Monthly cost per child: £30

The cost of staying up-to-date with the latest music amounts to around £150 per year on buying an iPod and £200 to download the actual songs. This figure does not account for buying CDs and attending gigs either!

Cost-cutting tips: Curbing a child's love for music and culture is never a good idea but there are cheaper ways to fund their passion than forking over your hard earned cash to Apple. Transfer any CDs to your computer and then to the iPod - why buy it twice?

There must be some classics in your music collection that you're ready to pass down, but if they insist on contemporary tunes start looking for bargains and keep an eye out for exclusive offers - it could be cheaper to download the whole album rather than its singles.