What can you spend child support money on?

If you receive Colorado child support from your children’s other parent, you likely have questions about what all you can spend that money on. Obviously you can spend it on your children’s basic needs including food, clothing and housing, but can it go for other things too?

Fortunately, FindLaw explains that you can spend your child support money on a whole host of other things that benefit your children.

Basic needs

Even in terms of your children’s basic needs, your child support money can go toward numerous things that you may not have considered. Remember, your children represent a significant portion of your household expenses. For instance, if you have three children, they account for 75% of your household expenses, so you can legitimately spend your child support money on such things as the following:

• Their percentage of your grocery bills
• Their percentage of your monthly rent or mortgage payment
• Their percentage of your home’s utility bills
• Their percentage of your monthly car payment
• Their percentage of the premiums you pay for auto insurance and renter’s or homeowner’s insurance
• Their percentage of the home and auto repair and maintenance bills you pay

Additional valid expenditures

You can likewise spend your child support money on anything else that benefits your children. For instance, you can spend it on the following:

• Your children’s school expenses, including if they attend private schools
• Their extracurricular activities
• Their reasonable entertainment expenses, including movies, amusement park admissions and souvenirs, eating out, etc.
• Their daycare, summer camp and vacation expenses, etc.

This is general educational information and not intended to provide legal advice.