![]() ![]() RFL’s high deductible insurance plan.įor health insurance costs, I allocated the incremental costs for adding her to our chosen plans each year (i.e. More than half of our total spending was for one Emergency Room visit a couple years ago, which unfortunately occurred after we had switched her to Mr. It covered the costs of her specialist visits and genetic testing after birth, as well as the 25 times she got sick during her first year at daycare. Our medical costs have been relatively low so far, primarily because I had (and paid a big premium for) awesome insurance coverage during our daughter’s first couple of years. That’s good news for anyone who’s considering having one parent stay at home, or has family nearby who are willing to help out in exchange for kiddie hugs. On a positive note, if you exclude childcare costs, our spending was relatively low at $4,200 per year. At it’s peak, full-time childcare cost us over $15,000. In our case, the childcare costs varied a lot from year to year, based on whether our child was actually in daycare and whether it was full-time or not.įor the first 6 months and the past 18 months, our child was not enrolled in daycare or preschool at all, keeping these costs minimal. We spent over $44,000 on childcare costs! That’s a lot, and represents over 2/3 of our kids cost. Here’s how much we spent on our kid in her first 5 years, by category. However, after adding everything up and seeing that we spent over $65,000 in just the first 5 years… maybe I was wrong. We don’t buy many toys, nor do we enroll her in dozens of activities. ![]() I have to admit: When I started this project, it was with the attitude that kids aren’t as expensive as everyone says they are. A couple categories required a little more digging to break out, which I’ll explain further below. When it comes to tracking our money, I’m a bit obsessive, so it wasn’t too difficult to pull together enough information to determine our child-related costs for each of the last five years.įor the most part, I have separate kid categories for clothes, activities and other purchases, which made this easy. The job is not done and the reflection that you're sharing today of teachers is another example of why we have to keep going.How much our child cost in her first 5 years: "We're not going to fix it quickly, but we can and we will keep making progress. There are fewer people, 145,000 fewer children in hardship through the period of COVID than there were for instance through GFC."Īrdern said while children are being lifted out of poverty, there are still some that remain. "They were getting worse, they are now starting to turn. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told AM rates of poverty in Aotearoa have begun to turn, according to the nine measures the Government uses to gauge poverty in Aotearoa. KidsCan says it is currently supporting 877 schools across the motu, feeding more than 49,000 students a day.īut 39 schools are waiting for help, and have been since April. "With our costs rising, and a drop in people able to donate every month, we need more help from individuals and businesses too," said CEO Julie Chapman. KidsCan says regular givers are having to tighten their budget too. School camp letters didn't make it home if students thought their parents couldn't afford it."Īnd while KidsCan is seeing an increase in need, donations to the charity are dropping. "Several schools said they'd seen a drop in the number of students able to participate in sport. "High schools reported reduced attendance as senior students worked part-time to support their families or left altogether."Īnd the teachers KidsCan surveyed are not only seeing the impact on the student's education but their well-being too. One school told KidsCan they're picking up 60 children every day to get them into the classroom. "One school reported a child living in a three-bedroom home with nineteen others," one teacher told KidsCan "sadly, this is not unusual".Īnd the cost of fuel is affecting children turning up to school. KidsCan says some families can't afford both rent and food, resulting in overcrowded homes. ![]() "Dad was crying last night because he said it's his job to feed us kids, but he doesn't get enough money, and everything is so expensive," one child told a principal. Another said children are becoming worried about family money and their parents' well-being as the pressure becomes more visible. ![]()
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