Have you increased/decreased your spending on dancing?

[DanceMentor]

Over the years I have run into many quite talented dancers that at some point spent 10's of thousands or 100's of thousands of dollars on their dancing, but then as their circumstances changed they kept dancing but cut back significantly. I fall into this category. As my financial situation changed, I had to cut back for a while, but what was really nice is it made me spend time thinking and developing from all the lessons I had taken. I still like to take lessons, but I don't anticipate spending as much as in the past. What about you?

 

[Dr Dance]

Modest and gradual increase. The juice is worth the squeeze.

 

[sbrnsmith]

Marked increase in 2015- in lessons, number of entries at comps, coaching and dresses. Don't know where I'm going this year, although I have a rough idea. But haven't had time to sit and make a budget/plan

 

[Loki]

Slight increase but I choose showcases, comps and so on more carefully. I've learned to just say "no" to events with marginal return.

I'm prepared to cut back to socials and groups if it comes down to it.

 

[GGinrhinestones]

Significant decrease over the past few years due to a number of circumstances (burnout, moving, new instructor...), anticipating increased costs by adding a few competitions, but pretty steady and happy with the private lesson rate and other expenses. Getting significantly more out of significantly fewer lessons these days, at a point where I know my ability and willingness to practice makes a huge impact (and it's free).

 

[fascination]

both....sharply decreased my expenses over the past 2 1/2 years, but have begun to increase again but within a more reasonable parameter....current pro has competition friendly pricing...so even though his lesson price is only slightly lower than my previous experience, his prices for competing are significantly more sensible...and therefore, I intend to compete again this year and, depending on how a few financial decisions go over the next few weeks, that may be a decent increase ...it won't be fewer than 5 competitions....but I won't ever go back to spending the amount that I used to spend, just as a matter of ethical considerations, stage of life considerations, etc...

 

[cornutt]

Have decreased over the past two years. However, this has less to do with finances and more to do with lack of opportunities to dance, for various reasons.

 

[danceronice]

Decrease. Mostly it's finances (I just don't have the money to blow) and also I'm finding I don't miss it when I'm not doing it. Social dancing is more work than it's worth, comps can be annoying in addition to expensive (I don't enjoy paying that much and dancing in uncontested events.)

 

[FancyFeet]

Increased over the last 2 years as I grew more serious ... but I'm now maxed out, so it's currently about choosing activities that maximize value.

 

[JudeMorrigan]

I increased it in 2015 with the specific intention of decreasing it again in 2016. I, unfortunately, can't afford to consistently do multiple non-local pro-am comps a year. It's possible (but too far in the future to make firm plans) that I'll get back to a heavier pro-am schedule in 2017. Especially since I'm transitioning to open smooth, it's nice to take a bit of extra time to really crack down on the things that I need to work on without the stress of a specific competition. Of course, now that I do have an am partner, standard working is starting to eat up portions of my lessons with my pro. Of course, that's not exactly a bad thing either and will only help my smooth.

 

[rels77]

I've only been dancing a few years. Last year I threw what felt like an obscene amount of money into it - 10 privates a week, like a dozen comps, etc. Tried to swim with the big dogs. While I had a lot of success and definitely made a name for myself, I found it exhausting. I'm a single parent with a full time job. I just can't keep that up year after year in both time and money. I also found I got burned out (I almost didn't go to Ohio because it had just stopped being fun.) I found myself turning into the person I said I wouldn't be - sort of obsessive about it. It's not how I roll. So this year, I'm dialing it way back - comps, lessons, etc - I'll spend half as much this year. If that. It's just too much darn money. And I'm doing more "fun" things - only comps in fun places, doing some west coast events, more social dancing, etc. After all, this is a hobby, not my life.

Plus, I realized at one point, for the amount of money I spent to prep and compete at Ohio, I could have gone to Europe for a week. And never been frustrated by the process once

 

[scullystwin42]

been pretty steady the last two years. I had planned to spend more this year, go to a couple larger non-local competitions, but since my studio's changed hands and it's up in the air who will be available to teach me, it's hard to say what my spend will be. I know my husband would prefer me stop or slow down my spending, but I would rather it be by my choice and not due to outside circumstances. Been avoiding updating the 2016 resolutions thread for the same reason. Hard ot make plans when the future is fuzzy.

 

[RiseNFall]

I gradually increased the amount that I spend over several years--adding more lessons and competitions, and have now hit a plateau. I'm spending more on lessons and less on competitions this year. I took two lessons a week for several years and now take four, plus whatever classes I can fit in. I do 1-3 NDCA competitions a year, 1-3 franchise competitions (3-5 total competitions), and two team matches. I do enough entries at the team matches that together they cost as much as a competition minus hotel, hair and makeup, and a lot of the stress....

 

[Dancing Irishman]

Using back of the napkin estimates, I'd guess that my pattern the past couple years has been:

2013 - ramped up; I graduated college and explored a new area for studios, plus while partner searching I was taking solo lessons
2014 - ramped way up; added smooth, tried a pro/am comp, started a new partnership in smooth in addition to solo lessons
2015 - even or maybe a little lower than 2014; did no competitions, but definitely spent more on lessons (new partnership meant a lot of lessons up front to get fundamentals as a partnership and get choreo on video to work it up), although I cut back substantially on the solo smooth lessons (went from weekly to roughly every other week)
2016 - expecting to be front-loaded a little bit (two comps - one local and one not, new custom costume, still blocking individual time with coach to get choreo, big-name visiting coach in early April that we'll probably do a double with) but probably on-balance with 2014; more lessons but fewer solo ones and definitely more focused spending on what jives with my goals

 

[Spookisgirl]

Decrease. About the same for lessons, but competing is down to almost nothing because it is too expensive to do both, and competing without lessons makes no sense.