Daycare, clothes, activities, food, diapers etc?
I feel like there was a figure floating out there that said raising a child to 18 costs 250k that sounded way too high to me, but naively I thought it would not be as significant as it is.
I'm working on my budget and seeing what I left out.
Break down monthly/yearly/ all kids/one kid- whatever makes sense.
honeydew / 7622 posts
I'll do monthly-
Daycare $160/mo Aug- June. I mostly SAH but this is 8 hours a week.
Diapers & wipes- $30ish we mostly cloth diaper
Healthcare- her deductible is $800/year then 20% to 2k
Food- she eats table food- milk and pouches (and avocados) are about $100/mo
Clothes- I way overbought at first now about $50/mo or less
Misc/toys/books- $50/mo
Swim lessons/other activities- $300 a year
kiwi / 635 posts
By far our biggest expense is daycare - around $1400-1500 per month for our baby and around $1200 per month for our toddler. Doctor visits maybe $500 per kiddo per year, not counting birth. Clothes are maybe $200 per year and food isn't much since we don't add a whole lot to our grocery list for the kids by themselves.
eggplant / 11824 posts
Just daycare and healthcare* costs alone for the first 5 years we'll spend nearly $90,000. So, $250,000 sounds on the low side.
* delivery OOP costs with very good insurance coverage + cost of "family" deductible vs. what DH and I each paid for just EE coverage through our employers.
pear / 1593 posts
I have no idea what I spend annually, but the first 5 years daycare will be about $50-55k.
Other than daycare, babies aren't all that expensive if you don't go crazy on clothes and toys. We do have high deductible insurance so in his 2 years we've spent about $3-4K healthcare
cantaloupe / 6059 posts
Not that much. We have to spend $6k a birth because of our high deductible but I stay home so no daycare costs, we aren't finicky about clothes and toys, and we keep things simple. Food is definitely our next big expenditure. I would say food alone our two kids run us about $200-300 a month.
pomelo / 5298 posts
Our biggest expense is definitely daycare. For the first 5 years, we are looking at about $75K.
In our school years, we will spend probably $4500/year for afterschool and summer camp (7 years). So that's another $32K. So simply a place for my kids to learn and be safe so that I can work from birth - 12 is approximately $110K.
Holy crapola!
Clothing gets more expensive as they age as well. Our almost 5 year old is wearing size 13 shoes and the cheapest "good" sneakers I could find were $32 on 6pm.com. She goes through them about every 4 months because she plays hard. They will continue to rise in cost as she ages.
Our other spend on our kids is:
Diapers/wipes
Clothing/shoes/outerwear
Gear to move them (stroller, car seats, wagon, trike, etc.)
Furniture (crib, toddler bed, big kid bed, dresser)
Gear for eating (high chair, booster seat, sippy cups, kid sized utensils)
Toiletries (sensitive skin lotions/creams, shampoo, body wash)
Toys/activities (art supplies, learning tools, apps, movies, music, toys, etc.)
Outside activities (sports or other activity lessons)
GOLD / eggplant / 11517 posts
I stole your list from above:
Daycare: $920 a month (full time, extended care hours, meal plan, supply fees, etc.)
Diapers & Wipes- $15 every other month (we are potty training), when she was little it was $40/month, but our original daycare provided diapers and wipes, so that lowered our cost
Healthcare- About $200 (comes out of DH's paycheck so I don't know the figure off the top of my head)
Food- Milk, pouches, snacks are her main extra cost ($50 a month). Otherwise she eats regular food for dinner/weekends (I used to nurse and supplement with formula, so we had formula costs, but they were low because of the supplementation aspect and her daycare provided it when she was at school)
Clothes- Very, very little. Her grandparents buy her play clothes and she wears uniforms to school. Maybe an average of like $5 per month if we grab something from the thrift store
Misc/toys/books- $5 month, again, very very little because she gets so much as gifts during holidays/birthdays and I don't like clutter
Other activities- we didn't start anything until this year. We have spent a total of $48 average per month this year for her to play soccer. I anticipate that will rise over time.
College savings- We budget $450 per month into her college fund
eggplant / 11716 posts
LO1's first 5 years:
childcare: $72,000
healthcare: $18,000
diapers/wipes $1,600
Food $6,000
Clothes $2,500
Gear/toys $3000
Furniture $2000
That's $103,500 in 5 years for 1 kiddo, the worst being the childcare. Even when she starts school, we'll have some sort of before and after care since we both work full time. So 250k sounds about right.
pomelo / 5791 posts
School - LO1 $250 a month. LO2 - 0
Diapers & wipes- $50ish
Healthcare- approx $100 a month for insurance for the two of them. For the entire last year LO1 went to OT and ST. Cost was $80 a week = $320 monthly. So $420 a month.
Food- LO1 eats table food $100/mo. LO2 is formula and table food $150/mo. So $250 together.
Clothes- Maybe $150 per season between the two of them....so approx $50/mo.
Misc/toys/books- $75/mo
Activities - (local pool, memberships, soccer, etc) breaks down to $150/mo.
That breaks down to $1245/mo.
Since they're both boys, I have a feeling that food bill is going to be killer one day 
persimmon / 1364 posts
Im not sure and I don't have the time to do a total breakdown but we spend $26,000 per year n childcare for one child. So yeah $250k over 18 years seems on the low side to me
grapefruit / 4988 posts
The first year was obviously the highest since we had to get new furniture, gear, etc. so I'm not sure how much it was that year. These days, I would guess somewhere around 32k per year. Daycare accounts for almost 90% of that.
At one point, I calculated that full-time daycare for 2 kids up until kindergarten will probably end up costing us around 250k in total.
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
We have a $120/month baby budget and that covers everything. Cloth diapering, breastfeeding, and having no day care costs means we don't spend much on her right now. We'll spend more in her second year than her first because she'll start daycare and some activities. We did spend close to $30k in fertility treatments to have her.
pomegranate / 3113 posts
Currently, we spend about $2k/month on DD. $1800 is for daycare, the rest includes diapers, wipes, clothes, "kid food," and toys. I don't really separate out our healthcare costs, but I would estimate that between higher premiums and copays/deductible etc, it's in the range of another $75/month (more the year she got ear tubes, though).
clementine / 756 posts
We're only 8 months in, but here's an estimate of the first year:
~$3,500 - Medical care for him and me and breastfeeding supplies (use HSA money)
~$7,000 - six months of daycare
~$24,000 - lost salary when my husband took 12 weeks FMLA to care for our son when I went back to work
~$500 - gear / nursery - we had some hand me downs and a lot gifted to us at showers
~$50 clothes - we only buy second hand clothes except one special occasion outfit
~$450 Diapers and wipes
~$50 puffs - the rest of his food is table food and not worth counting, at this point
~$150 - swim classes and pool membership
~$400 - photography
~$500 - convenience costs - I find that I'm more willing to pay for convenience with a baby, especially for things like parking.
A lot of this would be cheaper for a second child, since you can use reuse stuff and some stuff would be the same (or close) for two kids as one.
And, obviously, we didn't have to have my husband stay home with baby for the whole 12 weeks, but I think it was really, really good for both of them. It's made us have a much more even split when it comes to parenting responsibilities. And, conversely, I had enough PTO to cover my 12 weeks, so it was all paid, but that isn't the case for everyone. For SAHPs they obviously don't have daycare costs (or not nearly as much) but you have to consider the salary that they aren't earning (if they were working prior to being a SAHP).
eggplant / 11716 posts
@JenGirl: oooh. Lost salary is a big one. I didn't figure that in, but that is certainly a cost associated with having babies in my house. I have only unpaid leave, so I'm out 3 months pay for each kid.
clementine / 756 posts
@Anagram: But it was totally worth it! He became so much more confident, as a parent, over those 3 months. And if I hadn't had PTO, I would have taken the 12 weeks unpaid as well.
Luckily, we anticipated the income loss and saved. It also helped that he'd been out of work previously for an extended period of time, so we knew we would be okay, for a short period, on my salary alone.
And, now that I think about it, it probably wasn't actually the whole $24k. Because a chunk of that would have gone to taxes, anyway, so probably closer to $18-20k.
cherry / 229 posts
I remember when I saw a breakdown of the $250,000 estimate cited, or a similar one, the biggest item was additional housing costs - i.e. you need another bedroom in the house to have an additional child and/or you move to a more expensive neighborhood in order to be in a better school district. These expenses seem pretty common and would drive the estimates up quite a bit, though from a quick skim no one has cited them.
@JenGirl: is right that lost wages are another big cost that should be in there, not just for unpaid leave, but also for anyone who chooses to work fewer hours (to avoid things like the daycare costs!) or who chooses to take a lower paying job as a result of having kids, or whatever. This also drives the costs way up, as a lot of people would work more - and hence earn more - if they weren't working to take care of their family! It's basically like assigning whatever the costs of daycare are to yourself, except you'd use whatever earnings you could be making in the absence of caring for LOs.
I don't have kids yet, when we do, daycare in our area is so crazy expensive that this will swamp everything else initially. We live in a small place now. It will work for one child, but definitely not for two. The school districts in our current neighborhood are also bad, so ultimately we'll have to buy a larger house in a neighborhood with better schools. This will also be associated with a longer commute, so I guess I should figure in those costs as well. Good thing we really want kids!
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
These are just estimates...
Health Insurance Premium: $2,000 (guestimate increase from two people to four)
Other Premiums: $200
529: $10,000
Utilities: $50
Daycare: $22,100
Clothes: $2,400
Medical: $1,200
Gifts/Other: $2,000
YMCA: $191.40
Total: $40,141.40 for two kids (aged 1-3).
Obviously you can remove the 529, YMCA, reduce the cost of clothes, gifts, etc.
grapefruit / 4545 posts
DD1 is 2.5 in daycare fulltime.
Daycare - $1K monthly ($12K annually)
Insurance - $70/month ($840)
Food - (20% of our budget) $1200
Clothing/Shoes/Outerwear - $250/season ($1k annual)
Activities - $600
College Savings - $0 but should be $2500 annually
Travel - $500 annual (assume 2 flights)
Diapers - $40/month ($480 annually)
Gifts (Birthday/Christmas/Random) - $500
Total = $17,120 ($19,620 with college savings)...so ya thats $308K over 18 years.
Now - this is probably the most expensive in theory (bc of daycare) but activities will get more expensive, school supplies will come into play and eventually we'll have to get her a car.
apricot / 343 posts
I don’t do our family budgeting, so I don’t have a good idea how much we have spent on our kids. I do know we spent $25,000 on (part-time) daycare for two kids last year, so $250,000 per kid doesn’t seem unreasonable to me.
I’m pretty sure that the $250,000 figure only includes actual expenses. So it factors in housing but not lost wages. Also, the figure is what median-income families actually spend. So it doesn’t tell you what you _need_ to spend to have a kid, and people with more or less income do spend differently on their kids.
Here’s an article where they mention various estimates of the cost of raising a child:
http://business.time.com/2012/06/26/million-dollar-babies-what-it-really-costs-to-raise-a-child/
Also, this article suggests that kids don't actually get cheaper as they get older 
http://visualeconomics.creditloan.com/how-much-does-it-really-cost-to-raise-a-kid/
apricot / 485 posts
Based on what we spent a year and assuming kids are just as expensive when they get older (sports can be $$, braces, larger house, extra insurance premiums, clothes, electronics, college, travel, just eating out with extra people is more $) I think $250k per kid is a pretty reasonable expectation. That is about $14k per year.
I live in the midwest in a very reasonable COL area and spend at least $12k a year (1 kid). $250k could be on the low side for high COL areas.
If can be cheaper the first 5 years if you SAH but even then, you are losing the money you could have earned. So it's still an expense for most people (unless you're in the 1% or something where you don't have to worry).
coconut / 8472 posts
These are going to be really rough estimates...
Daycare - $335/week, $17085/year
Insurance - ~$100 (guesstimating this is the extra it costs us to have him on our insurance)
Food - $50/week, $2600/year
Clothing/Shoes/Outerwear - $300/season, $1200/year
College Savings - $125/month, $1500/year
Travel - $300 (roundtrip to FL)
Diapers/Pull Ups - $50/month, $600/year
Gifts - $700?
Grand total for last year is somewhere around $22,311. I feel like I'm probably missing stuff though.
pomegranate / 3973 posts
Ours will be a lot lower than most I think since we have cheap daycare and good/low-cost insurance...
For DS:
Monthly:
Daycare - $450/mo
Diapers/Wipes - $60
Clothes - Avg. $50/mo
Food - $40 (just for extras)
Yearly:
$7200 total from above
$200 - gifts + misc. extras
$250 - dental est.
$1000 - Insurance est.
Approx Yearly $8650
My step daughter at 13 is half that (lives with us and no child support), So I think we will be well under the $250k to raise a child to 18. (est $150,000)
pear / 1521 posts
Daycare: 1225 a month (this is only 3 days a week, 2 with grandmacare who we pay 100 a month for gas) but only for 10 months of the year
Diapers & wipes- $20, mostly cloth
Healthcare- going to family plan is about $100 more a month and then we probably have averaged one sick dr's visit per month, $125
Food- Mostly on table food now but does love pouches (and avocados too! :happy:) $50 a month
Clothes- $100 a season
Misc/toys/books- Received a lot in gifts but probably have spent $500 for the first year + first bday
Swim lessons/other activities- haven't done any yet
College savings: $110 a month for now
about $17k for the first year (I'm not including any of the initial baby gear bc so much were gifts and one time costs that will be used for second baby).
@Ms maths: Yea, I feel like as kids get older that you have activities and more expensive clothes, and ideally we will at least be saving more money for college then too. The one problem with the article though is that when it says the first 3 year's of a child's life are the least expensive that it is probably not accounting for SAH parents and their lost wages (the average cost for WOH parents will be much higher and SAH ones much lower even though they have lost wages too).
honeydew / 7235 posts
For just my 3.5 year old, here's an average:
Daycare:1200/month (14,400/year)
Clothes: lets say $400/year
Activities: lets say $150/month (1800/year)
Food: $250/month (3000/year)
Diapers: $60/month (720/year)
Toys/extras: $100/month (1200/year)
529 plan: $400/month (4800/year, need to increase this)
Gifts: $200/year
TOTAL for year: $26,520
We have a 7 month old too - yikes. Scary to add it all up! Multiply that one number up to 18 years old and we're practically at $500,000 --- but, daycare costs will be gone soon, but will be replaced by sports/more activities/more food, etc, increased travel expenses, etc. 
honeydew / 7235 posts
@hb3233: your last statement is spot on... as our family grew from 1 child to 2, we moved further out of the city, into a bigger home with higher taxes due to better schools... so, bigger mortgage, taxes, and commute!!
honeydew / 7622 posts
Good point to lost wages. I was making more than daycare would be a month. And we bought a bigger house knowing we would have children but our 2nd house was only 35k more than one first house and 3x the size- but we have put 1/3 of the purchase price into renovations.
papaya / 10343 posts
Lol it's probably mentally healthier not to do the math.
If I had to make a best guestimate... per month...
Daycare -1100
Food - 200
Clothes/random - 100
Increased healthcare - 100
$1500/mo x 12 mo = $18,000/year
That doesn't include birthday, christmas, easter, halloween costumes, random one-time things (car seats, stroller, high chair, blah blah blah).
It would probably be fair to say we spend $20,000/year on her considering that I'm probably forgetting a bunch of random stuff. Oh and that doesn't include college savings.
pomegranate / 3392 posts
It's really hard to calculate this, because he hasn't had any costs like childcare that are easy to track. We did increase our insurance to a family plan, which has been about about $100/month more, but has covered everything related to him. Other than that, diapers, supplies, and clothes ($100/month), and incidentals and classes ($100/month). So in 3 years, maybe $11000 all together?
Starting this year, we'll be paying for preschool, travel and food costs will increase, etc.
cantaloupe / 6869 posts
16,000 in daycare alone. I prefer not to think about the rest. Add another kid next year and there goes my salary!
pomelo / 5866 posts
Annual costs
$0 Preschool/lunch is a work benefit
$80 Haircuts
$200 Clothing and shoes (we mainly do hand me downs)
$500 Gifts for LO, bday party, gifts for friends/ Christmas
$500 Educational things like apps, camps, lessons, art supplies
$1200 Health Insurance (I'm guessing.)
2400 College savings
We are not including Disney tickets in this budget!
As LO enters Kinder, a few things will change including buying school lunch once in awhile, so I'm budgeting an extra $50 a month for things like fieldtrips, uniforms, school supplies, fundraisers, gifts for teachers.
persimmon / 1111 posts
We have a 3 month old, but here are our projected costs for the month:
Daycare: $1450
College savings: $400
Clothes: $20 (mainly gifts)
Diapers (we mainly use cloth): $50
Food (exclusively breast Fed): $0
Toys: $20
Health insurance: $0 (no extra costs)
So $1940 a month or about $24000 this year.
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
A big expense for us as they get older is extracurricular activities and supplies. Things like dance is $45/month plus shoes and leotards. Soccer was $75 for the season. And that's preschool costs. As they get to high school level it will go way up.
Also vacations are more expensive to take extra people. Even just trips to see family.
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