Children Born in 2008 Will Cost Their Parents $291,750 to Raise

The Expenditures on Children by Families report has been issued annually by the USDA since 1960. As would probably be obvious to those with some degree of common sense, household income affects the amount parents spend on their kids.

For example, in 2008 dollars, a family earning less than $56,870 will spend $159,870 on a child from birth through high school. Meanwhile,, parents with an income between $56,870 and $98,470 will spend $221,190, and a family earning more than $98,470 will spend $366,660. Adjusted for inflation, a middle-income family in 1960 would have spent $183,509.

It would be interesting if the cost of raising a child has risen somewhat because of all the electronics they desperately need. These amounts aren't cast in stone, of course.

One point is that the USDA allocates a huge chunk of money toward housing, 32% of the total or $69,660. If in fact you have a house you've already purchased and don't move up to a new house just for the child, I'd personally think you're not really spending anything extra just for the child, so the net amount would be zero.

You can't avoid other costs, however, like food, clothes, and child care expenses. The USDA will also be updating their Cost of Raising a Child Calculator to handle the new values. This is an online tool in which can enter the age(s) and number of children they have and other data to get an estimate of how broke they will be. The tool will be available here (soon!).

The full report can be accessed here.