By the time I get done with work, skating, and my gym workouts, I don't have TIME for the mall. :laugh:

And I've probably spent more on a skating dress (once you factor in the dress and stones...I go nuts with the stones but at least I glue them on myself, I don't want to know what the labor cost would be otherwise) than I'd ever spend on a wedding dress. But at least I wear the skating dress more than once, right?

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

3 kids on ice
52 weeks a year, multiple sessions weekly
weird feet and body types = off the rack not always a possibility for skates or clothes - handmedowns don't work either, same reason. But we try.

this means.

• My kids will be the only ones in their entire peer group who have never visited any of the Disney theme parks.
• We drive an older car.
• Pizza

is made not bought.

and, I'm fine with that.

Hey, could be worse... my coaching now is $90/hour! I'm currently spending ~$400/month on coaching for 2 half hour lessons per week. Ice time isn't too much different - ours is $11/45 minutes, but sometimes that 45 minutes is actually an hour if they don't need to do an ice cut. The ice time is what kills me, cause I'm spending another $300/month on that. I can get it down to $9/45 minutes if I buy a whole bunch in advance, but this rink is tricky because you have to preschedule all your sessions and pay even if you don't show up for them!

__________________
Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

That's how our club works. You contract for all your sessions in a "season" ahead of time, and pay for it all up front. You get a few trade cards (1 per $100 you spend) to use if you miss one of your scheduled sessions, but other than that, if you miss a session, you're out $10.

wish list:
coaching: $140/wk ($70 per hour lesson)
ice time: $90/wk ($10 per session)
2-3 competitions per year: ?? (Haven't been to one lately)
off-ice coaching: $20/wk
skating clothes: $400-$500/yr
testing: $100-$200/yr
sharpening: $120/yr

...I don't dare add that up! And it doesn't even include skates.

Right now, I'm spending:
coaching: $70/wk
ice time: $52/wk
off-ice: $10/wk (not every week)
skating clothes: $60-$100/yr
testing: $100-$200/yr
sharpening: $60/yr

I don't dare add that up, either. I know it's way more than I can really afford - but I do it anyway

Hmm. Obviously I am not getting enough ice time in!

I spend about $200/mo on coaching (will be $240/mo in July), but only about $100/mo on ice time (3 FS/week + public sessions). I don't figure gas into my skating budget, but I probably should! I don't usually compete (only once so far) so that's an outlier.

I noticed a lot of people didn't include club memberships and USFS memberships in their costs, but it's pretty significant -- I'm renewing right now. My home club is $90/year, but I'm also going to join a local club as an associate (not their term for it) at $45/yr. I don't skate club ice.

__________________
Gordon Zaft
http://sk8rboi.blogspot.com
School figures are skating's equivalent of the Latin Mass.

BTW here's an idea to save on money: stop drinking fuzzy drinks like cola, fanta, 7up etc. When I went to university I stopped drinking that stuff after seeing my first's month's bills (I also stopped drinking fancy coffee types, going for plain coffee instead, and for cheaper tea) and it cut down HALF on my groceries!!!

Ha ha already there. All I drink is a cup of coffee on weekday mornings (free at work), occasional tea or hot cocoa (also free at work), and mostly water. Occasionally diet pop if I'm out to dinner. Usually that's all I drink if we go to a bar too since I don't like most beers, and I'm not much of a drinker anyway. They usually just give it to you for free since they assume if you're out at a bar drinking pop, you're the designated driver.

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Added mine up and it was mostly less than I thought:

4 lessons a month @ $50--$2200 per year (missed a lot of lessons this year so I took off a month's worth)

4 PS sessions a week for the 5 months we have ice locally--$320

2 freestyle sessions a week for 6 months when we don't have local ice, taking out 1 month's worth for vacations-$480

1 FS session a week (only place to take lessons) for the rest of the year--$240

$5760 on lessons and ice.

If I include gas now that it costs a vast fortune, things look a lot worse as I have to drive 1 1/2 hours to get to the rink where my coach gives lessons. It's half a tank=$30/week=$1560 per year.

If I add in AN expenses, another $880.

I make my own costumes with an occasional ebay purchase, but I did buy a pair of Seku pants and had a wild spending spree in Chicago where I bought two pairs of Lululemon pants and a jacket. I'm not including that as I just added it up and it was too horrifying to recount, plus I got the jacket specifically because it matched the pin-striped pants that I bought and I can wear the outfit to work for everything but court (and I would probably do that in a pinch since the judges know I skate...).

Total is $8200, which is a lot less than the dr's appointments and surgery my sister had because she wrecked her hip running.

Plus I would otherwise be a raving maniac from having six months of winter a year!

__________________
You miss 100% of the shots you never take.--Wayne Gretzky

Scary, isn't it - how much that stuff cuts into your cash?

Oof, don't remind me. I'm not a current member of USFSA and will have to pony up to join a local club pretty soon I guess. But I'll worry about getting refined enough to testing level first I think.

__________________
Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

Not to mention here in the student dorm I found a tray of Coca Cola bottles dated to expire in 2005... This was last winter, btw. I flushed them down the kitchen sink to turn in the bottles for money (we get money back when we turn in empty bottles). They didn't fizzle anymore, they were like plain dark brown water, but that's logical for something expired 3 years ago.
What scared me was what happened next.

Okay first of all, we had really bad calcium stains in the kitchen sink. Those disappeared all together. Imagine what coca cola does to your teeth? But still, it's sour, and acid removes calcium. That makes sense.

But guess what?

Next, it DE-CLOGGED THE SINK!!! Oh. My. God.
Imagine what that stuff does to your intestines?!

That's just REALLY gross!!! That stuff is poisonous, seriously.

It also is a great rust remover.

I actually don't drink regular coke, but I do like an occasional diet coke. The NP I go to has told me to stop drinking Diet and just drink a regular one on occasion, because she thinks the chemicals in diet are so bad for you.

Really- I don't think it's poisonous, but I need to stop drinking it, because it's not good- thats for sure.

__________________
-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

lol...write me up an obituary. I drink about 3-5 cans of diet pepsi (or diet coke, whichever one is on sale) a day.
I did switch from regular to diet several years ago, and immediately dropped 10 lbs. Regular coke calories can really add up if you drink a lot of it.

Aren't there something like twelve tablespoons of sugar in a regular can of Coke? All that concentrated syrup - eeewwww....

I've switched to Coke Zero. To me it tastes better than Diet and the list of ingredients is actually shorter - AND it has less sodium. I've also limited myself to one - occasionally two - a day. Whenever we go out to eat, I either get water or unsweetened tea (grew up on unsweet, so sweet tastes like pure sugar water to me).

(Unless, of course, vino is called for...)

Let's get some realistic gas and car cost estimates, which I have estimated to be my primary cost for skating, since I systematically seek inexpensive ice time.

Say, 20 miles each way, every day (some of you drive much more). 40 miles. 20 mpg (optimistic, considering traffic jams to come). 2 gallonw/day at $4/gallon is $8/day or $240/month. Reasonable estimate: even if the war and the petroleum it requires ends (uncertain), world demand continues to increase, and the value of the dollar against more stable asian currencies, and USD cost of gas might double in (completely arbitrary estimate) 2-5 years, so this goes up soon.

1200 miles/month. Assume new vehicle costs $30,000 (future inflation included), and old one lasts 200,000 miles (those of you who replace often may spend a LOT more), that's $180/month in replacement car costs.

Repairs: let's say the average will be $700 every 5000 miles over the course of those 200,000 miles. That's another $168/month.

Most insurance companies want an estimate of daily milage. Let's say this adds $150 to the 6 month premium - another $25/month. I'll assume no accidents or no deductable.

So we've got $613/month, increasing in 2-5 years to $853/month from gas costs. That doesn't include much for future inflation. Right now the U.S. isn't exporting much other than debt. If continued, this will inevitably lead to much more rapid inflation, and not just in gas prices.

(And before you decide to drop the gas costs by buying a new super-fuel-efficient hybrid - you'll spend a lot more on the new vehicle and the resultant finance and insurance than you save on gas, unless you get incredibly awful mpg. You'll also consume more energy and resources having the new car built. The most cost, energy and environmental resource efficient step is almost always to fix up an old car - yours or someone else's - and keep it running. Buying a new hybrid is politically correct - but totally wrong from an environmental resource, energy, landfill or cost standpoint. Work out the numbers: Even in the old days of less fuel efficient cars, the estimate was the energy and resource cost of building a car was equivalent to driving 100,000 miles. Now that should be significantly more. I've shocked a few people by showing them that buying a new more fuel efficient car isn't environmentally or economically logical.)

And that's assuming only 20 miles each way, and moderately priced and maintained vehicles kept 200,000 miles, and relatively conservative inflation estimates. You might get very different numbers. I bet many of you have to throw in a lot more.

The inflation estimates should also add the effect of increasing energy costs, and the dropping popularity of skating, on what rinks will have to charge.

We should all move to homes and work on the borders of an arctic lake. (Or not - the energy costs of building and heating the home would be astonishing. Remember that construction is still the primary energy and resource hog of human existance, not cars.)

In any event, I may have to re-evaluate the effects of choosing the cheapest local rinks, when I add in car costs.

Hope those estimates haven't made anyone unhappy.

There are also some studies that say that the high fructose corn syrup used in today's sodas (and many other foods) is worse for the body than regular sugar syrup. Many dieticians also believe that HFCP is contributing to the US's obesity problems.

This is because apparently the HFCP is processed in the body differently than regular old sugar, which then affects the metabolic response, as well as causing the liver to put more fat into the blood stream.

Not everyone buys into these studies, and there's as many studies that claim the opposite, i.e. "it's just extremely an extremely cheap sweetener to produce"

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

A car loses about half its value in the first 2,5 years. You're better off buying a 3-year old one.

skating costs????

*fingers jammed in ears...* lalalalalalalalala la la la la !!!!!!

I'm not listening!!!!!! lol!

__________________
Level one Field Moves......PASSED 05.06.08
Level one Free dance.....PASSED 02.10.08

GOALS FOR 2009

• Level One Compulsary dances.......PASSED 19.02.09
• Level One Elements.....................PASSED 10.07.09
• Level Two Free dance.................PASSED 19.02.09
• Level One Free...........................
• Level Two compulsory dances.......

Loving it, Loving it, Loving it!!!!!

I might dispute some of your numbers, but I'm afraid that your methodology isn't unreasonable. I'll also admit that I'm applying gas costs mentally regularly now to all decisions involving transportation, although I still have the gas bills partitioned off from the skating bills in the budget. I'm working on reducing all trips, and my bike should be back from maintenance in a couple of days, which will allow me to try riding to work on non skating days. (It's 40 miles of riding round trip, about $8 in gas at my current rates, but my legs will be blown for skating on those days.)

The line that worries me is the one about "what rinks will have to charge"--since a lot of them are somewhat marginal operations, my worry is more about whether they will be there at all than what the price will be.

Rob

Some may close. Many (most?) will raise prices.

And these prices will get passed on to the skating community, be it as higher prices for freestyle/patch/public sessions, or higher prices for lessons. Competition fees will go up because it's not only the increased ice cost (for rental), it's the increased cost of food for hospitality, and the increased cost of transportation to bring the judges in. (Even if you use local judges, the current USFS mileage rate is 6 or 8 cents per mile higher than last year, and it hasn't changed since February. It's pegged against the IRS/GSA official mileage rate, so it will probably be adjusted whenever IRS/GSA changes their official rate.)

For the competition I ran this past weekend, my original budget (and fee structure) was based on about a 10% increase in prices. Instead, it was more like a 20 to 25% increase in some areas.

I talked to the vendors this weekend and they said that their sales had been lower the past few months than in previous months/years. Which implies that there's a lot of trimming around the margin going on. People don't want to stop skating and competing, or don't want to make their kids cut back. So perhaps they cut back on as many competitions, or go to those closer to home, or when at competitions, don't spend money at the vendor booths.

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

Synthetic ice is starting to sound better and better by the minute, huh...

Yep - put THAT sucker in your backyard...how COOL (ha ha) would THAT be?

With synthetic ice, the costs shift somewhat in the direction of blades and sharpening.

I'm told a typical synthetic (by which I mean plastic) ice skater needs roughly one sharpening per 1-2 hour skating session. A typical water ice (I mean synthetic water ice - natural ice has dirt and pollen, which abrades blades more) skater needs roughly one sharpening per month or two. Both of these numbers vary a lot by taste, as well as by how clean the plastic or water ice surface is kept.

Let us take the average cost of sharpening by someone who knows what they are doing to be $10 (USD). Assume a decent blade averages $300 (including mount, if extra), and that it will last 60 sharpenings. That's $5 more / session. If you skate an average of one session/day, that's $450 / month.

If you use the Jackson Matrix interchangeable runners, they are only $110 each. Skate@Delaware advocates using $50 blades. Hand sharpening eliminates payments to your sharpener, and increases blade lifetime (by a factor of maybe 5, if you sharpen just enough to create a burr, then straighten the burr, instead of grinding a full hollow), at the lessor cost of replacing the two stones for $60 + shipping (for the Pro-Filer) perhaps 2 times a year.

From my perspective, the likelihood of injury, with attendent medical and other costs, also goes way up on synthetic. (There are fewer falls among beginners, so maybe my perspective isn't universal.) That can be a very high cost. Oddly, no one included the costs of treating injuries, or of missed work, etc.

All of my listed frequencies vary by a factor of several, depending on the skater, ice, and personal taste.

Nonetheless, I believe that synthetic ice mostly isn't worth it. It decreases operating costs (and energy usage) for the rink, but increases net costs for the skaters, if they use decent blades and keep them sharp.

If you put the synthetic ice in your own home or backyard, and eliminate the car costs, this balance changes. But where is the fun in not interacting with anyone? And much of the fun of skating is gliding effortlessly across the ice - which goes away on synthetic.

If synthetics improve, or I move somewhere without water ice, I may change my mind. Otherwise - ptooee.

Or do what I do - buy brand new and put 500,000Km on it in 15 years, until it falls apart. (Buying used is fine if you get one in good shape but it is IMPOSSIBLE for even a mechanic to tell after 3 years.)

__________________
Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

once I'm on patch and having private coaching:

patch = £3 an hour or £50 a month
private coaching = £7.50 - £9 for 15 mins
LTS = £40 for 6 weeks (£20 a month)
public session = £6.36

Don't think I'll ever get onto patch (maybe weekends eventually). So 1 private lesson + 1 public session + LTS = £141 ish a month.

Haven't started private lessons yet and only go to LTS so it's actually £20 a month. Aiming for the above though and more if posisble. Lea Valley's opening times are that great though.

Monday: 11.00am - 3.30pm (can't do)
Tuesday: 11.00am - 3.30pm and 5.00pm - 7.00pm (only last hr)
Wednesday: 11.00am - 3.30pm (can't do)
Thursday: 11.00am - 3.30pm and 8.30pm - 10.30pm (currently do)
Friday: 11.00am - 3.30pm, 5.00pm - 7.00pm and 8.30pm - 10.30pm (don't do, disco etc)
Saturday & Sunday:10.00am - 12.00pm, 2.00pm - 4.00pm and 8.30pm - 10.30pm (will look at doing the morning sessions)

__________________
Skate at: Lee Valley
Date started: October 2008
Level: 6 (UK skate levels)

Aiming for Figure club