Cutting Expenses When It Comes to Kids’ Sports

I felt inspired to write this post after my boys stuck a stack of spring sports sign ups on my desk. Looking at sign up fees, fundraiser/buyout fees, fees if you can’t volunteer, then thinking about what gear they will need to be able to play. The expenses can add up fast. I realize different districts, towns, and states will run things a little differently but here are some ideas to help curb expenses.

Limiting the number:

This is the hardest one for me. I like seeing my kids involved in sports. It keeps them active, teaches them to work as a team, makes them feel good about themselves, and also teaches them they won’t always win all the time but that’s ok. I have 4 kids, 3 of which are involved in sports now. (the other is just a baby). If you have kids like mine that want to sign up for everything they bring hom,e maybe you can give them choices or limits. My parents told us growing up only 2 activities a year per kid. For my kids I give them an option: you either do winter basketball or wrestling, you can’t do both. I think this option is good, not just financially but, for them to focus on one sport at a time and be able to attend all practices and games.

You don’t have to buy NEW gear:

There are lots of options out there for pre-owned gear. Of course certain things like jock straps or mouth guards you’ll want to get new. Many things can be found used, but in good condition. Our AYSO league allows parents to donate soccer cleats in good shape. On sign up day they have a box of soccer cleats that families can go through from donations. They are free to take them and use them. If you have a friend, family member, or neighbor whose kids are involved in the same sports, perhaps you can do equipment exchanges when kids grow of things or decide not to play that particular sport anymore. We have a cousin who gave us a pair of men’s baseball cleats for my oldest son to borrow.

Consignment shops are another option, especially those that are specifically for kids. We have a consignment store near us called EcoKids and I’ve frequently seen gently used soccer cleats, ballet tutus, leotards, and slippers, and tap shoes.

Consider buying out of season when you can. When it comes time for football season or baseball season you’ll be paying regular price unless you happen to see a sale or coupon. You can get football pants, soccer balls, volleyballs, etc cheaper and sometimes even on clearance after the season.

Check the clearance racks. It might be last year’s style or not the main colors but you can find some on the clearance rack at times.

Check your discount stores. One of my fave places to buy my boys’ shin guards is at Ross Dress for Less. They seem to always have some in stock. They have name brands like Nike and Adidas for a fraction of the price of the sports equipment stores. I normally pay only $5 for shin guards when I need to buy new ones. Also check out sites like Ebay if you have the time to order and have it shipped. I got my son some headgear for wrestling for about half the price I would have paid buying it from a sports equipment store.

Talk to the coaches or equipment managers. If some of the equipment just doesn’t fit into your budget they may have a couple extras they can allow you to borrow or loan to you until you can get the equipment or until the season’s over.

Get what you NEED

Certain things are necessary for safety and performance in sports. Things like football helmets, mouth guards, shin guards, and uniforms are necessities in the sports world. Does your kids have to have Nike wrist sweat bands, or 10 pairs of practice pants? Most likely not.

Also find out what they are allowed to have before buying. Our AYSO league has a hand book that spells out everything they need from the appropriate size ball for their division to what kind of cleats they are allowed to have. Most of the sports in our area do not allow metal spikes for safety reasons. Also the league or school may provide certain pieces of equipment. Our youth football league, the kids are issued helmets, pants, jersey (included in sign up free), and pads. We just have to buy football cleats and mouth guards. We also ended up getting our one son a pair of football gloves.

Comparing costs versus alternative options

When my son brought home his baseball signs ups it read something like this:

-$30 for pre-registration $40 after specificied date

-$30 for fundraiser buyout if you’d prefer not to participate in fundrasier

–$40 fee if you do not volunteer in the concession stand as a parent helper

Ok let me tell you what works for me. The sign ups, obviously, get them register in the preregistration time frame. The fundraiser. For me, this is an easy decision. I pay the fundraiser buyout . Why? Well there is usually a quota for how much they have to see whether it be number of items they have to sell or a dollar amount sold. If my kids do not sell the specified amount, guess who has to make up the difference? Yep mom. A lot of times the fundraisers just aren’t that good. We had to sell coupon booklets for football for both boys last year. Each kid had to sell 12 coupon books at $5 a piece. They didn’t have a very wide appeal. Only local coupons that weren’t that good. I was able to sell 3 my ex husband sold about the same so mom and dad now have to write out checks for the rest which is WAY over the buyout price. So for me, buyout almost every time because we do not know what the fundraiser will be ahead of time. The volunteer fee. This one’s tricky. $40 is a lot of money in my book. But my husband works 2nd shift, I have 3 kids to run to sports at the same time and have a hard time finding sitters for whoever might not be practicing or playing that night. So essentially I already have to be 3 different places at any given time and sometimes it’s stressful. I hate to commit to something and then not be able to do it. I don’t have my kids practice or game schedules at sign up to even pretend to line up a day that might work. To me it would almost be worth it to me to just go ahead and pay the $40. Luckily though my ex said he’d take the volunteer spot so we didn’t have to pay that.

What ways have you found to save money in this area?

Top 5 Rules of Regifting

I have a helpful infographic from The Gumtree blog that can give you some important rules to remember if you plan on regifting. Just check it out:

Top 5 rules of Regifting is an infographic that was produced by Gumtree

Have you ever regifted? I’ll be honest, I don’t usually. Normally if I get something I already have I’ll let the person know so I can return it and get something else. OR if I’m afraid I’ll hurt their feelings telling them I can use something I’ll just sell it on ebay.

Custom Shirts from Allied Shirts

**I received a t-shirt in order to complete an honest review. No other compensation has been received**

It’s only January but I’m getting excited to see winter clearances happening and stores starting to introduce spring collections already. With spring comes team sports, spring marathons and walkathons, and spring fundraisers for organizations. If you need custom t-shirts for your spring events, check out AlliedShirts.com

I had the opportunity to create my own custom t-shirt to test out the process of creating a shirt and see the quality of the work that Allied Shirts does. I made a shirt for Luv Saving Money with my banner on it. With so many details in my banner I was wondering how well it would turn out. When I received my shirts I was really impressed with how well the design turned out. I loved the fact that there were so many t-shirt colors to choose from as well.

I know it’s hard to see because the lighting in my house is not very good but the shirt is actually dark green with my logo and web address on the front. This shirt has been washed, the colors and logo didn’t fade at all. They are 100% pre-shrunk cotton shirts. The type that I reviewed is the budget t-shirt. Don’t let the name fool you though, the shirt is a thicker t-shirt, NOT a flimsy cheap material.

If you need custom shirts made for your spring sports team, family reunion, business, fundraiser team, etc I would definitely recommend Allied Shirts. They did nice work and did it in a timely manner. Doesn’t surprise me thought, they also own BuildASign.com and Printcopia, I worked with Buildasign.com not too long ago and got a banner, business cards, and magnets made by them and they did the same amazing and timely job.

You can find Allied Shirts on twitter: @AlliedShirts and on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlliedShirts

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*This post does contain an affiliate link, regardless I only post legitimate offers from trusted sites. **

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Gearing Up for Spring Sport with ArmourBite® Mouthpiece

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

Even though it’s only the beginning of January, I already had a small stack of spring sport sign ups placed upon my desk by my boys: youth baseball, youth basketball spring league, and AYSO soccer. My 10 year old wants to do the basketball and AYSO, my oldest wants to sign up for baseball, my youngest son is now old enough to play AYSO and he wants to. Filled out forms and sent in money. Next step will be to pick up the gear they need for practice and games.

Under Armour is a well known brand for performance and sports gear. My boys think it’s cool to have Under Armour gear. This year my oldest son gets to test out a new Under Armour product, ArmourBite® Mouthpiece.

If you look at the picture you can see it doesn’t look like your typical mouthpiece. I actually thought it was a mouth guard of some sort when I initially read about it but my assumption was wrong. It’s actually a mouth piece to help with your performance.

ArmourBite® Mouthpiece is meant to be worn on the lower teeth. The idea is that when we work out or play sports we tend to clench our teeth. When we clench our teeth we aren’t getting as much air flow and cortisol is released which causes stress. Here is a video from Under Armour that explains it a little more:

If you or your children have ever worn a regular mouth guard, the fitting process is pretty much the same. It uses the boil and bite fit. You just boil your mouth piece in water for 45 seconds, remove from the water and allow it to cool for 15 seconds. You then place it in the mouth of the person the mouthpiece is intended for. In my case, it’s for my oldest son for baseball. He bites down and forms it then place in cold water for 10 minutes. the Armourbite comes with instructions that are easy to follow.

My son is currently in wrestling for winter sports but this mouth piece is not intended for contact sports. This would be more for baseball, soccer, tennis, workouts, lifting, things of that nature. Under Armour does make a protective mouthpiece however for contact sports with the same technology idea. My son is looking forward to trying this mouth piece out for baseball. He wore it around the house for a bit and told me it felt comfortable.

Under Armour mouth pieces are available on bitetech.com there are several types including one for people with braces. The Armourbite I reviewed her is latex free.

You can find Bitetech on the following social media channels:

Instagram: @bitetech

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BiteTech

Twitter: @Bitetech

GIVEAWAY

1 Luv Saving Money reader will win

an Armourbite Mouthpiece (youth or adult size)

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I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.