Have You Heard How Much It Costs To Raise A Child?

If you recently had a baby, congratulations! Now go find a second job!

New data shows that a child born in 2013 will cost a middle-income American family an average of $245,340 from birth to age 18. That number doesn't include the cost of college, or expenses if a child lives at home after age 17. The factors that did go into the calculation-- food, housing, childcare and education-- rose 1.8 percent in cost over the previous year.

Families here in the Northeast are expected to spend more than those in the urban South and rural parts of the U.S.-- roughly $282,480.

When the USDA first started making these calculations in 1960, a middle-income family could expect to spend about $23,230 dollars on their child-- when adjusted for inflation that's $198,560.

[Yahoo]