$$$$......$$$$$....$$ ??!?!?!?!

Alright, since clothes and food are 2 things we knew that we were getting ourselves into with another child in general, we will leave those out of the equation. Let maybe add a little more to the budget for being girl clothes.

300 dollars a year extra

X 18 years

--------------------------

5,400 EXTRA dollars I will spend on another girls clothes than I would a boy.

Socializing expences/allowance: I could be off base here but when I look at Matt and Kaylee. Kaylee seems to be more of the social butterfly and is always out doing something. I feel like girls just socialize more. So lets say...an extra 20 every 2 weeks, that's 40 a month. Multiply by 12. That's 480 a year. Over 18 years: $8,640.

I hate to say this because I had everything in life given to me by my amazing parents who worked so hard so that I could have a great life, BUT I'm going to make my girls work for their vehicle...then match whatever they have by the time they want a car. But none of this counts because I would do the same for a boy.

What about the big one....a wedding!!! Working in the wedding industry has done 2 things to me:

1) Showed me what a lifetime of saving can get you for a wedding....front page of a magazine!

2) Made me realize that to have everything go together smoothly...it's STILL going to cost a pretty penny.

The average price of a wedding in the US is around $20,000. For here on the central coast it's actually around $32,000.

So with just these few things, a girl has put me into debt $46,040 more than a boy would!

Unforturnately you can't put a price on the screaming, yelling, hair pulling fights that Emily and her sister will get in to. You can't put a price on the amount of tears shed over stupid boys, the broken hearts and "best friend" drama. Or the amount of GREY HAIRS she will give her mom! (I should have factored in my own hair bill and the cost to get those bad boys covered up!

IF I were to look on the bright side...which is hard to do when you're crunching numbers and thinking of everything that could go wrong. BUT if I were to look on the bright side: I would see that even though they might...MIGHT hate eachother from the ages 13-18, once they both reach the age of 20, they will be the worlds best of friends. That is something that I did not ever get to experience that I am now glad that I can give to Emily.

I guess you can't put a price on a happy child. If I can give my children a happy, healthy, life and I can do a good job raising them, then no dollar sign can change that!