3 ms·

More food+bigger house probably adds $400-$1000/month to your budget. Also, kids need doctors, interests (books or toys), durable goods (clothes and furniture)

• totalminimalist 6y ago
  Funny you mention this. I live near Houston, Texas, soon to be, if not already, the 3rd largest city in America. What I'm seeing around me in north Houston burbs is somewhat disturbing, namely two things: 1. An outbreak of RV parks (6 near me in less than two years) 2. An outbreak of tiny home parks (Several in my area). What pains me is driving by the RV parks, where entire families are living in an RV not much larger than my kitchen and I see kids boarding the school bus. Some of you may disagree, but that is no way for a child to grow up. While I don't have anything against this per se, the stigma of that lifestyle can damage children. The rotten-ass kids at school make terrible fun of children who live in trailer parks, RV parks, tiny homes. Of course this is no fault of the children in those conditions, as they have no say in how they live, only in how they perform at school. This area lives and dies by oil and gas jobs. It's likely no accident that in the last couple of years, those jobs have bottomed out and many people have lost their jobs. I don't know if there is a correlation between the job losses (tens of thousands) and the number of cheaper housing accommodations springing up, but it's real and it's somewhat disturbing to see so many people in a down-and-out state. Editing to say that these are not the $500,000 RVs that retired people holiday in. They are kitchen-sized campers (for lack of a better term) that may be the size of 6-8 cubicles. They need outside water connections which many don't have, and they almost always need propane attachments. Many have composting toilets which the owner needs to clean out, as they cannot connect to the sewer lines.
  • engineer_22 6y ago
    Consider introducing yourself to those people and asking them about their experiences.
  • medicineman 6y ago
    >[...]but that is no way for a child to grow up. It teaches you a lot more about keeping things private. It also hardens you for a world that truly doesn't, and will never, care. School of hard knocks is no joke.
• lotsofpulp 6y ago
  An acceptable daycare for the "professional, white collar" class is minimum $1,500 per child per month and doctor visits are at least $200 or $250 out of pocket each time for regular viral/bacterial infections. Kids aren't cheap if you want to keep up with your socioeconomic class. And by far the biggest cost is the extra you pay for a house to be located near other high earners so that the schools your kids go to is filled with kids of other high earners.
  • novok 6y ago
    What doctors are you going to!? Do you not have medical insurance?
    • lotsofpulp 6y ago
      Gold level HSA qualifying high deductible BCBS health plan with $7,500 out of pocket maximum and $3k deductible. I’ve never known a doctor to charge less than $200 per visit with or without insurance.
  • bonzini 6y ago
    That's only true in the US of course... I make less money than someone in the US, but daycare for me is 250 euro (it was 500 until 3 years old) and public daycare would be cheaper still. Visiting the doctor for a random virus brought back from school costs exactly 0 (a private visit would be around 100 euros). An orthodontist, if needed, would be the only major expense for a child apart from clothing and food. University will be about 4000 euros a year at most (and would be cheaper if I earned less).
  • snypox 6y ago
    I start to think that I’m really lucky in central Europe. All those things (daycare, doctor, dentist) are free here. Even university is free.