• About
  • Speaking
  • Consulting
  • Amber Hinds

  • Journal
  • Press
  • Contact

Amber Hinds

Nantucket, MA
Finances, Parenting
/
June 27, 2010

The Cost of Raising a Child

This week the USDA published its annual report on Expenditures on Children by Families and the numbers are shocking – to me at least.  It costs an average middle-income American family $222,360 to raise a child from birth to 18.

Depending on age of the child, annual expenses ranged from $8,330 to $9,450 for families with a before-tax income less than $56,670, from $11,650 to $13,530 for families with a before-tax income between $56,670 and $98,120, and from $19,380 to $23,180 for families with a before-tax income more than $98,120.

The lower numbers in each range correspond with what families, on average, spend on a little person like this

before he or she is even a year old.  Thus, families in the highest income bracket, on average spend $19,380 on their baby before the age of one.  $20,000 on an infant!  And, that doesn’t even include any prenatal costs, according to the report.  Even the number for our income bracket seems high to me.  So I started reading – partially, because I find this stuff interesting and partially because I needed to know if Nora was our one-way ticket to the poor house.

After reading the report, though, I’m not entirely sure I think the methodology is 100% reliable.  And I’m not the only one.

Housing expenses, for example, which are the highest costs attributed with raising a child, are one thing that jumped out at me.  I’m not sure that housing is always impacted by family size. We didn’t change housing when we had our baby, so the rent stayed the same; it doesn’t seem completely fair to now attribute some percentage of our rent to her, especially if we would have been paying it anyway whether or not she existed. (And now that we’re in Nantucket, even without her I think we would probably have the same size house.)  Same thing could be said for our cell phone bill, heating oil, insurance, etc – all things the USDA factored into housing costs. And I noticed they automatically assumed that in two child families, the children do not share a room. Really?

And then there’s this:

Child-rearing expense patterns of single-parent households with a before-tax income less than $56,670 were 7 percent lower than those of husband-wife households in the same income group.

That statement says a lot to me. It’s not really that it costs $222,360 to raise a child, it’s just that’s what families, on average, are willing to spend. Clearly it can be and is done for less.

Nora is only 9 months old, so I can’t say what our spending will be like in the future.

Maybe she’s a born shopper.

However, we are already trending significantly below the average represented here. According to Table 10, based upon our income, we should be spending $8,570 on her in her first year.

Since I found out I was pregnant with her, we have spent $5069.42, if I include things like the prenatal yoga classes and our doula (which might fall under that prenatal category that the USDA didn’t include). The bulk of it ($3,580) is childcare. Take that out of the equation (which we did as of last month!) and we’ve spent $1,219.42 on her clothes, food, diapers, toys, etc. Of course, we are a breastfeeding, co-sleeping, cloth diapering, simple living, Freecycle and second-hand loving family, so we certainly aren’t “average.”  We also got a lot of great gifts and hand-me-downs from friends and family (which the USDA did not factor into their numbers, either).  While we aren’t average, I think we are a great example of the fact that an infant does not have to cost nearly $20,000.

It’s all in what you’re willing to (and in some cases duped into) buy(ing).  Like that stupid baby bathtub.

Biggest waste of $17 ever.  See how miserable she looks?

And then there’s the collateral damage costs associated with kids.  Like when they knock over a lamp or throw a baseball through a window or when your camera gets messed up rescuing them from a wave.

That’s right.  These days, photos taken by my camera look like this:

That’s what happens when you aren’t careful at the beach.

There aren’t any repair places on the island, so we have to mail it to Nikon for service.  Meaning there will be a lot of different (old, sourced, & cell phone) pictures on the blog for a while.  And I’m wondering if I should include the repair cost in Nora’s category in Quicken?  I mean, if she wasn’t so darn cute and photogenic, I probably wouldn’t have even taken the camera to the beach in the first place…  How do you think the USDA tracked the costs of collateral damage?

Well, either way, with the camera repair or not, we certainly aren’t going to hit the $8,000 mark before Nora’s first birthday.  Unless we decide to throw her a really killer party.

After the numbers came out, Lisa Belkin asked on the Motherload Blog if raising a child was worth all the money spent.  I posted something similar to my thoughts above and said that I couldn’t ever imagine spending $20,000 (or anywhere near that) on a less than year old, but every penny of what we’ve spent so far has been worth it (excluding the bathtub, of course).

Now, I’m curious, what do you think about the numbers?  How much do/did you spend on your kid(s)?  Has it been worth it?  Are there any bathtubs haunting your financial past?  If you don’t have kids yet, does this report make you think twice about having them?

1 Comment
Share
  • Sarah
    June 28, 2010

    1. Saving her from the wave was worth it, look at her little face!!! hehe.
    2. the only thing matt and I have ever bought for aria is 5 pairs of PJs, b/c she outgrew her others, and a squeaky orca whale from sea world. and food (formula, bottles, etc.). everything else was given to us by family or friends who have older kids and have outgrown the clothes.

    There is no reason to spend that kind of money. I have friends who do and then complain about their finances and how cluttered thier house is. It’s silly and there’s no reason for it. I’m glad you are frugal too : )

    Reply

Leave a Comment Cancel Comment

Recipe Rating




Previous Post
Beach Baby
Next Post
Brant Point

Life Right Now

aucoeur

View

Jan 22

12 2
Open
It's that time again... Girl Scout cookies! And this year we have two selling. Help them meet their cookies sales goals by ordering online. 

If you live nearby, choose girl delivery and help get cookie boxes out of our garage... Otherwise we're going to be giving them Girl Scout  Cookies for birthday and Christmas presents all year.

Addie's link: https://tinyurl.com/2os3rmdy

Zara's link: https://tinyurl.com/2nev4fs3

aucoeur

View

Nov 30

17 2
Open
Bus stop selfie with Nora. This week she moved from her tiny charter school with only 18 eighth graders to the public middle school with over 200. And now she rides the bus.

The charter school wasn't challenging her enough, has a huge percentage of students who are disruptive in the classroom, and has been having trouble keeping teachers. Last year she loved it. But this year it was one thing after another, so right before Thanksgiving she and I went to go tour our neighborhood  middle school, and she immediately wanted to make the switch.

We've never had a kid in public school and I was nervous about how the transition would go from such a small school to a big one, but so far she's loving it and is glad she decided to move schools. It helps that she knows kids there already from her dance team. Hopefully she'll still be happy when she starts getting homework. Coming from a no homework school that may be a shock to us all.

aucoeur

View

Nov 16

7 0
Open
My three year old girl. 💕

aucoeur

View

Nov 1

11 0
Open
Halloween 2022. Two witches, a murderous cat, and a creepy Victorian doll. 

Zara's costume was my favorite this year - Nora did her makeup and she wore my flower girl dress from my mom and step-dad's wedding. She might have worn it better. 😂

aucoeur

View

Oct 16

18 0
Open
Visiting my sweet tiny niece. I had the honor of being the doula at her birth and helping her come into the world. Her parents did amazingly (especially her mama) and everyone is excited to have another little girl in the family.
  • Start Reading
  • Explore Topics
  • Get in Touch
  • Subscribe

COPYRIGHT © 2020 AMBER HINDS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Site Powered by Pix & Hue.