To ask how much your kids cost you per month?

[Troublesometooth]

I just thought about it and added up on another thread and I was so surprised! I’ve never really considered it before.

A 2 year old and 5 year old monthly bill comes to:

£500 for 2 days per week at nursery
£150 for 2 days per week at out of school club
£100 clothing budget, more if shoes are needed
£100 swim lessons
£35 ballet
£15 football
£22.50 tennis
£100 family days out budget

Total monthly cost; £1022.50! That’s without birthday and Christmas presents and special events etc.

My 2 year old gets her 30 free hours from April so that will significantly lower the nursery bill which I’m very pleased about!

@sanityisamyth I cheated- I just put DC’s lessons and club membership down. I’m ignoring the hay/feed/farrier/vets part!

5 dc, 3 primary and 2 secondary.

Not sure how much exactly but about 50 a week on school dinners for younger 3
Probably 80-100 a week on food
Dc1 has singing lessons
Softplay once a week is 25
School holiday activities/entertainment is about 75 a week
Clothes are mostly eBay and hand me downs so not very much, maybe 150 a year, hoping dc1 stops growing soon.
Wear and tear on the house/furniture is our biggest cost at the moment as we have 2 dc who destroy things because of autism/adhd. This week we had to repair the banister on the stairs at 35. We also need a new bunk bed and a new sofa but we are moving house in a few months so waiting until then. My clothes horse looks like the leaning tower of pisa and being held together by sellotape so that will need replacing soon too.

Ten yo twins, fixed costs per month:

Riding lessons - £200
Swimming - £70
School lunches - £90
Guides - £70 per term
Phones - £10

Clothes, shoes, uniform etc I dread to think I just buy as and when needed.

Currently paying for a school trip at £50 each per month too, it's £325 overall.

Days out etc just come out of expendable income.

Ds3 (15)

Allowance £80
Uniform £20
Phone £10

Obviously he eats food, but is not fussy so fairly cheap to feed. Happy with beans or egg on toast. I can’t think of the last time he asked me for extra money. Before lockdown he had piano and cello lessons which were expensive (music books, festival and exam fees) however he doesn’t want to go back to these at the moment.

Still in the very cheap stage here. 5 months old. Breastfed.

Maybe €7 a week on nappies and baby wipes. I paid €210 for swimming lessons as a once off yesterday.

I love buying him new clothes so I spend money there but I shouldn't coz we get given plenty of hand me downs.

Ongoing monthly costs for us are:

Beavers £8
Gym membership to allow me to use childcare and swimming at my gym £43
Swimming £50
Nursery £50 (only meals and snacks 3 days)
Clothes £25 for both roughly, only buy when necessary, use Asda where possible and the 4 year old gets hand me downs.
Haircuts £10 for both

So roughly something under £200 for 2 excluding living costs and random expenses like school trips and non uniform days.

Things will be more expensive in the school holidays because I will have to pay for childcare on the days I work and we will have more days out but I work part time on minimum wage topped up by UC so I won't be going crazy. I'll be taking advantage of the gym membership and going swimming a lot because it's already paid for and doing free outdoor things and playdates.

They don't need me to spend a fortune on them, they are happy with what they have but I would definitely spend more if I had more money.

Mothy cost is £50 for swimming and £5 for phone.
Clothes are only purchased when needed and I scour the sales.
Some months will have more expenses if there’s school events/trips to pay for it if we take them out somewhere for the day but we don’t have a large income so not able to have a large budget for things.

@shivawn

Still in the very cheap stage here. 5 months old. Breastfed.

Maybe €7 a week on nappies and baby wipes. I paid €210 for swimming lessons as a once off yesterday.

I love buying him new clothes so I spend money there but I shouldn't coz we get given plenty of hand me downs.

Just thinking about it some more and we definitely have the heating on more often since having him so the gas bill is also higher. Plus boiling more kettles to sterilise baby bottles. Hard to put a number on it when bills have gone up loads with inflation anyway.

DD dances so about eleventy million pounds a month, plus extra at show and exam time.

Wait until they're teenagers! Your costs will seem like a drop in the ocean! They're fairly cheap when they are small (childcare being the biggest single cost)

When they are teenagers, there's phones, school trips, adults shoes and clothes, pocket money, clubs, driving lessons, haircuts, petrol, school uniform/pe kits/sports kits/club uniforms, school dinners, bus fares, DofE costs, scout camps, holidays (all counted as adults), meals out (all eating adults meals), days out, and most of all food. I never realised how much three teenagers can pack away - it's truly incredible!

Two of mine are now adults living at home, and pay most of their own way, but before they did, the cost was phenomenal. I appreciate not all of the above costs are compulsory (especially holidays/driving lessons etc) but they are costs that we tried to cover where we could.

@Troublesometooth
When you say your 2 year old gets 30
Hours free from April is that what you have been told by their nursery?
My 2 year old DD is 3 on the 27th April but the nursery have said I have to wait for the 30 hours free from the September so I can apply late July for it... I was expecting to be able to have it when she was 3 but apparently not??
Just asking out of curiosity 😊

[quote hipbippbop]@Troublesometooth
When you say your 2 year old gets 30
Hours free from April is that what you have been told by their nursery?
My 2 year old DD is 3 on the 27th April but the nursery have said I have to wait for the 30 hours free from the September so I can apply late July for it... I was expecting to be able to have it when she was 3 but apparently not??
Just asking out of curiosity 😊[/quote]
She turns 3 this week and so gets the funding from the next term which is Easter.

If your daughter doesn’t turn 3 until after 31st March then you won’t get the funding until September sadly.

About a year ago, when considering high school for DS who has some minor additional needs, we seriously looked at whether we could afford a specific private school that is potentially geared up for him. Also, any private school would benefit him purely due to class size.

I came to the conclusion that we might be able to just about swing it but only if we cancelled everything else. And ultimately, we decided that everything else is actually very important to him in terms of skills, friendships, confidence etc. And of course, to DD too. But my god, it's not half expensive.

And it's not just the clubs and activities etc, it's the stuff that goes around it - the uniforms (and shoes), the travel costs (admittedly in our case, there's a particular reason which is unusual but me and DH between us do over 100 miles a week for one of DS's activities), the additional meals/coffees etc while undertaking these activities etc etc.

And don't even get me started on the increased cost of travel!

21 & 18
About £1400 a month, unevenly spread through the year. (17k a year)
Mostly two sets of rent
Allowances for food and social

I'll be glad when at least one of them gets a job so they can begin supporting themselves!

Toddler and primary schooler.

Nursery £760
After school club £140
Rainbows £28?
Acrobatics £32
Pocket money £20-40 varies
Nappies £25
Clothes £20 ish

Then just food, odd days out etc. childcare is the killer and the rest is fine.
We buy random toys, books etc most months but it’s rarely expensive stuff.
This month we spent £300 on a new bed for DD and we’ll get a new bed for DS soon too as he’s still in his cot.

[quote Whetheryouthinkyoucan]@sanityisamyth I cheated- I just put DC’s lessons and club membership down. I’m ignoring the hay/feed/farrier/vets part![/quote]

🤣🤣🤣 definitely less painful!!

@Ragwort

A 5 year old is fussy about clothes & will only wear organic brands ?

I'm wondering how they know which are the organic brands and which aren't - do you think they read widely around the topic?

Never thought about this, 2dc 10 and 7
Swimming - £30
Beavers - £5
Martial Arts -£20
Drama - £15
Clothes - £40(spread through the year some months more, some less)
Food - about £300 I think
Pocket money - £40

So all in about £500 per month. Dreading the teenage years!!!

£25 per month swimming
£75 per month wraparound care
£25 per month packed lunches
£20 per month clothes
£30 per month food
Bills? Treats? Outings? Holidays? Birthdays? £600 per year??
X 3
£750 per month very rough estimate... can't be too much more, we don't have much more!

Well we have a nanny due to our 4th child having some special needs so nursery isn't suitable. So thats about 1800 per month net on my end (actual cost to me, after help from the government through tax free childcare).
Then our oldest 2 have got cello classes that's 80quids per month. Horse riding 100 per month. French school 140 for all 3 of them. Music classes for 2 of them 25 per month. Judo for 3 of them 50 per month. Beavers/cadets i think 30 per month together.
Odd play group for the youngest about 20 per month.
Not sure for food. Clothes quite a small amount as mainly hand me down from friends or each other or second hand. Shoes though are more expensive so total maybe £50 a month overall. Not sure.
Total without the nanny - about £500?

I suppose if i add food, outings, presents etc it's probably close to £1000 per month. Without the nanny. Not too sure.

£2k for nursery fees
£300 a month investment towards uni
£400 misc includes sports fees, clothes etc

No idea about food, energy, holidays etc.

Ouch

@Ragwort @northernruth she already explained her child has sensory issues.