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Summer saving tips to keep you afloat

Summer saving tips to keep you afloat

Clockwise from top: St. Lawrence Market, classic playground structure, skipping in food truck parking lot, and Maple Leaf baseball at Christie Pits

Forget about diapers. Forget about formula. Forget about shoes and clothes and food and everything else that’s supposed to cost a fortune when you have kids.

Summer takes the cake. When you have kids summer goes from the season where maybe you overdo it on the patio circuit and stretch the budget a little bit to this crazy expensive cyclone of spending money hand over fist and nobody ever talks about it.

Let’s break down how my bank account is getting a serious workout this summer, for example. First, there’s summer camp. I don’t mean that we’re sending our kids away to some ritzy month-long “experience.” I’m just talking about your run-of-the-mill city-run day camp that is basically a place where I can send my children while school’s out in order to keep working. Four weeks of day camp times three children costs me around $2000.

Of course, I’m only sending them for half the summer so I will have to take on fewer freelance projects which means less income. That drop in income will certainly come in handy during the family vacation which we take during the summer. Doh! Couple that with all kinds of fun outings and events that will scrape away at the bottom of my wallet just in time to buy everybody an all-new school wardrobe because these people just won’t stop growing. (And I’m not the only one who just shelled out for next year’s hockey registration fee, am I?)

$ $ $ ???????????????????? $ $ $ &#!@?!

The good news is that I am here to help. I mean, not usually. Usually I am here to weep and cry and laugh at my own dumb luck. But today, right here and now, I have helpful information.

I attended an event for bloggers and there was so much helpful information being shared around that room that I couldn’t help but absorb a tiny bit of it.

  1. You are not alone. 55% of Canadian parents with kids under 18 have additional expenses during the summer. And 71% of them will spend up to $999 per kid.

  2. That money needs to come from somewhere. And ideally, that “somewhere” won’t be a growing pile of debt. The top two ways Canadian parents pay for summer expenses are by saving up in advance and cutting back other expenses.

  3. There are ways to save you might not have thought of. Some tips are using credit card rewards toward summer activities (like theme park visits, for example), taking advantage of early bird discounts where possible, budgeting and saving throughout the year (with the help of savings tools provided by the bank, if you like), shopping around for more affordable programs, and making sure you are claiming any tax deductions from summer programs.

But my favourite part of the evening was when a room full of Toronto-area mom bloggers started brainstorming different freebie and cheapo options for the summer. I’m pretty sure we could have gone on all night. Here are some highlights:

Free and cheap summer fun for families in Toronto

  • Make it a games afternoon by hanging out in a cafe that offers board games, like Boards and Ladders in the Annex

  • Sundays are family day at the Gardiner Museum of ceramic arts with lots of activities family activities on offer (and kids 12 and under are always free)

  • Visit the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse and Franklin’s Garden for free on the Toronto Islands (if you can resist the lure of Centreville)

  • Sugar Beach has soft sand spotted with pink sun umbrellas right on Queen’s Quay. And my gang also enjoys the new playground at Sherbourne Common, a short walk away.

  • All the parks and beaches. Sometimes just visiting the local park one neighbourhood over is enough of a thrill.

  • Sunnybrook Stables, Woodbine Racetrack, Riverdale Farm, Mackenzie House, Allen Gardens, Harbourfront free movies, TD Reads reading clubs, Maple Leaf baseball at Christie Pits

The list goes on. What’s your favourite way to save money and have fun in the summer?

 

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Stuff I’m Digging: Legoland Discovery Centre

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The kids and I got the chance to crash (er, attend and report on) the media preview for the new Legoland Discovery Centre that opens today at Vaughan Mills. (That’s a giant mall outside of Toronto, next to Canada’s Wonderland for all you downtown elites, or people from elsewhere in the world.) We had fun!

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My favourite part because I am old and boring is the Miniland that is a Lego replica of downtown Toronto (and Niagara Falls) replete with a Lego city hall. What? No Lego Rob Ford?! That’s pretty much how clean our city really is, too.

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There was also a Lego Skydome Roger’s Centre with cutting edge, high tech, interactive pin ball functionality.

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Interactive ACC, too. Go Leafs!

Colum also had a blast building his own Lego car and then racing it down giant ramps. The kids all loved the Merlin’s Apprentice and Kingdom Quest rides. There is also a Lego Duplo play area for littler kids, a jungle gym-type obstacle course, a 4D movie theatre, classes with a master builder and party rooms.

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Reinforcing gender-based stereotypes like it’s her job, Irene could not get enough of the Lego play kitchen.

All in all, it’s a pretty cool place for kids. It’s not quite big enough to be a destination in and of itself, but it’s a great option if you are in the GTA anyway and looking for a fun way to spend the afternoon. Or, you know, a great place to unload your husband and kids while you get some shopping done.