How much does it REALLY cost?

We've had a lot of "How much do you pay in CS" topics, but I haven't seen much on the actual cost of child-raising.

I don't have a flippin' clue how much it costs to raise a child because I don't have any bios, and DH and I are so extremely NCP that day to day expenses are nonexistent for all intents and purposes.

Checking out the USDA (calculator here: http://65.216.150.170/default.aspx and the 2009 report for those who like to read the dry statistics here: http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/CRC/crc2009.pdf ) I was FLOORED by the estimated costs. $27k/year for ONE child? Seriously? That's more than DH's and my annual household bills! (housing, utilities, food, gasoline, pet care - but NOT the car note)

So, how much DOES it cost to add a kid to your house?

NCMilGal's blog
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I'm gibbering at that amount.

:jawdrop:

I'm gibbering at that amount. According to the USDA numbers, depending on if you count SD15 as a single child or one of two (she has a younger brother who is not DH's) DH is paying between %50-%60 of the cost of raising SD15 (when you go by the 2-parent family) and 95% of the cost of raising her if you count BM as a single parent. Since BM is leeching off of, er, married to her DH, I'm guessing her spending went way up.

Still, totally floored.

"Just goes to prove that CS

"Just goes to prove that CS is such a bunch of bull shit and so grossly inflated."

Depends on the situation - in my case, while I had DD 85% of the time, XH paid all of $75/wk in CS (and he's a cop, he's not poor by a long shot). It didn't even cover her 2 hours of after school daycare, much less anything else - which was fine, but it wasn't a lot of money.

Now neither of us pays anything because we split 50/50 but there are plenty of BMs out there getting crap for CS.

also, cost of living. I live

also, cost of living. I live in metro Boston and the housing did not take much of a hit, let me tell you!

Oh yeah, I was looking at the

Oh yeah, I was looking at the cost - urban Northeast was the highest. Where we live (urban/suburban South) is the lowest except for rural.

But the courts don't count that at all; every calculator I've seen goes off incomes. Since BM doesn't work, DH gets hosed. Here's hoping BM doesn't start sniffing around for more cash - there's no time limit for filing CS mods in Louisiana.

See, that's what I'm

See, that's what I'm thinking.

There is NO NEED for a 4 or 5 bedroom 2500 sq ft behemoth of a house if you've only got one kid. (My biggest argument against it is, "And who is going to clean it??") so our $760/month mortgage wouldn't change.

There's no child care for a teenager, yet the USDA says that schooling costs actually increase. If they're into sports or band, maybe, but it's not thousands a year, is it?

Food, water, and electricity would go up, maybe as much as 50%, but at my house 50% of those bills is maybe $300/month maximum.

Gasoline *might* go up to get the kid to private school, so that might get spendy, but private school is a choice, not a necessity - although the fat mouthy white girl (SD15) would probably get her ass beat on a daily basis at the ghetto (with no shit GANGS) high school that serves our neighborhood. Hence, private school at a cost of $4k/year.

DH already pays health insurance, always has. DH pays all transportation costs, so that's something like $2k/year not being spent...

Still not seeing where the money is supposed to be going.

I find that figure

I find that figure interesting. The state where I live has figured out what you would spend per week on a kid with the amount of combined income. So the more money the CP makes, might mean more money the NCP pays in support but their "child support split" would be lowered and vise versa.

So for the BM and DH income group they say that to raise two children they would spent 377.00 a week. He gets a visitation credit based on his overnight stays with skid 2 but skid one does not come here anymore since she is in college. He pays for the medical insurance (while his employer provides the insurance at no cost, I have also picked up skids on my family plan to help offset the costs his insurance does not provide).

Support in our state covers basic costs of raising a child:
Clothes
schooling needs
activities (unless unusual- like a high costing volleyball league or possibly SS football camp- that type of thing).
there is a % that BM covers in medical before DH has to start paying for his percentage.

I look forward to the day that we don't have support- I look forward to being able to put it into my retirement- or better yet take a vacation, or maybe just do fun things with my kids that I never get to do.

Who needs to have their kid

Who needs to have their kid in sports, etc? Why these MOTY types that parent free range style. Just sign those skids up for everything under the sun and make daddykins pay half (without consulting him of course)

They have to be SEEN with their children (not at mundane things though where no one they KNOW is looking on, i.e. grocery shopping etc. just pawn the skids off THEN)

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