How much does a baby cost?

niknaknoo1982

I second what a lot of the other posters have said. I'm currently expecting my 4th (un-expected!) child, and only slightly concerned about how we will manage financially. My other half works full time - Minimum wage, and i've NO plans of returning to work at all, as i want to be around for my kids being so young and only have 1 child of school age. We don't have a car so i guess that saves a lot of money, and i do tend to bulk buy from supermarkets when food shopping to save costs. I tried washable nappies but failed Currently have a 1 year old and 2 year old both still in nappies. I buy a bumper pack of pampers from asda containing 80 nappies for 10 pounds and that does both babies for the week! Once i've had the new baby i'll be buying bumper packs in a smaller size.

Prams- If you are looking at getting a new travel system you can pick these up from about 150 in Mothercare (Not the fanciest prams but the do their job and are good and sturdy!) And also Argos sell cheap travel systems but i'm not too clued on that anymore as it's been nearly 3 years since i shopped for a single- now looking at getting hold of a cheap triple!! LOL

Clothes - Brand names at bargain prices on ebay, Otherwise primark and asda george for my kids. Young kids outgrow their clothes so fast i don't see the sense in spending a fortune on clothes!

Cots you can pick up for under 50 quid in Ikea, or maybe if not fussed about second hand ebay or even freecycle. I just gave a cot away before finding out i was having another!

Bouncy chairs - 15 quid new for a basic one, or charity shops often have them in for a few pounds.

Toys for baby needent cost an arm and a leg. My kids have loads of toys we have been given and barely bother with. My toddler son loves to play with a wooden spoon and pan more than he likes to play with the 35 pound teletubbie set he got for xmas!

Changing units - Not needed, I use a changing mat on the floor or sometimes change on my knee. Total money saving would be to use a towel on the floor!

Bottles - Boots sell good quality bottles for under 10 pounds. I used avent for my 2 year old but to be honest i find boots bottles better quality and far cheaper to replace the teats etc.

Sterilisers are cheap on ebay but not totally essential as my mum said she boiled my bottles in a pan!

Can't think of anything else of the mo and must get my eldest off to school x

HTH x
Niknak

code-a-holic

daveyjp wrote: »

I reckon our almost 3 year old daughter costs about £1,000 a month.

Capital costs such as prams etc are minimal and as others have said the amount of kit you need can be very small - most of what you buy will not be used after 2-2.5 years.

Childcare is the highest cost either in the cost of paying someone to do it for you or the cost of a parent not working.

I would be very interested to hear how you got that figure! I have 3, 4 and 6 yr old and i couldnt say they cost me that combined. Not even £500. Gosh maybe not even a £200 a month combined!
Ok so maybe i could class the rent as part of the cost of beinging up a child - but id have a home even without a child! Our food is about £350 a month for all of us. Im a SAHM so no childcare costs other than the £2 a week for the one in playschool! Im expecting our fourth baby in a few weeks. And i have spent just under £200 in equipment. £100 was a pushchair(2nd hand on ebay-im a pushcahir addict and this is a bargain for what i got!). £50 was re-useable nappies for birth - potty. the rest has been little bits. I take great pleasure in bargain hunting and freecycle! Being in a small community and i help run the playgroup and mother and baby i have been swamped by offers of baby gear, i have everything i need equipment and clothing wise to keep us going for years!

shoppaholic_returns

Do most of you think then, that if you are already at home without a child it wouldnt be that expensive? I am at home now,have always worked, but now am fortunate enough not to have to, as husband earns a good wage,so would you say most of the expense is down to child care for working mothers?

code-a-holic

shoppaholic_returns wrote: »

Do most of you think then, that if you are already at home without a child it wouldnt be that expensive? I am at home now,have always worked, but now am fortunate enough not to have to, as husband earns a good wage,so would you say most of the expense is down to child care for working mothers?

Definatly!
Out of the mums im close to, its the working mums that tend to spend a fortune on kids equipment and food as well as the childcare costs.
The SAHM are bargain hunters who pass things on to other mums to be before getting them back for their own next baby and are doing packed lunches and shopping around to make the most of the household income - im sure down to having more time than the working mums.
When i was a working mum of one our expenditure was a lot more than now when we are a one income family with 3 children.

I have a friend who has been on maternity leave for a year having her second child. She is going back to her police job next week, but is only going to better off £20 a week than she is now due to childcare costs and increased travel costs. If she stayed at home and had another baby she would actually be better off money wise..... which is why her hubby is getting lots of 'attention' at the moment! lol

Marcheline

In response to shopaholic: after the big main items (like cot, pram etc) are bought, I think you will hardly notice the cost of a child for the first 3 years if you do not have to factor in childcare costs. After that age it will get more expensive as there are outings to be done at school and peer pressure comes into play, but prior to a child going to school I have to say they're not expensive at all in my experience (I have a 2 year old daughter) Also there are things you can do to spread the cost of other essentials like nappies and wipes: buy packs of varying sizes during your pregnancy so that you stock up before the baby is born (don't buy too many newborn sizes though as they're not in those ones for long generally) If you are not working at the mo and are happy in your marriage, what are you waiting for, haha!

shellsuit

The poster who has said it costs £1000 a month ~ maybe they are including childcare in that figure?

That's the only thing I can think of which would make it so expensive.

ALIBOBSY

shoppaholic_returns wrote: »

Do most of you think then, that if you are already at home without a child it wouldnt be that expensive? I am at home now,have always worked, but now am fortunate enough not to have to, as husband earns a good wage,so would you say most of the expense is down to child care for working mothers?

I also definately agree with this, if OH's wage covers all the bills and leaves you with what our mums used to call the housekeeping money (for food etc) you will have no problems. I am expecting baby 4 in October (bit of a shock as youngest is only 1), but our costs will be very little. We have already got a moses basket, cot pram,car seat, clothes etc so will need very little.

After 3 babies I would say the following, try really hard to breastfeed it is free and about a billion times easier and less hassle than bottle feeding (especially for those early hours feeds)as well as being so much better for the baby in every way. The first 2-3 weeks are the hardest till your nipples harden up but it then gets easier. Buy a tube of that lanolin based nipple cream (in a purple tube), it looks expensive but the £9 tube lasts for ages still got mine from when last baby was born and I am still feeding her now.

The only sterilising I did was for the first baby. A neighbour of my mums had 2 sons one was a doctor one a microbiologist and they both insist you do not need to sterilise anything, babies should be exposed to plenty of bugs to prime their immune systems, wash stuff in hot soapy water and if really desired rinse in boiling water at the end. They both have kids and never sterillised anything even bottles. This is however a personel choice, with your first there is a worry about doing anything not "by the book". By your third you wing it and realise you need to trust yourself lol.
Remember YOU know best not the books or the drs or the mw or hv. Mums rule :T.

Baby food is the biggest rip off and con going. My first had the odd jar, but the others had none at all. First tastes are easy to make from fruit and veggies boiled and mashed up /strained as appropriate followed by the same food as ev1 else mushed up. My kids are the least fussy eaters I know, people are amazed by the stuff they eat. DD1 loves the fish counter and used to ask for a fishy for tea from a very young age, seeing the food in its "raw" form also means they know where the food comes from and how to cook it and seem to be more likely to eat it.

Cheap clothes are fine and I found I got loads of second hand clothes offered to me from other parents, many were like new. My kids have looked great in other peoples second hand next et al clothes rofl. Mine you both sets of grandparents have always bought loads of bits and bobs clothes wise and between them paid for the cot and pram plus extras as each one came along.
I have tried many types of nappies, huggies and pampers are good and when my DS was born 10 years ago were much better than any of the others. But now the supermarkets are almost as good and certainly much better value. I currently used Aldi nappies £5 for a big pack (50 nappies for DD2's size more I think in smaller sizes) Aldi also do packs of baby wipes at 99p (occasionally have an offer at 89 or even 69) also cheapest (for that level of quality as opposed to really cheap and useless ones lol). Lidl charge about the same for theirs and they are simular, but I go to aldi more often. Boots and the other supermarkets do simular products but I found them either slightly more expensive or cheaper and not as good quality.

For nappy rash, rubs et al I use conatrane(spelling?) which is an anteseptic cream the whole family use. But airing and bathing carefully means nappy rash is rare (especially when breastfeeding which produces milder poo than bottle).

We worked out after baby 3 that by the time we knocked off travel costs and extras when working and took into account the savings we make by me cooking most meals from scratch and having time to shop around it just isn't worth me working at the moment, but the tax credits and the child benefit do help as well.

ali x

daveyjp

astonsmummy wrote: »

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: blimey, what does that figure consist of

The clue is in the last line:

"Childcare is the highest cost either in the cost of paying someone to do it for you or the cost of a parent not working."

Nursery fees are £600 a month for four days full time a week, wages lost by my wife staying at home on Fridays about £300 a month . £100 for everything else.

jonny2510

Well thanks for the input everyone.

I'm a male, so it certainly won't be me doing the breastfeeding!

This thread certainly makes me feel a lot better. I guess (from the people who say if you wait until you can afford it - you'll never have them) it's like buying a house, in that when you look at costs (from being used to living with parents), you think I'll never be able to live off that, whereas once you start it seems to fall into place.

I think to summarise then, there are the initial costs (anything up to £1500 pounds for initial equipment, less if sensible, much less if buying second hand).

Typical weekly costs - £20 a week for nappies and food (if not breastfeeding / using re-usable nappies). This can be covered by the £20 a week tax credits - so essentially no additional outlay. Though I'd prefer to put this money asside for the baby (I suppose we'll see)

Clothes - These will be from Primark, Mr T, Asda etc, so negligible (as well as all the gifts off everyone)

In addition I assume we'll save money in not going out over the weekends etc too, making things more affordable.

Essentially it looks as if the costs would be fine (unless we need childcare in which case they'd rocket! - ...er Mum?)

I'm quite interested in letting DW stay at home (if budget will permit), as is she. Due to current circumstances (and despite DW begging for it to be sooner), it will be a short while yet before we start trying.

As for after three years costs going up, I'll have three years to get preparred for these, so not so much of a worry at the moment.

Thanks so much for all the input everyone. If anyone cares to comment further, or comment on anything I've said, your input would be appreciated
(Another great thing is the support this site will offer :T)

Js_Other_Half

elainew wrote: »

Our dd cost £25,000 in IVF treatment before she was even born. Now everything else is a breeze

:T

As for OP, I've obviously missed the bit about costs increasing after aged 3? My nursery charges the same for a newborn as they do for a 4 year old, so no change there. However, the term after they are 3 the government pays towards 12.5 or 15 hours per week at nursery - it depends on where you live.