Raising children is expensive. They need diapers, food and clothes. Sometimes they want guitar lessons.
In the US, raising a child from birth to age 18 costs on average $237,482 (£187,154), according to one 2023 study. In the UK, it costs on average £223,256 ($283,291).
How do parents and guardians afford this? If you’re raising children right now, we want to hear from you: how much do you spend on your child(ren) in a month? How much do you pay for housing, food, school and activities?
Share your experience
You can tell us how much you spend on your children in a month using the form below.
Please share your story if you are 18 or over, anonymously if you wish. For more information please see our terms of service and privacy policy.
Your responses, which can be anonymous, are secure as the form is encrypted and only the Guardian has access to your contributions. We will only use the data you provide us for the purpose of the feature and we will delete any personal data when we no longer require it for this purpose. For true anonymity please use our SecureDrop service instead.