Nursery costs ‘adding to personal debt’
Parents are getting into personal debt in order to create increasingly lavish nurseries for their children, spending around £1.8 billion a year, a new report claims.
Research by Halifax found that parents spend an average of £2,628 furnishing and decorating nurseries for their new babies, with goods purchased for children’s rooms including film memorabilia and signed football shirts.
Parents in Wales spend the most on decorating nurseries (£4,297), compared with just £574 for parents in Scotland, the figures show.
One in ten parents surveyed said that they had overspent on a nursery by more than £1,000, with many items put in children’s rooms that are unlikely to be appreciated by babies.
Vicky Emmott, Halifax senior manager of underwriting, said: “Parents are spending almost half the price of a new car on their children’s home nurseries.
“Many expectant parents are unaware how the costs of cribs, Moses baskets, baby monitors and toys soon mount up.”
New parents are advised to ensure that they have adequate cover for items purchased for new babies and to budget carefully for all the added expenses a child brings.
Those wishing to tackle their personal debt could stand to benefit from the advice of an expert.
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