Well I didn't wait for having a child, I did the opposite. Two weeks after I lost my job, we received a phone call from the adoption agency we were working with. They had a 5 month old boy for us. We did not think twice about whether we could afford a child or not this was a dream come true for us. We don't regret adopting our son one bit and we don't believe it has been that much add financial burden. I either get his clothes free as hand me downs from friend or buy them at garage sales, same with toys. The most expensive stuff was the formula and diapers. We solved the diaper expense by using cloth. Children don't care about the material stuff they most care about the relationship and time they have with their parents and family.
Our strategy this year is to limit our gift-giving between my husband and I to $100..it may sound like alot, but it was a compromise to gving enough leeway for "real" gift giving, without eliminating the excess of "many" last minute gifts. hopefully, it works!
hmmm...i think it depends on where you live--i know lots of families that still have to support their college kids because there is no way that they could go to school and work enough to make rent. or adult kids have to come back to live at home because they can't support themselves.
We have 9 kids. I have no idea how much it cost to raise them, but I do know what my husband's salary was, first as a Marine for 27 years, then as a computer guy in the IT industry. I stayed at home with the children, so we only had his wages to live on. We lived within our means. The babies were all breast-fed for the first year of life (some a bit longer). We used cloth diapers as much as possible. We were always grateful for hand-me-downs (for every member of the family) and usually only had to spend money on my husband's uniforms, underwear for everyone, and shoes. (Generally speaking, I only bought one new pair of shoes per child in spring and in fall, until their feet stopped growing.) We also shopped thrift stores and yard sales for clothes, and we made certain to find others to pass out-grown clothes to.
I shopped sales for groceries and made most of our meals from scratch. We rarely ate out, but often invited other families or college students to come eat with us. Our girls shared a room together, and our boys shared rooms. None of our children had his or her own car, but drove the family vehicle when necessary (a 15-passenger van - and yes, all the driving-age kids can parallel park it). If we buy a new car (or a used car) we keep it long after it's paid off and continue driving it, keeping it maintained, until it can no longer be driven.
We never had a "nursery." Infants and toddlers slept in the master bedroom or in the room with older siblings. Birthday parties were and are simple: cake, the birthday person's favorite meal, and friends and family members all together to celebrate the day. Usually we ask that there be no gifts. Christmas is bigger, because my husband loves to make a huge celebration for that day. We begin getting gifts for our children in June, and set them aside for Christmas. In recent years our daughters have wanted clothes for Christmas, so we look for good sales and spend $30 to $50 on clothing items for each girl. I save up points at PaperBackSwap and look for good prices on new books at Amazon, and get each child 4 to 10 books for Christmas. Usually we try to give one child a big item for Christmas, but we all pitch in for that. (Last Christmas we all went in together, kids and parents, to give our 30-year-old son an iTouch.)
We've home-schooled our children for the last 20 years and look forward to 10 more years before being done. Our 2 oldest sons served in the military and got education benefits that way. One other son and 2 daughters received academic scholarships for college. One daughter just beginning college has a loan and is working. The other three are still at home.
We lived in rental houses, base housing, and a house we bought. We looked for places we could afford, and made the space work for us. The children spent most of their time outside when not working on schoolwork. My oldest daughter says that growing up her toys were dirt and sticks (to be fair, there was also a very nice creek in the backyard of one of our homes), and it's true that we didn't spend money on swing sets or complicated play equipment. (We did have a couple of swing sets, some bikes, and a Little Tikes car given to us, however.)
So how much does it cost to raise a child? That's up to the parents, and the way they choose to live.
I have done several things this year that is different from years past due to my income dropping 50-75% since my hours have been cut. I let family know that I can only buy for children in families. That has cut my need to buy drastically. For the remaining adults (like mom), I will buy food gifts since they are practical. I find nice discounted baskets for under $20 online. Alot of stores offer sales and even have coupons for additional discounts on sale items, which is helpful. Some stores have layaway, so ask each store about that. I work in retail and get a 50% discount on merchandise, so I have purchased presents already. I have told my children that they are getting a certain amount of cash this year. We also have rewards programs from our credit/debit cards, so I will use the points to buy free gifts. Overall, I'm spending $35 per person this year, out of my pocket.
"Yes, there is actually a gain in processing of a little more than 2 gallons." It's mind boggling! The more you know...(the more depressing reality gets.)
Honestly, I can't put a dollar figure on that. But it's more than you ever imagined~ and they're worth every bit of it! At the moment it feels the financial drain will never end. I have 1 son (24) graduated from college & living at home while looking for a job. 2nd son (19) is attending community college to start & living at home to save money.
I'm just hoping I can hang in there until they are both financially independent!
I say that cost I am factoring the money that could have been invested in the parents retirement, but instead used for buying new clothes,fancy toys, cellphones and unlimited calling and texting for the kids and teens. lol!
Nice article! My wife and I started saving $20 here and there from extra gigs and side jobs and already have $200 of our $400 Christmas budget saved - in just 2 months!
Our Tips:
Be consistent. It's easy to want to swipe one of the $20 bills from the Christmas jar, but you have to resist the urge and push yourself to add little by little.
Be content. My wife loves to buy gifts for her family, but once we're done with a gift -- we're done. We've learned not to ADD to gifts because you'll easily double your gift budget after a while. So be content with what you're giving and don't 'add-on'
Let family know. If this year is tight for your family and you can only afford to bring a plate of cookies or a small purchased gift, just let others know. You'll feel better without the pressure to bring a huge gift, and everyone might take a moment to reflect back to the real reason why we give gifts - because God gave the greatest gift - His son.
much as I hate to admit it because I have owned my home for a long time, I think you have hit the nail on the head. Quite possibly this will be the straw that breaks the camel's back, banks will be forced into reducing their customer's financial liability to the home's market value and we can all get on with selling real estate at reasonable prices.
I'm so happy to read this post! Myself, my friends, family, and colleagues (college graduates all) have been having many conversations about this topic of late. While I do agree with the other poster that the list here is anecdotal, the fact is that millions of young Americans are taking on vast amounts of debt to complete college degrees that will not pay for themselves.
For a long time, it was true that those with bachelors degrees had much better prospects for earning money in established careers. That is no longer the case. I know many, many people with degrees in finance, medicine, education, and computer science who have been unemployed for some time now. Meanwhile, I know folks with Associate degrees in physical therapy, radiologic technology, and business administration who are doing just fine! True, they went to school and earned a degree - but a much cheaper degree in a much shorter amount of time!
Its been a long time since I have been on here. All looks good from here. I tried the "Black Beards Rum" reciept and had good results. All my Reenactor friends just hate it so much, one time I forgot to bring it to an event for the night campfire festivities, OH I cought HELL..... That won't happen again. Now I am looking for a reciept for a good corn whiskey. I have a grain store where I can buye whole dried corn and then I can remove the corn with a corn sheller I have. I have a 12 Qt. stock pot to still off from that I have used in the passed. Anyone have a good reciept????? I would like to get started on this soon. Tips on getting started are always welcome...
Great Article! I forgot that I should start planning for christmas already and if I start saving now, it will be less damage done in december. My wife and talked about a suggested allotment for each of our family members. If we look for good deals now, we can spread out that allotment over three months. Good Advice.
I like the sentiment here -- that you can succeed without a degree (with a lot of hard work) -- but I don't think you're considering a couple important facts...
This list is anecdotal at best. The data out there largely suggest that college degrees increase earnings and probability of success over one's lifetime ( For instance: http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/censusandstatistics/a/collegepays.htm ). Clearly just getting any old college degree isn't the only factor at play, but it will increase your chances for success. And this data includes thousands of people, which is more likely to be representative than the list of 12 people above, who are likely outliers.
Also, you don't have to spend $100,000 or $200,000 at a private college or university to increase your earning potential or be successful. A degree from a local community college or state college/university (or the combination) can be a much better buy and will probably leave you with very little student loan debt. Additionally, student loan debt from the Federal Gov't isn't a horrible thing to have (private lenders are a horrible thing to have) -- often the interest rates are reasonable and it's not "bad debt" as long as you stay current with your payments.
I guess my point is that we shouldn't be too quick to discourage young people today from going to college based on how successful these 12 extraordinary people were... If not only because most of them are from a different era when college degrees were more optional. It is still possible to get a college education for cheap ( Here's more info: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/pay/add-it-up/4494.html ). And even if you do finish with ~$50,000 in student loans it's likely to pay off over a lifetime.
It's a really hard question to answer, just because living expenses vary so widely from family to family, depending on where you live, how you spend, etc etc etc.
At the time they were saying $212,000 (without inflation) to raise a child born in 2008 to age 18. Even including housing and electrical - which we'd pay with or without kids - I was calculating less than half that. I'd love to see where they got $212,000.
My best friend made a cheeky comment too, which kind of proved my point - kids don't need new clothes (my two sons both used the same wardrobe, much of which was given to us by other mothers with sons.) They don't need lots of toys, lessons in every extracurricular activity under the sun, trips to Disneyland every summer, etc. When you start adding the non-necessities in, especially a lot of them, that number goes up fast!
Yes, raising kids introduces new financial challenges, but it can be done for less than you think. In fact, creating a quality lifestyle with our children is what first inspired my husband and me to discover home-cooking, creative frugality, free simple pastimes, and homeschooling (we've learned more than the kids!). Having kids has motivated us to really evaluate our priorities in life, financial and otherwise, and take conscious steps to achieve our goals. We've been raising kids for 22 years, and I doubt we would have the same degree of financial security now if we hadn't taken these important lifestyle steps along the way, specifically because of raising kids. How's that for a twist?
i don't know the cost, but we have 3 boys and provide all of the needs and some of the wants. it adds up, but we don't buy things that are "typical", like cell phones. our oldest are 10 and 12 and they don't have phones. to me that seems like a huge waste of $$$.
Obviously, raising a family costs money. And the cost can be intimidaiting. However, our household was able to defray a lot of these costs by simply re-thinking your wants/needs list in life.
Obviously, the cost of providing for your family/children in a meaningful way should supercede a lot of your personal "wants".
I simply decided to do without a lot of the things that were "wants" for me personally, or simply delay them, or actually, just move them down the list.
Therfore, factoring in the costs for my family did not have as big an effect on our family's economy as I thought they would.
Well I didn't wait for having a child, I did the opposite. Two weeks after I lost my job, we received a phone call from the adoption agency we were working with. They had a 5 month old boy for us. We did not think twice about whether we could afford a child or not this was a dream come true for us. We don't regret adopting our son one bit and we don't believe it has been that much add financial burden. I either get his clothes free as hand me downs from friend or buy them at garage sales, same with toys. The most expensive stuff was the formula and diapers. We solved the diaper expense by using cloth. Children don't care about the material stuff they most care about the relationship and time they have with their parents and family.
Our strategy this year is to limit our gift-giving between my husband and I to $100..it may sound like alot, but it was a compromise to gving enough leeway for "real" gift giving, without eliminating the excess of "many" last minute gifts. hopefully, it works!
hmmm...i think it depends on where you live--i know lots of families that still have to support their college kids because there is no way that they could go to school and work enough to make rent. or adult kids have to come back to live at home because they can't support themselves.
We have 9 kids. I have no idea how much it cost to raise them, but I do know what my husband's salary was, first as a Marine for 27 years, then as a computer guy in the IT industry. I stayed at home with the children, so we only had his wages to live on. We lived within our means. The babies were all breast-fed for the first year of life (some a bit longer). We used cloth diapers as much as possible. We were always grateful for hand-me-downs (for every member of the family) and usually only had to spend money on my husband's uniforms, underwear for everyone, and shoes. (Generally speaking, I only bought one new pair of shoes per child in spring and in fall, until their feet stopped growing.) We also shopped thrift stores and yard sales for clothes, and we made certain to find others to pass out-grown clothes to.
I shopped sales for groceries and made most of our meals from scratch. We rarely ate out, but often invited other families or college students to come eat with us. Our girls shared a room together, and our boys shared rooms. None of our children had his or her own car, but drove the family vehicle when necessary (a 15-passenger van - and yes, all the driving-age kids can parallel park it). If we buy a new car (or a used car) we keep it long after it's paid off and continue driving it, keeping it maintained, until it can no longer be driven.
We never had a "nursery." Infants and toddlers slept in the master bedroom or in the room with older siblings. Birthday parties were and are simple: cake, the birthday person's favorite meal, and friends and family members all together to celebrate the day. Usually we ask that there be no gifts. Christmas is bigger, because my husband loves to make a huge celebration for that day. We begin getting gifts for our children in June, and set them aside for Christmas. In recent years our daughters have wanted clothes for Christmas, so we look for good sales and spend $30 to $50 on clothing items for each girl. I save up points at PaperBackSwap and look for good prices on new books at Amazon, and get each child 4 to 10 books for Christmas. Usually we try to give one child a big item for Christmas, but we all pitch in for that. (Last Christmas we all went in together, kids and parents, to give our 30-year-old son an iTouch.)
We've home-schooled our children for the last 20 years and look forward to 10 more years before being done. Our 2 oldest sons served in the military and got education benefits that way. One other son and 2 daughters received academic scholarships for college. One daughter just beginning college has a loan and is working. The other three are still at home.
We lived in rental houses, base housing, and a house we bought. We looked for places we could afford, and made the space work for us. The children spent most of their time outside when not working on schoolwork. My oldest daughter says that growing up her toys were dirt and sticks (to be fair, there was also a very nice creek in the backyard of one of our homes), and it's true that we didn't spend money on swing sets or complicated play equipment. (We did have a couple of swing sets, some bikes, and a Little Tikes car given to us, however.)
So how much does it cost to raise a child? That's up to the parents, and the way they choose to live.
I have done several things this year that is different from years past due to my income dropping 50-75% since my hours have been cut. I let family know that I can only buy for children in families. That has cut my need to buy drastically. For the remaining adults (like mom), I will buy food gifts since they are practical. I find nice discounted baskets for under $20 online. Alot of stores offer sales and even have coupons for additional discounts on sale items, which is helpful. Some stores have layaway, so ask each store about that. I work in retail and get a 50% discount on merchandise, so I have purchased presents already. I have told my children that they are getting a certain amount of cash this year. We also have rewards programs from our credit/debit cards, so I will use the points to buy free gifts. Overall, I'm spending $35 per person this year, out of my pocket.
@Tim
Great Tips - thanks.
I'd say $550,000. But I would spend even more, I love my children. The money dosen't scare me, the reward of being a parent is so much more!!!!
"Yes, there is actually a gain in processing of a little more than 2 gallons." It's mind boggling! The more you know...(the more depressing reality gets.)
Honestly, I can't put a dollar figure on that. But it's more than you ever imagined~ and they're worth every bit of it! At the moment it feels the financial drain will never end. I have 1 son (24) graduated from college & living at home while looking for a job. 2nd son (19) is attending community college to start & living at home to save money.
I'm just hoping I can hang in there until they are both financially independent!
Try out CouponChief.com too!
I totally agree with this. It is not enough to just have a discount dental plan. Guess you get what you pay for.
my guess is about 1 million.
I say that cost I am factoring the money that could have been invested in the parents retirement, but instead used for buying new clothes,fancy toys, cellphones and unlimited calling and texting for the kids and teens. lol!
Hi Craig,
Nice article! My wife and I started saving $20 here and there from extra gigs and side jobs and already have $200 of our $400 Christmas budget saved - in just 2 months!
Our Tips:
Be consistent. It's easy to want to swipe one of the $20 bills from the Christmas jar, but you have to resist the urge and push yourself to add little by little.
Be content. My wife loves to buy gifts for her family, but once we're done with a gift -- we're done. We've learned not to ADD to gifts because you'll easily double your gift budget after a while. So be content with what you're giving and don't 'add-on'
Let family know. If this year is tight for your family and you can only afford to bring a plate of cookies or a small purchased gift, just let others know. You'll feel better without the pressure to bring a huge gift, and everyone might take a moment to reflect back to the real reason why we give gifts - because God gave the greatest gift - His son.
much as I hate to admit it because I have owned my home for a long time, I think you have hit the nail on the head. Quite possibly this will be the straw that breaks the camel's back, banks will be forced into reducing their customer's financial liability to the home's market value and we can all get on with selling real estate at reasonable prices.
I'm so happy to read this post! Myself, my friends, family, and colleagues (college graduates all) have been having many conversations about this topic of late. While I do agree with the other poster that the list here is anecdotal, the fact is that millions of young Americans are taking on vast amounts of debt to complete college degrees that will not pay for themselves.
For a long time, it was true that those with bachelors degrees had much better prospects for earning money in established careers. That is no longer the case. I know many, many people with degrees in finance, medicine, education, and computer science who have been unemployed for some time now. Meanwhile, I know folks with Associate degrees in physical therapy, radiologic technology, and business administration who are doing just fine! True, they went to school and earned a degree - but a much cheaper degree in a much shorter amount of time!
Its been a long time since I have been on here. All looks good from here. I tried the "Black Beards Rum" reciept and had good results. All my Reenactor friends just hate it so much, one time I forgot to bring it to an event for the night campfire festivities, OH I cought HELL..... That won't happen again. Now I am looking for a reciept for a good corn whiskey. I have a grain store where I can buye whole dried corn and then I can remove the corn with a corn sheller I have. I have a 12 Qt. stock pot to still off from that I have used in the passed. Anyone have a good reciept????? I would like to get started on this soon. Tips on getting started are always welcome...
Great Article! I forgot that I should start planning for christmas already and if I start saving now, it will be less damage done in december. My wife and talked about a suggested allotment for each of our family members. If we look for good deals now, we can spread out that allotment over three months. Good Advice.
I like the sentiment here -- that you can succeed without a degree (with a lot of hard work) -- but I don't think you're considering a couple important facts...
This list is anecdotal at best. The data out there largely suggest that college degrees increase earnings and probability of success over one's lifetime ( For instance: http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/censusandstatistics/a/collegepays.htm ). Clearly just getting any old college degree isn't the only factor at play, but it will increase your chances for success. And this data includes thousands of people, which is more likely to be representative than the list of 12 people above, who are likely outliers.
Also, you don't have to spend $100,000 or $200,000 at a private college or university to increase your earning potential or be successful. A degree from a local community college or state college/university (or the combination) can be a much better buy and will probably leave you with very little student loan debt. Additionally, student loan debt from the Federal Gov't isn't a horrible thing to have (private lenders are a horrible thing to have) -- often the interest rates are reasonable and it's not "bad debt" as long as you stay current with your payments.
I guess my point is that we shouldn't be too quick to discourage young people today from going to college based on how successful these 12 extraordinary people were... If not only because most of them are from a different era when college degrees were more optional. It is still possible to get a college education for cheap ( Here's more info: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/pay/add-it-up/4494.html ). And even if you do finish with ~$50,000 in student loans it's likely to pay off over a lifetime.
It's a really hard question to answer, just because living expenses vary so widely from family to family, depending on where you live, how you spend, etc etc etc.
I actually did look at these numbers in a blog post last year: http://weeessentials.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/the-cost-of-raising-a-child/
At the time they were saying $212,000 (without inflation) to raise a child born in 2008 to age 18. Even including housing and electrical - which we'd pay with or without kids - I was calculating less than half that. I'd love to see where they got $212,000.
My best friend made a cheeky comment too, which kind of proved my point - kids don't need new clothes (my two sons both used the same wardrobe, much of which was given to us by other mothers with sons.) They don't need lots of toys, lessons in every extracurricular activity under the sun, trips to Disneyland every summer, etc. When you start adding the non-necessities in, especially a lot of them, that number goes up fast!
Thanks for including my post in this round-up, Amy. Much appreciated!
Yes, raising kids introduces new financial challenges, but it can be done for less than you think. In fact, creating a quality lifestyle with our children is what first inspired my husband and me to discover home-cooking, creative frugality, free simple pastimes, and homeschooling (we've learned more than the kids!). Having kids has motivated us to really evaluate our priorities in life, financial and otherwise, and take conscious steps to achieve our goals. We've been raising kids for 22 years, and I doubt we would have the same degree of financial security now if we hadn't taken these important lifestyle steps along the way, specifically because of raising kids. How's that for a twist?
i will shout it so loud to make most of the people know it
i don't know the cost, but we have 3 boys and provide all of the needs and some of the wants. it adds up, but we don't buy things that are "typical", like cell phones. our oldest are 10 and 12 and they don't have phones. to me that seems like a huge waste of $$$.
I don't know the amount, but always live below your means, save, invest and share your savy financial skills with your kids.
Obviously, raising a family costs money. And the cost can be intimidaiting. However, our household was able to defray a lot of these costs by simply re-thinking your wants/needs list in life.
Obviously, the cost of providing for your family/children in a meaningful way should supercede a lot of your personal "wants".
I simply decided to do without a lot of the things that were "wants" for me personally, or simply delay them, or actually, just move them down the list.
Therfore, factoring in the costs for my family did not have as big an effect on our family's economy as I thought they would.