
What Grubhub’s “Free Lunch” Cost Us
May 22, 2022
Solving Some Inflation Mysteries
May 24, 2022The Tooth Fairy’s budget is way up.
Where are we going? To the cost of raising a child.
The Cost of Raising a Child
Tooth Fairy
If the Tooth Fairy visited your house during 2022, she probably left close to $5.36. Up by 66 cents more than during 2021, $5.36 was an all time high.
Also though, it depended on where you live. While the tooth fairy asked for $1.46 less in the West (why???), every other region’s average price increased. In my home state, NJ, she left close to $7.00!
- The Northeast: $7.36
- The South: $5.77
- The Midwest: $4.27
- The West: $4.08
Babysitters
Somewhat comparably, babysitters have discovered they can ask for more. According to one childcare marketplace, the typical babysitter that charged an average of $14.72 an hour in 2020, now asks for a whopping $18.05. So yes, the tight labor market is teaching teens a lot about demand and supply. They realize that a shortage of babysitters means $30 an hour is even a possibility.
Some totals
Leaping from the tooth fairy and baby sitters to the entire cost of raising a child, we can use the latest figures from the USDA. From 2015, still they give us an idea of the dollars. Then, the total cost of raising a child born in that year was $233,610–the same as $288,989 now.
For a child that would be seven this year, this USDA graph gives you an idea of the spending:
Our Bottom Line: Economies of Scale
We can conclude by saying that sometimes more is less. Or, as economists, we could say that we achieve economies of scale when our kids share a bedroom, pass down clothing and consume cases from Costco.
A married-couple spends close to 27% more on a single child than a family with two children. Meanwhile, compared to that family with two children, having three or more lets you save as much as 24% on each child.
I guess if you spend $30 on a babysitter, it’s better having more kids.
My sources and more: While my tooth fairy totals from Delta Dental were up-to-date, I suggest looking at the USDA child cost materials even though they are not. Then, for what really says the cost of a child, do look here at the stress kids create. Please note also that our featured image is from the WSJ babysitting article.and parts of “Our Bottom Line” were in a previous econlife post.