costs of kids

[Goldy1]

I have a five year old son. I love every second with him. He hugs me all day, and he's the best thing ever.

Here are some recent expenses:

$250 ER copay for removal of a lego gem up his nose(way up there..yea")

$65 for a 4 day soccer clinic class

$100 short tee ball league
money on t ball bat glove etc

$3100 tuition for his upcoming HALF day kindergarten at private school (we are not very religious per say but I wanted to send him to half day kdg to spend more time with him and ease him into school and public here is full day only) By the way, I have a teaching degree and he already can read chapterbooks etc bc I work with him so it's not bc he's not academically ready
local carnival
snacks, meal and carriage ride at mall
lol it just kind of goes on

[Goldy1]

by the way we are in the middle of purchasing a house mainly to get him into a better school district(we plan to switch to public after one year) and neighborhood!

[rennigade]

by the way we are in the middle of purchasing a house mainly to get him into a better school district(we plan to switch to public after one year) and neighborhood!

Public or private school...it doesnt matter. Sure maybe if you're in the hood its a different story. But not necessarily. You can give you child every opportunity and they can still blow it. Theres so many social factors that a parent has no control over the shapes and molds a kid.

Here in DC...the public school are rough. You may be shanked or shot one day in the public schools...or if you send your kid to a private school you have to worry about kids influencing them to do cocaine and other "more privileged" drugs...or they may just get bullied by the clothes they wear and never be accepted in a group. Words can be just as harmful as a knife to the chest.

Glad I dont have to go through school with social media now in the mix. Sucks to be kids today.

[Goldy1]

yea never thought of that. glad social media wasn't there for me.
honestly kind of glad in college I didn't have texting and facebook. I have so many memories just hanging with my friends in my sorority house, at parties not posting status, staying up late writing poetry about wondering if the guy I like likes me(not checking his facebook) and just chiilin. lol

[frugalredhead]

Yeah. they're pretty expensive! I have a 3 and 7 year old, and they go/have gone to one of the most expensive daycares in the area. But I have seen all the other daycares in town and that is one place we weren't willing to scrimp. Is that $3100 a month, or year??? Seems crazy expensive if it's per month, very reasonable if it's per year. If he's academically ready, I would just go for the public full day kindergarten. Sounds like maybe it's you who's not ready, and you have to let go next year, so you might as well do it now!

I have to say, that until we started facing our debt head on, we were constantly taking the kids to do things that wound up being expensive (movies, carnivals, etc.) I've since realized that they have just as much fun, if not more, going to free parks and riding bikes, playing baseball and soccer in our backyard, and doing other cheap or completely free things.

When my kids were younger, all of their clothes were new. Now, I buy a good number of their clothes from local facebook mom buy/sell/trade groups. They outgrow clothes faster than they actually wear through them.

Kids can be a whole lot cheaper with just a few tweaks to your point of view!

[Goldy1]

My son has the most fun with a ball and the neighborhood kids. his face lights up when they come over to play. Honestly more fun than our Disney World trip(we only took it because grandparents paid for about half)

[dawnwes]

I quit my $95K job to stay at home......x 10 years......so, so far almost $1M.

Kids went to daycare when I worked. Now I stay at home. They still cost money. All of the boys are in extra curricular activities. That is about $5,000-$7,000 per year depending on what activities they do. That is for all 3 of them, not per kid.

I wouldn't make as much here in NC as I did in CA, but I would make a decent amount.

College is coming up soon. I plan to be working by then to defray those costs.

[Goldy1]

It seems to cost more as they get older

[JoeP]

It seems to cost more as they get older

Especially when they start driving!