How much did your newborn actually cost?

Jonesy88

Hello everyone,

Bit of background to me - i love to be organised and am so very broody! So coupled together this makes me interested in how to much to save before we start ttc.

I'd just like to know how much it cost to buy all the essentials for your new arrivals as the magazines are either aimed at brand snobs or biased towards a particular shop.

So from the cot to clothes to nappies, what did you spend and how did you do it? :money:

pesky85

I'm not best known for my memory skills but I'll try...

The big things like cot / pram / car seat / baby bouncer I got given as gifts / hand me downs.

Clothes were a mixture of cute things I liked and gifts / hand me downs.

Breastfed for 6 months so no formula costs, tried cloth nappies (spent £120 initially) but didn't get on with that so he was in disposables until 2.5 years when we potty trained. Couldn't tell you how much that cost lol.

Highchair and pink lining changing bag were birthday presents to me from my husband that I requested

My second DS cost me literally nothing other than nappies!

If you have lots of friends and family about you'll probably find you will get some help. People love spending money on pregnant ladies and cute newborn babies!!

Tips: buy your pram second hand. If you really want a brand new one (which is fair enough esp for excited first time mums) make sure you research the right pram for you, inc going to Mothercare for test drives! Prams always sell really well on ebay / FB selling pages so if you get one that isn't for you, you will be able to sell it quite easily (make sure you keep all the manuals, accessories etc).

To keep cost down on clothes go for supermarket / cheaper high street stores for every day essentials. When you want something a bit more special go to ebay for designer / more expensive brands. With the rate that children grow out of clothes you will find that these clothes will only have been worn a handful of times.

Breastfeed if you can, formula costs about £50 a month or £600 a year. Not to mention health benefits for baby

Nappies I buy in bulk when they're on offer, and start buying them throughout pregnancy so you have a good stockpile when baby arrives. The main supermarkets regularly do baby events where they slash prices on nappies and lots of other baby items, go to those whenever they are on!

That's all I can think of for now lol.

But in answer to your question the value of my main items were approx:

Pram (Silver Cross Sleepover Deluxe) - £150 ebay
Cot (John Lewis cheaper end of price scale) - £130
Moses basket - £30
Car seat - not sure as was a hand me down....but I'd say around £100?
Formula - it's been a while - but about £8 a tub which lasted 5-6 days for a 6 month old
Nappies - pampers on sale are about 16p a nappy (I think!) - newborns probably go through 12+ nappies a day!

nikki11

Hi, Cant really remember exact price of everything as my daughter is 16 months! (baby brain)!!!

I know my pram was second hand from Gumtree bought for me, think it was £100 and its still on the go, would have thought it was new!! Alot of clothes were given as pressies and my SIL gave a me a suitcase of girls clothes!! Agree with Pesky about the supermarket clothes, my DD didnt get a chance to wear half the outfits as she grew so fast! Cradle and cot was second hand both came to £100, got new mattresses for both though which I think was just as dear. DD was formula fed but had the money off vouchgers so it only cost me £1.40 a tub

As for nappies, just whatever was on offer at the time, for me though the brand nappies were no good, Lidl and Sainsbury's own brand seemed far better!

P.S DD wouldnt even sleep in cradle-so that was a waste, glad I didnt pay a fortune for a new one!!!

BAGGY

I had twins which were combination fed. Formular cost a fortune but not everyone can breastfeed. It's a skill that has to be mastered (don't beat yourself up if you dont crack it). I bought a new buggy for £250 and ebayed it for £200. I couldn't have got a second hand double for £50 so my buggy essentially cost £50. I bought new foot muffs in the summer sales (Jan babies) and Asda clothing in their baby event. Cots, bouncers and a lot of clothing were either gifts or second hand from friends - baby bath and fire guard. In fairness you dont need a baby bath the sink is fine. Ikea did hand towels and basics linen tea towels for less than 50p which we used instead of muslins. Not pretty coloured but did the job. If you do decide to bottle feed get basic wide neck bottles from asda. I found them really good. Any wide fit teats will fit then and they will go in a non brand specific sterilser. If you buy branded you have to stick to their teats and steriliser which are more expensive.
I never got moses baskets my 2 slept in a washing basket for a couple of nights then we put them in their cot together. I used cut down sheets instead of specific ones. If you get a moses basket dont buy the sheets. Use pillow cases instead.
I was given 1st stage car seats from a friend which I knew were safe.
Nappies were supermarket ones when 1/3 off or on offer. Washables weren't an option as drying takes a long time in winter.
Having 2 I think I had to scale down on spending. Now they are 5 there are less savings to be made I think.

pesky85

Never thought of pillowcase rather than moses basket sheet - top tip!

Bluebell1000

Most of our purchases were from ebay / car boot sales...

Muslins were bought new from a shop I think it was Toys-R-Us.
Moses basket with free carrying sling £5 (car boot)
Clothes, baby towels, hats etc - bought a huge bundle, resold most of them, so cost about £15-20 for the things we kept for ages 0-6 months.
Toys - all given to us by friends / relatives apart from the cot mobile, £1 car boot.
Sleeping bags - £2-3 each (car boot / ebay)
Cot and moses basket bedding - about £5 bundle from ebay, plus we cut up a couple of fleece blankets from Dunelm Mill £4 each ish.
Nappies - used the freebies first, bought cloth ones later at about £100 set up cost (after council cashback).
Baby wipes - free (nice neighbour who distributes Bounty packs), though some people use washables.
Travel system with car seat - £30 from ebay (unused).
Breast pump and milk storage bags - about £50 (gumtree / ebay). Cheaper than formula if you want to breast feed.
Bottles and microwave steriliser about £15 - ASDA baby event.
Changing table - we found it useful, though some people prefer the floor, £20 on ebay.
Loss of wages from maternity leave - lots! I'd say that may be a big thing to consider for your budget if you work

chanie

By far, the biggest expense is maternity leave and childcare.
Maternity pay is 6 weeks at near enough full pay and 33 weeks at £130 ish a week.

Then there is childcare (if you need it), we are paying £850 for a full time place. Many people are priced out of working because the childcare will cost the same as the take home pay.

davenport151

chanie - totally agree with the first bit. Drop in income. Whether your intending to go back to work or not.
Casting my mind back as its been 14 years. I was a SAHM for the first year then got part time jobs that were a few hours a week (thanks to Mum & Mum In Law for the childcare).
Luckily lots of stuff given to us. Only things brought new were cot and car seat.

Jonesy88

Thank you for all your responses - a lot to ponder over!

As a rough guide i'm thinking we need to save £1000 to buy the essentials and £2000 to supplement any maternity leave. After the CC is paid off in May this gives me a goal!

Rummer

Ikea have great affordable cots and extras too. Try to only buy the essentials such as cot bed, car seat, pram etc

There is no need to buy a bath, nappy bin, special towels etc as they are nice but not really needed.

BAGGY

We got given cots and bought the middle range matresses from Ikea. It is not long before they are in beds. Personally I wouldn't get cot beds as they dont last for long and you have to buy specific sized bedding. But that's my view. We got ikea metal framed beds when they were about 3 and duvet covers from bootsales - a boil wash sorts them out fine.
Most second hand stuff has been fine for me. Baby clothes and pre-walking age are great at bootsales as they never have any wear. Once they start walking you will find knees worn out of jeans and such but there are still bargains to be had. Coats can be had for a couple of pounds - I've even managed to get them for 50p - I dont care if they ruin them for that price. If you are not too precious about second hand you can get some fantastic quality bargains.
When it comes to weaning deffo freeze your own left overs. Put them in a freezer bag in a thin layer. Then you can snap off as much as you need. Freezing in ice cube trays was a pita in our case. They take up too much room and you have to take out in cube quantities only.