Realistically, how much do you spend per month on a new baby?

Dinah93

From what I've read eligibility to child tax credits is due to be significantly cut in the next tax year - I think it's down to a household income of around £24,000 when it's around £45,000 now.

Most of my friends also go to a lot of mother and toddler/baby interest type groups. Some of these are free some have costs (I read in a magazine this week that the average baby music glass is £150 for 10 sessions!).

We're hoping that we'll actually find it a less expensive time than life pre-baby, as we won't be going for meals out, overbuying on food by popping to the supermarket several times a week, and my commute costs are huge so saving those will be great.

Before trying I made a spreadsheet of what I could think of as essential start up costs, all the items were off the mothercare website, and it came to around £2200. Obviously by shopping around or even better buying second hand this could be very significantly reduced.

SusanC_2

We spent a total of around £1500 for the first year which included absolutely everything from maternity clothes and antenatal appointment parking costs to birth certificates and extra electricity costs. We spent around £500 before our daughter was born and the rest was afterwards. Although I did try to be reasonably frugal, it would be fairly easy to do it a lot cheaper if you wanted to (especially with the initial start up costs - I was very ill in pregnancy so had to do it all online or send my husband shopping) - I reckon it would be fairly easy to choose to keep the first year expenses well within the amount of money you get as child benefit.

Weird_Nev

The Too Long, didn't read summary of this post by a father of a first child coming up to his 1 month birthday:
Start up costs: about £500
First month emergency expenditure: Perhaps £300
Running costs: Who knows? I'd expect £200 ish a month for our child. Your milage most certainly vary!

I'm only going to list actual expenditure as that's all we really have a handle on. We had our baby 3 weeks ago and I'm typing this with him on my stomach whilst wife grabs some sleep.

Start up costs:
Pram/Car seat travel system: £160 new from Mothercare with voucher and half price sale
Clothes: £50 on 2 bundles from Ebay
Nappies: £40 on a start up kit online for "little lambs" re useable ones.
Clothes for mum: £100 on maternity clothes.
Cot: £60 from ikea
Bedding: Probably about £50
Nursing Chair for comfy breast feeding: £50 on ebay

Freebies/lends: Changing unit (incredibly useful), baby bath, moses basket, loads more baby clothes, baby monitor, steriliser, baby sling carrier...

I'd estimate that before the birth of our baby we'd spent around £500 in preparation - Not including the £400 cost of NCT classes.

HOWEVER:
Baby was born 2 weeks early and weiging just 4lb13oz, completely unexpectedly (i.e. scans had predicted normal growth)
None of the clothes fitted.
I had to go into Boots and Mothercare whilst wife was in hospital for a load of extra stuff we weren't anticipating needing, getting them to dig out the "tiny baby" sized clothing from their store rooms. Also got a room thermometer as temp was critical for little one, lavender oil and tea tree oil, painkillers, antiseptics, vaseline, sudocreme, Lansinoh nipple creme... I spent £150 in about 15 minutes between the two shops. We also had to buy a different sling, because he's too small to fit in the one we got given, so that is another £50

A normal shop, about 3 times a week is now: 4 packs of cotton wool pads, 2 packs of disposable nappies (he's not big enough for the reuseables yet), a pack of breast pads for my wife. An easy £20-£30 every 3 days, even buying cheapest on offer boots own nappies etc.

We're very fortunate that little one can breast feed at the moment as he has a cleft lip and this could have caused problems feeding. My wife is starting to find it very painful though, and we may have to make a move to formula which of course costs more.

We're running the central heating 24/7 to keep the house temp constant, for everyones comfort as we're up all hours now, dishwasher is going every day, washing machine and tumble dried 1-2 loads a day minimum. On a bad day we'll ge tthrough 10-12 nappies. It's just insane the rate at which babies CONSUME stuff.

What am i getting at?
You need to be prepared to spend out for UNEXPECTED expenses. Who knows? You could need a billion and one things straight away. We did very well in getting as much basic stuff as possible cheap, even new stuff can be had at bargain prices. I'd say keep a £500 contingency for after the birth of the baby. You also need to buy ready made meals because you simply won't have time or energy to cook. I've been off for 3 weeks as I saved leave up, and even between us the house is a tip, we're both 100% knackered, we're getting no sleep and so you just want easy food and an easy life.

The hidden costs
What I haven't even thought/written about is the hidden costs. Our kitchen was horrible, as soon as we knew baby was on the way this became a priority, so we've rennovated it at a cost of about £6,000. We replaced our boiler when we found out too - £2,600. I bought a car - just a cheap old BMW estate, to fit us all in but this was £700 plus running costs. We're also about to buy a new bed, our first in 10 years, because our aincient one jsut isn't comfortable any more and quality sleep has become a vital commodity. My wife is now off work and onto statutory pay, halving our household income... The total financial cost to us will be immeasurable. But there are some things you can't put a budget on, and having my baby sleep on me as I type this is one of them. If you stop and look at the cold hard finances, you'd never have a child. Jsut do it. Right now is my darkest hour, I reckon: There's no food in the house, my wife is dead asleep after a big row because I'm ill and haven't tidied, put the washing out or walked the dog, but even now it all seems worth it. We must be mad.

maryjane01

I am sorry, I have to disagree that breastfeeding costs nothing. I exclusively breastfed, and maybe some women spend nothing, but these are some of the costs I incurred:

I ate loads more food, so there was the extra expense of extra food for me (probably easily the £8 somebody said a container of formula cost)

Breast pads I remember were expensive, I had to use a number of pairs every day, can't remember exactly how much though. I had excessive leaking, I did initially use washable breast pads, but for excessive leaking they did not cut it (also 3 reusable breast pads on each side it looked like I hd flying saucers in there and they still didn't catch everything). Granted, some lucky women have no leaking, therefor no expense. (Also, be careful with washables, make sure you wash them in the small net bag or they could end up blocking your washing machine, this happened a few times when the pads got caught up in my clothes, and I didn't notice when I threw them in the wash).

New clothing that I felt comfortable wearing while breastfeeding (Although, after I spent money on breastfeeding tops, I spent a lot less buying normal tops for more than 12 months).

Other things you might buy in the early days are nipple cream or shields, cooling pads if you get mastitis, breast pumps if you want to express that way, a comfy cushion if you do not have something suitable at home already.

Having said that, still cheaper than bottle feeding, but something like what you feed a baby should not be based solely on cost. I just don't think it is realistic to say breastfeeding is 100% free.

Fizzpop

Inital outlay can be as much or as little as you want it to be if you are willing to go secondhand then you can get things at a fraction of the new costs,

Ive done both breastfeeding and formular fed my children granted it was cheaper to bf than ff but like someone else has said what you dont spend on formular my may spend in extra food etc x

Again cloth nappies are cheaper than disposables.

When weaning make your own its cheaper in the long run as everything you have you just need to squish up in a bowl for baby, and much better than jars and packet food imo x

Clothes if you buy secondhand then make your money back selling on again x

confusedmummy

I voted less than £100. Obviously apart from things like a cot/moses basket and pram or pushchair which are one off expenses if you decide to buy new (or which you can find second hand very cheaply on places like Gumtree, Ebay or Freecycle), then the only other things you will need for the first few months at least are nappies, formula (if not breastfeeding) and clothes.

Nappies I bought disposables in Boots/Tesco/Sainsburys own brand or offers of the named brands (Pampers, Huggies etc). If you search around you can always find good offers (e.g. I recently bought a box of 124 Huggies nappies for £11 in Asda delivered) or there are normally BOGOF or 3 for 2 offers on nappies in one of the supermarkets.

You can also buy reusable nappies and most councils offer an incentive scheme where they will give you a voucher towards buying cloth nappies. Or you can buy them new or secondhand on ebay or clothnappytree.

Clothing - you can buy bundles of sleepsuits secondhand from ebay for pennies or ask on Gumtree or Freecycle and you can normally get secondhand for free.

Formula is expensive (around £8 per container) and they tend to last about a week.

If you are really thrifty and careful it is very easy to spend next to nothing on a new baby if you want to.

You will get child benefit of £80 per month for your first child and this should easily cover all these things if you are thrifty enough.

Gillyx

Weird_Nev wrote: »

A normal shop, about 3 times a week is now: 4 packs of cotton wool pads, 2 packs of disposable nappies (he's not big enough for the reuseables yet), a pack of breast pads for my wife. An easy £20-£30 every 3 days, even buying cheapest on offer boots own nappies etc.

£20-£30 every 3 days? :eek: what are you buying? Mothercare have 27 size 1 pampers at the moment for £3 or 54 for £6.99. So even on 12 nappies a day, the 54 pack should last 4.5 days, which is about £1.55 a day. Even with nappy creams, breast pads etc (look out for offers, I managed to get Tesco own branded for 50p for a 40 pack box and they are really fab) I can't understand how it is coming to £20-£30 every 3 days.

R.e the ready meals, I'd advise the O.P to do as much batch cooking as possible, I've started already, it means you have a tasty healthy meal (which breast feeding mothers need) at the press of a button.

Weird_Nev

Gillyx wrote: »

£20-£30 every 3 days? :eek: what are you buying? Mothercare have 27 size 1 pampers at the moment for £3 or 54 for £6.99. So even on 12 nappies a day, the 54 pack should last 4.5 days, which is about £1.55 a day. Even with nappy creams, breast pads etc (look out for offers, I managed to get Tesco own branded for 50p for a 40 pack box and they are really fab) I can't understand how it is coming to £20-£30 every 3 days.

R.e the ready meals, I'd advise the O.P to do as much batch cooking as possible, I've started already, it means you have a tasty healthy meal (which breast feeding mothers need) at the press of a button.

:rotfl:
I'm reporting my experiences. We go to boots. We need: Breast pads. Cotton wool. Nappies. We make a list and everything. We come out having spent £20-£30. Haven't been in 4 days actually, but will need to go tomorrow. Baby had a day of diarreah and did 20 nappies in a day. I expect thos costs to drop. I class them as "month one emergency expenditure". Hopefully by christmas he'll be into the re-useable nappies we have.
We're week 3. We're just surviving. Just.

I'm loving all the "we did it for free" in this thread. No, no you did not. I'd love to see all the bank statments from all the super mums and dads out there who did it for free.

Batch cooking?! Show me the time. I've been cooking good meals as and when possible, but our weekly shop has gone from £40ish to £75 ish as we're both at home, I'm trying to feed wife up and eat better food as it's important....

My post says simply:
Babies are NOT free, you SHOULD prepare finacially as you'll want to make sure your child doesn't want for anything. We've not bought anything excessive, we've hunted hard for bargains (check my post - I think we've done well) but right now, trekking around 4-5 shops looking for bargain nappies? Nope. Tescos, Boots, see who's cheapest and buy a trolleyful. Simply don't have time or energy to be more MSE right now.

thetope

I breastfeed and use washable nappies and washable wipes. Baby is 3 months old. We used disposable nappies for 10 days but they were paid for by vouchers. My monthly running costs are currently £10 a week for colief (colic remedy) three extra washes a week and maybe £20 a month on clothes/toys. We were given a LOT of clothes but sometimes if I'm in the supermarket and see a pack of babygros reduced to clear I can't help myself! We have no requirement for cotton wool, wipes or anything like that. I have samples size tubs of bepanthen, sudocreme, top to toe wash etc from the supermarket baby clubs and boots and bounty parenting clubs. Make sure and sign up for those, there are loads of freebies including a free changing bag in the boots one. So far we have had no issues with nappy rash so the creams are untouched. Baby is mostly bathed in just water, we maybe use soap twice a week. As she is breastfed she doesnt barf much and we rarely need to change clothes during the day. The cloth nappies also hardly ever leak. Baby clothes are small and we've found they just fit in to our regular washing load. The extra 3 washes a week are for the nappies.

We haven't bothered with decorating a nursery - baby is in with us and probably will be for another couple of months. Once she's ready to move in to her own room my mum has made some new curtains and we will add a few wee bits and bobs, but nothing fancy.

In terms of start up costs, we probably spent around £500. Pram was £150 (new price would have been 500), moses basket tenner in charity shop - the mattress was washable so we didn't get a new one. We didn't bother with a changing table, we just change her on a free mat from one of the baby clubs on the bed or the kitchen table. She has now already outgrown the moses basket so I wouldn't recommend spending much on one. I much prefer dressing bubs in babygros to outfits as they are much easier to change nappies in etc

Washable nappies & wipes were around £100. We spent about £20 on newborn baby clothes and blankets and the rest has been donated/gifted from friends and relatives (honestly you would not believe how generous some people are - people our parents know who we have never even met gave us presents!) One of the grannys bought us a £25 little stars bouncer with vibrate function. That thing is amazing!

We bought the car seat new (a maxi cosi cabriofix), that was £80 on sale from £120 - it's not recommended to buy those second hand. New mattress for cot was around £50. Sheets were made from big bed sheets cut into cot size and hemmed. We were given 2 gro bag sleeping bags as presents - those are brilliant, I highly recommend them. My work colleagues very generously clubbed together and bought us a baby monitor.

I just adopted a policy of "see what you manage with and buy stuff as it's needed". I think it was a sound strategy! Additional things I bought were, a second hand moby wrap sling (£20), a breastfeeding pillow (£40 - easily my most extravagant purchase!!), silicone shells to collect milk from leaky boobs and a nearly new breast pump.

That's about it really. I have a friend who had a baby in June and keeps posting pictures of her little cherub in his £800 pram, baby bjorn sling and high chair, custom painted nursery and dressed in designer outfits. I think to myself "why?" but each to their own.

Gillyx

Weird_Nev wrote: »

:rotfl:
I'm reporting my experiences. We go to boots. We need: Breast pads. Cotton wool. Nappies. We make a list and everything. We come out having spent £20-£30. Haven't been in 4 days actually, but will need to go tomorrow. Baby had a day of diarreah and did 20 nappies in a day. I expect thos costs to drop. I class them as "month one emergency expenditure". Hopefully by christmas he'll be into the re-useable nappies we have.
We're week 3. We're just surviving. Just.

I'm loving all the "we did it for free" in this thread. No, no you did not. I'd love to see all the bank statments from all the super mums and dads out there who did it for free.

Batch cooking?! Show me the time. I've been cooking good meals as and when possible, but our weekly shop has gone from £40ish to £75 ish as we're both at home, I'm trying to feed wife up and eat better food as it's important....

My post says simply:
Babies are NOT free, you SHOULD prepare finacially as you'll want to make sure your child doesn't want for anything. We've not bought anything excessive, we've hunted hard for bargains (check my post - I think we've done well) but right now, trekking around 4-5 shops looking for bargain nappies? Nope. Tescos, Boots, see who's cheapest and buy a trolleyful. Simply don't have time or energy to be more MSE right now.

Okay well the nappies are about 60p more in Boots/Tesco. (Edit: just checked the nappies for the 54 pack of pampers are the same price in Boots, £6.98) You can also order online for a lot of places, it may help with the time thing, especially a Mr T order or even order nappies from somewhere online. My baby isn't due until Feb, but we managed to get £80 worth of nappies for £20 in a mothercare glitch, worth looking out for these things, or even for the 3for2 events, can order in advance then and you normally get free delivery.

The batch cooking I meant for the OP, I've started batch cooking now for the end of January/February, infact I was told today I may be induced at 36 weeks, so came home and done some bolognese and lasagne, 6 portions of each, so it's something I can do quickly.

I wasn't chastising, as I know how much it costs, we're out about £1000+ already, on pram, clothes etc. I just thought £30 every 3 days for baby related things was loads. If it costs us that, there is no way we can afford it, at all.