Tiphaine and Jordan, 3,500 euros and two children: “We would like to reduce somewhat impulsive purchases on the internet”

How much does it really cost to take care of one or more children each month? What is the parental budget? Do the costs incurred vary according to the age of the children? Every week, in our “When we love, we count” meeting, parents open their accounts and share with us how much one or more children cost them, monthly.

This week it’s Tiphaine and Jordan getting the exercise.

Tiphaine and Jordan’s income, with two children

• first name: Tiphaine and Jordan

• Age: 31 and 33 years old
• Number of children: two girls aged 4 and 7

• Parents’ occupations: Unemployed for 9 months / commercial in agriculture

• Net household budget in total: around 3500€ per month but variable depending on the month with commercial work by Jordan

• Place of life: Domfront in Poiraie (Orne 61)

Tiphaine and Jordan do two girls aged 4 and 7, have been in a relationship for 12 years and have been married for 8 years. All four live under the same roof in a 160m² house in the countryside, including a 4500m² plot, in the Orne. Tiphaine and Jordan own their own house, which they will have paid for in 14 years.

Together, Tiphaine and Jordan win €3430 per monthand touch €139 Family allowances. They also point out that Jordan touches €450 four times a yearas a disability pension following a hand injury. This sum is not counted in the submitted monthly budget.

Each month, the couple pay off a loan of 984 euros, including the payment of the house and the purchase of a car. They also consume €12 of water while they are connected to a well, €118 for electricity and €133 for fuel oil.

Childcare expenses

After explaining their total income, Tiphaine and Jordan share the amounts they’ve spent on childcare equipment for their two children.

In total, the couple spent approx €400 childcare equipment at the birth of the eldest daughter. The purchased items were reused for their second daughter. Furthermore, the couple were offered many items, such as a high chair, a playpen, a cocoonababy – an ergonomic pillow for babies that costs around 170 euros, many clothes and decorations.

Hygiene sideparents spend approx €25 a month for saline, cleansing oil and creams at the pharmacy, their daughters both suffering from eczema.

As for health, Tiphaine and Jordan spend about 40 euros a month on vitamins for their daughters and homeopathic products against head lice. Plus, they have mutual insurance that costs them €49 every month.

Food expenses for the couple and their children

When it comes to buying food for their kids, Tiphaine and Jordan explain the expense €120 canteen per month. But when it comes to grocery shopping, daughter expenses aren’t specific.

I really don’t know how much I spend on my kids’ food budget. I know that I buy cakes, compotes, fruit juices and necessary products for breakfast and snacks specifically for them. We have to be around €40 months, I think.

For rides in general, for four people including two children, the couple plans to spend €550. The family does their shopping in an Intermarché, and makes a compromise between quality and price. Tiphaine specifies the purchase of meat most often directly from the producer.

Parents manage not to be too coaxed by their children in supermarkets, since they go shopping without them. Tiphaine clarifies:

I very rarely go grocery shopping with my kids unless I have no choice but to avoid giving in to their demands.

Tiphaine and Jordan add to this initial budget the sum of €180 per month, for “extra” foodlike pizza nights twice a month, a cupcake bought from the bakery every week, and extra meat on Sundays, bought from the butcher.

Expenses for clothing for the couple and for the children

As for their daughters’ clothing budget, Tiphaine and Jordan explain that they often buy new clothes, but also secondhand:

For our first daughter, we bought 70% new and the rest used. We’ve bought a lot more new before, but it’s decreased with the price increase and also a bit for the ecology.

As for our second daughter, she recovers about 20% of her sister’s clothes, because they don’t have the same morphology. We buy about 40% new and the rest is given very generously by our neighbor, because our children follow each other in size.

Smoothed over the year, the children’s clothing budget is estimated at €80 per month.

The budget for children’s activities and childcare

Tiphaine is not currently working and explains that she can look after the children after school. Previously, a nanny was in charge of picking up the two girls from school and taking care of them for snacks, homework and treatment, until the parents returned at 7.30pm.

But there is currently no childcare budget, not even an occasional babysitter. Only the children’s recreation center costs them approx €42 per month. However, a budget of €10 to this amount is also added per month for the school bus.

When it comes to activities for children, the campaign is full of resources:

There are no regular paid leisure activities, we live in the countryside, surrounded by forests, paths, rivers, animals (goats, horses, ponies, etc.) and do a lot of DIY.

Children spend a lot of time playing with the neighbors’ children, or playing outdoors, drawing pictures, inventing stories.

From time to time we go to the cinema or to the swimming pool.

Tiphaine points out that one of her daughters is taking drawing lessons, a €9 per month.

If there was one budget item the couple would like to cut, it would be online shopping:

We would like to reduce somewhat impulsive purchases on the internet. Everything is much easier behind a screen! Our latest craze is to buy a quad a €900 for our granddaughter, following an unexpected cash inflow.

Pocket money and transmission of the value of money

The couple talks about their family’s relationship with money, what they’ve been passed down to them, and their current relationship with their children. For Jordan, in his family, talking about money is taboo and secret. For Tiphaine, it’s not the same:

For my part, we talk quite freely about money, about the fact that you have to work to earn it, that you have to take advantage of it, but that you also have to put it aside.

For the couple, the topic of money is not a taboo, but they measure what they say in front of their daughters:

The topic of money is dealt with on the basis of the topic of the amount of money. Whether it’s the shopping cart, the diesel, the everyday stuff, we talk about it in front of them. If we talk about topics that are just projects, we expect them not to be there.

For Tiphaine and Jordan, teaching their daughters about money is important, but they do it in stages:

We begin to explain the value of money to our older daughter so that she realizes that some things are very expensive and above all that she is very lucky to have what she has, because other children don’t even have three meals a day.

I explain to her that I’m giving away the clothes they no longer wear, because children aren’t lucky enough to have clothes that fit them well, without stains, etc.

For the little girl we teach her to share her cake, her packet of sweets or something else, explaining that some friends/girlfriends don’t have sweets at home.

The couple does not give pocket money to their children because they are too young.

We occasionally give a few coins to put in their piggy bank and my niece learns the value of money.

The couple opened a bank account for each of their daughters, into which they paid €10 per month and per child, to help them pay for their driving license later on. In addition, they also add what family or friends can give for Christmas or birthdays, with the aim of building a small personal nest egg for them.

At the end of the month they are 301.5 € to the couple, once the remaining personal bills have been paid, such as petrol a €130their personal savings of €100their savings insurance €200home and auto insurance €106the various subscriptions such as Netflix, internet and Coyote for a total of €91.50 and property tax €93.

When the total amount spent only for their children it adds, Tiphaine and Jordan spend 361 euros monthly, just for them. This calculation does not take into account sums that concern the whole family, such as groceries.

Thanks to them for answering our questions!

Photo credit image of one: Getty Images