Tell us when you’ve forked out for your DCs - £100 voucher to be won NOW CLOSED

[EmmaMumsnet]

As you well know, having children isn’t exactly cheap… Just when you thought there wasn’t anything else your DC could possibly need, something else crops up and rinses your account.

Since your DC entered the world, at what points have you found yourself shelling out for things? Maybe when your DC got older, you had to splash out on a new buggy, or your second DC arrived and you found yourself looking for a new home?

What have been the major purchasing decisions in your child’s life so far? Have you had to cut back in some places in order to afford what your child needs? And how have your buying habits changed over time? Maybe you used to spend money on holidays and now you spend more on childcare? Finally, what have been the products you’ve spent the most money on as a result of having children?

Here are a few topics to think about:

• Health
• Childcare
• Education
• Home & Garden
• Cars
• Insurance
• Technology
• Travel
• Baby Products

All MNers who post on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £100 Love2Shop voucher.

Thanks, and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

My children currently between 5yrs old and 16yrs old.

The baby and preschool years were relatively cheap for us as a lot of the equipment and clothes could be used for more than one child.

School shoes have been a big expense. They cost more than my own shoes but were outgrown quite quickly during growth spurts. The most painful was my teenage son who went from a size 5 to a size 9 in less than a year and needed trainers, football boots and shoes each time.

Our car was secondhand but still a big expense as there had to be room for six people and assorted equipment.

We prefer day trips to going on holiday and these can quickly add up. There also seems to be no national policy on when a child becomes an 'adult', so sometimes I need to pay full-price for my teenagers and sometimes not.

At secondary school there is a greater need for access to technology and the internet in order to be able to complete homework. The older ones have needed a laptop each in order to be able to get homework and coursework done easily.

School dinners have been quite a big expense but worth it. It also helps that the youngest is still eligible for Universal Free School Meals due to her age.

Most expensive? Flight to US

Ive got a disabled DS. We spend quite a lot of time in hospitals. Parking costs an absolute fortune. You as a parent don't get fed so you have to buy 3 meals in expensive shops in the hospital.
If I want to buy him a vest for everyday to cover his nappy it costs ££15 per vest as he needs specialist vests for access to his gastrostomy.
We've bought him a swing seat for his birthday ... As its special needs just for the seat it cost £135.

Kids are expensive .... Disabled kids are even more expensive!!!

My two are now adults (allegedly) the older they've got the more expensive their requirements

DD1 is currently buying her first house. Bank of Mum and Dad have topped up the deposit

DD2 just finished uni and currently on the lookout for a car

A lottery win would be handy right now:)

We shelled out £400ish for the next stage car seat. We decided to pay extra for the Maxi Cosi 2Way Pearl so that DS would be rear-facing for longer. Of course, as soon as we fitted the seat, he screamed so much at being rear-facing that it was more dangerous and distracting, so he is forward-facing in a very expensive seat

Well this year it's school uniform for ds1 whose about to start senior school. It's costing a BOMB!

But to be honest, we lurch from one expensive thing to the next. Pocket money adds up, trips out during the holidays, new trainers, haircuts, an activity, food, new toys and books, new underwear, birthdays, new beds, car seats, silicone and sulphate free shampoo and conditioner(!), Christmas, school trips, music lessons, swimming lessons, and on and on. And it seems to get more expensive instead of less!

So those vouchers would be seriously helpful!

Another thing is the arbitrary age at which they are an adult for some things.

It can be anything from 12 to 17 ime. I think it is fair enough in a food type scenario as they are clearly eating more (don't get me started about the cost of eating out with teenage boys!) but for other things they aren't using any more of the resource and don't have any more income so not sure what it's all about. We went to play crazy golf and it was 14+ for an adult. They still only got one ball and one one club and took the same time to go round. DS1 was 15 so paid an adult rate, DS2 was 14 so paid a child's. At over 6 foot, they couldn't give DS2 a child's club so gave him one suitable for an adult anyway. Yet we've done other things where it's up to 16 or over 16. DS1 just turned 16 so I have to ask every single time. Okay 16 plus may have left school and be working but the reality is that most of them are still being paid for by their parents. It just seems odd to me.

We're from Ireland. Pre-kids we loved to travel anywhere and everywhere. Now we've had to give that up, and we only go home to Ireland instead. As well as the hassle, it's such an expense - children's passports are shorter-lived than adult ones, we need to pay for hold baggage (for the steriliser, nappies, baby equipment that our families don't have), we need to buy four plane tickets instead of two.

Car hire is probably the one thing that made my jaw drop and I didn't realise how much extra it is with children. DH and I would get a Nissan micra and motor round country lanes in it no problem. Now we have to hire a much bigger car to fit the car seats, luggage and pram in the boot, and we have to hire car seats every time. This is about €40 per car seat per trip. Or you can just pay to fly it with you but you still have to drag it around airports while you also have a small child, stroller and suitcases to manage. It's a recipe for a breakdown by the baggage carousel.

We've also just sold our home - a London flat - and are preparing to pay an extra £200 a month in commuting costs. Because we're moving somewhere we can have a garden and be close to good schools. DH and I aren't good gardeners and don't care at all about schools - but two very active toddler/preschool age kids in a city centre flat with no outdoor space was driving us mad and as we both grew up in the countryside we have a lot of guilt for not being able to let our children play outside as much as they'd like to.

Over the years I am found that it is not essential to buy everything new - cots, clothes, toys - a lot of them were hand me downs and still in excellent condition.

But for everything else the costs just don't stop - you dread every time another child has a party or there's a school trip.

Thankfully there are grandparents happy to take him away on holiday for free and to help save for his future.

That's a broad set of questions!!!

We pay for National Trust and RHS membership now which I don't think we'd have done otherwise.

We've had our garden landscaped to make it useable for children. That's probably the biggest thing!

In some areas we are very frugal eg hand-me-down clothes. In others less so- basically everything is now seen through the lens of being extremely time-poor. For example if we're going out we'll buy lunch whereas pre-DC we'd have made sandwiches to take.

We spend more money on at-home "treats" because we can't spend it elsewhere. So we have Amazon Prime and Sky Sports, but pre-DC we'd often go to watch sport either live or in the pub, or we'd go to the cinema. Hopefully not toooo long till they're old enough to come with us!

I think the biggest expense in a single go has been an extension to the house so that each child could have their own bedroom.
Having 3 children means that uniform is expensive, and now they are all in senior school the trips abroad are another expense. And I'm sure it will just get more expensive as time goes on ........

I bought a bigger car 2 weeks ago in order to fit in DC3. It cost 5 times more than my saloon car.

Consciously, it's been to help them fit in. So decent trainers for school I suspect or branded clothing. Shallow, but honest!

Shoes and clothes! , plus all the other usual expenses in-between. Our shopping costs always double in the school holidays as well, we seem to get through bread, squash and toilet roll like its going out of fashion! . Our eldest is approaching driving age so no doubt there will be driving lessons to pay for soon enough.

They just get more and more expensive as they get older. I have 3 teenage ds's and they all eat loads and take mens size clothes and shoes. To eat out they have to have adult meals obviously and numerous drinks. They wnat money to go to the cinema/ bowling/ out for friends birthdays etc. My eldest ds isn't too bad he earns quite a lot at a prt time job and pays for a lot himself. I have had to renew 3 kids passports today at a cost of £180 ! We ned to replace our 7 seater car which is going to be expensive.

And my kids can go through a litre bottle of Ribena and a packet of cereal in a day !!

It is endless. Clothes and shoes that they keep outgrowing, childcare...immense even with vouchers, food, and now they are bigger,a I am shocked by the cost of restaurant bills. Since 6 my DS has been eating adult portions. the biggest expense was a trip to Venice. Cost the earth. Oh but they loved it.

Education, definitely! DS's rural school cut back on PE lessons & music to cut costs then they decided to do a combined P1-P3 class. I applied for a bursary at the private school nearby, which he got, thankfully. I pay 50% of the fees but it has also been the hidden cost of school uniform, trips etc that add up to. My ex-h was paying me child maintenance which meant I could comfortably pay it all but he has now decided to stop paying.

The biggest cost to me is having to go back to work when I thought I'd retired. I'm an older mother and told my husband that if he wanted a child I was going to be a stay at home mother (like mine and his were).

When he said he wanted her to go to private school I said only if you can afford it. He said he could. But. Now she's going into senior school he can't. So at the age of 53 I had to start job hunting. I was lucky to find a job I enjoy but it is exhausting. Only another eight years until I can properly retire.

I've just spent £300 on uniform for her. I hope that it all lasts for those eight years

As Owly said, disabled kids are even more expensive lol, thank goodness for DLA!! It was a total lifesaver with DC that required specialist clothing, equipment and even right down to bowls/ cutlery. Shoes were another specialist nightmare - with the nhs only providing one pair at a time, and only at lengthy intervals, we were having to buy specialist footwear for a toddler (who wasn't actually toddling but needed the footwear for time in her standing frame etc).

In reality though, most of that was covered by the DLA, so really the most expensive things have been the same as everyone else. The usual stuff (clothes, shoes, food, activities) is fairly standard across the board for anyone with children. Ours have been allowed to get away with prodigious extra-curriculars, so on a monthly basis that has been an eye opener. We actually probably wouldn't even have a mortgage by now if we hadn't been paying for three lots of different dance genres, then swimming right through to bronze cross/ medallion and life guarding/ first aid training. The good thing about it is that just about now the kids are starting to reap the rewards of that themselves - the 16yo has two part time jobs (ft in the hols) life guarding and teaching tap classes.

We've also put as much as we can into academic extra curriculars (eldest is in her third year of a science program that culminates in an international competitive conferences) and one applied for a month long summer camp for more able students and was accepted - that was a cool 3k before we factored in the flights to get her there... All of them have done scouts/ guides and whatnot, so associated camps/ backpacking gigs and all the gear. The youngest has been attending an adaptive ski racing programme and wants to compete in the Paralympics eventually. That ain't going to be cheap either... and adaptive sports are exactly the same costs as regular sports, plus the specialist adaptive gear. The hard part has been trying to give our child with a disability the exact same opportunities as her brother and sister - and that takes time and effort as well as cold hard cash.

And yes, vehicles, of course. We not only needed a car that would take three car seats (three under five) but one that still had space for an sn buggy, a standing frame, a walking frame, and then ultimately a wheelchair. With the motability rules, we decided not to opt in for a motability car (dh and I often switched cars at some point during the day depending who was doing the drop-offs/ pick-ups etc).

And child care. For many years we had kids in three different settings, with different after-school care. So as well as the costs of child care, we also had extended fuel costs. So I spent time both working and as a sahm - with associated bumps in income. The difficulties with carers allowance and even working pt meant I could never claim carers, so we were reliant on the DLA to cover costs associated with me giving up ft work to become a carer.

We haven't done too badly though. The kids have not gone without anything (except holidays - the choices we make for our day to day spending on extra curriculars etc mean that we haven't really been ab,e to afford hols, but I don't see that as a sacrifice - it's a choice). We've been lucky enough to get through the child rearing years with no real financial difficulty so far.

Decided to have a 3rd baby and ended up with a gorgeous set of twin boys! Feel very lucky to have them here but my monthly finances are short by one set of nursery fees and the monthly payment for a seven seater car!! I need to go back to work to pay for the mortgage but will just get into debt over the next 2 years until the 30 free nursery hours kick in!

I spend a lot on clothes and shoes for my children over a year. Obviously you have the essentials they need, clothes for each seasons, coats, underwear, shoes, school uniform, but my children seem to outgrow everything really quickly and their feet grow quickly.
I have cut back on spending on myself in general since having children. I only buy clothes for myself unless I really have to, like if my clothes get holes in them, and I go out less to socialise with friends. I used to buy books to read very often, but get them from the library now as its free. My biggest expense was probably when my eldest was born, as I had to buy everything you need, with my 2nd I could use things we have from my son. Both pushchairs we got for the children were expensive, they were silvercross travel systems that could be used from birth, that came with carseats and it meant we didnt have to buy any other ones when they were a bit older. With my eldest childcare costs were a major outgoing, as my son had to go to private nursery from 1-3years until he got 15hours free. With my 2nd child I worked part time, around my partners hours so we didn't need childcare. Holidays are more now, as there is obviously more of us, and we have to go on holidays out of term time, so its much more expensive

Well, we're going through a punnet of strawberries a day at the moment - but as my ds is normally a fruit refuser, I don't feel I can do anything other than encourage this!

We live in a house we only bought because of dcs, swimming, music and other sports costs, kits for all... Running 2 cars as although DH only needs to use a car 3 days a week, I need to be able to run the dcs on those days.

But the biggest costs have really been the wage costs from wanting family friendly jobs, I'm a SAHM so my whole wage has been lost and DH could earn another £15-20k if he moved to another role he's been head hunted for at a couple of competitors, but it would mean vastly longer days, less leave and less family time, our youngest is still pre-school and right now family time wins.

My daughter has dyslexia we pay £25 for an hour's dyslexia tuition each week. She also has dyspraxia in order to help with coordination we pay for private swimming lessons, sign language, choir - to hopefully increase her confidence and free music lessons which just cost us the price of petrol. I have just been quoted £50 per hour for Pilates lessons - she also has hypermobility Pilates helps. She also has Irlens syndrome and help isn't available on the NHS so we paid £200 for a diagnosis, £250 for lessons to help with her eyes/focusing and then about £150 for glasses with the coloured tint she needs (90 mile round trip each visit).

I try to help her as much as I possibly can.

I hardly remember what it's like to spend money on me! For the past 5 years it has been all about my children.

There is always something to buy: school uniforms, birthday presents/party, new wellies and waterproofs, books, toys, clothes, new car seat, time for a balance bike, time for a scooter, time for a new pedal bike, winter boots, hats, scarves, winter jacket, Christmas,piano lessons, rugby lessons, swimming lessons... it never ends.

I forget what it is like to buy anything for myself, or to chose a movie I want to see, or do anything selfish!

The financial cost just goes on and on.