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[/align][align=center]My girlfriend is studying to be a nurse, and we want to have children in our future (when we finish school), but she had to do a report on the costof raising a child. WoW `Big $'s.[/align][align=center]We've been together for almost 15 years, or since we were 5 years old, but I think we will both have to keep working forever, `if we have children : ) WoW, No Z06 Vette: )....Would have 2 get a SpaceVan : ( [X(][X(][X(][/align][align=center][/align][align=center]Moderator Bigg `J -Jason-, is going to be a father shortly, & Mod Wiz Kidd just had a beautiful baby girl about one year ago......Do you think the below cost are accurate from your experience ? WoW-Wee.......[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]Mod Bigg `J, just posted in the Halo 3 Thread "Yeah, I game, but I'm not ballin' big enough to have a 360 just yet!! I'll put that $400 into diapers[:'(] for right now. Maybe once the little one is able to crawl around!!"[&o] [/align][align=center]WoW....$400 in diaper's....There goes the Mod Fund : ) [X(][X(]
[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center]The Basics
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Raising your quarter-million dollar baby



Children are priceless, but raising them is probably the most expensive thing you'll ever do. Here are some strategies and tips that may help.

By MSN Money staff

Every newborn child is a bundle of joy. But you better have a bundle of cash on hand if you want to raise one.

For 2004, the newest data available, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that families making $70,200 a year or more will spend a whopping $269,520 to raise a child from birth through age 17. Higher-income families in urban areas in the West spend the most, $284,460.

Though not as steep, the figures for lower-income families are just as unsettling: $184,320 for families earning $41,700 to $70,200 and $134,370 for families making less than that. That breaks down to nearly $15,000 a year from birth to age 2 for families in the $65,800 -plus income bracket. As your child ages, he or she gets even more expensive, topping out at $15,810 from ages 15 to 17. This is no back-of-the-envelope guesstimate. The survey involves visits to, and interviews with, about 5,000 households, four times a year.





[b]Nor is there much in the way of cost-effectiveness for larger families. With an older child of 16, the USDA study says, a family with a second child under 2 lays out $20,740 for the both of them each year, with the numbers growing progressively as the children get older. With three children -- the two older ones being 16 and 13 -- a third child aged 2

 

that sound about right according to what i've been taught... we had a poster in school one time that said a child costed approxiamtly $274 a month.... thats like 3 of the McDonalds pay checks i was making at teh time (no really, on a good week i could scratch just over $200)

 

Kudoo's to Space for putting up the alternative methods of saving money. I see plenty of parents that probably spend less than $50,000 on each kid.

Lets face it, there are some single mothers/fathers only pulling in 18K a year and they make it with 2 kids. They don't get all the perks in life, but I think they have some closer relationships than other families.

 

For 2004, the newest data available, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that families making $70,200 a year or more will spend a whopping $269,520 to raise a child from birth through age 17. Higher-income families in urban areas in the West spend the most, $284,460.


Well if this is true then it looks like I'll never have any kids. I can't afford one. Or two or three or...............

I know when I grew up the norm was for every family to have 4 kids. If there were less you asked what was wrong with their family?

I'm certain my parents never paid whatever the estimate for kids/year was back in the 1950/60s. My dad worked three jobs for a long time when I was very young so we couldn have nice things.

You have to wonder some times how inflated these studies are versus real life?

 

My daughter is 25 and I still haven't stopped spending money on her.

Now I know why fathers give their daughters away at weddings[&:]

 

i thought the 50's and 60's were what established the "traditional family of 4" althoguh my dad says when the greatest generation got back from the war, they wanted a lot of kids.. thus the baby boomer.

 

Most the kids I grew up with had at least 3 brother/sisters. One family had 19 kids. (catholic)
Another had 13. (again catholic)

The family of 19 kids lived in two houses.
(bet mom was tired of dad coming over for a visit?)

 

OMG.... rj, get this... reading along minding my own business... what do I come across but:



Hint, check out the ad

[IMG]local://upfiles/2185/32393FAFAAA64A3889F9397A1718FCBD.jpg[/IMG]

 

Either you think this is the same service the people with 19 kids used or..............

You're giving me a big hint I need a girlfriend?
(hahahahaha)

 

Omg... dude you are too funny! ...

Or it's too late and I've had too many Buds.... hmmmm


And girlfriend? hell... who has the time.... or money for them!?

We've got CARS!