What will it cost?

Introducing a new little person to the world is one of life’s great adventures (it says here) but there are practical considerations, like the £186,032 price tag of raising a child from birth to the age of 21 (from the Liverpool Victoria Annual Cost of a Child Survey 2007). This figure includes education and childcare costs.

In 2005 the average cost of bringing up a baby from birth to the age of 5 was put at £52,605. Pregnancy and Birth Magazine based it on the spending of the average parent in Mothercare. This total equates to all the baby basics if bought new and childcare. Childcare costs come in about £30,000 or more over 4 years for a full time nursery place.

Because I am so OCD I have kept a record of all the money that we have spent on Jamie since September 2009. This figure includes costs of scans, car parking etc. as well as clothes, toys, nappies, tissues, milk / food and all the other items we have purchased for him. The total to date is £3811.22 (which includes the £275.14 we spent on his party).

I must say we have been very lucky as most of the essentials; cot, buggy/pram, car seat, we have bought second hand or been given. We know the car seat has not been in any accidents so were happy with that, and we simply bought a new mattress for the cot. We are also thankful for the Child Tax Credit (currently £8.64 a week) and the Child Benefit (£80 a month) and the fact daddy has just got a new job with better prospects / pension/ death in service and mummy is still able to work 2 and a half days a week. The only problem now is the need to replace the boiler and the quote from British Gas of over £3000!! But we still hope to pay off the mortgage this year....

I can thoroughly recommend Becky Goddard-Hill's book; How to Afford Time off With Your Baby: 101 ways to ease the financial strain, Vermilion 2009 and her blog: http://babybudgeting.co.uk/category/blog/ which contains lots of help and advice with regards to saving money.