Are Children Really that Expensive?

Question

I am 22yrs old now and would like to have my first child soon, (In the next two years). I Really want the Truth about how expensive Children are? Also I will not be on Welfare... Not gunna happen.

Answer 1

Depends on your insurance! Look into your pregnancy coverage. We have great insurance (for now) so it was $20 a visit and $500 for hospital stay (I had a c-section so it was expensive for the co pay, it would have only been about $200 for vaginal they said). My best advice is to BUY IN BULK! Don't waste time with packages of diapers. Get a Sam's Club membership and buy there. We only spend $50 a month for diapers AND wipes (and they are huggies, not cheapo ones). Getting started was around $3000 for EVERYTHING from cribs to bulb syringes and we didn't have a baby shower (but you have 9 months to spread out the cost and look for sales too).

Look into your county for things like Healthy Start....our doctor recommended it to us for the cost of formula. We didn't think we would qualify but a family of three could make up to $68,000 a year and still qualify. We made about $62,000....so free formula! It was great! Formula the first month she was born was over $100 and she wasn't even eating much! I can't imagine what it would have went to later! It's not welfare, it's just because formula companies keep jacking up the prices, so our government (which is actually doing something nice for a change) wants to make sure ALL families can afford it.

I would say it was an extra $100-$300 a month (depending on the month and what goes on) for the first year for toys, diapers, wipes, clothes, baby food, etc. Daycare is a WHOLE different story. If we had our daughter in daycare the first year, it's upwards of $130 a WEEK. We're lucky and have my mom!

Some people will tell you thousand's of dollars a month....it's not! We are a young couple (I was 20 with my first and he was 25) and we make things work! It's harder if you don't have paid maternity leave, but save up so you have a cushion there. It's completely doable. We have nice things, our daughter has no wants what so ever, let alone having needs that need to be met lol! It takes good budgeting and sometimes when you can just smile and sat oh well!

Answer 2

It doesn't have to be expensive. The birth is pretty expensive if you don't have insurance, but if you have insurance it's not much. I have good insurance and am pregnant. I will pay $250 for my hospital stay. My sister-in-law just had a baby and has better insurance and paid $15 for her hospital stay. It can cost a lot more even with insurance, though. If you have an 80/20 and a fairly normal birth (no c-section, baby doesn't have to go to the NICU, etc) it should be a maximum of maybe $2,000 that you would have to come up with (but probably not that much).

As far as providing for a baby, piece of cake. I breastfed and used cloth diapers. I also bought almost everything used. I stayed home with my daughter so there were no daycare costs. I got more in child tax credit ($1000) than I spent on my daughter the first year. Now that she's eating food it's costing more, though. A baby doesn't need fancy stuff or its own room. If you tend to overspend on yourself, you will probably overspend on your child, too, but if you can exercise some restraint, kids are pretty cheap.

Answer 3

Yes Children are Expensive

Answer 4

The bottom line is that no matter how much you make you will wind up spending the lions share of it on your kids in one form or another. Unless you are a multi-billionaire international investor there will always be something you want to provide for your kids and whatever is left over goes into a college fund.

You do not have to be rich to be an excellent parent. In fact, some of the most successful parents I know are barely able to make ends meet. Sure, you have different expenses when you are a parent. The food budget is a bit higher and things like diapers, car seats, etc... are not cheap. On the other hand, you tend to spend less on personal recreation due to lack of time/energy so it kind of balances out.

Answer 5

Well, children can certainly be very expensive, though you can also find ways to lessen that burden.

- Will you need day care? That can run $200+/week
- Is your medical care covered by insurance? Even so, you're looking at $200-$500 a year just in copays.
- Extra food? sure, but not much. baby food is easy to get cheap, but as they grow, they eat more... LOTS more. Also, children waste a LOT of food.
- Schooling? Pre-school is not free (see day care)... yet. Also, private school can run up to $100k from K-12. ouch.
- Don't forget clothes. Unless you have hand-me-downs coming from other family members, your kid will need an entirely new wardrobe every 3 months for the first year, and every 6-12 months after that.

I'm sure I've forgotten a ton. :) Good luck!

Answer 6

Hmm okay you need to consider their education right. So you open a savings account and put hopefully 100 bucks a month into that account so they can go to school when they are older without pressure on either party. Then you want your child to be able to have nice clothing, that is another expense that I can wait for until she gets older. Then there are diapers, wet wipes, formula,clothing, other expenses which cost me about 300 bucks a month for her. that is cheap, if i had to go to back to work and pay daycare its at least 600-800 bucks a month...what is the point in working? so they cost 1000 dollars a month as babies until they go to school and dont need daycare anymore. So if you are in Canada and do not pay for your medical expenses like me then that part saves a lot of money but it is still not cheap.

btw our combined income is 75k a year. And so I dont realize how expensive it is...but when daycare comes along there will be no point in working.

Answer 7

Children are definitely that expensive. Take a look next time you go to the store and price diapers or formula. Kids go though a big bag of diapers every week or two. The formula is worse. I now help my children from time to time to buy these things for their children. My kids and their spouses have decent jobs and still need help with groceries, even for the older grands. Then there are school projects extra curricular activities, etc.. Then jr-hi and high school then college oh me are they ever expensive, but woth it!!

Answer 8

Not really; Well, only if you make them really expensive. If you want ALL of the designer items, yes. Do you have a job with benefits? What about some sort of savings? If you are responsible, you will do fine. What costs so much is the expense of college. Otherwise, they're really not that expensive.

Answer 9

Yes, children are expensive. Not so much for a baby, aside from the diapers. The older they get the more expensive they get. Shoes for a 16 year old are alot more than that for a 1 year old. They eat more, take up more space, need more money for school supplies, hobbies, sports, etc.

Answer 10

With every day pass, our country is getting into more and more trouble. The inflation, unemployment and falling value of dollar are the main concern for our Government but authorities are just sleeping, they don’t want to face the fact. Media is also involve in it, they are force to stop showing the real economic situation to the people. I start getting more concern about my future as well as my family after watching the response of our Government for the people that affected by hurricane Katrina.

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