Average Cost To Raise Child In The Northeast: $277,000
BURLINGTON (CBS) - You can't put a price tag on your children, but the federal government can. The USDA's annual study of the cost of raising children shows once again, it's getting more expensive.
The national average of what it costs for a middle income home with two parents to raise one child is $241,080. The northeast has the highest costs. Here that same family would spend more than $277,000.
For families making more than $105,000 per year can expect to spend nearly $400,000 per child.
The biggest cost is housing, followed by child care and education. The survey also takes into account clothing, food, health care and miscellaneous expenses like sports and activities.
In all, when you adjust for inflation, it is 23 percent more expensive to raise a child today than it was in 1960.
At a Burlington Pop Warner football practice, parents weren't surprised by the cost. They actually found the numbers a bit low.
"You want to give them as much as you can. It's just the cost of everything is skyrocketing," said Noreen Pellegrino. She says she spends thousands of dollars just on her kids' sporting activies.
Angela Hanafin, the mother of five boys between the ages of 2 and 10 says food may be her biggest expense. The family saves by taking advantage of hand me down clothes and watching other aspects of the budget. Still, she says she's never added up what her sons cost her.
"I feel like you can't put a price on a child and the joy they bring you and I feel like when you're a parent you make sacrifices."
