Comments on: What Is The Real Cost of Raising a Child (Done Frugally and On The Cheap)

By: Theodore Smith

Theodore Smith — Fri, 22 Feb 2019 16:01:19 +0000

In reply to Jason@WinningPersonalFinance. Unless your wife made less than $1700 after tax, then her quitting her job just to save in child care expense was a really bad move!!

By: Carole

Carole — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 19:04:56 +0000

There are blogs devoted to the subject of how to raise children cheaply. You should google that and read them. Of course you don’t have to spend as much as the media says. It’s like saying how much weddings cost. Most people with a little common sense get by with less.

By: Lily

Lily — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 08:50:22 +0000

In reply to Daisy. I'm so sorry for the late reply Daisy! OMG you....sound like me!!!! I did those exact same things. I use to sell freaking gel pens by the bundle (but I also bought some from other kids haha). Not sure how old you are but if you're around my age you would remember gel pens and stickers being as good as cash! Hahahhaa.

By: Bee

Bee — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 21:40:08 +0000

Kids are cute but expensive. We had about 2 years when we paid 12k on childcare (i work 3 days). They are both at school now but the before and afterschool care is still around 100 a day for the 2 of them. Vacation care is 170. A day. Scary. Grandparents are busy, no free childcare for us.

Piano lessons. 32 p half an hour. Swimming 18 ph. Etc etc. My kids wear the cheapest 3 dollar t shirts from target, but had to fork out over 400 on school uniforms and shoes and 200 on school supplies (mandated). Toys 0? No way. You will be forking out large sums of money for expensive pieces of tiny bits of plastic which end up in the bin hours later. And trust me, sometimes you will be glad you forked out the money as you earned a few hours of peace and quiet. And then, you will have to clean up the mess.

Good news: going out expenses are almost 0 as we cant afford the cost of entertainment + babysitter and eating out expenses are almost 0 as they tend to wreck every nice meal with a tantrum so i nixed it.

Travelling costs- hm, plane tickets are expensive, but as we can’t stay in hotels we are saving a ton in airbnb. Or camping. Kids went to 15 countries with us so far. I breastfed everywhere from hong kong airport to the steps of the British museum.

Just go with the flow baby. And don’t plan on spending 0 on any kid-related category. ? not gonna happen.

By: Daisy

Daisy — Thu, 14 Dec 2017 08:53:53 +0000

Hey Lily, this was food for thought – so glad you brought it up! I’m still on the fence about having kids – being single right nos is one of the reasons – but I grew up the overseas Chinese way too with hand-me-down clothes, furniture and toys, and for the first 7 years of my life, dented can goods (still good btw) from manufacturer rejects, instant noodles, cheap rice, and cheap milk. I didn’t go to daycare (thanks again, Grandma!) and had one extracurricular and that was it. Every time I wanted to do something, my parents were like “Well, how can you get the money for it?” I sold things to my classmates at 8 yrs old, sold juice to the cafeteria from my dad’s workplace, and so on. I think I turned out pretty ok. ? A reminder that the costs other people spend on aren’t nonnegotiables and you do you.

By: Lily

Lily — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 19:31:06 +0000

In reply to Shelley Jones.

Haha thanks Shelley! I didn’t mean ME!!! I’m just wondering how in the world do parents who (like mine) who barely make ends meet afford $250K to raise a child. If you raise me like my parents…welll yeah I never did have sports or swimming or Christmas or holidays (not even birthdays).

I definitely DO NOT want to raise my children like I was raised. We’re stuffing money right now so we can reach early retirement before having kids. Then we can literally hop around the globe as
a family with just market returns and passive income 😉 well that’s the dream hehehe.

By: Shelley Jones

Shelley Jones — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 13:02:34 +0000

I read this and I am proud of you and your hubby for being super savers. Your 26 though and life might throw some curve balls at ya. I know it had for my family. I wish you the best of luck raising a kid and not having Christmas or birthdays…never signing them up for swimming or other sports they may want to play. The vacations total get…but why wouldn’t you want to take your kids somewhere? You can afford to! What’s the ultimate goal…see how much money you can have in your bank account?

By: Lily

Lily — Sat, 02 Dec 2017 19:06:33 +0000

In reply to JoeHx. Thanks Joehx! :) Best of luck to you guys and congrats to this lucky baby for being born to prepped parents.