)

[MadamSamba]

I think your story resonates deeply with just about everyone on this board, Jenn!

Hell, I think in dancing lessons, "hmmm...nice shirt, oh, no, that's 1.5 privates!" or hmm..."that sandwich costs seven bucks, nope, I think I'd rather have a silver bar samba lesson in that money''. :lol:

I try to keep the costs down by attending group lessons and attending clubs where you can get lots of practice in with "real" dancers, but it doesn't seem to be working! I still can't help going to lesson after lesson. That said, I don't regret a single cent I've paid in order to better my dancing. If I had more money, I'd spend that too! :)

But, you're right, Jenn...perhaps because dancing is relatively new to us (many of us have discovered it in our adulthood) we forget that we have got the rest of our lives and can slow things down a bit...there's no real need to dance seven days a week. Again, that said, I will continue to do so! :)

[Adwiz]

I'm committed to spending a significant amount of my income on dance (my wife shares that commitment). It's especially tough for us as our daughter also dances and we have to cover expenses for three of us. Ouch!

We look at this as a long-term process so we set a very firm budget. This gives us the option to spend that budget as we see fit. Some months allow us to do several weekly private lessons, and we generally can buy a single instructional video and/or dance music CD per month. Other months, if we have to buy shoes or costumes, we have to cut back on the privates or video to compensate. Still other months we have to cut back on privates AND videos, group lessons and other stuff to pay for competitions (we just plunked down $700 to attend an upcoming local comp! Yikes!).

Once in a while we will go over because of timing issues, but then we cut back the next month to make up for the excess. That keeps things reasonably under control.

[Swing Kitten]

Or you can be like SwinginBoo and have a bf who pays for your dances ;) (he doesn't buy everything... but I'm sure it helps :D )

[SwinginBoo]

Yes it's true he does pay for dance admissions for the most part. But things even out in other areas you know? It's not like I ask him to. But yeah, kitten come along anytime :wink: :wink: .

[Vince A]

Great topic Jenn,

A while back I posted what Care and I spent the previous year for dance-only recreation . . . and like you, we could have purchased a new car.

We do have priorities . . . church, family, dancing, and our music (her-singing, and me the guitar), entertaining, and so on down-the-line . . .

We have ceased purchasing those little things (event shirts/shoes/Kippy belts, etc.) at each and every event that we attend . . . we drive, instead of flying, to events that are 4-hours or less away . . . we try to drive with another couple to share the driving and expenses . . . we always try to share a room . . . we (Care and I) share meals, as we never eat too much because we find it difficult to dance on a full stomach . . . we rarely take workshops anymore, as both of us feel that we are beyond that point of learning (and yes, we do take specialty workshops from time-to-time, and I always, once a year, go to a "basics" only workshop - I'm not a great dancer - just good!) . . . lastly, we do not venture out and about to see the sights, which can add a bundle to your expenses!

One last tidbit - we only live twice . . . once for ourselves and once for our dreams. Get your dreams out of the way first! Right now, we do make good money, but who knows what tomorrow will bring . . . we are but a heartbeat away from not being here . . . I am doing everyone of my dreams today!

Hope this helps!

[KevinL]

I like Adwiz's response, to set a specific budget and to not go over that budget, but then you still have to set your own priorities each month.

Suggestions:

Cultivate a circle of friends who get together and practice together. If each of you takes a private lesson once a week and bring what you know to the group, each of you gets exposed to what the others thought was important in their lessons.

Get a group of people (4-6) and take "semi-private" lessons. The teacher might charge a little more, but split several ways each of the students pays less. You also get to feel the lead/follow of several partners in once lesson. (Doesn' have to be the same group as above.)

Find a dance partner (I know you are already working on this, but no-one else has mentioned it specifically). They should share the cost of lessons, and you can practice with them as much as your schedule allows. Maybe even find a couple of dance partners, and work on different things with each of them.

Take everyone elses advice as well....

Kevin

[Sagitta]

Get to know people who want to promote dancing. Often they will do lessons etc for less. There are a group of people who want to perform rueda and to encourage people they have started Thursday night lessons for those who know some and want to get better. We put in a couple bucks ecah time to defray the costs of room rental, and one/two of the really good advanced rueda people teach new moves etc. I've been doing this for a couple weeks and this has worked quite well for me. It's a win-win sitaution as with more people knowing rueda the more often it can be done socially at latin dances, those who learn benefit personally, and the group hopefully gets more performers. :)

[Vince A]

I didn't see it mentioned above . . . if you take private lessons, see if your Pro will give you a discount for upfront, paid-in-advance fees for lessons.
My Pro charges $65 per hour, but paid in advance, like 10 or 20 lessons, the fees averages out to $40 per lesson, and one is usually thrown in for free - usually the very last one! That can amount to a significant $250 - to $500 in savings.

It doesn't hurt to ask.

[ballroomboilergirl]

Hahahahaha...as a broke college student I am the EPITOME of someone who has to watch the cost of their dancing :lol: You know what I did to offset all my dancing expenses? I took on another job :shock: This is not unheard of on my team...we are all such dance junkies that we all work stiffs just to afford more lessons, shoes, costumes, etc....one girl on my team has to wake up at 6 am on Mondays to serve as a teacher's assistant for a CHEM 111 lab, another guy washes dishes in one of the campus dining halls, and *true story* one girl my team is a go-go dancer at a club 2 nights a week :shock:

Anyway, I agree totally with everyone who recommends trying to dance as a group...that is basically how our team gets by with our members only paying $125 in dues a semester. This averages out to around $3 a lesson!!! When we go to comps, we carpool (imagine a 3.5 hour drive to Columbus, Ohio for the Ohio Star Ball wedged between two big guys in the backseat of a 2-door Honda Civic!), we share hotel rooms (we are used to sleeping 6-8 to a room meant for 4 people), and even shoes and costumes (often someone will be running off the floor at the end of a Bronze event to give her teammate her shoes so she can get in line for the Silver event). Yeah, its not very convenient sometimes...but we all make sacrifices for what we love :) I guess you just have to decide whether you can withstand momentary discomfort in exchange for bliss out on the floor :)