Family Budgeting

We're happy to present this article from our partner site Yahoo! Shine:

Kids born during the economic recessions of the 1980s had a higher chance of substance abuse and arrest as teenagers, a new study has found, leading researchers to wonder if babies born in recent years could face a similar fate.

"The mechanisms involved may be different in intensity and severity, (but) based on the study it seems like there would be some effects," Dr. Seethalakshmi Ramanathan, a researcher at State University of New York Upstate Medical University and the lead author of the study told Reuters.

Related: Things You Need to Do While You're Unemployed

The study, which was published online this week in JAMA Psychiatry, used data from 8,984 people born between January 1, 1980, and December 31, 1984, who had participated in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, when they were 12 to 17 years old. There were two recessions in the 1980s, from 1980 to 1981 and then another in 1982.

Related: Are We Regulating Ourselves Back Into Recession?

The BLS' survey included questions about education, income, attitudes, expectations, thefts, arrests, drug use, alcohol use, gun use, and cigarette use, among other things. Ramanathan and her team found that certain destructive and delinquent behaviors were more common among kids who were born in areas affected by high unemployment rates. (A recession is defined as a general slowdown in economic activity with drops in Gross Domestic Product levels, incomes, business profits, and inflation while unemployment and bankruptcy rates rise; measuring the unemployment rate is one way to judge the severity of a recession in a given area.)

Find out if recession babies grow up to be troubled teens after the break.

Expectant mamas might want to call a moving van if they live in New Jersey — the Garden State is the most expensive state to have a baby today. While the average US family will pay $9,617 to deliver vaginally and $15,799 for C-section, Jersey moms pay almost double that: $18,372 for a vaginal birth and $26,743 for a Cesarean. They may want to jump on the turnpike and head south a few hours to Maryland, which is the least expensive place to give birth. There, it only costs $5,509 for vaginal deliveries and $6,812 for C-sections.

These hefty price tags don't take insurance into account, and almost 40 percent of LilSugar readers said that their births were completely covered by their insurance plans. Still, if you tack these costs onto the $222,360 it costs to raise a child from birth to age 17, mama may want to start investigating the possibility of growing a money tree in the backyard.

Were you surprised when you received your hospital bill?

Source: Flikr User nateOne

Children are many things — cheap is not one of them. While actual physical coupon clipping is suddenly cool again, thanks to a down economy and shows like Extreme Couponing, most busy moms don't have time to sit and clip for hours a day. With many of us doing our shopping online, combing the weeklies isn't going to do much good. We've rounded up a selection of great online deals this week — and with the money you save, maybe mama can do a lil something for herself to end the week!




Save up to 70 percent with giggleDEALS
The daily deal trend is going strong, and now that one of our favorite online baby boutiques, Giggle, just launched its own daily deals program, we're even more excited. Mom can save up to 70 percent on featured deals, and Giggle provides a preview of upcoming deals so mama can plan ahead. The first deal features tons of cute stuff from Barefoot Dreams and ends July 18.

Keep reading for more great deals.