The cost of raising kids

Minusorange said:
You've got them at the low maintenance stage there
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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!
 
They are locusts when they get older. They eat everything. The clothes cost most, school costs more(though no child care really). Never really worked out what they are costing. :cry:

We would be substantially better off without them.
 
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.
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Thanks for the insight. It did feel a bit click-baity, so appreciate your efforts.

AndrewNR said:
Probably includes loss of earnings / career progression
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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.
 
Meh, at least for the first few years the alcohol/socialising bill goes down considerably. I was probably better off in the early years!
 
Our 12 year old, monthly:
£120 school bus, iPad, 'parent donation' to school
£100 food, weekly shop
£100 Phone, sports clubs, subscriptions
£70 clothes, shoes etc
£100 his element of holidays, family trips
£50 petrol ferrying him about
£100 Xmas & birthday (Inc gifts for friend's birthdays)
£100 general stuff, including bedroom decoration/furniture every few years

Daughter, 9, has a horse, so perhaps costs even more.
 
AndrewNR said:
Probably includes loss of earnings / career progression
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I was just about to post the same thing.
My wife use to work 40 hours a week, for the last 16 years she has worked 24 hours a week so we as a family have more time enjoying the time together.
Even a loss of £10,000 a year over 18 years that's £180,000 less then if we had not had children.
 
NotAGolf said:
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!
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They're low maintenance in regards to money, there's a sliding scale where the less time maintenance they are, the more money maintenance they become
 
cheesyboy said:
That's for a month: £25 a week isn't much. That's £2 a meal for lunch and dinner. £130 to £150 the weekly shop in total.
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ah okay I was confused by the weekly shop and thinking we were supposed to 4x it for per month.

The rest of the spending seemed kind of reasonable and probably a lot less than a lot of people are spending, No surprise less and less people are having kids with how they are basically forced to be consumers from a young age these days.

there needs are pretty much that of an adult now
 
It's like buying a potentially unreliable exotic car, if you have to worry about the maintenance costs you probably can't really afford it. But peer pressure and all that overcomes prudence.... ;)

No one seems to have mentioned school fees... Is a state school assumed?
 
Seems way out to me. While kids are only 5 and 8, I'd say that childcare upto the magical 3 years old (for the 30 free hours) is the most expensive time. Including the cost of uni or a car is wrong imo, as they're not technically kids then. Don't see how anything can cost more monthly than what was spent on childcare. Obviously holidays are more during August, but if you were a teacher without kids you'd not be paying much less.
 
Yup childcare costs when they are young is the killer.

Ours is 4 now going to start school in September.
We are on the 30 hours free which helps, before I think one month we hit £700.

But most months about £550.

I reckon we will have spent maybe £15k on childcare in total by the time he goes to school.

That doesn't include any other associated costs.
 
The big ones are:

Childcare
Clubs / activities
Food increases astronomically as they get into early teens
Clothes, pocket money, phones etc etc
 
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