Struggling With Post Summer Debt? We Count the Cost of the Kids Being Off School

It’s September. The schools are back and halloween feels imminent. The air has the overwhelming feeling of new beginnings, a semblance of a new year and a fresh start. Post first day school drop off and obligatory front door photo, I head to the coffee shop to celebrate with an oat milk iced latte and some silence. As I open my banking app on my phone I’m stopped dead in my tracks. Have I been scammed? Has someone stolen my cards and gone on a shopping spree? How can the figure looking back at me be correct when I was only paid a couple of days ago? And then I remember: summer camps. Yep, this summer I spent the equivalent to a weekend in Ibiza, flight and taxi to the airport included, on sending my two children to various summer camps, as we didn’t go abroad this year and I was working full time for four out of the six weeks.

To add salt in the wound, September has also meant payment for all the extra curricular, after school clubs for the next term as everything needs to be paid for upfront. Whether its wraparound care, to allow me to do the job I love, or the array of different sporting activities each evening which I believe help children to become well rounded, there is always something. It also gives me a break from bribing my children with snacks and/or a screen once the 3pm bell rings – a pleasure I had to endure for the summer holidays and can confirm it is not ideal and costs the equivalant of half your mortgage payment.

For those of you without children, or with young children currently in nursery costing you 80% of your wage, rolling your eyes at my complaining about the cost of relatively short summer holidays I thought I would get into the nitty gritty, show the receipts if you will, of the actual cost – I think it will surprise you.

And for those who have been nodding along wondering where your money has gone this summer and asking yourself when it will be legal to leave your kids to play by themselves all six weeks, then we are in this together. No one has scammed your card. Oh, and FYI apparently there isn’t a legal age, it is just frowned upon to leave your children before secondary school age.

The Receipts

Week One
Child one: five day cheer and dance camp, 9am-3pm: £160
Child two: four day football camp 9am-3pm: £88
Packed lunches plus additional post 3pm snacks: £80
Total: £328

Week Two
Child one: multisports camp two days, 8.30-4pm: £70
Child two: four day football camp 9am-3pm: £88
Packed lunches plus additional post 3pm snacks: £80
Total: £238

Week Three
Child one: arts and craft camp two days 10am-2pm: £50
Child two: four day football camp 9am-3pm: £88
Packed lunches plus additional post 3pm snacks: £80
Total: £218

Week Four
Child one: musical theatre camp two days 9am-3pm: £54
Child two: four day football camp 9am-3pm: £88
Packed lunches plus additional post 3pm snacks: £80
Total: £222

Grand total: £1,006

As you may notice from the above, the camps all finished by 3pm most days, and there were none on a Friday, which meant a juggle of friends and family, iPads and trying to muddle together to ensure my eight and six-year-old were looked after. It also doesn’t include any of the days out, which included a trip to Knebworth House (highly recommended, my kids loved the park and visiting the gardens) which cost £56 for the three of us, four of us at Go Ape (£88 for an HOUR), Chessington World of Adventures (£55 after using every voucher possible) and more ice cream than I thought humanly possible. And let me tell you a ’99 is minimum £2.50 these days – don’t even get me started on £3 magnums. I spent much of the other days in parks, at the beach and at splash parks making the most of the decent August weather but at every moment I felt like I was £30 away from another tap on my mobile.

On reflection I know how lucky I am that I was able to send my children to camps so I could work, I also found that the holidays flew by with minimal boredom and, dare I say it, only a few moments when I felt overwhelmed. My kids absolutely loved their summer camps, learnt new skills and improved the ones they already had. The night before they both returned to school they went to bed saying it was the best summer ever, which obviously pleased me immensely thinking of the last few years when we have spent thousands on holidays abroad, and thanked me for all the fun times.

So was it worth spending the summer in my overdraft and September feeling a little bit like January, wondering how I will get through the rest of the month? I guess so. Just don’t mention the cost of school uniform. . .

Lauren Ezekiel is an associate editor at PS UK, where she writes about all things beauty and wellness. With a degree in journalism and 12 years’ experience as a beauty editor at a leading Sunday supplement, she is obsessed with skincare, hair and makeup, and is often found offering advice to innocent bystanders. Her work has been published in Grazia, OK, Health and Beauty, The Sun, ASDA, Dare and Metro.