How many children can you afford?

Starting a family is not a trivial decision. You may be wondering what colour to paint the nursery, whether to name your offspring after your great aunt Ada and how you’ll be able to afford to raise a child. How can expectant parents prepare for future expenses? We share a few families’ approaches.

Whether you’re into spreadsheet planning or more about seeing how things go, here’s how a few couples were – or weren’t – influenced by the costs of raising children.

Careful calculations – and a head start on saving

Durham caterer Esther Smith and her husband did the sums on maternity cover before taking the plunge.

'We did quite a bit of working out what parental working patterns would be the best financially for us', she says.

'Once we knew that shared parental leave was the best decision for us, we then – and only then – decided to go ahead and start a family', say Esther and her husband.

Similarly, Ed Fraser, founder and head of coaching at The Parent Money Coach, and his wife also started their decision-making process with their maternity leave needs.

'My wife was planning to take a year’s maternity leave so we wanted to understand what her leave policy would mean for us financially – for example, how long would any pay last and what would it be?' says Ed.

'We wanted to maintain our standard of living during that time, so we worked out the gap between her maternity pay and our regular expenditures.'

'With that number and an idea of when we wanted to have a child, we could then calculate how much we needed to save each month.'

The couple had also started saving early: 'Straight after we got married, we started putting our monthly savings previously earmarked for our wedding towards starting a family.'

Expecting the unexpected

Yet even the best preparations can’t always guarantee things will go to plan.

Jane Carter and Simon, a couple from Brighouse, started by calculating their required income.

'We worked out how much we needed to earn, which of us could afford to give up work and when, and even planned how much a child might cost us throughout school – including trips and music lessons', she says.

'We decided we could only afford to have one child… and then I found out we were having twins.'

Happily winging it

And some couples, like Huddersfield-based Elisa Fielding and her husband, prefer to take things as they come.

'We were in a fairly comfortable financial position but by no means wealthy. My husband is self-employed, and I work for my local authority', she says.

'We didn't worry too much about finances before we had our son because we knew that we are both sensible when it comes to money. We pay our student debt and a mortgage, but otherwise, if we don't have it, we don't spend it.'

For Elisa and her partner, the budgeting started once their son was born: 'To date, our main expense has been nursery fees, but having my husband work part-time has helped us reduce our childcare costs.'

'We’ve also made every effort to buy second-hand where practical and safe and have the added bonus of being one of the last couples in both of our families to have children – we’ve benefitted from quite a few hand-me-downs.'

Finances may be a consideration when starting a family, but the decision is often an emotional one at heart – and the monetary costs a child may incur are often quickly eclipsed by the joy they add to your life.

Looking for somewhere to keep your savings? Bank with Chase and you can open a saver account. Start saving with as little as you like, and we’ll calculate your interest daily and pay it monthly.

18+, UK residents. A Chase current account is required to open a saver account.

Recommended reading

• Baby talk: what to consider when going back to work
• Easy ways to save for your kids
• Help! Do kids really cost this much to raise?