That's the way the money goes
Liverpool Victoria’s website doesn’t appear to be working, but I saw this in the paper this morning:
The cost of raising a child has risen by a third in the last five years - raising a child in the UK now costs £186k between birth and the age of 21. As things only ever go up, by 2012 this is likely to have increased by an eye-watering 42%. That’s over £250k. For one child.
Childcare costs total a massive £50k. Education was second on the list costing over £47k, including a £32k bill for a 3-year university course. Children also eat over £16k worth of food and grow out of over £12k of clothes.
Not surprisingly, the research found that parents in Central London spend the most - £199,869. Followed by Outer London (£199,578), and the South East (£195,396). Wales was the cheapest place to raise a child (£179,317), followed by the East Midlands (£180,298) and East England (£182,355).
First thoughts … No wonder we are always so blooming broke …
Second thoughts … Well, at least we’ve spent the money on someone worth-while and had a lot of fun along the way …
Third thoughts … No wonder so many people are deciding to have no / less kids … studies like this encourage people to think that they' simply can't afford them. If we'd wanted until we could afford the Tubblet, we'd still be waiting. We just took the plunge and adjust accordingly / made it up as we went along and hoped for the best. It hasn't always been easy, but what is?!
Fourth thoughts ... Tax credits ... (Yay!)
Fifth thoughts ... Bring back child labour (joke!)