How much did your baby's 1st year cost you?

useyourillusiontoo

Hi

I'm drawing up a budget for when our little one arrives in April, our first, and would like it to be as realistic as possible, over estimating costs where neccessary.

The problem is we've no idea the real costs of a new born. We're planing to get clothes second hand where possible. Use lidl nappies. Make our own baby food etc..

Can anybody with recent experience provide me with a rough breakdown of the 1st year costs? Any advice would be really greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Make-it-3

Everyone's experiences will be different and assuming you are talking about the ongoing costs rather than the one-offs (cot, pram etc). For me very little, breast feed, baby led weaning, cloth nappies, clothes either given, freecycle/ebay or supermarket brands. Coffees with other mums, extra utilities for washing/heating, a few baby classes were my main expenses.

If you are returning to work in that time the biggest one will be childcare.

useyourillusiontoo

Yes, we've purchased the biggies: travel system, car seat, cot etc.. My other half is taking one year maternity leave and will return part time.

We'll be using childcare voucher to cover the childcare and i'm confident we'll manage on that front.

I was just wondering if there were any 'unexpected' costs.

HappyMJ

Number one highest cost is childcare. Everything else pales in comparison especially if you are looking at second hand and friends and family will always help. The £20.30 a week child benefit should cover the basics especially if you Ebay the resulting unneeded things at the end of the year to reclaim some of your inital investment.

an9i77

The one area you can save a lot of money is clothing. I got really caught up in the cute baby clothes thing and shudder to think how much I spent - as my baby was very small when born, but grew fast, by the time he was six months old he'd had five 'wardrobes' - tiny baby, newborn, 0-3, 3-6 and 6-9. Sometimes I even bought the same outfit twice in two sizes as he looked so cute. But all those clothes are useless now that he's grown.

The next one I will buy loads of cheap babygros and a couple of outfits for best!

whitewing

I agree with buying clothes when you need it not before. You get given a lot (well, we did).

The biggest cost for us was not the actual baby so much as being too shattered to keep a good grip on our finances (but I did have pnd). The main problem was that if you were running low on nappies, you had to buy them which necessitated a trip to the shop. Then because we were tired/hassled etc we spent more on impulse buys or more expensive stuff. (You can always get good deals on nappies). Also we went from being quite loving and considerate to being a bit short with each other, so again, spending a bit to compensate.

Plus when baby was actually there, priorities changed a bit - when I was pregnant, I was going to breast feed etc, but I couldn't. So there will be things that you are adamant you are going to not buy and then you may.

Triple your budget for medicinal things - can't remember the proper term but a snot aspirator can work well if baby is bunged up with mucus but it is possibly the least glorious thing known to man.

threemuttleys

One thing I learnt from DS, which I shall do with this baby. No cute outfits, t shirts or whatever till about 4 months. Life is so much easier in body suit, sleepsuit and coat over the top if need be. Cheapie supermarkets ones will do.

HTHs

whitewing

I think we'd have spent less on actual baby stuff if we'd bought barely anything before. The amount of research didn't seem to make that much of a difference whether we used it or not.

Spent more on photo printing or that sort of thing and we hadn't particularly budgeted for that. And everyone got xmas cards from the baby, have a bit of a budget for that sort of thing even if you choose not to do it after.

Also petrol for out of hours trips to the hospital/doctors and sometimes car parking.

For equipment and toys, if you buy, buy the best you can afford from MSE offers. We sold on our bumbo for the same as we bought it for new.

For all the change in spending patterns, you will find a way to make it work. You will be amazed at what you are willing to go without.

gizmodo_2

I budgeted my spends to when she was born. If I recall it was about £1200. I had a mixture of second hand and new things. That also included the cost of washable nappies and wipes which was about £300 I think.

We could have spent much less had we got a second hand pushchair, cotbed, moses basket/stand.

colli

second hand clothes are not necessarily cheaper! Shopping in the sales is likely to be cheaper for individual items once postage is factored in. You can buy tops and bottoms for just a couple of pounds everywhere from Debenhams to Sainsburys at the end of the sales. As much as I'd like to support charity shops some things were more expensive than the equivilent new. Buying a bundle from gumtree or a local selling group might work out though.

I bought baby's clothes for the first year before he was here, all reduced. I also thought as we didn't have any close friends with children at the right age we wouldn't get any hand-me-downs. Wrong! People are desperate to offload what they don't want, especially brightly, coloured plastic things that take up lots of space

Buying branded items when cheap can pay off as they'll often sell for nearly as much

So far, as I'm on mat leave I've found myself saving a packet! Petrol cost down by 90%, not tempted by shopping in my lunch hour, still losing baby weight so no idea what size clothes to buy so don't bother, entertainment is meeting with other mums and is the price of a cup of tea (not wine!), lunch out rather than dinner, time to batch cook in the afternoons whilst baby has a nap (this one not guaranteed though!), able to visit butchers/green grocers in the week. Dreading the eletricity bill though as drinking a LOT of tea!

Spendless

From 1st being born (nearly 13 years ago). In terms of equipment, very little-parents bought me my pram, we were given a lot of equipment free, including cot (just bought a new mattress) and a lot of clothes to start me off with. They mainly came from my b-i-l sister, who had had a baby 9 months previously.

I used disposibles and formula fed and these came to around the same amount as the child benefit which was then £15 per week.

The biggest expense was me giving up work. Childcare was the same as my salary and I would have had to work f-time (employer didn't have p-time workers and right to request didn't exist). When son was 7 months old I found part-time evening and w'end work.

The biggest financial headache we had, was holidaying when DS was 6 months old in France and petrol strike happening shortly before we were due to drive home. We had to set off early and eat and sleep where we were able (eg when we couldn't risk going any further). We arrived home to a £1k overdraft, and was the reason I found an evening job, so prepare for the unexpected expense!