Jan 27, 2009
The Daily Poverty Post.
Bossy has written before about those little costs that add up, especially when those little costs are a 19-year-old college student and a sixth grader.
Bossy’s daughter attends public school, where they are slightly more mindful about keeping extracurricular activities affordable to everyone, but it’s always something.
Case in point: this Friday Bossy’s daughter is going to attend a $10 dance where the water and pretzels cost extra which sounds more like Dance Prison to Bossy, but off Bossy’s daughter will cheerfully go.
And Bossy understands, the admission fee covers the cost of the rented community center, which provides two walls of opposing benches so the girls and boys never have to interact at all.
It’s always something.
Check below for the list of blogs participating in Bossy’s Poverty Party. And don’t forget to comb the comment section for links to entertaining Poverty posts across the web.
My 14 year olds school dance also costs $10 (Australian though…USD 6.63) and includes a fruit juice and small packet of potato chips.
Thank you for making me feel better about that!
BTW…Can they not spell pretzel?
Tut tut….such a bad example to set impressionable future signwriters.
wow. When I was in HIGH SCHOOL (hey, I only graduated six years ago, inflation hasn’t been THAT BAD) our danced were only $5, until we hit prom, and that was $15, AND I went to school in the ghetto, yo. They didn’t feed us though, but seriously, your daughter’s dance is like flying United. All kinds of extra added costs. The kicker is, SHE IS A KID!!! UGH!!!
Laughing out loud about the pretzel spelling!
My 8th grader’s dance are $5 … and they’ve started actually *gasp* dancing with the girls.
Eeks.
They get a bottle of water, I think — and then they have concessions for purchase.
Can Bossy’s daughter bring her own pretzles and watre, or is it against the rules (like at the movie theatre)?
Why do they have to rent a hall? Our school has their dances at the school.
Yikes, dances. I haven’t thought that far ahead. Way back here in 1st grade we just have to deal with the candy sale and the potato chip sale and the myriad fundraisers offering too-expensive things that I don’t want. Until we take over the PTA after next year…
…obsessed by the spelling mistake. Can they spell “PTA”?
…and don’t even get me started on school fundraisers.
Clearly they’re not spending their money on proofreaders.
I have never been to a dance where the basic concessions were extra.
I mean, I’m not sure we even had any at our dances or anything, but we surely didn’t have to pay for them if they did.
Also, ours were always either in the gym or the cafeteria.
I’m stumped. Why would a school need to rent a community center? I’m also cringing at the spelling but that’s nothing new.
I hope BOSSY’s daughter has a Wonderful Time at the Dance! If so, it will be $10 well-spent.
And, vuboq has a Poverty-Related Post today: Poor Man’s Broth: http://vuboq.blogspot.com/2009/01/poor-mans-broth.html
My daughter went to Homecoming and it was $30 for singles $50 for couples and the food was extra. She said there were hardly any decorations. What gives!!!!
Ouch. I would lobby for using the school cafeteria, pitchers of TAP water or a water fountain, and a dictionary.
We enjoyed a lovely evening of 4 mostly student-directed, one-act plays Saturday evening at our daughter’s high school. $5 a ticket, but then I did donate a pumkin cake (fat-free, vegan) and a crate of Clementines for the intermission snack table. Still a bargain, but then we get to pay tuition.
Stay warm, p.j.
Ack! PumPkin cake, that was. Chalk that up to my vertigo. Or the snow.
Wow! Our dances here in the sticks are $3/person or $5/couple!
I feel you. Life’s “little costs” have killed me this month and thus I’ve gotten nowhere on my debt-reduction. Very discouraging.
Thank God we had no dances until 7th Grade. One less year to deal with that awkward horribleness. And until the Junior and Senior proms, the dances were always at the gym. I don’t remember paying, at least monetarily.
It should be in the school for free!! For $10.00 you should get a burger, soda, and your photo taken. Bossy JR should protest this event.
Bossy, I am so proud to say that not only did I spend the entire weekend in Bossy’s Hometown, but I did the entire trip in under $100 – which included 1) gas, 2) a brilliant scarf from urban outfitters, 3) trip to the farmers market near baltimore and 47th, and 4) ALCOHOL.
Proud? I thought you would be.
Seriously? They have to pay extra for water and pretzels?
Water? And pretzels? What?!
–>It was circa 1988 when I was in 7th grade but it cost us $5 to attend the dance which was right after school, in the gym.
I just did a shoulder roll — out of respect for how all the girls danced — together.
http://thaxtonfam.blogspot.com
Back in my day – 1987 to 1990 – these dances were FREE. As in, you know, FREE. Eesh, it’s expensive to have a kid today.
Oh well. And? It’s my birthday, so happy b-day to me! Which is apropos of nothing, I just felt like telling you all.
$10??? For what? At my dd’s elementary dances they were either free (if you brought a can for charity) or $2-3. I realize they may have a DJ but honestly…
And we sometimes had the same spelling problems on notices too at our school. Now in middle school I haven’t seen such issues…. guess they are capable of using a spellchecker now.
Our school is ridiculous. Junior dance is $125. Senior prom $200. TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS! Senior portraits are $30 for sitting fee, then packages from 275 to 800 dollars. Yearbooks? $125.
Guess who will be getting NONE of these things. My kids. What a glorious high school experience they’re having…not.
My first poverty post is up: http://outtamymindwithworry.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-first-poverty-post.html
Pretzels (no matter how they spell it) and water??? Oh my goodness that just sounds like everyone will be bloated!!!!
That’s insane! My son’s in junior high, and their dances are $5 and include all-you-can-eat pizza and soda. Because how else do you get junior high boys to show up at a dance?
Bossy needs to take her Daily Poverty Party to the next PTA meeting and sign them up.
Don’t they have a school gym or cafeteria? Renting a venue for a 6th grade dance is not good. And, for $10 you should be allowed to drop your kid off early…with their own snacks.
$10 for water, pretzles and 6th grade antics?
lord a mighty….
The misspelling of pretzel reminds me of the time my high school advertised heavily for a country-themed dance called the “Ho Down”
Dance Prison. HA! chuckle chuckle
Too bad it’s not a French prison for the petit fors, but it looks like it’s German, what with the pretzels and all.
In college we used to “front load” before going to an expensive place. (To us that meant get drunk on the cheap hootch at our apartment and then only pay the cover fee at the dance/party and sip water)
Your daughter should front load the pretzels and water before the dance. That’ll show em.
Plus she’ll be totally ready for college.
Our 6th grade “dance” is called “Activity Night.” We have dancing to the tunes of a local DJ in the school cafeteria, dodge ball in the small gym, some other games in the large gym and aquatic games in the pool. Cost is $5 per student and includes a can of pop and slice of pizza, with additional refreshments available for purchase. I guess the cost of living is lower in upstate NY.
In defense of the person who wrote that flyer (ME!). It was late at night and I was multi-tasking. And yes I do know pretzels was spelled wrong but by the time it was noticed the copies were made. You should have seen the hoops I had to jump through to get the school to put them in backpacks. Nothing like being humiliated by having your spelling errors brought to the attention of the school principal – just to save the dollars of the community organization hosting the dance! ugh. PLUS – it’s a volunteer position that I didn’t ask for! Flog me with a wet pretzel and let’s be done with it!
Does BOSSY’s daughter’s school not have a cafegymatorium in which the 6th grades could cluster awkwardly?
I actually spelled “Chistmas” on a forty-five foot banner for our HS Christmas Dance. Typos happen.
It souds like Bossy would like to volunteer to run the next dance – skip the pretzels and charge only $5 admission!!
See how easy typos are: I know I typed “sound” with an “n” but the Computer Gods over ruled me. Maybe I was thinking about pretzels!