I’m a mum-of-three under the age of 10 and worked out how much they really cost me a year – it’s horrifying
A MUM of three has revealed how much her kids really cost her a year – and some people are claiming it’s making them rethink their futures.
Dana took to TikTok to share the amount she typically spends on food, clothes, and extracurricular activities to give those wanting children a heads up.
But her followers were left stunned when she admitted to spending $47.5k on her two daughters and one son.
Known online as @livijayfam, Dana regularly shares parenting tips with her 10,400 followers.
In a new reel, she said: “I just totaled up how much my children cost me per year and the number is going to shock you… because it shocked me.
“If you’re my husband, please stop watching now.
“Everyone else, I am going to transparently tell you the amount of money we spend on our three kids.
“The reason I did this is because I realised that finances are a major reason of family planning.
“It is a big factor in why people do or don’t have kids, it’s a big factor in when they have kids, how many kids they have, so I feel like the transparency can help someone.”
Dana went on to say that this isn’t how much parents should expect to spend, admitting that she is very generous with her kids.
“Money is very taboo and a lot of people don’t talk about it.
“But with that being said, public service announcement: I definitely go overboard in some areas, I am seeing that right now on paper.
“So this is not the minimum amount you need to have happy, healthy children. Just keep that in mind.
“But I do think it’s a realistic view of what kids could cost.”
During the three-minute video, the content creator shared how much she spends on food, clothing, and extracurricular activities a year.
She continued: “I cannot believe I’ve never done this before. It’s a little sickening.
“By the way, I’m not complaining, I choose to spend this money on my children and it is fine. Well, it’s not fine, but it’s fine.
“Extracurriculars. My children are 9, 6, and 3, by the way for context, so they’re still on the young side. I’m sure this number is going to go up.
“Extracurriculars, I spend $18,000 on a year. That’s going to be the one that gets people heated.
“Both my girls are in competition dance teams, so that includes dance… I’m probably leveling that a little bit because I didn’t include the convention stays where we have to stay for the weekend, but I included quite a bit in it.
“So that’s dance, tumbling, and soccer for my son.
“My two older girls go to public school but my son goes to pre-school and that is $600 a month which is about 10 months, so $6,000. Part-time.
“Christmas and birthdays. I didn’t do all the other holidays, and I do give them little things throughout the holidays, so again this number is probably lowball, but I approximated that I spent about $1500 to $1800 a year on their Christmas gifts and for their birthdays.
“$500 per kid.
“Clothes, uniforms, shoes, I don’t know, I’m guesstimating but I’m going to say at least $3,000 a year.
“I would assume I spend at least $1,000 on each kid. I’m probably lowballing that one.
“Food. This one’s hard because I’ve been shopping for all of us for so long that I don’t even know, and inflation really has driven prices up, but I am going to guess that the three kids cost me about $1,200 extra per month in food, because I think my husband and I would be able to get by on much, much smaller grocery shopping trips.
“So that brings us to $14,400 a year.
“Then I get $3000 a year for extras that I’m forgetting about.
“Obviously we need a bigger car for the children, we obviously spent extra on vacation, so I’m just throwing that $3000 in as extra.
“Ready?
“$47,475 a year for three kids.”
Her maths attracted plenty of attention online, gaining more than 79,600 likes and 1.2 million views.
In the comments, TikTok users shared their reactions, with one writing: “I’m only having one child for this reason.”
Another said; “My parents had three dancers… they legit could have bought us each a house and it would have been cheaper than our tuition.”
“$500 PER A KID?!? I’m lucky if I get £100,” a third commented.
Someone else joked: “The average cat costs their family $300 – $700 / year. Just in case anyone was weighing options.”