How expensive are your children?

[PirateWeasel]

I've heard so many conflicting opinions from my friends IRL. Some say babies are the most costly because of high nursery fees. Others say school age because of uniform, extra curricular stuff etc, and others say teenagers because they want high tech gizmos, driving lessons and so on...

So apparently kids are always going to cost shedloads of money whatever age they are! But I'm curious to hear your experiences of which stages you found the toughest financially. I need to prepare myself... and my wallet! 😂

Yes sorry but I don’t get it either. Myself and my husband don’t cost £1600 a month so why would a teenager. And we run cars and everything 🤣

I agree people who think teens are more expensive definitely haven’t needed to pay for childcare. Often private school becomes a possibility to those who pay for childcare because you become used to paying 10-17 per year and so might as well continue.

It's got to be the baby years. 3 lots of maternity pay so that was a loss of 2.5 years of my salary. Then DH and I both went PT so 20% drop in our income. Then nursery fees to cover the days we were both working at ~£1000 a month.

Kids are at school now at the childcare fees are minimal (+£1000 a month) and DH and I have increased our hours (+10% salary). The next time we'll be paying out as much will when we have 2 at university when we'll need to top up their maintenance loan so that will be ~£1000 a month again (at current values). But we'll both be working full time so it still won't be as expensive as the baby years.

Taking away school fees then, i agree that childcare for little ones is madly expensive. Crippling in fact. My exH and I earned that salary bracket where we got no Tax Credits but didn't earn enough to easily pay the £1k a month nursery and we struggled massively. Equally we couldn't afford the bills and to live if one of us stayed at home. I am convinced the stress of this contributed to us splitting up. Every day was a struggle.

My (newer) DH and I are much better off (own company that's thankfully done well and we work hard at). We are luckily in the position to afford school fees by choice and perhaps our teenage boys expect more because of it, i don't know..

But leaving that aside, the amount of FOOD they eat is phenomenal. From eating little sandwiches, bits of red pepper and a yoghurt when they were little, to entire baguettes, whole packs of ham, cheese, 3 bags of crisps, 2 yoghurts and a whole tray of Mr Kipling cakes and 4 nectarines. Each. For Lunch. (They are 6ft3, very fit and muscular, no fat, play LOADS of sport by the way). I shop in Lidl and cannot keep up with what they eat and the money that goes on it.

I didn't mean to offend anyone with my posts, i was just answering the thread title question. I wasn't trying to be goady, Im sorry.

wrong thread! Sorry.

@BigusBigmus I have boys too, I am quite apprehensive about the teenage food bills!!! It amazes me how much they can pack away in their tiny bodies already!

It depends on the set up, I pay for four days of pre-school, I lost wages through dropping a day at work, then clothes, toys, shoes and activities. I also had to move out of a flat share and into my own flat which has been very expensive.

Once he is at school in September I’ll save a lot as I will only need breakfast and after school club four days a week. At the minute I’m paying just over £80 a day in pre-school fees!

You can save in other areas though, virtually all of his toys and clothes are second hand.

Oh God, yes the food. I have three boys and the food bill is such that I never tread on the, "what is your weekly food bill?" threads for fear of being labelled a trolly stealth boaster.

the amount of FOOD they eat is phenomenal. From eating little sandwiches, bits of red pepper and a yoghurt when they were little, to entire baguettes, whole packs of ham, cheese, 3 bags of crisps, 2 yoghurts and a whole tray of Mr Kipling cakes and 4 nectarines. Each. For Lunch. (They are 6ft3, very fit and muscular, no fat, play LOADS of sport by the way). I shop in Lidl and cannot keep up with what they eat and the money that goes on it

Yes!! I seem to be shopping 3x a week. I can't store enough for the full week and buying that much in one go means it just gets eaten quicker!

It was pretty awful when Ds grew half a shoe size in 6 weeks FOUR times. I'm so pleased he's stopped growing now at size 12😱

DD is nearly 4 and we spend £1200 a month for Nursery, £80 for swimming lessons and probably about £50 - 80 for shoes and clothes as she is growing at a phenomenal rate. I hope teenage years aren't so pricey!

@newjobnerves Yeah everyone's situations will be different. I know mine will cost more when they are teenagers as I don't have a huge child care bill.

Teenagers.I have two boys. and everything everybody has already said. rings true.Food bills alone are eyewatering. Opening the fridge becomes a reflex.Now facing University fees and accommodation costs for two.My husband has a good salary and I have given up work due to health reasons and we really can't complain.But I often ask my DH how others manage.The kids work part-time so earn their own pocket money.

I find it very hard to believe that my kids will ever cost more than they do in the years before they go to school - £1600 per month for two in private nursery 3 days a week plus both DH and I work 4 days a week, which involves a salary cut (though we partially compress hours which helps).

We get a lot of stuff second hand but it's a drop in the ocean compared to childcare costs.

Totally depends on your lifestyle and choices. Mine don’t cost a huge amount as fairly frugal. Mostly clothes and food but not extortionate. However I’m currently a SAHM so cost £30k plus a year depending on how you look at it

@Shelbybear yeah absolutely, and if you take childcare out of the equation I have no doubt teenagers will cost me more than children. Right now I'm getting away with passing everything down to DS2 greeted with joyful screams of "yay now I can wear DS1's Spider-Man pyjamas!!" I'm guessing they're not quite so thrilled with pass-me-downs as teens 😂

My boys are into designer "streetwear" gear, Supreme, Palace, True Religion, Stussy and the like. I bought them a few new bits to start them off and now they sell their stuff and rebuy more on eBay etc. One has an online DePop shop where he sells all his trainers (Nike TNs which are madly expansive), so i only have to buy basic stuff for them now. Socks and pants really and there are plenty of fake Calvin Klein and Gucci pants on eBay costing a fraction.

The amount of white socks they get through is crazy though. Where do they all go????

We have a few pairs of 'going out' white socks and the rest are 10 pairs for £4 from Primark,we have hundreds

I need to get myself down to Primark!

I'd definitely say teenager stage is the most expensive! DS1 is 15 and he's forever wanting money to go out with friends, new clothes ( as he doesn't stop growing) and I'm currently saving ready for driving lessons next year. I'm looking forward to him being able to get a little job to fund some of his expenses! He'd love one now but so hard to find anything for under 16's.

We didn't have huge childcare outgoings when the children were little though as with DS1 I worked at his nursery so the fees were hugely subsidised and when DS2 came along I became a SAHM

Well at least i know I definitely wont be spending on fake gucci pants 😂😂😂

My dc are 3 and 5 and they have cost tens and tens of thousands because I became a SAHM. Don't they just cost more or less everything you have, however much that might be? I suppose if you're pretty well off they might not but tbh I think it's probably the case for most people!

I have never bought white socks for the DCs and hope I never have to!

Oh I forgot got the £20k on ivf