Is this really true about cost of having a child?

[Childcostss]

Me and dh want a baby in the next year and have started to ttc. 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. We’ve estimated we will need around 600 a month for clothes, food, trips out etc when he or she starts school. We thought this was a high estimate… but, chatting with friends over the weekend some were saying age 1 to 5 is the worst (all the costs of car seats and furniture etc and childcare)… others said they felt it got FAR worse when school started.

This has worried me a bit as I want to go part time after maternity leave but dh doesn’t earn well (less than 30k) and no prospect of earning more in the role he is in. It’s just made me apprehensive… I don’t want to be permanently skint but I’m also 34 and don’t want to wait too long either!

£600 for the child per month?
once ours started school I think it was far less than that, but everyone will be different.

here we pay £35 per child per week for after school club. Holiday club is £15 per day but we use our leave for some of that.

clothes we gets loads of hand me downs, charity shop bargains and sale stuff. I very rarely buy much full price.

days out we mostly do cheap or free stuff - beach, moors, park etc.

food we buy a lot more fruit and snacks but meals isn’t much more as it’s just making a slightly bigger portion than for 2 of us.

Our 2 are now teenagers and this is definitely the most expensive stage for us. Childcare costs a lot more now than when we were using it though so it may be different for those whose kids are younger now.

Saying that, costs were much more predictable when they were preschool and primary aged.

We aren’t on high wages, and we’ve never saved as extensively as that. If your DH is on low wages and you aren’t a high earner/go part time you’d probably have been eligible for the childcare element of universal credit, which we claim as nursery is over £600pcm for just 2 days, wraparound for middle child is £15 per day. We also claimed UC top up when I went down to SMP.
I think there’s an element of only spending what you have, I sourced a lot of things very cheaply, I buy a lot second hand and I sell everything on as soon as we’re done with it to fund the next stage.
things like swimming lessons are expensive, but whilst my kids are swimming they don’t do any other extra curriculars, once they can swim they can pick a different club to do.

It depends on your kids to some extent and if they have hobbies or attend clubs. I find school more expensive than nursery was though. If your husband earns less than 30k I think you’d absolutely be skint if you went part time.

I hope you’ve factored in the cost of soft fruit. I barely bought any before DD was born, now it’s major chunk of the household budget.

@Nonspecificcheese soft fruit? I can’t work out if this is a joke 🤦‍♀️

That seems...excessive. I mean my one lives in primark or sainsburys stuff, a decent pair of clarks shoes. Days out he had more fun running in a field and being free that dragged around a zoo. But it's all relative isn't it? The initial set up can be pricey; I wouldn't buy a car seat second hand so when I bought new I got a travel doodad that was pram and car seat.
Childcare costs however are pretty expensive. But my husband and I have managed on 40k income combined and he is a fairly polite (had his moments) small boy. I did manage to get several clothes bundles of different age ranges on fb market and plenty of books from charity shops. But I'd say your real costs will be childcare.

Err no that’s insane. Why would food, clothes and days out cost £600 a month??

10k for childcare to school??! Even with the funding full time our nursery would be £11.5k a year- redo those calculations

I don't think anything compared even remotely to FT childcare costs, but then we are in London. I really felt like we were drowning under them and I was actually relieved to be made redundant after mat leave with my second because FT childcare for two until oldest started school would have been 150% of my take-home salary so redundancy was a better outcome.

To be fair soft fruit is extortionate and kids bloody love it. But PP was joking. It ain’t gonna cost you hundreds a week.

@Stressedoutforever but the 30 free hours have come in?

Baby is due in a couple of weeks, so I don't actually know first hand but I've been given the advice that there are a LOT of costs such as childcare (nursery or wraparound), maternity leave etc that you just can't get around. Plan and save well for these.

Other costs can be mitigated and you can cut your cloth accordingly. There is such a heavy push to buy overpriced items that are marketed as essentials at the baby stage at least, that aren't needed. Nursery furniture seems the biggest waste of money ever. Expensive travel systems that don't last more than 6 months are another.

I’m finding mid-late teens the most expensive phase so far (but then we never had to pay for very much childcare as I had extended mat leave and then worked PT so maybe I’m not the best comparator!)

Soft fruit.

God yes. I get paid and head straight to the supermarket to spend it all on raspberries.

I probably spend £50 a month on fruit that I wouldn’t have spent before kids so I agree on this 😂

By the way just have the baby - vast majority of people do not have £10k saved when they have a baby. You’ll be grand.

Yeah that's including those..

Full year is 20 hours a week, so 2 days at the reduced rate £22.50. 3 days a week at £80 a day. Multiple by 50 weeks a year. Take 20% off for tax free.. £11400 a year!

It’s only term time and most nurseries still charge £15-£25 a day for the ‘funded’ hours.

Its only 30hrs from age 2, you need to pay full price for nursery until 2 and then most nurseries still charge top up fees.

Also, £600 a month for a child?! Is that a typo?

£600 include your food costs as well?

I would be very surprised if your childcare is only £10,000 even with the funding (which is never as free as it sounds) I priced up ours when our youngest started school and although it was for 2 kids, it was going back to 2010 when it was much cheaper (and got the 30 hours for youngest), and I was part time for a chunk of it, and we spent in excess of £60,000.

3 half days a week at nursery with funding cost me about £250 a month (term time only, holidays full price).

What do you spend a month on your school age child?

No. It’s not that bad.

Unless you think you need every gadget available and refuse to use hand me downs. Then you’ll be broke. Otherwiseyou can pick up most equipment and clothes for free off recycling and local sites. Food costs a bit - but not that much.

Soft fruit isn’t a joke. It’s the only kind of fruit or veg I can get into my son, so £10 a week on soft fruit it is.