
Children are expensive. All parents know this to be true.
But, if you were to quantify exactly how many dollars it costs to raise your young prodigies from birth to adulthood, you’d probably have an ‘oh sh*t’ moment, followed by a call to your accountant.
The people of Reddit share their moments of cringeworthy embarrassment caused by their kids. Post continues below.
According to a 2018 study conducted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, it costs Australian families (at least) $140 to $170 a week to raise a child. However for most families, this will be a gross underestimation.
We asked 11 parents of children aged from one to 12, to share how much they spend on their kids each week. As expected, most spent a lot more than $170.
This is how they broke down their spending.
Hannah – Grace (22 months)
Food and groceries: $100 (about $40 of that is on berries alone)
Extracurricular activities: Merlin annual pass $109 per year (for an adult) but we can then take her to the Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife world. Most of the other activities are free at the moment – rhyme time at the library, the park etc. Roughly $2 a week.
Transport: Pretty minimal.
Childcare: $247.53 for two days (after the Child Care Subsidy rebate).
Babysitter: $150 one day a week. My mum also does two days a week (free).
Clothes and shoes: She’s growing so fast that I’m spending around $100 on new items per month… that’s also partly because I like buying her cute things. $25 a week on average.
Total: $524.53
Tara – One son (2yo)
Food and groceries: I estimate about $40 a week on groceries/snacks related to him. We do Hello Fresh for two adults and split with him while we can. All meals from breakfast to afternoon snack are covered by daycare.
Top Comments
I have three children and two teenage boys have jobs.
This article only shows young children and 1 child families. Pretty pointless.
The only thing this really demonstrates is how ridiculous childcare costs are.