Putting a budget together for when we have kids. Guidence needed on costings for baby

Staciep88

Oh and I sent ya a PM - now all thats left to say is goodluck

Becles

It's one of those "how long is a bit of string" type questions! It depends on how much you want to spend! Eg:

Cost of Nappies per week/month = I usually buy Tesco Essentials nappies. At the moment, a packet lasts about 5 days. They cost £3.78. Brand names like Pampers and Huggies cost around £5.98 for the same sized packet.

However, Pampers and Huggies are often on special offer, so you'll need your maths brain on to work out which which pack works out best value for money!

Cost of baby clothes = again, how much do you want to spend? My daughter is 14 months and I've bought most of her clothing from supermarkets cheaply. Most things end up with food or nappy stains on or have the knees scuffed out from crawling, so it's daft paying a fortune. If you stick an odd pack of t-shirts or jogging bottoms into your weekly shop, it's less noticeable than having to go out and buy a whole wardrobe when they need a new size. Also keep an eye on special offers. They're selling the summer clothes off now, so I've bought shorts and t-shirts in age 2-3 for next year, and long sleeved t-shirts in 18-24 months for the winter.

Baby Food = again it varies depending on what you want to spend. My baby mainly has home made food - I just do a little extra of what we are having so it costs pennies to make. If you buy jars, you're looking around 50p for the 4 month jars to over £1 for a toddler meal.

Have a search on the forum for frugal baby tips. There's been a number of threads on how to bring up babies cheaply.

Marker_2

Before buying for your baby and while writing your list I would consider long term!

Cot/Bed
3 in one travel system (buggy, car seat, pushchair)
Bedding
Baby clothes - babygros, sleepsuits, any all in ones are a must!
Bouncy Chair (that was a Godsent)
Highchair - I would recommend using the ones that fit onto normal charis, take up less space and will be used for alot longer).
Bottles/Teats
Sterliser - I bought a steriliser but ended up using the tablets!
Furniture

You can find most of the above cheaply in Mothercare, Toys R Us, Argos, Woolworths, Wilkinsons etc. Some places even do a pay per month system.

Clothes - I would really recommend buying clothes in Places like Primark, Tesco, Asda etc. They get stained so quickly with the little ones that your going to be going through them like mad, I found bids useless tbh.

I would also say wipes, nappies and formula will come to around £15 a week. If you want named brands then look around, theres alwasy deals on - nothing wrong with other brands though. I stocked up on those and wish I didnt because I had to change products about 3 times to find the one that best suited my little one.

PS: Its not as scary or financially draining as you might think. Prioroties do change when you have kids and you find your money going to more worthy places, memories are alwasy better too

Titch89

isn't medicine free on prescription for babies? Or are people talking about calpol and similar stuff?

With clothes, they probably won't last long due to baby constantly growing, so it may not be worth buying expensive stuff.

daveyjp

if you are buying your milk you will also need all the sterilizing equipment (which can be quite expensive)

Microwave sterliser - cheap as chips.

onlyroz

Newborns are fairly cheap to run, and if it's your first you'll get about £77 a month in child benefit (and I think it's going up soon). When they're little you'll be able to get away with cheap supermarket-brand nappies - but I found that once they start to crawl then the cheap ones leaked, so I moved up to pampers. Also, reusable/washables prob work out cheaper, but there's an initial outlay to buy them, and the cost of washing them.

The biggest initial outlays are for the cot and the buggy/car-seat. I went for a cot-bed, suitable from birth to 5-years. I didn't see the point in buying a moses basket which would cost about £60, and would only last a few months. You could get the cot-bed second-hand, but I'd advise buying a new mattress, because a second-hand one wouldn't be supportive enough and might be full of bugs etc.

Think carefully about what sort of buggy you want. Does it have to fit into the boot of a car? Do you need a shopping compartment? Off-roader, or paved streets only? A wrong decision now could really cost you later - and you should note that not all buggies are suitable from birth.

As for the car seat, resign yourself to the fact that you're going to have to upgrade once the baby reaches about 9 months. A new-born will need a rear-facing seat, and is probably about £50-£100, although sometimes you can buy a "travel-system", which is a buggy + car-seat in one. Again, I'd advise against getting a second-hand car seat, for safety reasons.

As for bedding, I'd recommend the little sleeping bags, because once they start to roll and kick you'll find that blankets just don't stay on. I bought mine from ASDA for about £10 each.

Don't buy too many clothes, because you'll be bought loads. Also, if you're prepared to shop in Tesco/ASDA/Woolworths/Wilkos etc, you don't have to spend a lot. If people want to buy you things try to persuade them to not all buy the new-born size, because you'll then have to buy more at 3 months and then 6 months etc. Maybe some people could get the newborn size, whereas others can get a bigger size.

As for medicines, many things are not suitable from birth. E.g. I think you can only give calpol from 2 months plus. The basics would include botty cream (and maybe some sudocrem for nappy rash), some sort of nipple cream for mummy, some baby shampoo (but you won't need much - I'm only a third of the way through a bottle that I bought 3 years ago), lots of cotton wool (get it in a roll rather than in balls - much cheaper), a thermometer, and maybe some vicks. Most things you can buy as you need them.

I'm not getting into breast vs. bottle here (that debate has been done before) but the outgoings for a breastfeeding mum are things like maternity bras, breast pads/shields/cups and nipple cream. For bottle feeding, don't buy any fancy electric steriliser thingies - just get a bottle of sterilising fluid (99p a bottle), a large plastic bowl and a big kettle for boiling lots of water. The Avent bottles are the best, I think, and there is a range of teat sizes - but the single-hole ones are pretty useless, so start with the 2-3 hole teats.

But the best advice is to not buy everything straight away. Most things can be bought when you find that you need them, otherwise you'll end up with stuff you never use. Also, some things you won't need straight away, e.g. a high-chair, safety gates etc. And resist the urge to buy loads of toys, because most of them will be too advanced for a newborn and you'll get bought a lot by other people.

C_Ronaldo

OP could you not buy some stuff now or is that not possible

gemma86

Hi I've got 1 lo already and having my 2nd in 2 weeks. We managed to get everything we needed and wanted for about £1000. You could do it cheaper but I found some things I wasn't really willing to sacrifice on, I found comparing all the catologues then checking eBay and baby fairs the best way. We managed to get bits that we didn't think we would use much eg monitor for £2 from baby fair, then things I really wanted, eg mama and papas 8 in 1 travel system which comes with accessories comes to about £800 for £200 of eBay, although you can get same set cheaper on there it was a very popular pattern!I think after initial costs for the first year child benefit and tax credit really pay everything. After that is when it gets a lot more expensive............

Agutka

Titch89 wrote: »

isn't medicine free on prescription for babies? Or are people talking about calpol and similar stuff?

Or sudocrem or infacol or cradle cap shampoo or bonjela, there is lots and when you need it you buy it and the costs mount up (one rather ill baby here atm ). I'm sure you can get prescriptions for everything but you would end up with industrial sized portions. My doctor didn't offer us anything today

Stewboy1978

Baby wipes, you will need hundreds of thousands of Baby wipes.......!

My brother once he found out my wife was pregnant was, rather than buy us an expensive present when born started adding £5 - £10 worth of toiletries to my mums shopping ever week then would bring it round - He would buy wipes one week, nappy sacks the next, then sudacream etc....This way we had plenty supplies and the only thing we really had to buy for the 1st few months was nappies.

If you do do this - 1 or 2 Bottles of baby shampoo will last you a year, anybody want to buy the other 5 we have!