Financially speaking, are the elementary years easier than preschool years?

[zetta]

MonkeyMama's recent blog had some interesting figures about how her family income and savings have been affected during the preschool years, compared to before having kids. Both she and I have been assuming it gets easier when the kids go to school. Are we in for a nasty shock?

One of the biggest areas of expense during the preschool years is childcare -- either you give up one person's income to have a parent at home, or you pay for daycare. Many at-home parents see value in enrolling their older preschoolers in a pre-school program a couple days a week, which is another expense. When a child goes to school, an at-home parent can go back to work, but then there is the cost of after-school care if your work schedule requires it.

Whether you pay for disposables or for the cost of washing cloth diapers, that is one expense that goes away once a child is potty-trained.

Infants grow out of their clothes every 3 months, whereas elementary school children only need new clothes once per season. Is the difference offset by the clothes costing more in the larger sizes?

I assume food expenses go down when you stop paying for baby food, but go up again as children grow and eat more?

Insurance premiums seem to be a wash as most policies don't change the price based on the children's age. Do you make less trips to the doctor and so have fewer copays?

What extra expenses do you start having during the elementary years? School trips? Sports fees?

I'd love to hear from some parents of elementary school children -- did you find that your financial picture overall became easier after the kids started school?

[Snoopy2645]

I would say you could be in for a shock my older kids 12 & 6 eat like a bottomless pit & my preschooler gets full on very little my older kids want everything we bought a tracfone for the oldest investment $100 this was one of her only xmas presents she is griping all her friends are on verizon I have told her when she gets a job & can sign the contract (18) she can get verizon. My 3yr old is happy with what ever I put on her most days be it $1 sandals or $1 garage sale outfit. My older kids are very picky getting worse as they get older about what they wear & how it fits. The oldest has to go skating every week $10 thier & eat lunch at school everyday $10 a week thier. She pays for that stuff out of her babysitting money she gets from me for watching her younger sisters.

So no I dont think it gets cheaper IMO oh ya thiers braces my kids dont have them but alot of kids they know do & thiers the $100 shoes of course & instruments for band & so on

[MonkeyMama]

I have to say I have a lot of friends with older kids. My impression is things will cost more with time. I'll have 2 growing boys - good and bad I guess - they can share clothes perhaps, but they'll be growing like weeds together and hitting college close together, etc. Braces - I don't even want to think about!

But at the same time now I think is the worst for us because our earnings potential is so low. You live in Cali Zetta - so you know - daycare and taxes make it pointless for my dh to get a $30k job. A lot of that goes out the window when the kids go to school. We have thought hard about our options and I think ideally we will both work part-time - we will bring in much more than now to cover the increased costs. & my in-laws want to move up here in a couple of year - my MIL is intent on raising our kids - LOL. I would rather raise them myself but the support will be nice - we will have a lot more working options - I have to admit it would be great to have backup to chauffer the kids around. Like for me work is crazy 4 months of the year, the rest of the year I can work little. I am hoping dh finds a job with a flexibile schedule too. But I Can see for a lot of people it is hard to rake in much more with kids in school all the same, it can heavily interfere with full-time work most definitely. I just had to clarify that and I think as a whole the kids will just get more expensive. They really don't need much right now.

Heck - I notice once the kids turn 2 or 3 there are SO MANY options available for care for part-time and such, just so hard to find and so cost prohibitive when they were younger. So from that standpoint things are getting easier for us...

[MonkeyMama]

You have a young one, huh Zetta. My 18 month old and my 3yo both eat more than us - LOL. My word!

[Scanner]

Generally speaking, I think that's true. Our pre-schooler is 1.5 years away from kindergarden (missed the cut off by 10 days!!! ) and I have a 9 year old in elementary school.

Daycare is probably the number 3 expenditure of our household, followed by Property tax and Mortgage.

To have that eliminated, or drastically reduced to after-school care or an extra cellphone for the tweenager is a plus.

Furthermore, there is some truth that your peak earning years is somewhere around age 35 to 55, maybe 60ish. Those years are generally when the kids are in elementary, middle, high school and beyond.

Unfortunately, I think the young generation (and I suppose I am crossing the threshold at 38 y.o.) kinda has a double whammy - they are not at their earning peak and are faced with early childrearing.

Couple that with an interesting article that accounted for the cost of living increase - males are generally earning about the same money they did in 1970 when adjusted for inflation. Being a sole provider of a middle or upper middle class lifestyle is extremely hard in this country nowadays.

I do think the Democrats have hit on something that couldn't be touched in the last decade lest you be labeled a "Dirty Pinko Liberal Commie" by the nutjob right - the income disparity is growing in this country and the middle class is shrinking. Corporate profits have soared in the 90's and 00's and the middle class income has generally remained stagnant.

I think I am solidly middle class but I am feeling there's less and less of us to go around lately.

Sorry if politicized the thread but I think your subject is more broad than on superficial examination.

[Scanner]

BTW, braces are nothing compared to the cost of 1 or 2 kids in fulltime daycare.

I have friends where that household expenditure has topped $10,000 between summer camps and daycare.

[MonkeyMama]

Daycare for our 2 kids would be in the $24k range today, in our area. That is why I am pretty much glad to be moving out of the infant years fast - why I say it is cost prohibive to work a 2nd job...

I think if I had to leave them both full-time their current preschool would take them around $15k/year. Once the little one is 2 anyway. Still quite cost prohibitive over all. & it really doesn't get any cheaper around here. I think our cash flow would go down with a 2nd job between taxes, gas, work expenses, paying more for convenience. Just why we never saw the point - with our situation - of working 2 jobs with small kids. Frankly it would put us behind. In the infant years, the 2nd job wouldn't even cover the cost of daycare.

[jIM_Ohio]

depends on how competitive the child is. Players on the teams I coach pay around $500/year for soccer. (6 months of soccer)

indoor, uniforms and travel are extras.

I know families which have kids in gymnastics, horseback riding, volleyball and a few other sports which require an even bigger commitment.

around age 5-7, kids stop "entertaining" themselves and require "second or third party entertainment". Video games, DVDs, board games, sports, hobbies, SOMETHING.

[Ima saver]

Boy am i glad I have my little Holly. She was pottie trained in 3 weeks, eats about $2 worth of food a week and babysits herself!!( Just kidding with you, Holly is my sweet puppy)(age6)

[disneysteve]

elementary school children only need new clothes once per season.

Clearly you haven't met my daughter - LOL.

I think expenses change. Toddlers aren't too picky about toys. Older kids are. Plus they get more interested in what they are wearing. Older kids get involved in more activities. My daughter is a Girl Scout so there is a steady stream of activities from that with costs attached. She also recently started playing tournament chess - needed a travel chess set and entry fees along with the chess class she took. Then there is summer camp - overnite camp the past 2 years was over $3,000 each summer. Almost $4,000 for braces.

We travel to Disney World regularly. Kids under 3 are free. Kids over 9 are counted and charged as adults.

Allowances start in elementary school. $1/year of age/week is a common formula.

[Snoopy2645]

I guess I left out daycare costs when I worked ft I had to pay it when my oldest was younger then when she went to school it was harder yet!! The after school care wasnt open when the schools got out early & so on. I quit work to be a sahm 3 months after she started kindegarten because I then had another baby but had I continued to work I would have had to switch her back to a regualar daycare which would have cost more for back & forth transportation to & from school & things like that & to have a space for her on thier days out.

I now work around my dh's schedule so no daycare costs & if we overlap an hour or 2 my oldest watches the kids for that time or my mom does too sometimes.

[PrincessPerky]

Dunno but if so I am looking forward to it, cause these kidsa re cheap right now (toddler to preschool)

[boomeyers]

My DH and I have always found it less expensive for one of us to be at home with the kids. We had 3 kids in 5 years, so it definately would'nt have been worth it! Now that they are older, I think it is MORE important to be home for them and so I am still here, just working part time to contribute a little bit. It is a big bone of contention between my DH and I, but I only get a shot at this job once and then its done!
As for cost of kids, it has been hard to hand me down from one to another because of body types, but my kids have been raised with garage sales and hand me downs and do not balk at them. (They are 14, 12, and 9). DD2 is hard to fit in pants, so she does need new items and that can be expensive, but I try to make up for it in hand me down shirts. The youngest can still wear the inexpensive Hanes seperates from Walmart.
They do like to eat, but we try not to spend on junk food and make our own sweets and koolaid (not soda!) I even try to throw in some fruit!!
If my DD1 wants a computer, ipod, cell phone, etc, she buys it herself. She saves bday money and babysits, dogsits, etc. I do try to help her out by letting her earn money around the house and watching her sisters and give her a BIG tip. :-) She has bought her own laptop, pay as you go cell phone (she buys her own minutes), and 2 MP3 players. I am proud of her.
The same goes for designer clothes, they pay for extras.
Having the support of family is so key too! Like Monkeymama says, she would like her MIL to help drive the kids from place to place, that does help sooo much! And my MIL takes the kids on shopping sprees every once in a while too! And my mom is always picking up extra sugar, or hamburger or something at the store to help us out. It really does take a village to raise a child!
I let each of my kids pick one activity that we pay for. Sometimes I will let them do 2, if one activity has a one time fee like seasonal church team soccer or basketball. The recurring expenses (music lessons) they can only have one of. DD2 would like to take horseback riding lessons, but I told her its not the lessons that are expensive, its the going to and from that would cost me a fortune in gas!!!
Anyway, any age has its own unique financial challenges, the key is to conquer the challenges one at a time!

[bama20]

Daycare is whipping our butt

We have a 2 1/2 year old boy and a 1 year old daughter. We take them to a in-home baby sitter. It cost us $300 per week for daycare. That is $1200 a month. Luckily, we are both school teachers, so we have holidays and the summer when we will not have to pay for daycare. We are hoping that when they start school, they will be one school year apart, that it will be like us getting a small raise since we will not pay for daycare anymore. I think I would much rather spend a few dollars to pay for lunch each day, or pack a lunch from home for them to carry to school. They both eat well now, and my wife and I are healthy eaters that like to cook meals at home. So, hopefully, we will be better off financially as they get older and in school.

[PauletteGoddard]

What extra expenses do you start having during the elementary years? School trips? Sports fees?

Fundraisers, field trips, school supplies. Full-day kindergarten where I am is $170-$210/student/month, but that's a freakin' deal from $910-$1075/child/month at preschool. Yay, saving for replacement car and home projects.

Also, I'll have to start paying bus fare for my child when we ride the bus.