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 baby is not even born yet and is expensive, so far it's been building the nursery: walls, floorboards, door, skirting, furniture, curtains, paint etc. (Not quite finished yet although he's due next week) and buying all the other stuff like pram, car seat, baby sling, baby gym, clothes, nappies, bath seat and all the stuff that I need too: maternity clothes, special bras, disposable knickers, maternity pads, nipple balm, ice packs, hospital nighties, breastfeeding tops....
I think it will be worse when he is older and starts school though, the after school clubs, the trips and the uniform seem to really add up, I'm hoping my husband will get a better job by then or I'm not sure how it's going to work.

I never appreciated how much family holidays were until tethered to school holidays - farewell spontaneous city breaks!

I think child care has been the biggest expense and then going part time as it wasn't worth it to work so hard and then spend the majority of it on nursery and childminders but I hope to do more hours when they are both at school

DS is only 14 months so not had to buy any bikes/computers/labelled clothes/school trips abroad yet! Bigger purchases so far have been decorating and furnishing his nursery and buying his pram, then buying a stroller later. We'll probably also have to buy a double too as hoping to have another DC soon. Don't have to pay for childcare as we manage it between us. Wasn't able to breastfeed for long but had to buy a breast pump to extend that time, then had to formula feed so buying formula, bottles and a perfect prep was expensive too.

One of the biggest decisions we made was to upgrade our house by an additional room and repurposing our downstairs: £64k! But it will be swings and roundabouts - we stretched ourselves and will have benefitted from house inflation when we retire.Conversely rather than paying off the mortgage, we used a legacy to pay for the building works so will be paying it for longer. And instead of overpaying the mortgage we are putting money away for the kids in their names.
We are starting to have more interesting holidays but for a while it was just Park Resorts/Haven for 5 days with Tesco vouchers. All these phases are so short, I've never really minded.
DSx2 are both teens and only want/need a handful of clothes but DS2 had to have expensive Croc flipflops whereas DS1 was happy with Primark. What I am sweating about is university costs... they won't be able to access the full maintenance grant so it might mean paying the equivalent of another mortgage. And if they can't get jobs and fly the coup then we won't be able to sell up and retire like I said swings and roundabouts

Just had to fork out £110 on rugby boots for ds, 14.

The first 3 years were surprisingly cheap. It was going back to work after child 2 that was painful - 2 sets of nursery costs before ds got his 15 free hours, and me and DP being too exhausted to cook so the ready meal and takeaway budget exploded.

Buying passports for 2 adults and 2 children at once was painful (£300 with photos etc). So now we've booked our first holiday abroad with them, 80% of adult fares on the plane, then an extra £150 so we can sit near the kids, then a further £120 for 3 suitcases as even mainstream airlines now don't include any of that, avoiding the cheaper flights as landing in a strange airport at 11pm with kids would be a nightmare...

And needing a larger car to fit the child seats in. And cost of car hire - if you advertise child seats and allow them to be booked at £10/day, ie 1/3 the cost of the car, I expect better than a minging booster cushion, but no other hirer in town offered any.

Cost of evenings out - theatre tickets and meal and transport is around £80, doubled by babysitter. So that's about once a year. Luckily we have a few local friends who will babysit in exchange for DIY or WiFi and gin, but just getting childcare for job interviews is an extra cost, say £30 a time.

Shoes! Problem is every time their feet grow they need new school shoes, wellies, slippers, trainers, sandals, boots, ballet shoes...

But main expense is extra-curricular activities - swimming lessons, clubs and all the necessary equipment.

I don't begrudge a penny though.

Where do you start? Everyone tells you that children are expensive but I don't think you really believe it until it happens.

We didn't seem to spend a lot when DC was a baby - cot, car seat, one pram (not a flashy one), supermarket babygros, some toys and job done!

And then it happened... nursery fees, clothes, hobbies, shoes, food, computer games, parties, holidays, school stuff, entertainment, uniform...

And that week when the seasons change and you realise that not a single item of Autumn/Winter clothing fits any more and you need to replace pretty much everything including school shoes, trainers (x2), boots, football boots, rugby boots and wellies. And you try to remember the last time that you spent £300 on shoes for yourself!

We have the same amount of money going out as we did pre-DC but it's spent very differently. Wouldn't change it for anything though.

Childcare has been our biggest expensive but we knew this would be the case and didn't begrudge it as it enabled us both to continue working.

Starting school has been our most recent expense. They need so much stuff!

The decision to be self employed on a part time basis to allow me more time with the child has been the greatest financial impact with us.

I am reeling from having to replace a three year olds thirty pound gym leotard after a red lipstick incident made it look like she'd been shot. Its the tip of the iceberg ahead though.

School uniform (and my Dc go to state schools)!

Shoes. Dear me, my daughter must've gone through 10 pairs easily last school year. God knows what she does to them but there were holes in every pair. I've just bought her dr martens for this year. Pray to god she doesn't grow out of them too soon.

today, school uniform shopping i am now officially wiped out

School clothes and supplies, for some reason DS loses everything on a weekly basis, jumpers, PE kits, (even though they have name labels in them!). And pens, pencils, rulers, erasers etc are bought every week as he can never find them.

Our largest expense was the house. When they were babies I bought a lot of equipment second hand so it was only clothes and toys. Lots of educational toys, bikes, techy stuff, clothes and shoes and books. We try to eat healthily which is expensive. Each of the children have their own hobbies from fossil hunting to archery which all costs a lot. This is why I look such a wreck - no money left for me!

I put a set amount of money into savings accounts for my kids to put towards buying their first car/home! I am forever forking out for them!

well basically all the time, but this summer was especially expensive as my daughter year 11 prom was last month, the dress, the car. the spending ,money, the spray tan, the hair, the make up, the nails, the shoes, the ticket. yes it all added up to a ridiculous amount where we could have taken a nice little weekend break. the dress was put on ebay straight after and got £5.65 for it.!!!

Initially the cost was great as we needed car seats, cot, high chair, pushchair, etc. Buying nappies was always made a big dent in the weekly expenditure too. I went back to work straight away so child care was extremely expensive. School,uniform each year mounted up and shoes which ever wore out but just got too small.
I feel my biggest sacrifice was time spent away from my son as financially I had to work.

We have an erf car seat for dd2 and with dd3 are now looking to buy another one

I don't think anything can prepare you for the change your DC will make to your life, it is turned upside down and inside out, tests your patience to the limits, you I buy a lot of my baby equipment from other mums I know and I will pass them down when required, after all how long do then spend in a carry cot pram. I had a lovely silver cross for my DC which was 3rd hand but like new, and it now has a new home. I gave up my full time job and went part time, but the child care costs, I find such a struggle, taking half of my salary, even with the nursery funding. I never have complained, as as long as my DC is happy, and thriving, it is worth it, they grow up soo fast and will soon be at school and gaining their independence day by day x

school trips and holidays!

My oldest just can't help herself every time I think I might have a bit of money she suddenly needs a new coat or a new pair of shoes that she doesn't really need yet none of my other children are like this I have to keep telling her your not my only child you have siblings that need things as well think of them and not yourself all the time she wanted a brace because she had the smallest gap in her teeth that she just wasn't happy about but it was going to cost us £2000 as it wasn't covered by nhs as there is nothing wrong with her teeth basically apart from that small gap but no she had to have it she has caused endless amounts of drama over getting this brace so we took our summer holiday money and we paid for the braces was she happy no because now she can't understand why we can't afford to go on holiday over the summer and tells me how unfair it is, you just can't please some kids my other children don't complain just my eldest daughter

My oldest is only 7 so I don't think I have even scratched the surface of this yet tbh. Babies are cheap, then they grow into children who need and want.

I find myself thinking nothing of paying out £40 for a term of swimming, yet I find it difficult to spend that amount on myself. I didn't really think about it until this thread but there are a few things I actually really need right now, and I am putting them off for yet another month so the DCs have non essentials like days out and some new toys.

I fully expect this to get worse as things like residential trips start, their tastes get more expensive or they take up expensive hobbies. But that was part of the reason why we stopped trying for a third. So we could give a lot to the two we have. I intend to help with driving lessons, first cars and hopefully also with buying a house when the time comes.

Recently we bought a bigger and newer car, so we had more space and better safety. That decision was definitely led by the fact we have the children and soon they might want to have friends over etc.