This recent post in NPR’s Planet Money blog points out a government report that estimates it costs $222,360 to raise a child. Some interesting quotes from the report and how they apply to us:
Housing Is the Largest Expense on a Child
One would expect families to increase their housing expenditures as they move to larger residences to accommodate children.
Yes, one would expect!
Based on expenses incurred among all age groups, housing accounted for 32 percent of child-rearing expenses for a child in the lowest income group.
We are transitioning from three people sharing one bedroom to four people sharing one bedroom, so our housing costs for raising children equals 0.
Child-Rearing Expenses Are Highest in the Urban Northeast
Overall, child-rearing expenses were highest in the Urban Northeast, followed by the Urban West and Urban Midwest. Child-rearing expenses were lowest in the urban South and rural areas.
So we moved from the sorta urban, sorta rural South to the Urban Northeast. The estimated annual expenditures for one child 3-5 years old for two regions are:
- Midway between Rural South and Urban South: $10,000
- Urban Northeast: $13,000
Dagnabbit.
Expenses Increase as a Child Ages
…food, transportation, clothing, and health care expenses on a child generally increased as the child grew older.
Well, food and health care we do not skimp on, which explains why Cool Baby is currently 25th percentile for height and 75th percentile for weight. That means that he is taller than only 25% of his peers, while he weighs more than 75% of his peers. Dude is thick and stocky.
Transportation expenses are minimal, since kids ride the bus and subway for free. I guess the infrequent cost of a new stroller could be rolled in there as well as the cost of pimping a kid’s ride.
And clothing is certainly not much of an expense because we just dress Cool Baby big and let him grow into his clothes.
So, in usual Cool Fam style, we are trying to live on the cheap- well, as cheap as a family living in Manhattan can pull off. We’d love to come way under that $222K mark for raising Cool Baby. NPR is more than welcome to follow us while we try!
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Hmmm… I’m not buying this study. For one thing, the costs go down considerably with each consecutive child. I couldn’t imagine parents with five kids paying $65,000 on just raising their kids in one year. (I would know, being from a five-kid family!
) Also, I don’t think it’s fair to add housing because the parents would have that expense anyways, child or not. I’m just saying, with this train of thought, there ought to be a study on how staggeringly expensive PETS are, as well. So there’s my two cents. 
How’s Cool Mum doing?
With the housing thing, I guess they are just considering that parents would move to a bigger place. I don’t think that it’s safe to assume that most everyone moves to larger quarters when they have a kid, but we sure have heard quite often from our friends.
Pets sure are a lot more buck for a lot less bang. At least they don’t talk back or wipe their hands all over nasty-subway-filth shoes when you politely tell them not to. But then again, they would just lick the floor and then lick your face.
Cool Mum is doing great as you’ve probably seen by now. Thanks for asking!