Excellent points, that is what I was thinking. I'm amazed by the parents who spend money on Polo and Tommy Hilfiger clothing for their kids. Kids don't care about style yet? Or do they? I know I really didn't care about style until 7th or 8th grade and I had to do chores to earn my own money to buy the pricey "everyone's got it" brand of clothing.
"First off why is the Department of AGRICUTLURE doing a study on the cost of raising a child."
Gotta' find something to do.
As there's no need to make ground-breaking advances in automating agriculture
when we have a cheap de facto slave-labor force.
I always get a kick out these articles. We shopped yard sales, consignment shops and were blessed by the fact my mom sews. That saved us a bundle on clothing. We also made our own baby food- blenders are wonderful things.
We used cloth diapers at home. We did have to provide throwaway diapers for the church based daycare they went to but we brought store brand and saved money that way too. We did not use wipes instead I filled a spray bottle with a mix of baby shampoo and water squirted their squirmy little bottoms and wiped with soft cotton cloth.
I also was not shy about asking their pediatrician for cans of formula once I added a bottle to supplement breastfeeding. The doctors get these free from the formula company reps. You can also ask for samples of any prescription meds the doctor puts your child on.
I never really added up the cost. I figure that should be calculated in gray hairs and sleepless nights rather than dollars anyway. But then again I never calculated the benefits either. And as long as the benefits outweight the costs I have no complaints.