<p>Not everything is measured by money. As another example, choosing your spouse based on the potential spouse income may not work at all. Having a child is one of the life’s greatest experiences. If you look at life as a collection of experiences, then this one is at the top. Those who do not have it, miss out the best. As a comment, overall, the “cheapest” life is probably the one of somebody who does not do anything at all, just lay in bed and live on government assistance. It may be attractive to some though. So, I would say, ask yourself what do you want from life and go from there, forget about cost, it will mean nothing. As a compromise, you can minimise the cost of raising the child, which again, would involve probably being on govenrment support and not pay anything, but let others do it, then your cost would be zero. Maybe there is another solution for a"free" kid, nothing is coming to my head though.</p>