Parenting: The Cost of Children

Did you calculate the costs of having a baby before you started your family? I’m not talking about all those maternity bits, the baby clothes, pushchairs and all of the other stuff your little one needs for their start in life, I’m talking about the cost of bringing your child into the world right up to the point of them fleeing the nest and going their own way in the world.

The Guardian recently published results of a new survey which shows the cost of raising one child has risen in recent years to a whopping £218,000 and they continue to rise with childcare and education costs. To me that figure is a little scary, I certainly understood that children were expensive but blimey £218,000 could buy you a house, it’s no wonder why parents have to make huge cut backs.

I dread to think how much we have already spent on Isabelle, baby clothes were my weakness, and those pretty little shoes, buying for Isabelle became my new favourite hobby. The Mr was fine with it as long as I didn’t go overboard. I wanted Isabelle to have the best in life, just like other parents do for their children. I may have spiralled out of control with my love of prams, the Mr wasn’t best pleased with my swapping and changing of prams every few months and at the time I couldn’t see the money mounting up, It doesn’t have to be so expensive, there are great deals to be had if you shop around, look out for special offers, go to baby shows, search for the best prices online and get those bargains whilst you can. Apparently these are not the most expensive years, we have the school years, childcare, holidays, days out and those expensive gifts to look forward to.

We also want Isabelle to have a good education and with university fee’s already reaching up to £9000 a year, we should already be saving for her future, as who knows how much that figure will increase when the time comes for her to enter into higher education.

For now, I only have to worry about buying the next size up in car seats and at least if we do extend our family we have pretty much everything we need for those first few years, although I may make an exception for a new pram…perhaps not mentioning that to the Mr.