Pendragons Princess

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The Total Cost of Kids
By Sabrina Siddiqui

From adoption to auto insurance, health care to housing, raising children can cost parents more than $700,000 per child from birth through the age of 21. Take a look at the breakdown of the individual costs—and where you could save money.
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Seven hundred grand. Just a year ago it was $300,000 per child, up to the age of 18. I’ll be lucky if I ever make $700,000 in my lifetime and if I do, it’ll pay for the college tuition bills on two degrees and a home.

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Adoption
Total cost: $22,500 (average cost of adopting a child)*

Based on a survey by The Adoption Guide, the average cost of adoption is between $20,000 and $25,000 (before federal tax credit and employee adoption benefits) and continues to rise. Of course the figure depends on whether the adoption agency you choose is private or public (the latter always costs less). The majority of failed adoptions cost less than $5,000. Seventy-five percent of overseas adoptions are also costlier — over $20,000, whereas domestic newborn adoptions cost less than $20,000.

*Assuming a one time cost
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$20,000. is a lot to adopt just one child. Needless to say, one must be made of money just to adopt a child but if they can afford it, God bless them.

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Auto Insurance
Total cost: $11,190 (age 16 - 21; does not include discounts for Good Grades Policy)*

Those teen years will always cost you more, not only for the newfound interest in clothes, style, and technology, but also for auto insurance once your kids learn to drive. Rates are always higher for teenage drivers, because as a group they pose a higher risk of accidents than experienced drivers. The Insurance Information Institute says that adding a teenager to your insurance policy can mean a 50% or even a 100% increase in your insurance premium. To lower these costs, urge your kids to do well in school. Some insurance companies offer a Good Student Discount to students with a grade point average of B or higher.

*Unless otherwise noted, all costs are computed from birth through 21.
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Here, this is an exception, as many families, including the one I came from, had the teen pay for the insurance (the teen of course had to have a job). On the other hand, nowhere is it engraven in stone that a parent HAS to buy a car and HAS to pay for the teen’s insurance. Having a car and license are simply legal privileges that can indeed be revoked by law but maybe more importantly, as soon as a teen turns sixteen, does not have to be immediately fulfilled. Many teens have waited until they are older to get a license and a car. So I’d scratch the cost of $11,190 since this is purely optional on the parent’s part.

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Car
Total cost: $230,178 (includes average cost of buying a larger car and 21 years of gas)

Hauling around kids and the many things that accompany them requires a bigger car. In other words, having kids means trading the two-seater for a minivan. In addition to the $25,000-plus it takes to purchase a minivan, the AAA estimates that gasoline will set you back $8,639 annually. Some bigger families will choose an SUV, which can consume an average $9,997 in gas each year and cost about $44,000.
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This is inaccurate. Parents with two kids can get by on a Nissan Altima sedan (room in the backseat for both and the trunk is rather roomy for their supplies), which is a fairly economical car, mileage is approximately 20 in the city, 35 on the highway. Minivans as a must-need for kids is nonsense proposed by the Soccer Moms of America, whose sponsor is Sarah Palin.

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Childcare
Total cost: $47,300

Most moms like to return to work after having children, and both parents hope that they can return to some kind of social life. But babysitters, nannies, and day care don’t come cheap. The USDA says they can cost about $4,300 a year until the age of 11. While the day care may stop when a child reaches 11, a baby-sitting charge may persist unless there is an older sibling around to take over.

*Until age of 11.
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Childcare is a choice. It’s great if there is an older sibling to look after the kids, but what about another family member in the area? Granted, the stay-at-home-mom movement is popular once again but I’m sure that other women with kids want them out of their hair for awhile, especially if they have to work.

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Clothing
Total cost: $14,683

Parents spend close to $600 a year dressing a child. The number only gets bigger when kids hit those fashion-conscience teen years and no longer allow Mom and Dad to attire them in OshKosh pants and sweaters with a big bunny on the front. The USDA lists ages 12 to 14 as peak years for clothing expenditure, but don’t forget what parents spend on events such as parties and proms in the high school years that follow.

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Fashion-conscious teen years. The years when it is more important to dress up like the social hit of the year rather than get straight A’s. Wow. Their priorities may be messed up, but the consolation here is that for those parents whose kids attend private or parochial school, those uniforms are much, much cheaper than the miniature Bijan suits the othes have to buy for their kids.

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College
Total cost over four years
Public College: $51,184
Private College: $121,468

Tuition and fees constitute about two-thirds of a student’s total budget at a private institution, according to a release on Trends in College Pricing in 2007 by Web site CollegeBoard. While the average private college charges $32,307 for tuition, room, and board (5.9% higher than just a year earlier), total anticipated fees at the most sought-after ivy leagues are known to be well above $45,000. In-state public fees are also grew by 5.9% with an average of $13,589 for tuition, room, and board, while out-of-state total charges are $24,044. Applying for financial aid is highly encouraged, especially given the cost of laptops, iPods, and other gadgets that seem to go hand-in-hand with college (see Technology).
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Here we have another option: parents can offer to help pay a percentage of college tuition for their kids, even if it is only 1/100 the cost, but it is better ethics to teach the child to earn their way through college. Good grades are not Christmas presents that one finds under the student link to the website of the college the person is attending. Myself, I had the privilege to attend both a private college (a women’s college in New England) as well as a state university (UA) so I have experience in this area. I can suggest that if the parent’s child did very well in high school grade-wise and gets accepted to the college of his or her choice, to apply for grants and scholarships first, then resort to federal loans. Grants and scholarships do not need to be paid back. Loans need to be paid back, with interest.

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Education*
Total cost: $44,465

One in ten children now attends private school, and tuition and fees are not so far behind higher education. A modest tuition at a parochial school is about $6,000 annually. However many of the top private schools can cost as much as $10,000 — to more than $40,000 a year for boarding school. Even public school fees are relatively high at an average of $1,330 per year for extra-curricular activities, teacher gifts, field trips, and lost textbooks.

*Through high school. Does not include costs for private schooling, which could cost more than $300,000 depending on the schools.
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A private education from grammar school through high school can indeed be costly. I attended a parochial high school as well, where the yearly tuition was $3000. Keeping the above costs in mind, it’s easy to see why many parents opt for homeschooling, which not only does provide better education but is much cheaper (average cost per year to homeschool one child: $300. to $500.)

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Fertility
Total cost: $17,500

Most insurance companies do not cover the process of in vitro fertilization, even though the national average cost is said to be $15,000. Many couples spend up to $20,000 on the process, drugs, and genetic testing. Couples should look for insurance plans that cover infertility or at least some of the charges associated with IVF.

*Average cost of in vitro fertilization, drugs and genetic testing.
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A waste of money, maybe the couple should save that money for adoption instead.

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Food
Total cost: $48,342

Feeding your child will cost you at least $1,900 annually, according to a report by the U.S. Agriculture Dept. For the average family of four, double it. Food also becomes more expensive as children get older, and their love of chicken nuggets and mac-and-cheese is replaced with a taste for chicken Parmesan and fettuccine Alfredo. The report shows that parents spend about $1,000 extra on food by the time their children are 15 to 17 years old as opposed to when they were zero to five.
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This depends a lot on what the family diet consists of. Eliminate the $3.99 package of cookies, $3.99 bag of Lay’s potato chips, $2.99 soda with various other junk foods, the food bill could be cut down a lot. Opt out of the cheese-and-pasta routine for the kids, replace them with fresh veggies and a small cutlet, which is healthier and actually cheaper, believe it or not.

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Health Care
Total cost: $20,353

The younger years are full of health-care expenditures, everything from check-ups to vaccinations, from fillings to braces. Despite the existence of both medical and dental insurance, parents still seem to shell out at least $800 a year on expenses for which their kids are not covered. These often include brand-name prescription drugs, some medical supplies, and any health insurance premiums that are not paid by an employer or other organization.
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I’m trying to figure out why this entry has a photo of a young lady with braces smiling. Braces are optional and don’t really fall under health care, but whatever. As for the young kids getting sick, that’s inevitable, since they are around other kids who are grimy, germy, and carrying any number of diseases from the common cold to dengue. Real health care for kids is indeed expensive, and even more expensive for parents who tote the runny-nosed kid to the emergency room.

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Travel
Total cost: $45,440

When taking your kids on that all-important trip to Disney World, there are a number of cost variables to take into account: the number of people in your group, whether you stay in a resort or a hotel, where you eat, and the time of year you visit. Any way you go about it, Mickey Mouse will cost you at least a hefty $500 a day for a family of four. This includes accommodation, food, and tickets, but does not factor-in visits to neighboring attractions such as Universal Studios or Sea World.
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Travel, of course, does not have to extravagant every year and even a trip to Disney World does not have to cost an arm and a leg. There are economical packages when it comes to hotels, and kids can have as much fun without having to buy everything they see at the park.

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Technology
Total cost: $16,855*

Apple shareholders may be thrilled with the stock’s performance, but parents could resent the Cupertino (Calif.) company for vacuuming up so much of their money. The average teen demands an iPod for his birthday and requests a MacBook when going off to college. And when you consider kids as young as 10 are asking for a cell phone, you have enough reason to hate living in the new millennium. Laptops average $800 to $2,600 (with those popular MacBooks averaging $1,200), while $199 is the median iPod charge. Cell phones represent an ongoing $66 per month, but for the younger lot, family-share plans of $100 per month for the whole household are recommended. Desktops are also more reasonable for home use, ranging from $500 to $900.

*Assumes purchase of one family desktop computer, one laptop when child hits college age, one iPod and cell phone service from age 12 - 21
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Here is another option. While computers are necessary for school assignments, the cost of the laptop in a Mac or PC can be affordable (a Dell Inspiron is about $700.) and comes with the software already installed, whether it is Microsoft Office or the ever-popular OpenOffice, which is totally free of any cost (Yeay for Sun Microsystems!) As with the college tuition, parents can offer to pay a percentage of the computer. When it comes to that cell phone, however, the child will have to foot the bill, and here, limits would have to be placed: no phone in school, only for use if the kid is at an after school activity. Same thing with the iPod - the kid will have to pay for it if he or she wants one.

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Toys
Total cost: $39,182

Children need their toys—at all ages. Beginning with the stuffed animals and Fisher Price play sets and later advancing to video games and sports equipment, the USDA estimates about $1,265 a year is spent on entertainment. Perhaps the USDA should attend a modern-day birthday party — nowadays the average video game costs at least $39.99, while the video game console itself is worth well over $400.
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Let’s set aside the topic of unproductive video games for a moment and take a look at educational toys for young kids. These, along with traditional toys such as Legos (a toy no child should ever be without) or Lincoln Logs, are much better for children as they do stimulate creative and academic growth which is vital to the early development of a child. The cheapest educational toy: a big box of crayons and a huge stack of drawing paper. My favorite site: http://www.educationaltoysplanet.com/. Video games as sold nowadays are unproductive for kids as well as expensive, not to mention violent. Options: Tetris, electronic checkers, chess, and backgammon. Board games are great, too and timeless.