Starting or growing a family can be an exciting step in your life, but it can also be expensive. To help families understand how much they could b
Starting or growing a family can be an exciting step in your life, but it can also be expensive. To help families understand how much they could be spending, price comparison site MoneySuperMarket have conducted some research into the costs involved with growing a family.
Here’s what they found.
A person living on their own can expect to pay £12,114.47 a year in living costs alone – that’s approximately 45% of the average UK salary.
For a couple, the price increases (as you would expect) but only to £13,435.00. The real increases come with children.
A three person family can expect to pay £27,508.00 per year, a four person family can expect to pay £44,670.00, a five person family can expect to pay £63,754.00 and a six person family can be looking at spending an eye-watering £79,385.00 per year.
So how did MoneySuperMarket get these costs?
Firstly they look at the cost of property. The average cost for a one bedroom house starts at £168,000 and increases by an average of £104,400 for each extra bedroom.
Then they looked at how much is spent on the weekly food shop? They found that this is one of the smaller cost changes when building a family. Each adult costs around £18.60 per week to feed and each child costs £5.50.
Then it’s on to transport. While a standard 5 seater car should suffice for families of up to four, a seven seater will be needed if you’re going to transport a larger family. The average cost of a standard five seater car costs £15,000 and 7 seaters cost considerably more at £30,000.
Utility bills were also considered. These typically start at £1,602 per year for one person and increase to £1,928 with a family of six.
Finally, If you want to send your children to private school, it can be very expensive. Each child will cost £13,194 on average for a year at day school – and if you want them to go to a boarding school, the average is £30,369 per child annually.
What financial support does the government provide to parents?
Child benefit is £20.70 per week for your first child and an additional £13.70 for every child in your family after that, which can go a long way towards offsetting the increased utility bills and weekly food shops.
To see the full infographic and all the costs associated with starting or growing a family visit the MoneySuperMarket website here.
COMMENTS