True costs of maintaining children without the CSA

At moment ex wife claims through the CSA which, because of my pension contributions,is inedequate so I have agreed to pay half of their upbringing but, surprise surprise, we finding it impossible to come to an agreeable figure. My ex wife probably earns more than me and has no mortgage following the divorce. They stay with me every other weekend and probably half the school hols

I am wanting to include just essential costs such as food and clothing etc. since we both take them on holiday and treat them, seperately obviously!!I will be happy to contribute to extras such as school trips, private tuition, private health care etc. We have 2 boys with healthy appetites aged 8 and 9.

I thought a realistic cost would be £120 per month on food and £40 per month on clothing for each child.

Are there any websites with realistic guides or can anyone please give me a fair and realistic figure??

Using the CSA formula it would be 20% of your net income. Thats income after tax NI and pension Cont. If you recieve any tax credits this income should be added to your net income under other income.

Once you have worked out the 20% you will need to remove 1/7th off the amount for every 52 week period the child will be staying with you.

example my payment is £70.00 per week the children stay two night every fortnight ie 52 nights over a 12 month period 1/7 off would leave £60.00 per week.

Please get back to me if you dont understand. I can direct you to a site with a very good free calculator but not sure if that is against forum rules

Mike

Thanks for the reply Mike, but Im actually looking for the true costs my ex wife has for our children irrespective of my income. Using the csa formular, whilst being favourable to me, causes my ex a great deal of stress, and besides I personally cant see how her costs change according to my income

Igloo, I have 3 children aged 6, 9 and 10 and I think that £120 per child per month for food is a realistic amount. £40 per month on clothes is probably about right too, bearing in mind, some months the figure will be higher and some months lower. But there are also the hidden costs, such as payments to any clubs that they attend, petrol running them to school, school trips, presents for parties etc, so you may want to add a little extra on.