Raising Your Quarter-Million Dollar Baby

If you have kids, you know how expensive they are. In fact, the costs of raising a child are like the costs of raising a pet -- multiplied several times.

That's not to say it's not worth it, of course. Ask most parents and they would say they're glad to pay the costs for the joy that their kids give them. Yet there's no harm in recognizing the cost and taking actions to minimize it where possible.

A recent article from Money Central did just that. It talks about just how expensive kids are to raise. Here's what they found:

For 2004, the newest data available, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that families making $70,200 a year or more will spend a whopping $269,520 to raise a child from birth through age 17. Higher-income families in urban areas in the West spend the most, $284,460.

Though not as steep, the figures for lower-income families are just as unsettling: $184,320 for families earning $41,700 to $70,200 and $134,370 for families making less than that. That breaks down to nearly $15,000 a year from birth to age 2 for families in the $65,800 -plus income bracket. As your child ages, he or she gets even more expensive, topping out at $15,810 from ages 15 to 17. This is no back-of-the-envelope guesstimate. The survey involves visits to, and interviews with, about 5,000 households, four times a year.

Note that this is through age 17 (translation: it DOESN'T include college costs). Those costs could add another very significant amount to the total.

The article goes on to give some money saving tips for people looking to reduce expenses on children, but I thought instead of highlighting those, I'd give you some of my favorites:

• Save Money on Kids' Clothes
• Save on Babysitting
• Community Events
• Cut Your Own Hair and Save a Bundle
• Fun in the Water
• Library Special Projects
• Have a Picnic

And for those of you who are planning on helping out at least a bit with your kids' college expenses, here are some posts you might want to review:

• A Great College Money Saving Tip
• 4 Ways to Save Big on College Costs
• College Financial Aid Can Save You Lots
• Tax Savvy Ways to Save for an Education

Comments

[Jenn]

There are also lots of ways that you can save money on babies. (since your tips above mostly pertain to older kids-except the clothes. I don't think my kids own much of anything that was bought new unless it was a gift!)

#1 Breastfeeding of course saves tons of money over formula

#2 you can make your own wet wipes for a fraction of the cost

#3 make your own babyfood-which is cheaper, pretty convenient (you just steam veggies or fruits, blenderize it, and freeze in icecube trays) and way healthier because it doesn't have any fillers or additives

#4 don't overbuy toys. For the first 2 years of each child's life we didn't buy them almost anything for christmas. #1, they were so small they couldn't tell the difference anyway, and #2 they got so much stuff from relatives that it was ridiculous. As they get older we have bought a few more things, but we try hard not to go overboard

[Kim C]

Interesting. I would estimate that our own expenses for 7 - count 'em - 7 children, ages 19 months to 12 years, run roughly:

$350/month for food/non food grocery items (including toiletries, diapers, etc.) This is rather more than 50% of what we spend monthly. Being small people, the children are much smaller eaters than hubby and I, and use far less of the disposable products as well - maybe since their bodies are smaller. Except the one in diapers: those run $25/month but are included in our monthly grocery, and she doesn't use her share of the toilet paper :)

$50/month for clothes and shoes, most purchased secondhand.

$140/month health and dental insurance. This is the difference between a family rate and a couple rate.

$120/month in additional medical/dental bills. This includes births.

$200/month in extra gas and maintennance, due to driving the larger-than-average family vehicle required by our larger-than-average family.

$210/month: this represents 30% of our monthly mortgage and utilites, since we would likely have a somewhat smaller home without children. Actually, this is only true in theory. Our current home, which we are building with our own 18 hands, *is* small by most standards, and our utilities are very reasonable.

$50/month in homeschooling expenses. Actually, much of this is used to buy books that Hubby and I enjoy as well. But we'll tack the bill on the children.

$1000/year for birthdays and Christmas. This varies a lot, and is a rather generous estimate. But hey, we're generous people, right?

sooo...grand total for annual support on all 7 children...

$14,440

So it appears we're raising 7 for the price of 1. I guess we can afford #8. That's good news, since s(he) is due to arrive in a few months.

[Jared]

Great article, and really good comment. My wife and I just found out we're expecting, and I'm trying get as much info as possible on how to keep the costs down.

Thanks for the help!

[FMF]

Congrats!!!! That's great!!!!

I'll have a few more pieces on this topic in the next week or so, so be sure to come back.

[Mary]

Shopping at discount and bulk food stores can really help. :) (We generally save 60% or more on all groceries)

[DeputyHeadmistress]

Those figures are grotesquely unrealistic. I've seen them before, and they always make me laugh because they are so obviously counting unnecessary things.

Kids are simply not this expensive. We've never made more than fifty thousand a year in our lives, and we have seven, four of whom were teens at the same time (currently we have three teens and two just out of their teens, and two who are still quite young) and no, we're not on Welfare.

[J]

"Ask most parents and they would say they're glad to pay the costs for the joy that their kids give them."

The joy that their kids give them? So THAT is the primary reason to have children? When people view children through the lens of cost-benefit to themselves it's no wonder that so many people choose to have a pet that they treat like a child.

What about the benefit of your genes living on another generation? What about the benefit of another person being able to experience life (unless you think life is not worth living - in which case why are you still here?)