lakecountrybeer.com

By Jeff Lorenz

Summer camps for kids can squash a family’s shoestring budget. A full session for a private overnight camp can cost over $10,000 and nonprofit camps can eat about $500 out of your piggy bank for one week.

Make Summer Camps for Kids Fit Into Your Family’s Budget

With a little legwork and preparation, you can make your child a happy camper without depressing your bank account.

Day Camp Vs. Overnight Camp

Although there are many benefits to overnight camp, day camps are typically less expensive. They can run the same length of days as an overnight camp. You just drop your kids off in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon instead.

Day camp can be a perfect option for children who haven’t spent much time away from home. Moms and dads who’ve forked over hundreds of dollars or more for an overnight camp can be shocked when their camper who couldn’t wait to go away for two weeks is homesick the first night out of the house.

Summer Camp Scholarships

Many summer camps for kids offer scholarships to cover some or all of the camper’s costs. How to qualify depends on the type of camp your child wants to attend.

A traditional summer camp with crafts, swimming and nights around the campfire may or may not ask to see a parent’s tax return with the scholarship application. A music camp might want a recording of your child playing an instrument. A sports camp could require membership in that sport’s official organization. Each scholarship’s rules vary with some more relaxed than others.

Payment Plans

More summer camps are allowing parents to make several payments rather than one lump sum to reserve your child’s space. Many give you the option of starting payment plans months before summer camp begins so your bank account doesn’t take a massive hit right as you pack your child’s bags for camp.

Bargaining

Old-fashioned haggling is a tactic more summer camps are opening up to as families tighten their spending. You’ll never know if you can knock the price down if you don’t ask.

Prioritize your list of potential summer camps before you try to negotiate a lower rate. Call your number one choice. You have a better chance of bargaining with a real person on the other end of the line instead of through an email.

Early Bird Rates

Early bird rates are a wild card when it comes to the amount of money you can save. You’ll find early bird discounts as low as $5 at one summer camp or over $100 at another camp running the same amount of days.

“Early bird” can also mean a summer camp registration deadline as soon as December for the next year’s summer camp. It might be as late as the end of April.

Sibling Discount

The more the merrier for summer camps. That’s why they usually offer a sibling discount if you enroll two or more children at the same time.

Another strategy is to ask if the camp will allow a sibling discount if you send your child and a cousin or friend in the same age range. There are summer camps that would rather have the two kids on a sibling discount than lose both campers.

Online Registration

You won’t usually save a significant amount of money filling out your child’s summer camp registration online but every little bit helps. Look for summer camps that offer online registration discounts. Your typical savings will be $10 to $20.

Barter

Bartering can save you lots of money at summer camps for kids. There are several ways you can try to barter to get the camp costs down.

Summer camps need adult hands to help. Barter by volunteering your time to pitch in on certain days. Teach a craft. Cook food. Clean up.

Get creative when bartering. Your summer camp may need a brochure. Can you write it? Design it?

Do you know how to build a website? Would you volunteer to update the camp’s blog? Post pictures online?

Approach the camp as you would a business. Make a proposition to see if there’s a way you could get involved to help the summer camp and reduce the cost of sending your kids there.

Prorated Time

Love the camp but not the price? Ask if you can send your child to camp for a portion of the session.

To get a general idea of how much you could save, calculate the amount you would spend for a full week or two at summer camp. Start deducting that amount off the camp’s full session time to see how much your prorated fee would cost your family and how many days your child would actually get to attend.

Honor System

A newer option summer camps are presenting to parents is an honor system. For the same summer camp session, parents are given a range of fees. You choose your price based on how much you can comfortably afford.

All children get the same camp experience for the same amount of time. No one knows how much anyone else paid.

Look for Competition

Research the summer camps in your region. In cities where there are multiple summer camps, they’re fighting to get your child to enroll in their program. This can work to your advantage with more discounts and bargaining opportunities.

Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account

If your or your spouse’s employer offers daycare expenses, check to see if a dependent care flexible spending account may help your family pay for summer camp. There are many IRS rules associated with a dependent care flexible spending account so be sure to talk with your accountant before making a decision.

About the Author: Swift Nature Camp is a

Overnight Summer Camp

for boys and girls ages 6-15. Our focus is to blend traditional

Kids Summer Camp

activities while increasing a child’s appreciation for nature, science and the environment.

Science Summer Camps

Source:

isnare.com

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A Quick Question And Answer Guide On Outsourced Bookkeeping Services

by

Accounting Services

A bookkeeper is an important professional required in all business sectors. Their work does not entail complex computations as does the job of an accountant. They are trained to capture and record transactions as they occur. Bookkeepers are normally hired via the traditional recruitment process. However, the concept of outsourcing is quickly changing how

bookkeeping services

are purchased by companies. Instead of employing one or more bookkeepers, companies are opting to use a distant team of professionals. This is called outsourcing or subcontracting.

When companies delegate tasks to a third party group of clerks, they eliminate the cost of advertising a post or paying an agency to find a suitable candidate.

Stopping the whole act of traditional hiring process in favor of outsourcing helps organizations free up their office space, time and money. If these three resources are utilized intelligently, a business should expand and grow. Perhaps you are not using outsourced Bookkeeping services because you do not understand them. To assist you understand, read the following question and answer guide.

Which type of business can benefit from bookkeeping services outsourcing?

The act of outsourcing books favors mostly the small and medium-sized organizations. They are just perfect for a small business that cannot afford a big team of bookkeepers. Delegating work to a third party would allow an entrepreneur to focus on the core business.

Can the provider of bookkeeping services take control of your business?

A third party bookkeeper is only interested in clerical work. They could only gain control if they join you in your office. On the contrary, they fulfill their duties from a distant office. After they produce accurate accounting data for you, it is your choice how to use it to control your whole organization.

How will outsourcing your books reduce your operating costs?

The answer is simple. A third party bookkeeper is an asset not a liability. First they work remotely in a fully-equipped office. They do not give you extra expenditures. Second, they have a big team that provides bookkeeping services. As a customer you don t supervise this team or cater to its affairs. Thus you could free your time and become stress free. In addition, this team provides accurate work very quickly to avoid piling work. A third party contractor is therefore independent, speedy and perfect. They will steer your organization forward rather than backward. They only require a service fee not a monthly salary, paid leave, health insurance cover and other expensive needs.

Will you sign a service contract?

Many trustworthy sellers of

bookkeeping services

make their customers sign a contract. This contract will be prepared in accordance with the US business laws so as to be totally ethical. It is wise to read the contract though, prior to signing it.

Are your books secured online?

This is a question that disturbs a lot of people. If your accounting books get in the hands of the wrong person, on the internet, the worst could happen. With many accounting firms that offer bookkeeping services, the question of insecurity does not arise. They have very encrypted and secured servers. They ape the encryption technology used by large banks or governments to protect your business data.

Outsourcing accounting

improves financial operations as well as increased the level of efficiency, adaptability and ability to wok with the market conditions while at the same time curtailing risks and costs. Brow website for outsourcing accounting.

Article Source:

ArticleRich.com