Is this really true about cost of having a child?

Free hours but usually you have top ups and other costs. I would check with a local nursery what the actual bill will be for the hours you want assuming they have space available.

You'll get child benefit and tax free account for child care which takes 20% off the cost of childcare which you can use aswell as the "free" hours.
Childminders are generally much cheaper that nurseries.

@Childcostss Even with the 30 hours (which we stretched over 52 weeks, so was approx 22 hours a week funded) our full time nursery invoice was £1100.

Your 10k will last a year at most if nursery is full time.

Lol wait till you have teenagers.
They know how to spend your money.
(Especially girls)

No hobbies/activities out of school ? Christmas presents? birthday presents? gifts for friends birthday parties? Own birthday parties? garden play equipment? holidays? days out? Extra petrol to do all these things? Swimming lessons? School trips?

It depends on the kind of lifestyle you want to have. I find teenagers are the most expensive. Their clothes are still 2nd hand or from asda but they eat like locusts and our food shop is huge. And everything is so much more expensive than when they were little. We bought a climbing frame/slide thing when our eldest was 8. Cost about £200. It needs replacing this year or next as it's going to fall apart soon. We now need something suitable for teenagers which is going to cost around £1.5k. Soft play during term time is around £10 for a few hours. Most Soft plays around here only let children up to 12 come so for teenagers we have to go to the trampoline park which costs £14.99 for 1 hour.

This is very difficult to answer.

Obviously there are some unequivocal things, eg:
£40 per week on wrap around care
£5 per week gymnastics class
£6 per week swimming lesson
£10 per fortnight on average for birthday gift + card for parties
£10 per month or so on hair cuts
Maybe £10 per month on clothes/shoes etc (that’s very rough, I reckon I spend probably £100 a year all in for DS1)
etc

But beyond that, it’s very difficult to pick apart. For example, we have altered what we eat for the better with having kids. We spend a lot more on fresh fruit, fish, meat and more obscure carbohydrates than we used to. Obviously we all benefit from this, but the increase in cost is definitely more than DS consumes. Entertainment is another one. DS loves checking out museums in our city. We maybe go once or twice a month to different ones. By the time you’ve factored in train fair, food etc it’s easily £50 for all of us. Obviously its not all spent on DS - DH and I enjoy these trips as well. But it’s money we wouldn’t have spent if we didn’t have kids. Transport as well. DH and I used to both walk/cycle to work. It’s still thankfully a small cost but we now use the car a lot more with the school run and for activities etc. Again, petrol benefits us all but its an expense we wouldn’t have had before DC.

So it’s complicated really!

‘Stuff’ hasn’t been an issue - you can spend very little if you want to, always plenty of people giving things away / selling very cheap.

It’s the childcare costs that are the killer. It’s like a second mortgage. £2,000.

Id check out the costs at your local nursery, it’s probably more than you think even including the free hours etc.

DS aged 9 - piano lesson £28 a week. Cricket maybe £30 a month? Probably less. Food is just part of food shop (always under £200 a week for a family of 5). Trips to sweet shop maybe £10 a week.

DS aged 6 - beavers which is like £30 a term or something so £10 a month. So £2.50 a week term time. Stagecoach which is other end of the scale, about £175 a term so a third of that per month. Good and treats see above.

Uniform couple hundred £ once a year.
Christmas and birthdays of course.
Holidays.
Clothes aren’t much at all. Of course you can buy loads all the time but I probably do a £100 shop for the both of them (£50 each) a couple of times a year.

Honestly £600 a month is mental.

You asked about school age but just in case, DD aged 2 and 2 months:
nappies £10 a month (pack of 72 and uses one at night and one at nap time as is otherwise potty trained. Also did use cloth nappies which are a good investment).
Activities generally under £10 a week, eg soft play is £8ish or small local farm which is £5, otherwise free stuff as in see friends, go to park, go and see the fish at pets at home 😄

Then 2 days nursery which is what like £80 a day? So yeah, it’s the childcare.

Prumary school xhild costs per week
Food- about £50 including packed lunch (worked out as proportion of family spend, including toiletries and cleaning stuff)
Hobbies- about £10. However her two hobbies (rugby and Scouts) are relatively cheap!
Swimming lessons (when she had them) £7a week
Annual costs
Birthday and Christmas... about £300
School uniform (including school shoes) £100
Clothes, shoes, sports kit etc... £500

So before days out, holidays etc... or wrap around care as we don't need it. about £4.5k
Or £375 a month.

But these costs can vary so much. Some pay hundreds monthly for hobbies. Your electricity bill will be higher. Holiday costs a lot higher.

Hi op, i like a PP am also concerned at your calculations for childcare.

Obviously it will depend on how many hours your child attends, but my son attends 40 hours a week (so not quite full time) and we have 30 free hours.

Our bill is still £700 a month. (Before tax free childcare discount)

Just to double check, are you aware that the 30 free hours only apply during term time? So during all school holidays, you have to pay full whack?

Are you intending to have more than 1 child? We have a 3 year age gap between our kids, so there will be 10 months of overlap where we have to pay 2 lots of fees.

We have saved 10k to pay for childcare costs and felt pretty confident that given the new funding, this would cover it all before school starts.

30 hours of funded hours a week for 38 weeks of the year, stretched over 52 weeks gives you just over 20 hours a week funded. If you need 8am-6pm 5 days a week, you'll be paying for ~28 hours a week, plus any charges for food.

Ours is £7.50 a day for all food, and £7.63 an hour for unfunded hours. That's £250 a week for a full time place. Our nursery is in the SE but on the cheaper side of the ones we have locally.

As someone else said, 10k for childcare until school seems massively optimistic, even with funded hours, unless they are only in nursery for maybe one day a week! I’d agree that there is more scope for saving some money after they start school and you might not need as much as 600 per month.

Also, nobody is joking about the fruit. 😂

Mine costs nothing near £600 a month and hasn't done since he was born, he's 12 now. The most expensive parts are birthdays/Christmas, July/august when buying new school uniform and then clothes shopping when they have a leap. Also school trips.

Admittedly, I never paid for childcare because both sets of parents took on that role when I went back to work.

But after the initial outlay for equipment before they're born they really are quite cheap to sustain, especially if you're breastfeeding.

The 30 hours is a con....unless you are with a childminder most nurseries charge a top up which barely brings the cost down from what it was before

Oh and I had twins 🤪 financial planning went out of the window - my monthly childcare - for a childminder - tops £2k per month

Buying Soft fruit is like taking out another mortgage 😂

£30k isn't much of a wage to be honest - and if you live in a mortgaged property you won't get much UC

TBH child costs can be very much a cut your cloth kind of situation.
You generally do what you can afford.

If you can't afford new, a lot of stuff is perfectly fine second hand.

Childcare- well that can be very expensive but plenty of people share school drop offs and pick ups with other parents so they can both make savings on wrap around care or rely on family.

What I'll also say is if you're part time, there will be areas in which you'll save, I'm assuming travel costs will drop, food costs may drop too if you're happy to spend extra time cooking you can sometimes save on food (based on my own life, if I'm working then I cut corners and to get dinner on the table I rely on convenience of things like fresh pasta vs dried, or idahoan mash instead of making my own)
You'll also find that when your child is eating a regular diet, by 5 or so it won't cost any more to feed them, however whilst they're weaning, I've found it to be more expensive. Given that my son would often play with the food he was given, I'd have a selection of pouches ontop of the meals he was prepared.
He's 2 now, and most of his food is normal stuff, but we do have yoghurt pouches (suckies are much cheaper in costco!) And I always have prune pouches and the amount of fruit he gets through is a shock.

I also recommend nearly new sales run by the nct foe anything child related

It's not a joke 😂

You'll be fine. They are a big expense BUT it's not that dramatic, you will sacrifice buying certain things for yourself as well don't forget.

Totally depends on your lifestyle, childcare is by far the biggest expense if you’re both continuing to work full time but if you’re only working part time then the funding should cover a large part of that. As for everything else then the actual essentials are quite minimal and so much can get for free or much reduced 2nd hand. I’ve bought a baby up on very little and also had the luxury of having a bit more to spend. I wouldn’t worry if I were you, sounds like you’ve more than enough for anything that really makes a difference to baby and enough to be quite comfortable yourselves

lol on another thread £700 a month for one child was deemed a “pittance”. 😂

o/p if your dh’s wage isn’t high enough for you to go pt- bearing in mind you will also lose pension contributions etc- have you thought about both of you dropping hours rather than just you?

so say you want dc 3days in child care. If you both drop one day to have dc, or condense hours or whatever, you may be better off financially. You’ll also be more resilient should one of you not be able to work temporarily, and both of you will maintain you pension contributions.

with your dh on 30k if you do split you may find one or both of you in the financial shit as there won’t be enough income to fund two homers, and you won’t have a pension.

Haha its actually not- my son has discovered raspberries are his favourite thing, he begs for them at every supermarket and will eat a whole pack in one sitting if allowed. Strawberries are a close second. And smoked salmon! Kid has expensive taste.

£300 a year school clothes
£100-120 a year on school shoes
£60 a year on trainers
£20 year wellies
£40 p/y summer footwear
£60 per year coats
£400 per year other clothes
£60 per year hair cuts
£40 per week food & toiletries at a guess
£10 per week school dinners
£50 per term brownies
£100 per term music lessons
£30 per month swimming lessons
£200-300 per year family days out
£20-40 per month general kid entertainment (cinema, soft play, etc)
£40 a term general school trips and “days”

Toys?
£100ish Christmas
£150ish birthday
£100 birthday party

Per child. We spend a lot less than most families I know. But you can also spend less if you’re thrifty.

No childcare costs because I wrap my hours around pickups and it’s absolutely exhausting.

School age child in my house for a month:
£50 on hobby
£20ish on random clothes/ school shoes etc
£160 wraparound care
£200 on food (yes, soft fruit is a big chunk of that 🤣)
£25ish on subscription.

I

Have you enquired at any nurseries nearby. There only 30 hours free for 3 year olds and above. From Sep 2024, there would be 15 hours free for 9 months and above. That will only give you one day free and that too nurseries will give you a day free when you enroll for at least 3 days of childcare per week. If you need to get 5 days childcare, you'll get one day free and you'll have to budget for 4 paid days. I think £10k would last you a year.

100% this.
We had zero savings.
We've managed to raise 3 kids to tween age so far and had some lovely holidays and days out along the way. They have everything they need.
We've earned varying amounts and had harder times and less hard times. We've never had easy times financially but some how you get through it.
You can be as practical and sensible as you like but you want a child and that's an itch that doesn't go away.
And you're starting from a great level of savings. Kids don't know if they're in second hand clothes or hand me downs. Buy excellent car seats new. After that, economise, shop around, go to local stay and play groups to make friends, have home or park based play dates with those new friends and feed child same foods you eat without buying pouches and jars and things.
Go back to work as much or as little as you can afford. But after being home with baby/toddler for a bit, work will be very welcome!
Check "entitled to" website to see what benefits can help you.