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Yesterday, in the throws of a big financial stress headache, we decided it was time to take our son out of his current $500-per-month preschool.  We've already found him a spot at another school for next year at a much cheaper monthly price of $145.  Needless to say, his current preschool is out of our price range.  Initially we had decided to put him there because we saw it as our last ditch effort to get him into Kindergarten early and we were willing to go into savings for that.  It was hugely important to us that our son be evaluated for Kindergarten readiness based on his skill level and actual readiness, rather than just his birthday (which was fine for California's age cutoff, but a month too late for Washington State's).  Sadly, the school ended up changing their policy and we realized that we had basically been throwing away our money all year long.  The reasons why we felt it was worth the financial burden suddenly disappeared and we were just left with the burden part.  And an ever-decreasing savings account.

Part of me feels like I'm being incredibly selfish, prioritizing lifestyle over preschool.  I've said it before, but I suck at budgeting.  It's just not something I do well.  Maybe if I tried a bit harder and paid more attention to the bottom line, we actually COULD afford this school.  But then a bigger part of me says, GET A GRIP WOMAN, IT'S JUST PRESCHOOL.  It's not Harvard.  Since he's not getting into Kindergarten early like we hoped, it's not going to make any long-term difference in his educational path either.  He doesn't need preschool for social reasons and I'm really good at making sure we get out of the house to play with other kids.  In fact, I'm really looking forward to teaching him to read since he's so close now.

And frankly, a thousand dollars is a thousand dollars, no matter how you slice it.

Fundamentally, it comes down to my discomfort with seeing the bottom line going south instead of north.  Since I know we suck at reigning in our discretionary spending (groceries, gas for two SUV's, diapers, etc), the best way to get ahead is to attack our fixed costs.  We've already paid off a car loan this year and a big student loan, but the pain of the preschool expense lingered.  I finally spoke with the school and explained our situation and for $645 he can finish the month and we'll be done.  His next school program starts September 1st.

It's going to be a long summer.