The cost of raising kids

[NotAGolf]

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.

 

[NotAGolf]

You've got them at the low maintenance stage there

What do you consider the high maintenance phase? I figure as they get older, then costs will be greater, but less frequent. I.e, we won't be paying for swimming lessons each week but we might have to splash out the equivalent of a few months lessons on a school trip.

When they're old and enough to be useful, then they'll get pocket money to buy some of their own stuff, but at least we'll get a few chores done in return!

 

[NotAGolf]

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:

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

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.

Thanks for the insight. It did feel a bit click-baity, so appreciate your efforts.

Probably includes loss of earnings / career progression

That's another area where we're lucky. My wife is not career oriented so is happy to spend time with the kids, so we get a double whammy of not losing out on a high flying job, she's happy, and we're not losing out financially as her loss in salary is offset by 'free' childcare.