What age of parenting is most expensive?

[Beachwaves127]

Wondering what everyone’s thoughts are on the most expensive parenting age between 0 and 18.

I’m wondering if early years are because we’ll be paying £25k p/a nursery fees per child - although DC’s activities at this age are quite cheap and she doesn’t eat much / clothes are small sizes.

We aren’t doing private schools so struggling to think of an annual cost that will be more than the nursery fees but happy to be told wrong.

Just wondering between 0 and 18 so not considering possible uni fees.

Aware DC’s activities, clothes, food, hobbies will go up as she grows but as above surely not £25k worth of increases?

I think on reflection- primary years were the cheapest. Unless they're massively into clubs.
Currently working out how to manage 2 at uni. Not frees: halls etc, it's more the open days, visits, setting them up- all really adding up.

It has to be 0-5 due to loss of earnings and then childcare costs.

Maybe then 18-22 for Uni?

I worked part time and DH did shifts for childcare so that was the worst. I stayed pt out of choice whilst in primary so don't count that as we accepted the hit for seeing them. Sporty massive teens are expensive,adult clothes, sport fees, food, uni costs 😭

It varies - it's the one when you're broke. And so is dependent also on the number of DC you have

But on the whole it's either early years (childcare bills) or teen/university years (when other things - including consequences of their mistakes) can be brutally expensive.

Good job they're cute and generally worth it

What a great thread!

We have 2 children (3 and 7m) and as of December they're both full time nursery which will cost us 33k a year 😭

When they're both in school, even with breakfast club and after school club we are quids in! Plus progression in both of our careers.

So if what pp are saying is true and the early years and then teen years are the most expensive, we've got plenty of time to save for that in between. I hope so anyway!

Little ones are expensive... but then I guess teenagers with pocket money, phone contracts etc are too!

Hard to say how, younger years affected us as I gave up work as we both wanted one of us to bring up DD no matter what, ie no nursery fees.

Putting nursery fees aside, I'd say teenage years upwards, especially if they go to uni. Accommodation was very expensive where DD was and despite her working, we were supplementing £400 each month.

Its all expensive!

mat leave you down money

nursery costa a bomb

Also often after this point people have more than 1 child:

primary years you have clubs, activities, clothes as they grow constantly and all the half term and holidays to pay for as young kids can’t be left alone (camps etc- I spend loads in half term- food goes up, if bad weather you have to exercise your kids indoors;”: soft plays, climbing walls, swimming)

secondary school- eat you out of house and home, clothes cost more, entertainment is less frequent but more expensive, holidays no more free child places

uni- I dread to think

The most expensive times are the early years (nursery fees and your lost earnings for maternity leave and if you go part time) and then University. If possible, it would be a good idea to try to save a bit towards University because it is very expensive.

Definitely the 0-3 years. Even if you are paying for a private day school or fully funding uni, it is unlikely to be much more expensive than those first few years ime.

I think that full University costs are about the same as nursery fees. If you include everything including trips home it’s approximately the same.

Definitely 0-4 - I was giving more to the nursery than I was taking home as a higher rate tax payer! Now one (and soon to be two) at uni, on the minimum loan allowable so we've got to make up the rest, and it's still not as expensive as that (and we don't need to pay for babysitting every time we go out either!)

I would say early years if they're at nursery are expensive and when they're older 15-18 and uni even more expensive.

There are phones, laptops, sports, clubs, music lessons, adult sized clothing, travel etc. Then driving lessons and travel back and forth to uni plus all the uni expenses. Even if they pay for fees with student loan there's rent and other costs when they're older.

I would say 0-4 years if paying for full time nursery, the teenage years- expensive clothing, driving lessons, car/ car insurance, social activities, school trips abroad and the university years ( which I haven’t experienced yet). Aged 4- 12 was probably the cheapest from my experience so far.

secondary school age

• need a computer for school work (and no, not every school supplies)
• other school stuff, like calculator, protractor, compass
• shoes shoes shoes. my dc have 3 pair each for pe only
• food. teens, especially boys have hollow legs

None of the early years were too bad (lots of 2nd hand clothes etc), and even the younger teen years weren't massively costly. But then 17 arrived...along with driving lessons, test, car, prom etc, then 18 there's laptop for uni, all the other stuff for uni etc...

So in summary, I've found 17/18 the costliest by far!

I have twins at uni, even that isn’t as expensive as full time childcare when they were 2

I have 2 primary aged DC and we seem to be haemorrhaging money on them right now. It's half term here and we would usually go away but decided to stay at home and just have one day out today as a treat. We spent:

Cinema tickets and snacks: £45
Lunch: £50
New winter boots each: £112
Jumpsuit DD1 chose as her Christmas outfit: £28
Hairclips for DD2: £6.50

I feel sick now I have added it all up. I don't think there is any cheap age.

I agree with both early years and late teens!

For us it’s been as they hit 10/11ish- they’re aware of what their friends have, there’s a lot of peer pressure in terms of clothes, gadgets etc. It’s a constant battle to keep up and even if you swear you won’t do it it’s hard when you’re in the middle of it all, you don’t want your child to be left out. We’ve got one aged 11 just hitting that age and one aged 20 in university so fully feeling the strain!

The thing is most people I know have 1 child at nursery at a time because it’s a short amount of time- two children in school:
breakfast club & after school club x 2
uniform x 2
holiday camps x 2
activities x 2

that alone is 1 nursery wage imo

For us it is University, so post 18.

I was a sahm before the two dc went to school so we saved on child care fees - and it definitely was a saving in our case.

Surely this doesn’t add up to the same amount in nursery fees??? We pay over £1000 a month on nursery fees alone for one child.

My dds have been relatively cheap tbh...

I didnt work when they were babies, went back when dd2 was 2 and dd1 was 5. Me and DH worked around each other so no childcare costs. Same for school, no breakfast/after school clubs.

Primary school they weren't massively into clubs, were happy with girls brigade (£2 a week) and swimming lessons. We did alot of free fun days, beach, parks, museums etc in the holidays and at weekends.

Now into the teen years. All clubs at school are free, they do something nearly every day! Both on sim only phone contract and get a small amount of pocket money. Neither have grown much so clothes last much longer! Dd1 is in year 10, I've only replaced school uniform this year since year 7. Food bill has gone down, neither snack much these days compared to their younger years!

I would say as they've got older days out cost more though. Parks don't really have the same appeal! But I've managed to find cheap deals on zoos, theme parks etc. And eating out costs more now they don't have the kids menu!

For me, it was birth to leaving school.

Childcare
School uniforms
School trips
Before/after school clubs
School holiday clubs
Cubs/scouts
Football club
The rate he grew out of his shoes
The final big expense for me was his prom
(and his car at 18 but that was under birthday present so technically doesn't count)

Really interesting comments so far. My DH and I just mentioned to each other that if we wanted to holidays when Dc is at primary school we’d have to pay the dreaded aug / July prices. Although optional so we may decide not to of course give a family of four in august on holiday would be extortionate!