{"id":967,"date":"2011-08-17T03:08:13","date_gmt":"2011-08-17T03:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/?p=967"},"modified":"2011-08-17T03:12:53","modified_gmt":"2011-08-17T03:12:53","slug":"renting-vs-buying-a-saxophone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967","title":{"rendered":"Renting vs Buying a Saxophone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This is Nathan. \u00a0He’s playing By Loch and Mountain<\/em>, one of my absolute favorite pieces he learned in middle school. \u00a0That was\u00a0five years ago. \u00a0Nathan is now headed off to college soon and will not be taking his saxophone with him. \u00a0So I’m selling it.<\/p>\n

Until today, it had been three years since he tooted a note. \u00a0He quit band his\u00a0sophomore year in high school. \u00a0Even so, I’d been holding on to the sax in the off-chance that he might pick it up again. \u00a0 That never happened and now it’s time to move on.<\/p>\n

I bought the sax seven years ago on ebay and paid $367. \u00a0It was my very first ebay purchase and I was stressed out. \u00a0I’ll never forget that I was bidding against ‘Rosie’ and, gosh darn it, Rosie was not going to win. \u00a0I remember hyper-ventilating as the clock ticked down to bidding close and I was trying to increase my bid. \u00a0It was an unbelievably stressful event but my kid needed a sax.<\/p>\n

I probably paid more than I needed to. \u00a0But let’s break down the math. \u00a0At the time, it cost $45 a month to rent a sax. \u00a0Multiply that by 9 months and the total yearly cost for a rental adds up to $405. \u00a0He played the instrument for\u00a04 years. \u00a0So $405 times\u00a04 = $1620. \u00a0Sheesh, that’s a lot of money.<\/p>\n

Two days ago I placed an ad on Craig’s list and listed the sax for $300. \u00a0It’s in great shape. \u00a0And came with 5 brand new reeds. \u00a0Those things are pricey so it’s a bonus to the buyer.<\/p>\n

Tonight I sold the sax.<\/p>\n

So let’s do a little more math. \u00a0The original price I paid was $367. \u00a0I just got $300 in cash. \u00a0That means that it cost me $67 to have Nathan entertain us with his sax playing for four years.<\/p>\n

Okay, so there’s the price of the reeds that I seemed to always be buying. \u00a0At $2 a pop, those add up. \u00a0Then there was the time that one of the palm keys needed to be replaced. \u00a0That cost $50. \u00a0Of course, when the lower oct key mechanism needed alignment, that was another $55. \u00a0Those things are simply going to happen.<\/p>\n

But all in all, purchasing vs renting was absolutely the way to go. \u00a0And getting misty over the band’s rendition of By Loch and Mountain<\/em>…well, that was priceless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is Nathan. \u00a0He’s playing By Loch and Mountain, one of my absolute favorite pieces he learned in middle school. \u00a0That was\u00a0five years ago. \u00a0Nathan is now headed off to college soon and will not be taking his saxophone with him. \u00a0So I’m selling it. Until today, it had been three years since he tooted a note. \u00a0He quit band his\u00a0sophomore year in high school. \u00a0Even so, I’d been holding on to the sax in the off-chance that he might…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13,16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kids-and-budgeting","category-kids-and-spending","category-teachable-moments","category-teaching-kids-financial-literacy"],"yoast_head":"\nRenting vs Buying a Saxophone - Karyn's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Renting vs Buying a Saxophone - Karyn's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is Nathan. \u00a0He’s playing By Loch and Mountain, one of my absolute favorite pieces he learned in middle school. \u00a0That was\u00a0five years ago. \u00a0Nathan is now headed off to college soon and will not be taking his saxophone with him. \u00a0So I’m selling it. Until today, it had been three years since he tooted a note. \u00a0He quit band his\u00a0sophomore year in high school. \u00a0Even so, I’d been holding on to the sax in the off-chance that he might... Read More Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Karyn's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/familymathnight\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-17T03:08:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-08-17T03:12:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/DSCN0896-450x337.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"337\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Karyn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Karyn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Karyn\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8315e40892235d198a376ee61ef7f093\"},\"headline\":\"Renting vs Buying a Saxophone\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-17T03:08:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-08-17T03:12:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967\"},\"wordCount\":405,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/DSCN0896-150x150.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Budgeting\",\"Spending\",\"Teachable Money Moments\",\"Teaching Kids Financial Literacy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967\",\"name\":\"Renting vs Buying a Saxophone - Karyn's Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/DSCN0896-150x150.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-17T03:08:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-08-17T03:12:53+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/DSCN0896-150x150.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/DSCN0896-150x150.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Renting vs Buying a Saxophone\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Karyn's Blog\",\"description\":\"Ideas, Lessons, and Musings on Kids' Math\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Family Math Night\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fmnlogo-large.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fmnlogo-large.png\",\"width\":712,\"height\":206,\"caption\":\"Family Math Night\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/familymathnight\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/familymathnight\",\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/familymathnight\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8315e40892235d198a376ee61ef7f093\",\"name\":\"Karyn\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8822970fc0e614aab3c5814aa4e2f399870dbe6a34aca22991e0204c455f23c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8822970fc0e614aab3c5814aa4e2f399870dbe6a34aca22991e0204c455f23c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Karyn\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Renting vs Buying a Saxophone - Karyn's Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Renting vs Buying a Saxophone - Karyn's Blog","og_description":"This is Nathan. \u00a0He’s playing By Loch and Mountain, one of my absolute favorite pieces he learned in middle school. \u00a0That was\u00a0five years ago. \u00a0Nathan is now headed off to college soon and will not be taking his saxophone with him. \u00a0So I’m selling it. Until today, it had been three years since he tooted a note. \u00a0He quit band his\u00a0sophomore year in high school. \u00a0Even so, I’d been holding on to the sax in the off-chance that he might... Read More Read More","og_url":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967","og_site_name":"Karyn's Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/facebook.com\/familymathnight","article_published_time":"2011-08-17T03:08:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-08-17T03:12:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":450,"height":337,"url":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/DSCN0896-450x337.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Karyn","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Karyn","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967"},"author":{"name":"Karyn","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8315e40892235d198a376ee61ef7f093"},"headline":"Renting vs Buying a Saxophone","datePublished":"2011-08-17T03:08:13+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-17T03:12:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967"},"wordCount":405,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/DSCN0896-150x150.jpg","articleSection":["Budgeting","Spending","Teachable Money Moments","Teaching Kids Financial Literacy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967","url":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967","name":"Renting vs Buying a Saxophone - Karyn's Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/DSCN0896-150x150.jpg","datePublished":"2011-08-17T03:08:13+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-17T03:12:53+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/DSCN0896-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/DSCN0896-150x150.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=967#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Renting vs Buying a Saxophone"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/","name":"Karyn's Blog","description":"Ideas, Lessons, and Musings on Kids' Math","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Family Math Night","url":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fmnlogo-large.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fmnlogo-large.png","width":712,"height":206,"caption":"Family Math Night"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/facebook.com\/familymathnight","https:\/\/instagram.com\/familymathnight","https:\/\/youtube.com\/familymathnight"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8315e40892235d198a376ee61ef7f093","name":"Karyn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8822970fc0e614aab3c5814aa4e2f399870dbe6a34aca22991e0204c455f23c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8822970fc0e614aab3c5814aa4e2f399870dbe6a34aca22991e0204c455f23c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Karyn"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.familymathnight.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?author=2"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=967"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":972,"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions\/972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}