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Wanna Netflix & Chill?
One night could cost you over $300k
Dollar Dad
August 02, 2024
In partnership with
Read time: about 3 minutes
Welcome back, fellow parent
Today’s special Friday edition of the Knocked-up Money newsletter is sponsored by Netflix and their Popcorn & Brainstorm podcast.
Netflix’s Popular Kids Podcast Drops New Episodes
Looking for an activity that will engage and entertain the whole family? Check-out Popcorn Brainstorm! Jokes & Trivia for Kids, the chart-topping Kids & Family podcast from Netflix. Featuring trivia, games and jokes from your kids’ favorite Netflix films and series, Popcorn Brainstorm explores and quizzes listeners on Leo, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir, The Dragon Prince, and many others!
It’s the weekend! For parents, it’s a special time where at the end of our 12-16 hour day taking care of children, we may get time with that special someone.
Depending on your life stage and if a babysitter is available, you may be hitting the town this weekend.
Those with small children are likely planning on simply grabbing some takeout or something from Trader Joes, and getting some Netflix and chill time before passing out.
I’m here to awkwardly remind you how much that chill time could cost…
Raising a kid costs $300k
If you didn’t know, current estimates for raising a kid to the age of 18 now hits just over $300,000 in the United States. This is based on a prior USDA study plus cost of living increases and inflation.
Simple math: $300,000 / 18 years = expect to pay roughly $17,000 per year to raise your child. This doesn’t include college expenses.
Here’s how some of the top expenses break down:
Housing: This is the largest cost by far, at roughly a third of your expected expenses. The USDA estimates an annual cost of $5,235 per child, but honestly it depends on your living situation. If you live in a high cost of living area (ex. New York, California), it’ll likely cost much more.
Food: No surprise here, but kids eat quite a bit. Estimated at ~20% of the annual budget, it may cost upwards of $3k to feed your kid each year. I personally love to cook so once my daughter was eating solids this was much cheaper for us and come well below this estimate.
Childcare: This is a wildly debated and variable bucket, and comes down to your personal preference. The biggest challenge is Pre-K, as we don’t have any publicly funded programs to support parents before Kindergarten (this is slowly getting better in the US). According to Care.com, the national average weekly cost can range from $221 for a family care center to $694 for a nanny. This can increase your cost by another $11-36k. Once your kid hits Kindergarten, you’re golden from a cost standpoint if you go the public school route. If you go private, expect to pay between $12k-$30k per year.
For me personally, I’ve noticed that the cost of our daughter has ebbed and flowed over the past few years. Her first year was the most expensive with medical costs, at roughly $22k, but has dropped down since.
Parents with older children found the same thing with their budgets. Apparently it skyrockets again during the teenage years - especially with food and entertainment. Something to look forward to I guess.
Netflix’s Popular Kids Podcast Drops New Episodes
Looking for an activity that will engage and entertain the whole family? Check-out Popcorn Brainstorm! Jokes & Trivia for Kids, the chart-topping Kids & Family podcast from Netflix. Featuring trivia, games and jokes from your kids’ favorite Netflix films and series, Popcorn Brainstorm explores and quizzes listeners on Leo, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir, The Dragon Prince, and many others!
5 Ways to Save Money (from other parents)
How to save money is a question I receive quite often from parents.
While I have a go-to list of recommendations, I decided to change things up lately and start asking other parents with older or grown children about what worked well for them.
Here are the top 5:
Eat at Home: No surprise here, but fellow parents advise eating at home as often as possible. Especially if you have more than one kid as it really starts to add up. I can personally attest to this one - my family unit of 3 saves ~$2k per year by limiting eating out. Added bonus if you can meal prep once or twice a week to save time on a day-to-day basis.
Do-it-Yourself: DIY is an amazing way to save cash. There are easy ways to do this and get the kids involved as well. For example, instead of hiring a gardener, teach your kids how to mow the lawn. Same with any general home maintenance. If you’re unsure how to do something, there’s like a YouTube video on how to get it done.
Have Fun at Home: another great tip which came up often was finding ways to have fun at home. Family game nights or movie nights can save a small fortune. Another version of this is to spend more time at the park or any free landmark (mountains, beach if you live close). Not technically at home, but still in the same vein.
Secondhand Rules All: There’s no need to buy everything brand new, especially for young children as they grow out of their toys and clothes very quickly. Try to join a hand-me-down train in your family, friend group, church, or community. Check out second-hand stores (ex. Goodwill) and Discount Department Stores (ex. Ross, T.J. Maxx) to find deals.
Keep Birthdays Simple: This was a super interesting one to me which came up more than once. We tend to want to “go big” for our kids’ birthdays, partly to spoil them and partly to “keep up with the joneses.” But in reality, a birthday party is just a moment in time and doesn’t need to be extravagant. Focus on your kid’s interests and invite their favorite family and friends to celebrate. We almost threw a huge party this year for my daughter but all she wanted to do was to go to the Zoo with a few of her friends. So we did. She had a blast and we saved a ton of cash along the way. Months later she still talks about the time she went to the zoo for her birthday.