Page 8 | To ask how much your kids cost you per month?

MrsTimRiggins · 16/03/2022 23:10

One four month old son.
Probably £50/month on clothes at the moment as he’s racketing through sizes and is now in 6-9 months so have to keep buying more!
£50ish swimming lessons
£20ish nappies and wipes
£25 maybe on books and toys here and there

That’s about it 🤷🏼‍♀️

oblada · 16/03/2022 23:11

@OfstedOffred

A lot of your costs are very high.

My kids are the same age.
£500 for two full days nursery is high imho.
£100 a month on clothes is mad.
Swimming lessons - a 2 year old doesnt need these, for the 5 year old not many swimming lessons are more than £10 a week.
£100 a month family days out is a lot. We are on a high income and dont spend anything like that.

It's all relative. £100 a month on family days out is nothing. I struggle to spend less than £100 during the weekend with the kids. Of course some in of that is for us too. If we eat out once it's about £100 for all of us, maybe a bit less but not much. If we go to the cinema that would be quite a bit too. I sometimes take my oldest to the opera if i can. And we take the 3 older ones to a few pantomimes or shows in the year. A day trip quickly adds up in fuel, food and activities. It doesn't have to cost the earth but it can add up. A play centre or a trampoline park would be at least £50 for us. And factor in holidays. We do have 4 kids though.

MacaroniCheeseCat · 16/03/2022 23:20

This is really interesting. I tend to focus on the cost of childcare rather than all the other expenses. Mine are toddler and early primary age. It’s difficult sometimes to work out costs as the only constants are childcare (and even that fluctuates depending on whether we need holiday care as well as wraparound) and swimming lessons.

We can go a few months without anyone needing any clothes (and to be fair, most of the younger one’s wardrobe is hand-me-downs). And then suddenly DC1 has grown out of everything and I end up spending over £200. Days out are similar - none for ages and then several in succession.

Original poster

Troublesometooth · 17/03/2022 03:50

@OfstedOffred

A lot of your costs are very high.

My kids are the same age.
£500 for two full days nursery is high imho.
£100 a month on clothes is mad.
Swimming lessons - a 2 year old doesnt need these, for the 5 year old not many swimming lessons are more than £10 a week.
£100 a month family days out is a lot. We are on a high income and dont spend anything like that.

Why doesn’t a 2 year old need swimming lessons?

Round here swim lessons are £10 a lesson, unless you use the leisure centre where they are in a much larger group and can touch the bottom of the pool so take much longer to learn to swim.

My 2 year old can swim 5m and my 5 year old can do 25m. Money well spent.

Days can be less some months, but some months are more. Depends what we do, school holidays etc are more as I’ve got more time to fill.

OP posts:

DockOTheBay · 17/03/2022 06:46

@FleeceNavidadFromTheSheep

Has anyone mentioned DC at uni yet? Reading the comments, I'm thinking now it's not too bad at circa £500/month each to top up their student loans to the full amount.

They could get jobs to help fund the cost, we won't be able to afford £1000 a month if they're both at uni.

Duracellbunnywannabe · 17/03/2022 10:25

@Troublesometooth most two year olds can’t learn to swim yet as their heads are too big and their arms are too short. Obviously they will still enjoy playing in the pool but you don’t need to pay for expensive lessons to be able to do that.

Ski4130 · 17/03/2022 10:51

3 DC here – 12, 15 & 17

Sports subs £60
Bus fare to school/college for the older two £140 (£70 x 2)
Lunch money £180 (£60 per child)
Mobile phones £60 (£20 per child)
Driving lessons £120
Pocket money £17 for the 17 yr old, £15 for the 15 yr old, £12 for the 12 year old (spot the system there!)

We also pay for clothing and sports equipment as and when needed for all three, though our eldest uses his own money to buy most of his clothes on Depop, so we just buy his trainers/sports equipment for him generally. Ds17 works, so he pays for his own socialising out of his wages whilst we top up the younger two if they want to go to the cinema/into town with friends.

chubbachub · 17/03/2022 10:59

I take it we're not including the cost of feeding them/nappies etc.

We have (monthly)
Cubs £12
Swimming £27
Sports membership (basketball, badminton & trampolining each week) £22
Baby group £4
Clothes - maybe £30 a month if that? Not alot. I buy second hand on Vinted or charity shops and they always have nice things to wear.

We dont have any childcare to pay for and family days out are rare due to DH job. Maybe once a month we do bowling or something, that would be around £20-25. We do more free activities like parks, going to the woods etc as we dont have alot of spare income.

Original poster

Troublesometooth · 17/03/2022 11:07

[quote Duracellbunnywannabe]@Troublesometooth most two year olds can’t learn to swim yet as their heads are too big and their arms are too short. Obviously they will still enjoy playing in the pool but you don’t need to pay for expensive lessons to be able to do that.[/quote]
Most also can’t ride pedal bikes without stabilisers but mine can. She is more like your average 4 year old.
She can swim 5m and is doing really well at rolling onto her back to breath while swimming. I wouldn’t hold her back from lessons while she is doing so well with them.

OP posts:

shabbalabba · 17/03/2022 11:14

Mine could swim at 2...we started water babies at 5months old.

sanityisamyth · 17/03/2022 11:16

@shabbalabba

Mine could swim at 2...we started water babies at 5months old.

Ditto. Water Babies was awesome. Money very well spent. I've never worried about DS around water.

Ski4130 · 17/03/2022 11:43

Mine swam at 2, as did most of their friends, it's weird to me to think that they can't at that age.

We lived in NZ when ours were small, so our youngest was having lessons from a very young age, it would be silly not to as they were on/near water an awful lot.

Shannith · 17/03/2022 11:50

School fees - £1,500
Clothes - about £20? Some months more if she grows out of stuff
Pony stuff - £64
Singing lessons £40
School uniform - one off £400 then £10 a month bits from second hand uniform shop
All her clubs are free as part of the school - if I had to pay for them all, god knows - £200 a month?
Going out doing things I'd not do without a child - £30
Food/snacks - lunches are included in school fees so extras that are not just part of the food shop £15/20

lonelydad2022 · 17/03/2022 12:04

@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!

Don't you get the childcare money back from UC? At least 85%?

RussianSpy101 · 17/03/2022 12:31

@lonelydad2022 UC?

Original poster

Troublesometooth · 17/03/2022 12:48

@lonelydad2022 only if you are eligible as lower earners which we are not.

We do use the tax free childcare system.

OP posts:

Whatsonmymindgrapes · 17/03/2022 13:49

Your nursery bill is super cheap

Original poster

Troublesometooth · 17/03/2022 13:51

@Whatsonmymindgrapes

Your nursery bill is super cheap

I wouldn’t say so! It’s £64 per day. She only goes 2 days a week as that’s all I work.

OP posts:

SoftPillow · 17/03/2022 14:07

School fees: £3k
Nanny: £1,200
Swimming: £130
Tennis: £30
Ballet: £40
Clothes: £30 ish
Food: £100 ish
Trips out: £100 ish
Parties: £30
Fuel: £200
Random last minute purchases: £100

prescribingmum · 17/03/2022 15:10

Was just saying to DH how activity cost has suddenly become so much as I started paying subscriptions for summer term. Age 4 and 6

Averaged out per month:
£1200 in childcare fees (school and nursery)
£58 gymnastics (both children)
£25 ballet
£40 football
£30 cultural community activity
£40 swimming

Costs not included above: clothes, uniform (both children), specialist equipment (ballet clothes and shoes, other dance shoes, gymnastics leotard etc), holiday care, parties, presents, toys, holidays, days out

Clothes are probably are lowest expense as lucky to be given a lot of hand me downs from DH and my older siblings

Looking at it like this, I can't believe how much money we spend

TrifleAndSprinkles · 17/03/2022 15:14

I have one 2 year old

Nursery: £500

Nappies: £30ish now, though we did use cloth nappies for a year

Clothes: Between £50-£100 every 6 months, depending on what sales are on and what bundles are available on eBay/Vinted/Facebook marketplace

Swimming: £180 for Waterbabies every 10 weeks, but stopping that now as DD hates most of the exercises. So it will be maybe £20-£40pm for us to go to our local pool for a splash about.

Days out: Usually about £20-40 for various things like soft play, visit to aquarium or local wildlife centre

Food, not sure, that goes with our normal food shop.

Your costs do seem quite high, but then again some people's school fees are as much as my monthly take home pay. You cut your cloth, I guess!

Whatsonmymindgrapes · 17/03/2022 16:20

@Troublesometooth mine only goes 3 days and my bill is more than double yours!

Meadmaiden · 17/03/2022 17:07

Costs per month for 4 children
Childcare £400
Swimming £100
Savings for them £400
Instrument lessons £25
Tutoring £100
Activity club £20
Days out £200
Eating out £200
Clothes and shoes £60 (mainly shoe cost as most clothes bought second hand)
Food £300

Total around £1800/month (ouch!)