My son had better be the best behaved teenager in the whole wide world, make his mummy umpteen cups of tea, breakfast in bed, settle for any old trainers I decide to buy him, tidy his room on a daily basis and be a straigh A student, if it's going to cost me £200,000 then I want my monies worth!
£200k! - that is the cost put on raising a child to the age of 21.
According to LV the insurance group who carried out the research we spend around £7,415 on them on leisure and recreation alone until they reach 21. Does that include the iPhone, iPod, iWhatNext and nike trainers that speak to you and turn you into a superhuman that they will want when growing up? or is that just for straight cinema, swimming, football, afterschool clubs, ballet, piano lessons, school trips etc?
The biggest cost factors in order are:
- Childcare
- Education
- Food
- Clothing
Saving money where you can by planning, budgeting and putting some aside is going to be vital to make sure you have enough for your essentials and any extra.
There is help out there, you just have to go and look for it and set aside some time, fill in all the forms and do a bit of research and claim:
Benefits
- Child benefit
- Tax credits
Contact: call 0845 300 3900 or visit http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/
Child Trust Fund Account
Child Trust Fund Account with a £250 government payment to kick start it with another £250 when they reach 7.
Contact: visit http://www.childcarelink.gov.uk/
Childcare vouchers
The Children’s Information Service has the names of all registered childcare providers in your area.
Contact: call 0800 234 6346 or visit http://www.childcarelink.gov.uk/
Healthy Start Vouchers
If you are on certain benefits you can claim Healthy Start Vouchers that you can put towards fresh fruit & vegetables, milk and formula.
Contact: visit Healthy Start Vouchers
Freecycle
A global community that is made up of 4,675 groups with 6,407,000 members. Their message is simple, it’s all about reusing things and not throwing out stuff you don’t want anymore leading to landfills overflowing. It's free to join and it's great for baby / child stuff and furniture.
Contact: visit Freecycle
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
Ouch! That figure looks scary, but I guess in reality that is 21 years so it's fairly understandable. Still, all the same...bloody kids!
Another useful resource people might want to look at is the parenting site gurgle which has some invaluable articles and videos on there.
Hi Gemma,
Now I know where my money went!
But I started to save money (and also make quite a lot) when a friend of mine told me about a new company that gices you 5 % cashback on your sainsbury shopping!
Check this out www.jarilyden.com and start saving!
regards
jari
Post a Comment