As you browse through adoption web sites, you should also be looking at parenting sites. If you’re thinking of adoption mostly because you don’t have an active or present partner, I suggest you check out single parenting resources. Here are three sites to get you started:

• About.com’s site for Single Parenting includes information on budgeting, expenses, childcare, legal issues, and scholarships



• Parents Without Partners is a national support group with local chapters



• Single Parent Central is just one of many smaller sites created by and for single parents. This one includes a bookstore, parenting tips, and ways to lower your costs.

You’ll notice that on all of these sites, budgeting is a recurrent theme. That's because money is a major pressure in single parenting. It was certainly a big worry for me. I can remember wanting to know how much to add to my budget for a baby. Because I had a corporate job, I didn’t qualify for any public assistance, but I still thought I might end up struggling, since my baby's father was not contributing. I would be the only one paying the bills.

So exactly how much will things like diapers, formula, and child care cost? There are various calculators online that can help you make an estimate, such as this one at Babycenter.com.

But keep in mind that those calculators are geared toward higher-income families. It’s always possible to be more frugal.

An article from MSN Money provides more context. It offers the following guideline: a low-income family (earning less than $41,700 a year) should expect to spend $134,370 to raise a child to the age of 18. That breaks down to about $7,000 to $10,000 a year. (For families earning slightly more, $41,700 to $70,200, the figure is $184,320, and continues to rise according t how much you earn.) Note that none of these totals includes saving for college tuition.

So how do the numbers break down? At one-third of the total cost, the single biggest expense is housing, which you may already be paying for anyway. The next biggest expense is food (15-20% of the cost). Then come things like transportation, clothing and activities.

While you shouldn't let a big 18-year price tag frighten you into not parenting, you do need to take into account the cost of raising a child. I hope these resources will be helpful to you as you work on your own budget.