Advice needed on how much extra we will need a month to support a child

[funkyzebra]

My dh and I would like to have our first baby at some point in the near future.

I am wondering if some of you lovely people could give me a rough idea of how much money I would need on top of what we are already spending a month to cover the costs of a child.
I wouldn't need to pay for childcare as I have lots of family close by who are happy to do this. I am already saving up so that I will have the same amount on maternity leave as I would do if I was still at work. We wouldn't need to move house or anything like that and I'm guessing that household bills will stay pretty much the same. We're also not planning on paying school fees as there are great schools locally.

So I suppose I'm asking how much we will need a month to pay for the other associated costs of having a child such as for their food, clothes, toys, days out that kind of thing! Or other suggestions? I know we will need baby things initially (pram, car seats etc) but thinking more long term here.

I literally have no idea how much extra we will need a month for those things. I'm hoping it's in the hundreds and not the thousands! I don't want to try for a baby and then realise that we don't have enough and for it to become difficult to manage.

Any advice or tips would be great! Thank you

Hmm it's seeming like we definitely can't afford to have a child now or ever then . Surely it can be done

Can I just say that although the first few years may be a struggle financially (ours certainly were) that it’s all worth it a million percent!

Childcare is by far the biggest expense, we paid about £1200 a month for our 2 DC to be in nursery 4 days a week 7:30-5:30. Even though I had a well paid job I took home very little after that. However, this September my DD has started school and after Christmas my DS qualifies for 30 free hours which is going to be a massive reduction in costs for us. In the meantime I’ve worked my way up at work so it’s all been worth it and now we can have a bit more of a comfortable lifestyle.

My children wore second hand clothes and we had to scrimp and save and cut right down on luxuries but there’s no way I’d change any of it. They’re worth it all!

Thanks @colonelgoldfish I really want to have a child but when I'm looking at the costs I'm thinking wow it will be a struggle and is it worth it! Nice to hear from someone else who struggled a bit but it was worth it. I think I would want to stay in work if possible too as it makes more long term sense for us but I know it will be hard.

There are loads of areas where full time childcare will rush you well under 1k a month. A full time nursery place near me is about £800 for a one year old, and it would be less for a childminder. However, this won't help OP much if that's not the case in her locality.

OP if you actually are going to get free childcare, or even free partial childcare from family, the £600 a month you have left now should be sufficient for a child. As others have said, the main expense when they're little is either childcare or reducing your own earnings to care for them. The things they need are pretty cheap, particularly if DH can be disabused of the 2nd hand=bad idea.

It would also be useful to you to research how much help you're likely to get. Will you get child benefit? £20 a week will cover a lot of their expenses in the first few months at least. You will end up spending more on things like utilities, because you'll be doing more washing, be up more at night etc, but that doesn't have to be a huge amount.

Meant to say as well OP, childminders are usually cheaper than nurseries. If your nursery is 1k, the childminder will probably be about £900. This is before any vouchers, childcare tax credits or tax free childcare of course.

According to this it costs about £230k to raise a child to age 21
www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-3448120/Cost-raising-child-spirals-230-000.html

£70,000 of that is childcare, and it also includes university (though the article doesn't specify whether that's paying fees up front or paying the young adult child's rent, food, equipment/ book etc bills or both) thoughed Pissedoff

Those things are vaguely interesting but meaningless in real life - a study adding up what running a car costs over an adult life time would be equally jaw dropping, but because it's dribs and drabs not all it once the impact is not felt the way the lifetime totl headlines suggest, obviously.

Nappies were not expensive in our household as we bought a set of 24 old fashioned terry nappies - the squares - and laundered them. It was just the disposable liners that had to be bought and the cost was minimal.

I also almost never bought jars/pouches of baby food. After weaning they had what we were having - apart from if we were having a dish with loads of chili.

I doubt that 230k is averse tbh. That’s, on average £913 per month per child so £1826 for 2 children. Given that the average family of 4, has an after tax income of £3300 (if I remember correctly), the numbers don’t stack up completely.

It does help if you can space your children 3 years or more apart - ours are just over 3 years apart and when I went on mat leave with the second the older one became eligible for the free 15 hours at nursery (now 30 hours), which helped a lot, and then as I went back to work and the little one started nursery the big one started school - so we never had two lots of nursery costs. Childcare costs once they are at school is way less than nursery. I remember DS1 going to the holiday club at nursery in the October half term when he had started at reception and the cost for a day was half what we had been paying for him just a couple of months earlier. In fact he was about the same age then as DS2 (autumn born) is now and we're paying double for him! If you work part time - say half time - you take home more than half of what you take home full time, due to the tax allowances, and yet nursery costs are halved. We have also had family help one day a week, so our nursery costs (even in London) have never been over £500 a month, and I have taken home in the region of £1200 a month or higher even though I was part time. Obviously these figures will vary widely and we have been lucky, but it can be manageable.

A few caveats on the "free 30 hours childcare".

1. It's 30 hours a week during term time i.e. 38 weeks a year. So you're either down 14 weeks a year, or 8 hours a week (and surveys show that most full day care settings which are part of the scheme only offer it stretched across the full year, so that's 22 hours a week).

1. Finding a childcare provider who's part of the scheme can be a problem - not all are, as some feel they can't do it for what local authorities are paying.

1. The government / LAs only cover the childcare and education elements, not food, nappies, activities and other things, for which parents will be charged.

Babies and young children don’t have to cost a lot but I know petthtabhave spent £4K before baby has even arrived (best over priced Pram, cost, clothes baby has never worn etc). You could kit out everything for a newborn for about £500 including buying a new car seat and cot (I would never use 2nd hand ones of either of these things). I have no problems though buying 2nd hand baby clothes as babies hardly use there clothes so 2nd hand is often not worn at all.

Also you might not want to go back to work full time as it’s a lot easier said than done. Your also saying childcare isn’t an issue but be realistic can you still rely on family members in 7 years time to collect your child from school? Family may say they are willing to help but be realistic about how physically fit and able they are? And how willing to do it long term? It’s one thing saying they will help quiet another actually doing it day in and day out for years.

You