The cost of raising kids

NotAGolf

NotAGolf

NotAGolf

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Off the back of some comments in another thread about the cost of raising kids, I had a quick google and according to this report, the average cost of raising a child to the age of 18 for a couple is just over £160k, or an average of £740 per month.

We've got two kids (aged 3 and 5), and we definitely don't spend that much on ours. I doubt we spend that much on both of ours, let alone one. Are we fortunate, poor at budgeting, going to get a shock when the kids get older, or is the report a load of twaddle (or a mix of the above)?

We document our spending each month, so have a pretty good record on what we spend directly on the kids. I.e. things that we wouldn't pay if we didn't have kids, i.e. childcare, clothes, toys, birthdays, clubs, etc, and that's averaged £350 a month over the last couple of years for both kids. Admittedly this doesn't account for 'shared' things. i.e. additional food, 2 extra meals when eating out, 2 extra tickets when visiting attractions, extra gas/electricity usage, etc.

Granted we're very fortunate in that out childcare costs are low due to grandparents that help and my wife only working part time, but on the flip side we don't really skimp on the kids and they go to plenty of clubs and days out etc.

Anyone else with kids feel that the figure on the report is a little on the high side? Too late for me to do anything about it now of course, but just curious.
 
The numbers always seem on the high side - I guess the costs will depend a lot on things like childcare though - I've lots of relatives for instance so there was always family available so no need to pay for that which removes a large amount of cost.
 
NotAGolf said:
Off the back of some comments in another thread about the cost of raising kids, I had a quick google and according to this report, the average cost of raising a child to the age of 18 for a couple is just over £160k, or an average of £740 per month.

We've got two kids (aged 3 and 5), and we definitely don't spend that much on ours....
Click to expand...

I tried to work out how they came to that figure.

They've increased the costs they calculated in their 2012 report by inflation. 2012 report Is here:
cpag.org.uk

Cost of a Child 2012

At a time when many families are finding it hard to make ends meet, how much does it cost to bring up a child to meet their needs to a decent minimum standard? This report from CPAG, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, answers that question to show for the first time in a robust way how...
cpag.org.uk cpag.org.uk

The 2012 report didn't feel that credible to me. They assert that a first child will trigger a car purchase, for example (p41). That accounts for between a third and half of the additional cost of the first child.

It feels like a report written by a political campaigning group- because that's exactly what it is.
 
For periods of my daughter (11)s earlier years we were paying about 1K/month on child minder fees. It was brutal.

I think the cost is inflated that you typically see thrown around by the media. You can spend as much as you want on it, or DIY it and save a lot. We were lucky with our child minder though as she had 3 daughters around the same age so our daughter who is an only child basically ended up with 3 sisters. If we hadn't been able to get such a good fit I think one of us would have quit work though.
 
potatolord said:
I tried to work out how they came to that figure.

They've increased the costs they calculated in their 2012 report by inflation. 2012 report Is here:
cpag.org.uk

Cost of a Child 2012

At a time when many families are finding it hard to make ends meet, how much does it cost to bring up a child to meet their needs to a decent minimum standard? This report from CPAG, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, answers that question to show for the first time in a robust way how...
cpag.org.uk cpag.org.uk

The 2012 report didn't feel that credible to me. They assert that a first child will trigger a car purchase, for example (p41). That accounts for between a third and half of the additional cost of the first child.

It feels like a report written by a political campaigning group- because that's exactly what it is.
Click to expand...
Lumping in the cost of a car in is frankly ridiculous, we did buy a new (to us) car just before our first child was born but would have had to buy one within a couple of years anyway as the wife’s KA was dying, having a kid bought it forward but wasn’t what I would call a cost of having kids! We built an extension just before the second was born maybe we should add that to the cost of raising kids lol
 
peterwalkley said:
Aiming to claw it back when I'm old and senile ....
Click to expand...
Ha good luck, they'll still be saving for their first home let alone paying for care costs :p

I don't know why as a society we make having kids so damn expensive, its going to cause real issues in the next few decades with the population age imbalance.
 
NotAGolf said:
Off the back of some comments in another thread about the cost of raising kids, I had a quick google and according to this report, the average cost of raising a child to the age of 18 for a couple is just over £160k, or an average of £740 per month.

We've got two kids (aged 3 and 5), and we definitely don't spend that much on ours. I doubt we spend that much on both of ours, let alone one. Are we fortunate, poor at budgeting, going to get a shock when the kids get older, or is the report a load of twaddle (or a mix of the above)?

We document our spending each month, so have a pretty good record on what we spend directly on the kids. I.e. things that we wouldn't pay if we didn't have kids, i.e. childcare, clothes, toys, birthdays, clubs, etc, and that's averaged £350 a month over the last couple of years for both kids. Admittedly this doesn't account for 'shared' things. i.e. additional food, 2 extra meals when eating out, 2 extra tickets when visiting attractions, extra gas/electricity usage, etc.

Granted we're very fortunate in that out childcare costs are low due to grandparents that help and my wife only working part time, but on the flip side we don't really skimp on the kids and they go to plenty of clubs and days out etc.

Anyone else with kids feel that the figure on the report is a little on the high side? Too late for me to do anything about it now of course, but just curious.
Click to expand...

Without reading the report I imagine they're taking into account absolutely everything. I.e. if it's just you and the missus then you probably wouldn't need such a big house, so it's likely adding in the extra costs for a bigger home.

Running of a car - more fuel, more wear and tear on the tyres when there's 4 of you in there rather than 2.

It might even go as far as saying a holiday for a family of 4 during peak times can cost many multiples of what a couple would pay off peak.

Is it accurate overall - probably not. But it's looking at the worst case scenario.
 
Numbers seem a little high when you look below the headline figure.

They have a full cost that includes 'rent?', council tax and childcare.
And that's 160k
Without those it's 70k

70k is.. What 4k a year?
Is that right? Does seem a little high. I mean I have no idea.

It's probably heavily skewed by holidays, and presents. Food too I guess can be cheap or pricey.


All I know is, it's not the cost that's the deal breaker for me. Its time!
 
********. The only way it costs that much is if you are an idiot and spend loads of unnecessary money on stuff for them.
 
a1ex2001 said:
Lumping in the cost of a car in is frankly ridiculous, we did buy a new (to us) car just before our first child was born but would have had to buy one within a couple of years anyway as the wife’s KA was dying, having a kid bought it forward but wasn’t what I would call a cost of having kids! We built an extension just before the second was born maybe we should add that to the cost of raising kids lol
Click to expand...

That is another thing - my dad had a company car so none of that cost as well - though I think he contributed a bit so as to get something larger and more suited to a family than the stock options.
 
Don't know if they have accounted for inflation year on year. So when your kid is born £100 is worth £100 but when it's 18 years old the original £100 is worth 10p.
 
Mysterae_ said:
Don't know if they have accounted for inflation year on year. So when your kid is born £100 is worth £100 but when it's 18 years old the original £100 is worth 10p.
Click to expand...
Lol just popping to the shop for
Some £50 sweets ma back soon! I still remember the half penny chews :)
 
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