Started watching Next. Think it's great and will recommend people watch it if they want to understand what the big deal is with AI safety/alignment. However, it's frustrating for UK viewers - Episodes 1-3 are available on Disney+, and Episodes 6-10 are available elsewhere, but where are episodes 4 & 5!? Will try YouTube TV with a VPN..

I thought Seaspiracy was great - I started watching it without realising what it was, and it started with the filmmaker wanting to make a documentary about the oceans, then getting concerned about plastic waste (e.g. straws and bottles), and then it just kept going as he went down the rabbit hole. Seemed like a very EA kind of progression :)

I realise that. But I wouldn't be surprised if the median household in the developed world had at least one spare room (this was one of the reasons why the "bedroom tax" was so unpopular in the UK).

Great, thanks. Do they accept UK charities? We are potentially interested at CEEALAR.

Great to see the write up of expenditure! 

Housing: this is kind of pretend, because we actually built two extra rooms onto our house, which had a high up-front cost but will be useful for years and will eventually make the house sell for more. I’m instead substituting the cost at which we currently rent our spare bedroom ($900/month times 2 bedrooms)

I think it's unusual for people to rent out their spare rooms, and it's good that you have done so and provided yourselves with more income/reduced your living costs. By that metric I imagine that many people (especially home owners) have higher housing costs than they think. Maybe EAs are more likely to think about this and maximise the efficiency of their housing. But at the limit, every loft, basement and garage not converted is counterfactual lost earnings. Or, indeed, you could say that real estate investment in general is profitable, and people should do more of it. But then so are other things. So any profits "left on the table" through suboptimally investing money are also potential "costs"... (and then here things get tricky, in determining what the optimal investments are. And we're pretty much back to the foundation of EA! Optimal allocation of resources).
 

[As I've said elsewhere in this thread, I don't think children are a special case of expensive. They are one of several things that can be expensive (see also: location, career choice, suboptimal investment, tastes, hobbies), and for most people, who aren't already maximising their financial efficiency (frugality; investments), it's a matter of prioritisation as to the relative expense of having them.]

why not do so without kids and get roommates to save costs instead? Or rent a smaller place in Manchester?

Indeed. I would recommend that for anyone trying to be frugal so they can save/donate more (especially if they can work remotely). My point is, however, that unless you are already living a maximally frugal lifestyle, it's possible to reduce your living costs in other areas such that having children needn't be financially expensive. Children aren't necessarily a special case of "expensive living costs". It's ultimately a matter of prioritisation.

Who is behind it? I can't see any names attached, and a charity would usually need names for due diligence before being able to accept donations of that size. I guess it's ok if they want public anonymity, but they will reveal names privately.

Yes, it's ultimately a matter of prioritisation. My point is that it doesn't necessarily have to be expensive, so cost needn't be the overriding factor in deciding whether to have children or not.

Child care and babysitting is ~1/4. This could be much reduced with a parent working from home (so no before or after school clubs/childminding needed), and/or living with extended family and friends on hand.

~1/3 of that cost is  education at £74k, which I think is mostly  unreasonable to include as it includes university (where the cost is mostly borne born by loans taken out by the student that are effectively a graduate tax; and arguably, given all the free material available online now, isn't strictly necessary for a lot of careers apart from it's signalling value) and school lunch, when they will eat regardless (although fair if they deducted this from the food budget, which seems quite reasonable).