How much does it cost to raise a child for the first few years?

[Gettingfitandpregnant]

TTC for baby #1 soon and just wanted an honest answer on how much you spent on your child for the first, say, 5 years? So how much did you spend each year?

People say babies are expensive and I feel like I need to mentally prepare myself for just how expensive they are!

Pregnancy:
First year:
2nd year:
3rd year:
4th year:
5th year:

Big costs are childcare and loss of income.

If you have to start maternity leave early or take more sick leave than you get pay for then that will impact your income.

Childcare depends on location and how much you need. I'm in the midlands, nursery is around £50 a day so £1000 a month full time.

Definitely factor in loss of family childcare. My MIL offered 1 day a week and for about a year did do that and it was wonderful and she was fantastic, but then she got ill and wasn't able to anymore.

Exactly. Having a child, especially for a woman, can massively impact your income. And childcare is incredibly expensive. And you may find you need a bigger house and bigger car. How much you spend on a pram, clothing etc etc is a drop in the ocean compared to those costs.

Consider if it is realistic for your parents to provide childcare. This is much more than babysitting. You say only use part of your maternity leave so you can go back part time but the two aren’t linked. If you go back 3 days a week for example then part of the “cost” to be considered is the drop in salary and then the cost of childcare to cover this. Could your parents really provide 8+ hours a day for a number of years? Once they get to school age you still need some form of wraparound care due to the shorter school day.

I have been on MN for 16 years and I can tell you that no matter how much you get on with your parents childcare arrangements often all start with great intentions on both sides but there are issues. Their holidays will suddenly be limited to what you or your Dp/Dh can cover, how many holidays do they normally have? Would they be able to go away for weekends etc. Would they want to care for a sick baby? One with chicken pox? How old are they and they may have forgotten how much work a baby, then toddler is. One of them may become ill. There will be differences of opinion on raising this child and you will have to suck it up because they are providing free childcare. Lots of Mnetters have issues of some sort with parents providing childcare.

You need to allow for paying for full time childcare just in case and actually I would advise you not to use your parents full time. My Mum provided free childcare part time for my sister (I am a SAHM) and sadly she was diagnosed with cancer and dead within 3 months having no symptoms of being unwell.

FF and nappies for DTs at the most expensive point was around £50 a week. Spent a grand on prams, car seats were £400 each then another £200 each a few months later, clothes were mainly second hand and I sold a lot on afterwards. I’d guesstimate excluding childcare costs and formula food around 2k a year for a singleton, and 3k for multiples, but would include savings for their future in that?

Obviously it can be done much cheaper than that, it’s just what I reckon it’s probably cost us a year to get them to 4 so far.

It's really all about the childcare/lost salary costs.

Everything else is peanuts - you can get so much stuff for free (Freecycle/olio etc) or for very cheap second hand

Definitely factor in childcare costs in case your parents change their minds. My mother in law changed hers after lockdown and we now spend 1800 a month on nursery fees (we have 2 kids now though rather than 1) and that’s not even full time!

We got a cot and mattress from IKEA, £100 for both together. Also recommend the IKEA high chair, £12 and the easiest thing to keep clean!

You can usually pick up Moses baskets for around £10-£15 secondhand, they're not in them for long so no point buying brand new IMO.

Biggest cost will be the car seat and pram, but if you can get a travel system (car seat that fitsfits onto the pram base, you'll be able to combine the 2 costs.

With clothes, there's so many options, you can spend as little out as much as you like. I've got my daughters clothes from birth upto age 7, and my sons from birth upto age 5, for around £300, by shopping in the sales and getting things when they are out of season.

Not including childcare I would say Ds has roughly cost £3k per year so far.

Pregnancy and year 1 - essentials and day to day stuff. Bought most things new. Some things will last years ie chest of drawers, others like clothing not.

Age 1-2 - didn’t need many large items as still used most from year before. More clothing and toys and garden bits. More day out trip costs or memberships. Costs of food, larger hote room

I spent around £300 before they were born and around £30–50 per month thereafter. No new clothes, no formula, no bought baby food. Nothing really expensive until the school fees kicked in.

Pregnancy/year 1 the main cost was loss of earnings through maternity leave. I have quite a good maternity package but it still cost me around £10k in lost earnings. I was lucky that family bought a lot of the big baby items for DC1 (and we kept it all for DC2). Most was bought new and I would estimate around 1.5k including pram and nursery furniture, but could obviously be done much cheaper. Day to day costs for a baby were negligible to be honest. I breastfed which cost me around £100 in nursing bras and about £40 for a silicone pump and some bottles. Nappies were supermarket own brand and I didn’t buy expensive clothes either as they are in them for 5 minutes. The food bill didn’t really go up once we weaned as we just gave what we were eating and rarely bought special baby food.

Age 1-3 started out well with family doing most of the childcare… until that arrangement rapidly went tits up, completely out of the blue, and it became 4 days a week in nursery at a cost of around £700 per month after tax free childcare. I really would not rely on family as the only childcare option. It’s great - until it’s not. Clothes and food still fairly low cost and more than covered by child benefit. Few £100 extra per year for Christmas/birthdays/days out etc, though some cancelled out by fewer no nights out/away for DH and I.

Age 3, the free hours kicked in at nursery but we were still paying around half the previous bill as it’s term time only.

School age - cheaper childcare as we were down to wraparound care only, but still a couple of hundred a month once holiday clubs are taken into consideration. Clothing costs increased as school uniform cost a fair bit, and we also started swimming lessons and dance classes.

And then we’ve started again with DC2…

I didn't spend much at all on stuff. Cot, buggy, clothes, etc, were mostly second hand. I probably spent about £100 a month on outings to playgroups, soft play, trampoline parks & farm parks. The real killer was lose of earningsand childcare. A full time nursery place where i live is over £1800a month. Then came the school fees.

The biggest cost to me was salary and pension. My company now give a full year fully paid which I think is awesome

I think it’s easy to get secondhand or cheap clothing and essentials.
But the day to day costs now such as food, and travel costs and days out cost if you want a variety.

Its all well saying toddlers food doesn’t cost if you don’t buy ‘baby food’ and let them eat what you do, but frankly even my 2 year old eats similar sized portions to me ie a whole banana. It’s not like my 7 bananas magically grow to now feed 14 portions, I simply buy double.

Yes you can free days out, and take picnics. But not every day if possible

I missed out a ‘much’ when I mentioned about the food bill. Obviously there are things we buy more of now we have DC so it has gone up, but I certainly don’t buy double everything, and for us it wasn’t really a noticeable difference. We still cook exactly the same size meals, just me and DH don’t get to go back for such a big helping of seconds. Loaves of bread get finished rather than the last few slices going mouldy.

My point was that the day to day living costs of small DC for me aren’t massive, but for others it might be more expensive if they prefer branded nappies, use pouches, formula feed etc so OP
should bear that in mind. When deciding whether to try for DC2 it was the maternity leave, childcare and potential university costs etc that we really had to consider rather than can we feed and clothe another. For others that might be different.

I am aware that food and clothing costs will increase when I have two teenagers