How Much Did We Spend?<\/h2>\n

Drum roll pleaseeeeeee\u2026..<\/p>\n

We spent a grand total of $877 during our little lady\u2019s fourth year.\u00a0 That comes out to $73 per month.<\/p>\n

Wait – I swear, kids are supposed to be expensive dammit!<\/p>\n

We should not gloss over that we “made” a lot of money this year selling items.\u00a0 In total, we sold $991 of kid related items for the year.\u00a0 Without this included, we spent $1,868 – which still is lower than I was expecting since many activities did begin to open back up.\u00a0 I don’t see why we wouldn’t include these sales though as these items were things we had picked up for kiddo and now no longer use\/need.<\/p>\n

It is wild for me to see that of the overall $1,868 out of pocket for the year, $660 (or 1\/3) was towards outside school (1 day a week for 2.5 hours for 6 months).\u00a0 We love having her go there, but we’re really not sure if it’s worth it in all honesty. She *seems* to enjoy it but every time we ask how was class, what did you do, etc we get the same response “oh Mom\/Momma you already know because you were there!” (she carries a picture of us in her backpack). Oy…<\/p>\n

We recently decided to switch things up for this upcoming year and instead she will be going to a Reggio inspired indoor preschool.\u00a0 It’s 2 days per week and 3 hours long from early September – late June.\u00a0 The government of Alberta launched it’s child care subsidies in January 2022 and with the subsidies in place, this comes out to a whooping cost of $0.\u00a0 Yes, you read that right and we honestly didn’t believe it for months.\u00a0 (We may end up paying the full price of $195\/month during February and March 2023 if we travel then and want her to go back in when we return, but still a steal of a deal!)<\/p>\n

We also contributed $2,500 towards her RESP education fund to get the full 20% match ($500) from the government so a total of $3,000 was invested into her future education this year.<\/p>\n

I’d say her eating has plateaued and if anything she’s eating a bit less compared to last year (makes sense as her growth has slowed).\u00a0 We are likely spending $75\/month on food-related costs for her.\u00a0 Here\u2019s her typical day:<\/p>\n

\n
• breakfast – some combo of waffles, pancakes, scrambled eggs, toast, French toast, yogurt with sprinkles, oatmeal, cheerios, fruit<\/li>\n
• gummy vitamin \u201ctreat\u201d<\/li>\n
• pre-lunch snack – garlic peas, seaweed, and\/or a fruit cereal bar<\/li>\n
• 1 treat a day, which we try to do around lunch<\/li>\n
• lunch – typically some sort of carb related meal with fruit<\/li>\n
• afternoon snack – trail mix, olives, yogurt drink, apple sauce, rice cake, salami, or pretzels & cream cheese<\/li>\n
• supper – whatever we\u2019re eating, although she’s gotten more picky this year so we might have to tweak it a bit for her – mainly that she doesn’t seem to want anything spicy anymore<\/li>\n
• stories & snack – apple, fancy old cheddar cheese, cucumbers, and red peppers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  So if we also include the $2,500 RESP contribution and ~$75\/month of food ((75*12)=$900) we\u2019re looking at a total of $4,277 out of our pockets in her fourth year.\u00a0 Of course, the RESP is elective and we recognize our privilege of being able to contribute this $2,500 towards her education each year.<\/p>\n

  There you have it!\u00a0 Short and sweet as we really didn\u2019t spend that much\u00a0<\/p>\n

  It really is shocking to me how we have yet to spend over $2,000 in any given year so far (excluding RESP and food).\u00a0 And truly we are not sitting around doing nothing!<\/p>\n

  Here are some of our typical low\/no cost activities that we do:<\/p>\n

  \n
  • playgrounds\/parks<\/li>\n
  • ride bikes<\/li>\n
  • play in the backyard (sand box, swing, play house, teeter totter, scooter, water table)<\/li>\n
  • swim in the hot tub<\/li>\n
  • read books (lotsssss of books daily – free from the library)<\/li>\n
  • play with friends<\/li>\n
  • play with figurines in her pretend world (her fav)<\/li>\n
  • swimming (sports centre in the winters and creeks, lakes, outdoor pools in the summer)<\/li>\n
  • splash park<\/li>\n
  • walk through the dog park<\/li>\n
  • hiking<\/li>\n
  • skate park<\/li>\n
  • pump park<\/li>\n
  • go for a date to get a Timbit<\/li>\n
  • play a board game, cards, play doh, lego, crafts, etc<\/li>\n
  • sledding<\/li>\n
  • skating at an outdoor rink<\/li>\n
  • snowshoeing<\/li>\n
  • watch hockey games at a local rink<\/li>\n
  • zoo<\/li>\n
  • science centre<\/li>\n
  • Heritage park (historical village, kids rides, train rides, reenactments, etc)<\/li>\n
  • holiday parades, celebrations, light shows, fireworks<\/li>\n
  • weekly free classes: parented toddler preschool class, music & rhyme, lego day, myths & legends STEM class, mindfulness\/yoga\/art classes, story time\n
    \n
    • It’s a bit of a Catch-22 that those of us who are not working Monday-Friday can access many free activities going on during the week<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Stay tuned as we provide a similar update in the near future for Parker’s annual spend report for his first year. Any guesses on what e spent on his first year??<\/p>\n

      Those with parents, are you as crazy as us and keep track of all of your kid-related expenses?\u00a0 Would you say you spent more or less than $877 on toddler-related expenses (not including future education and food) during their fourth year?\u00a0 What was your largest toddler-related purchase(s)?\u00a0 How have your child-related costs changed compared to their first few years?<\/p>\n

      Those without kids yet, if you\u2019re reading this blog you likely are not part of the herd mentality and hopefully you too can stay well under the average of $8,000-$13,000\/year.\u00a0 Not sure if you saw, but the Wall Street Journal just upped the cost to raise a child from birth – 18… they are now tallying it up to $300,000<\/a>!\u00a0 That is NUTS!! There is no right or wrong way to parent.\u00a0 We are simply showing that the \u201cnorm\u201d $8,000-$13,000 (or more) annually in the first few years can be challenged. We completely recognize our privilege to not have costly childcare costs in the picture.<\/p>\n

      Any questions for us?\u00a0 Hope this helps!<\/p>\n

      And again, if you\u2019d like to check out the related posts on this topic, you can check them out here:<\/p>\n

      \n
      • Our Baby Item Tips For New Parents<\/a><\/li>\n
      • Here\u2019s How Much Baby\u2019s First Year Cost<\/a><\/li>\n
      • Here\u2019s How Much Baby\u2019s Second Year Cost<\/a><\/li>\n
      • Here’s How Much Our Child’s Third Year Cost<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Support This Blog<\/b><\/h2>\n

        If you liked this article and want more content like this, please support this blog by sharing it.\u00a0 Not only does it help spread the FIRE, but it lets me know what content you find beneficial.\u00a0 Writing is NOT my strong suit and it honestly takes me hours to write each post so the more encouragement the better!\u00a0 Engaging in the comments below keeps me motivated.\u00a0 You can also support this blog by subscribing to receive emails anytime a new post is published.\u00a0 Thank you FImily!<\/p>\n

        We believe in stacking up life hacks to keep your enjoyment levels to the max without depleting your bank account.\u00a0 Here are some ways to further educate yourself and save thousands of dollars over your lifetime by making some simple adjustments:<\/p>\n

        \n
        • Investing Newbies: Check out our\u00a0free Investing 101 Series.<\/a><\/li>\n
        • How much are you paying for your phone plan?\u00a0 Canadians,\u00a0learn more about Public Mobile, and see how we are paying $3\/mo for our cell phone plan<\/a>.<\/li>\n
        • How much are you paying for internet?\u00a0 Canadians,\u00a0learn more about the various Independent Service Providers out there to see who services your area so you can lower your monthly bills<\/a>.<\/li>\n
        • How much are you paying for home insurance?\u00a0 We were able to reduce our rates by 25% by switching over to Square One Insurance.\u00a0 If you live in BC, AB, SK, MB, and ON,\u00a0check out Square One for your home insurance, landlord insurance, and\/or tenant insurance<\/a>.\u00a0 Use this link to receive an extra $15 off your quote.\u00a0 (Note that you must use this link to start the process to get the $15 off even if you prefer to pay over the phone.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          This is our fourth post outlining details of kid-related items and costs we\u2019ve encountered with our oldest kiddo.\u00a0 If you missed the earlier posts + …<\/p>\n

          Here’s How Much Our Daughter’s 4th Year Cost Us<\/span> Read More \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n