Have you ever thought about how much it costs to raise a kid these days? If not, let me tell you - raising kids is more expensive than I thought!

As the father of 3 kids, I knew that raising kids wasn't cheap. But I never thought you could put a dollar amount on the cost of raising kids. but you can. And somebody has.

I just read an article on this and now I know why I feel like I'm broke - it will cost me nearly $750,000 to raise my 3 kids! Wow. Not sure if it's more reassuring to know why money is so tight, or depressing. Not that I have any regrets. My kids are great. But that's a lot of money! And it doesn't even include costs for me and my wife.

OK, now that I got that off my chest ... here are a few ways to help make life easier if you are raising kids:

1) Shop around - every 2 years or so I get quotes on car and life insurance, to try to save as much as possible (I get health insurance from work, so even though it's very expensive, I can't change that). Call around for all of your regular expenses, and see you can lower any of them. You may not save a bundle. But every little bit helps.

2) Cut out some "extras" you don't need - get cheaper cable tv and cell phone plans without all the little fees, don't eat out so often, buy generic brands for food and clothing, etc. Look through your bank statements and credit card bills. You'll come up with a few ideas.

3) Buy used - you can find a lot of good deals on Cragislist.com and eBay.com (and you can also make some money - in fact, I just made nearly $200 selling stuff we found in our basement that we no longer used). No sense over-paying for things that you can buy at bargain prices!

My oldest is now 16 years old, so before long we'll need another car, with insurance. And college is just around the corner. So I'm heading right smack into the most expensive period of raising kids. I'll definitely be following tip 1 on this one. But if you have any other tips for saving money on car insurance for a new driver, or cutting costs on college tuition, or you have any other helpful money saving tips involving children and parenting, let us know by commenting below.