What I Spent: Pre-Evaluation Clinics

All star cheer gyms around the country are heading into tryout season! My athlete Laurel is excited to start her SEVENTH (!!!) season cheering and is working hard to master one last tumbling skill to try to level up. I’m prepping my budget for the entire season based on last year’s expenses, but I’ll make adjustments as the gym publishes updated information for uniforms, tuition, and competition fees.

First up, Laurel will attend clinics hosted by our gym in the two weeks leading up to evaluations. Stunting and tumble/jump clinics are held separately and group athletes by age and level. These clinics are technically optional, but allow the athletes to show their dedication to pushing levels and commitment to the program. It also gives the athletes a chance to show their skills to the coaches outside of the official tryout, so even if they get stumble on tryout day they have already (unofficially) demonstrated what they can do.

These clinics are the first expenses of the season—I’m excited to break out a fresh new planner to start tracking! I hope you will follow along with me throughout the season as I keep track of exactly where our money is going  

Pre-Evaluation Clinic Cost Breakdown:

Registering at the door would cost $30 per clinic.  Laurel will attend 5 clinics, which comes to $150. BUT- by registering with the early bird discount, each clinic is only $20, or $100 all together (saving us $50!).

But wait, there’s more!

Our gym occasionally offers a bonus on gift cards/credits to use for tuition and other registration fees. Because we purchased these gift cards from our gym when they offered a 10% bonus, we actually paid $91 for a $100 credit that we used to register for clinics. In the end, we are getting a 40% discount ($59) compared to paying at the door. 

Final cost: $91 for 5 clinics

How much are you spending this year on pre-evaluation clinics? Drop a comment below!