Save for Senior Year!

[erinalexmom]

I talked to a friend of mine and told her that my stepdaughter was a Jr. she said "start saving now for her senior year! I would save at least a grand. That's not counting pictures!" wow! That is crazy but probably true. So I just wanted to warn those of you that will have seniors soon, start saving!

[imagine]

I have a freshman in high school.

What makes the senior year so expensive?

[Momto5RN]

i didnt go crazy with ds2 pix so spent under 175.

i paid for his senior trip to florida ( he babysits his younger brother for me so i can work doesnt have a outside the home job) that was 1000

if he goes to sr prom there will be tux and chipping in on limo possibly chipping in on shore house for weekend after prom .

we will probably help with tux but he will have to save for limo and house .

after graduation alot go down the shore for a week also since the other grades are still in school its a thing they do .

alot of above will depend on whats the norm for where you live . and alot you can say no to ( trip proms etc ) if you want to . i prefer not to take that experience from them if they want it .

[dancemommy]

Our eldest is a junior this year....what am I saving for exactly? He is already expensive!! But worth every penny. Can't believe he is so old already!

[Neeley]

DD graduated last year and I realize a few of our expenses would not apply to everyone. But, here's a quick run down of some of our expenses:

*Senior pictures - $100. My friend is a profession photographer, did DD's pics at her cost (no sitting fee and printed them at her cost) in exchange for us letting her use some of the images for publicity purposes.
*Yearbook - $40
*Trip - $900 - DD was SGA president, school ambassador and Valedictorian - she along with the other 11 ambassadors took a special trip to New York for spring break with their class advisor. Her graduating class had 365 graduates and they do not do a school sanctioned class trip for all students. Only the leadership group.
*Class Fee - $20, AP Chemistry lab fee $20
*Prom ticket - $25
*Girl's State - $700 for clothes. She was her school's representative to Girl's State. Had to have dresses, a formal and professional wear. We had to get her basically a second wardrobe. She is a blue jean kind of girl and really had very little that would have been appropriate for Girl's State.
*Club Fees - $160 total- She was accepted into Girl's Club - $35, Lee-Ders club - $35, Mu Alpha Theta (National Math Honor Society) - $25, Spanish Honor Society - $25, National Honor Society - $40. The fees for each of the honor society dues included the Honor Cords for each society that she wore at graduation.
*ACT testing - $50 for each test. Although she took it several times from tenth grade on (plus once in 5th grade), she took it one last time her senior year.
*College applications - varied from free to $50 to $100 and up.
*Sending her transcripts to colleges - $8 per transcript sent.
*AP testing - most of her AP test were paid for by her school through the AP Readiness Grant. But, the ones that were not cost us $86 per test. She took 8 AP exams and I believe we only had to pay for one.
*Cap/gown, invitations/Thank You notes, Name cards - $300


Plus others...Prom dress, homecoming dress, class ring, football games, various school spirit activities, graduation teas, graduation party, etc...

Now, the fun part for us comes in two years when DS graduates. DD went to a public school. DS goes to a pricey private school and I have already been told by other parents his senior year is going to cost us wayyy more than DD's. YIKES!!!

[krbshappy71]

I whole heartedly disagree. Unless you plan to fall for all the stuff that "everyone else is doing." I had two daughters graduate, did not derail my finances at all.

Hugs. Don't fall for it.

[dancemommy]

Ok, well most of that I am already paying for for my son who is a junior. Yearbook we pay for every year. We always go somewhere for spring break. We travel every weekend all spring for soccer. He is going to prom this year as well. He is taking the ACT and SAT this year- already has once. He is taking several AP exams this year. In our state we pay book rental/class fees for public schools- his this year was about $500. And on and on. I've just decided that as kids get older they get more expensive. We were worried about how to pay for college, but honestly I think with as much as we spend per month on our kids for their activities we will just be transferring that amount to college and it won't change our budget much! They are so expensive!!! But I love them- wouldn't change a thing!

[Neeley]

I whole heartedly disagree. Unless you plan to fall for all the stuff that "everyone else is doing." I had two daughters graduate, did not derail my finances at all.

Hugs. Don't fall for it.

But, it also depends on the school. For us, DD's school required the class, activities and lab fees. Also, if you wanted your picture in the yearbook you had to have the drape/tux picture made at a certain photography studio. Luckily, that sitting fee was only $5 and I got the "cute" pictures through my friend. Her school also required the $300 for cap/gown/invitation package or the student did not walk at graduation.

I agree you can do it as inexpensively as your school allows if you choose to do so.

[moasmom]

When I was a senior, I paid for all of the expenses myself because I had an after school job. Very few senior expenses are mandatory, since most are for fun things rather than academic, and even fewer have to be paid by the parents. Just some food for thought.

Kara

[mombottoo]

It's been awhile since I have had a senior...2001 to be exact. It can easily run you a grand just for prom, pictures, invitations/thank you cards, gown & cap, after party and then there's the open house.

Whether parents choose to provide the bells & whistles that go along with graduation is up to them. We provided the bells & whistles because, our children worked very hard to get where they were. They only graduated high school once and I wanted their day(s) to be memorable...which they were and I don't regret spending so much as a penny of what we spent.

[WV_mom_of2]

My daughter graduated two years ago and I would say it all depends on the school. Our high school requires that all senior yearbook pics be the same, taken by the same photographer. However he comes to the school and takes the pics for free. I did all of her other senior pictures myself! If you have a good camera or know someone who does don't be afraid to try it on your own! All 5 drape shots that the professional took were horrible so I did one of my own for family and friends. We had no school trip. We paid 300.00 for her prom dress, 50.00 for a yearbook(which we get every year), 20.00 for a prom ticket. We also paid 100.00 for a full page senior ad in the yearbook but it wasn't required, we wanted to do it. Her cap/gown/invites, etc only cost us 185.00 if I remember correctly.

Don't let someone panic you! You don't have to get everything they sell and there are cheaper ways around a lot of the things!

[Lynnwantstosave$$]

I am jealous of the prices of yearbooks from other states. At the beginning of the year at my son's high school the yearbook cost's $80 by the end of the year its almost $100. There are 4,000 kids at that school...It is a beautiful book and thick as a dictionary.

[mndtrp]

Keep in mind, if your child is adamant that they don't want something, it may be a good idea to listen to them.

Even though I didn't want a class ring, or to go to prom, my mother insisted that I do both. She said I would regret it later in life. I never wore the ring, and I didn't enjoy prom. Both were wasted money.

[Sumacaroni]

DS graduated 1-1/2 years ago and I have a freshman this year and it sounds like every area is different. For senior pics, we're on our own but I was able to get a nice variety for $300. The yearbook is budgeted every year and paid with parking ($100) and registration and mandatory activity fees ($85 whether they participate or not it's a flat fee distributed among all students) so we spend about $300 Freshman through Senior years. The calculators they *require* cost more and more as the math gets harder (up to $125).

DS paid half of his own tux for junior prom and paid for the rest of the evening out on his own with money from his J.O.B.

He's attending a local tech college so his testing fee was only $35 and his application was another $35.

We held an open house party and that did cost upwards of $500 for the invites/thank yous (bought at Vistaprint online and got the clearance from photographer to use his senior pic on them), decorations (garage sales and dollar store), food (this was the majority of the expense).... and it was all done on our own property so there was no location costs

We gave him a cash gift of $500, he knew it would have been $1000 had we foregone the open house party because that was the amount we budgeted either way he chose.

So I guess the bottom line is if you have an upcoming senior, just talk to other people in your school district in order to plan ahead appropriately.

[NikoSan999]

Keep in mind, if your child is adamant that they don't want something, it may be a good idea to listen to them.

Even though I didn't want a class ring, or to go to prom, my mother insisted that I do both. She said I would regret it later in life. I never wore the ring, and I didn't enjoy prom. Both were wasted money.

Agree. The kid didn't want senior pix or a class ring. She also didn't want to walk but that one I stuck to my guns. After prom she wanted to go out to eat with us and her Godmother.
Since then she's mentioned a couple times maybe she should have done the pix but that's about all she said. I tried and tried to talk her into it and had made the appointment 2 times. She refused to go.