Does parenting get less expensive or more expensive?

[SwizzlesTwizzles]

I'm wondering about our future trajectory! Life got a lot cheaper when my 8 year old left nursery and since then the only things that have gotten more expensive are the amount of food she eats, the fact that we have to pay for school dinners now she's in year 3, and she's signed up to a couple of expensive hobbies. But generally she's much cheaper now than she was as a toddler.
I have a 2 year old as well and I'm looking forward to the end of nursery fees as something that will give us more financial wiggle room, but I'm feeling a sense of foreboding that I'm wrong about that.
Is there stuff that gets more expensive later on besides general uptick of groceries consumed?

It’s really different now as maintenance loans aren’t normally enough for rent let alone anything else. Most parents do have to contribute in some way. Lots pay the rent (eg. 8k a year or whatever ) the student lives on the maintenance loan.

It depends. For me their clothes as teenagers are hugely expensive. None of mine are into labels but they grow so fast and 2 of mine are the same size now so there are no hand me downs. Also with adult mens trousers there are waist sizes and leg length which makes handing clothes down tricky as well.

Activities are so much more expensive too. When my dc were little they loved a walk with some puddles to jump in or to see new houses being built. My teenagers only want to do extremely expensive stuff. We have a rule where we save up for one expensive trip out a year and then it's cheap stuff or nothing the rest of the time. Our local trampoline park charges £8:95 for an under 6 for about 5 hours. An older child is £14:95 for 1 hour.

University is as expensive as you/they make it. Ds1 spends quite a bit of money so he has a part time job in the holidays. Ds2 is a lot more frugal so he manages fine on just his loan.

We spent a lot on driving lessons and helping them out with buying their first cars and paying for insurance- because realistically they just couldn’t fund much of that themselves, even though they both had PT jobs (and I gather PT jobs are now very hard to come by for teens and students).

Another point about Universriey costs to add to what PPs have said about the loans: the interest rates on the loans are much higher now; a large proportion of graduates will never pay off their loans, despite paying 9% of their earnings in repayments. We don’t want our DCs to be saddled with that for the next 40 years, given that the cost of living in general is so high now (and getting higher with no sign of improvement). It’s going to be hard enough for them to pay their rent and living expenses, let alone also servicing those loans for the majority of their working lives. Neither of them are heading into particularly high paying work. So we’re choosing to help them out more than we strictly have to at Uni.

I’d say the peak year for expense, after university is giving them the deposit for a house, especially if DC buy houses quite close together!

Which is obviously completely optional and not at all an essential cost of raising children.

This is a bit off topic now but are you saying you're paying your kids uni fees rather than taking out the loans, so that they don't have to pay them back via their salary? Wouldn't it be better to take the loans and just give them that money if you have it? My grandad had left some money for me and I decided with my parents to pay for my first year up front rather than take a loan that year, it meant my student loan ended up about £13k rather than £19k and it makes 0 difference because I'm not a high earner and I pay about £2 a month in loan repayments. I've always kicked myself that they could have just given me that £6k to help me buy my first home or something.

are you saying you're paying your kids uni fees rather than taking out the loans, so that they don't have to pay them back via their salary?

No @SwizzlesTwizzles , most students take out loans for the tuition fees and a maintenance loan to cover accommodation and living expenses. The problem is that the maintenance loans are based on the household income and ignores household expenses, so most students' maintenance loans don't even cover the cost of accommodation let alone anything else.

The job market has been affected by the cost of living crisis and there are loads of students who can't even get part time jobs to support themselves.

The person I was quoting did imply they were doing that, though.

Mine are 14 and 18, and costing more than ever before. A friend told me this will be the case for a few more years yet.

Some parents do pay the uni costs upfront so no loans and no interest accruing on said loans

Put your salary into the loan calculator. Almost no families get more than the minimum loan, which is about £5k, but accommodation can be £10k before a loaf of bread is bought.

It has changed a HUGE amount in the last ten years.

Mine are definitely more expensive now (9-teens) but we never had expensive nursery fees.

Big costs are:
Clubs and gym membership
Music lessons
GCSE tutoring
Bus money (£30 a week!)
Adult meals at pubs/cafes
Multiple rooms in hotels/holidays counting 12+ as adults
Adult size shoes and clothes

Hopefully none will go to uni or if they do they will need to live at home and commute.
We haven't got to driving lessons yet!

Actually the peak expense is buying them a yacht.

Cloths jump up in price once they outgrown the kids section. DC moved up to adult size shoes this year (at 9) and they are noticeably more, he's also on age 13 cloths, so within a few year it will be £30 for a hoodie, insted of the £8 asda ones I get for his younger sister.

But on the other hand, at some point the extra cost will be offset by not needing childcare/wrap around care.

Helping with wedding costs doesn’t come cheap either.

Even if you have your child take out the full loans they can, there's still a big gap. I am assuming my kids won't be able to work during Uni. Am hoping one or both of them squeaks in while Uni tuition is still free in Scotland, but it's very likely to be done before my (10 year old) son starts so that's an added cost (though presumably they'd be able to get an additional loan for this when it comes in).

I've seen 10K/year mentioned as a general idea - that's to cover the gap in rent costs and food/expenses. I think it will likely be higher by the time my kids are at Uni though (13/10 now)

Surely that's only worth it if they're heading for the kind of high-paying career where they would have some hope of paying it off if it wasn't for the high interest rate. Most people would be better off receiving tens of thousands of pounds up front, and having student loans to pay.

You shouldn’t really be aiming to go to uni and not think you are going to have a salary that will pay towards your uni loan.

Under the current loan scheme you start paying back once your salary hits £25k

More. Much more. They become basically a whole other adult and that is what they cost-
adult clothes and shoes
phones and various other technology
adult food portions
hobbies
entertainment
transport costs

Yes sort of. They won’t claim the maintenance loan at all, even though they are entitled to the base rate (as far as I know). One is living at home as her University is local anyway so we will continue to pay her living expenses for the duration of her four year course. The other one is planning to go to a Uni further away but we will pay his rent and living costs so that both of them only have to take the tuition fees loan.

Once they’ve graduated, we will help them clear chunks of the balance so the loans can be repaid sooner. That’s the plan anyway!

One of mine is doing a degree in an Allied Health Care Profession. A great job and worthwhile, but not very well paid (but you can’t do it without a degree).

Assume they will earn more than £25k though so at least would be paying some of it back

Depends on individual set up, I think. Life certainly got cheaper after twins at nursery, however we still pay for an afterschool/school holiday nanny at £500-600 a month. Once they are secondary school/teens and don’t need this anymore, costs will significantly decrease, no matter how costly teens are reported to be!

Driving lessons
university costs
house deposit
free childcare for grandchildren

Well full time childcare for my twins from age 4 months to age 4 was £3.5k per month I can’t imagine they’ll ever be that expensive again

house deposits and so on are optional not a must