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Junior Member
 
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 7/22/2009 8:59:33 PM
Posts: 21,
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It's very interesting to see the range of budgets.......I just wasn't sure if we were on the high end or low end.  Last year, I wasn't in charge, and they spent $4200 with about $800 of donations coming in.  This year, I was in charge of everything and we spent $3200 and had about $1900 come in.  This year I didn't buy much from Group, and that helped a LOT. This year, we had 95 kids, 25 crew leaders, 20 crew assistants (6th graders), and 22 adult station leaders/admin/registration/etc. Numbers were a bit lower last year, so I was very proud. Now, our VBS is actually a "camp". We hold it at a local campground, which is a big bulk of our cost. ($1250) The kids come from 10am to 1:30pm, and the last hour is beach/swim time. The kids leave, but several of the adults stay, and everyone 7th grade and up stays. They get lunch, some downtime, then planned activities (fun team building games) for the rest of the evening. Dinner, bonfire and devotionals, then bedtime. Breakfast and devotionals in the morning. It's the best camp ever.  Most of our money coming in came from the fact that we charged for t-shirts, and for the campers that stayed overnight. $30 for their teenager to spend Sunday through Friday at camp with 3 meals a day is a pretty good deal I think! We will fundraise more this year, starting this summer. My goal next year is to have the best VBS ever and no out of pocket expenses. I hope to break even on the costs!
Candi
Wife to Ken
Mom to Jacob (8), Sarah (8), and Emma (6)
VBS/camp Director for Lapeer Community Church!!
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Junior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 7/21/2009 11:05:43 PM
Posts: 17,
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Our budget is around $500, which includes the costs of Group orders, Oriental Trading orders, decorations, food, and crafts.
 James in PA
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Forum Expert
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 11/8/2009 3:46:24 PM
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Wow! How do you do it for $500. I'd love to know your breakdown. How many kids do you plan for? We spent nearly $500 last year, and we only had 44 kids (new ministry last year), and we were given all the decorations, posters and the starter kit. We bought inexpensive crafty items, lemonade and the experiment items. I don't know where all the money went!
Shawn Parker
Eddy, Texas
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Forum Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 7/23/2009 6:49:58 PM
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We have a typical VBS budget of $1500. This year we had 40 kids attend VBS and about 25 volunteers.
 East University Church of God
Sharing God's Love, one child at a time!
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Junior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 7/8/2009 1:05:42 PM
Posts: 12,
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We were fortunate to have a donor for our bible buddies. They asked about something we really wanted to give the kids but had a hard time fitting into our budget. I gave them a few items and they choose the buddies. They sponsored 100 of them. We were blessed.
If you don't have one big contributor, you might consider the wall idea but choose 10 sets of buddies as a donation. Just an idea. God Bless!
Michelle
Michelle
St Mark's Episcopal
Corpus Christi, TX
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Forum Newbie
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 7/7/2009 1:19:02 PM
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| Our VBS runs M-F, 6:8:30 PM. We had around 80 kids attend this last year, 50+ volunteers (There were 14 elementary crews, 5 preschool crews, 11 station leaders, station helpers, floaters, couple of photographers, etc). Our budget is $2400 and we spend 99% of it usually. I'm not sure what the final tally was this year, we have some stuff that has to go back to Group for credit. We get everything from Group except the bible buddies, we do something else that takes the place of these. We also use this money for the decorations (foam board and paint - most everything else we borrow from different church members). Hope this gives you some ideas, Sonny D.
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Junior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 7/10/2009 10:47:26 PM
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| I just want to encourage all of you who posted and those of you who didn't... As my southern mama always said, "Sometimes, it's hard to see the forest for the trees." Meaning, you don't realize how blessed you are! I see your posts regarding your attendance and your budgets, and alot of you have incredible budgets for the number of kids you are serving. Keep being frugal, crafty and inventive! We're all excited about HSE in '10, as evidenced by the number of posts already on this site, so let's get started praying for each other and our own VBS's next year RIGHT NOW. God will provide for what we NEED if we show Him our faithfulness.
Hope1 in Tennessee Y'all  Neh. 6:3 [MSG] ..."I am doing a great work; I can't come down."...
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Junior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 7/19/2009 3:04:35 PM
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You guys have some impressive budgets! We have a church with only about 50 members. We had 24 kids register for Crocodile Dock this year. We begged and borrowed most of the decorations, almost all of the supplies needed for each station, and all of the snacks. My husband and I bought the starter kit as our donation to the program, and the church will (hopefully!) reimburse me for the crafts, wristbands, banner, and guidebooks that I bought.
Looking back on it, I will definitely skip the guidebooks next year. I'd like to add the Buddies, but I'm not sure it'll be in the budget. Altogether, we probably spent about $350 of church money.
For High Seas, we'll re-use the backdrop that was given to us from another church's Crocodile Dock and paint the ocean scene on the back so we won't have to buy more foam panels. That'll save a lot right there.
Mel
"Call me Ishmael."
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Forum Guru
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/5/2009 12:17:32 AM
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we have 60-70 kids this year and my budget was 2500...alot of it went to our decorations and food...
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Forum Expert
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Yesterday @ 11:58:41 AM
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| we plan for 100 to sometimes 120 kids Our budget is 1500 and it almost got cut. we spend every dime on the kids and none for decorations. I work with other churches to get decorations and recycle and get donations of tubes and rugs etc from different sources. God has been good but wanting to show other budget for vbs to my church so this is wonderful this subject. our decorations always turn out like we have spent a ton of money and haven't. Reaching children for the Lord . I got cool crafts this year and it was under 3 dollars for each child . special donation came in over the budget so we got to get the candles too. Besides with the budget we got buddies and the mission project. Books for elementary . Made alternative books for preschool this year. Donation of other supplies from church members and still have 200 dollars left for more food and etc after this sunday to go and get . Need to make lots of phone calls this week . God bless Doreen
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