Saving for Children - advice?!

I have 3, I would agree they are as expensive as you make them except for childcare costs, anything you can do to keep them down the better. Investigate nurseries etc to get an idea on costs, you may well get help just due to the cost of childcare. Everything else can be found cheaply if needed, primark, buying and selling groups on facebook.

There are a few things I'd never scrimp on but most things can be found cheaply or aren't actually needed at all. You just need to work out what's worth paying more for. That's the hard part!

I'd never scrimp on car seats. It's not a case of spending more necessarily equaling the safest option but, often, the budget options aren't the best choice. I think you need to get the best quality seat that fits perfectly in your car and install it correctly. Fortunately, research is free and there are independent shops that will fit them for you.

I'd not scrimp on shoes either. Again, the most expensive doesn't mean the best but sometimes the cheaper options that I'd choose for myself just aren't the right fit for your child's feet and you need to take care of them while they're growing.

I wouldn't use an old or second hand mattress for a baby.

Most women can, if they want to and get the right support, breastfeed so you never need to buy milk for the baby. If you do need or choose to use formula, I would choose the cheapest option that suited my baby. They're all made to meet the same regs, some brands just spend more telling you they're better, so I would ignore what they say on TV adverts!

I don't like the idea of throwing away hundreds of nappies so we used cloth nappies and they also work out cheaper even when you compare budget disposables and include the cost of washing, water, electricity etc. They're a great option for lots of people and, again, research is free so you can at least consider it.

We found that although our income has dropped considerably during OH's maternity leave - a lot of our expenses have also dropped like fuel and meals out. We also have had to spend far less than I thought we would.

Child benefit does in fact cover a lot of our babies 'running costs' - like nappies and formula (unfortunately breastfeeding wasn't possible in the end due to complications beyond our control)

We will have 6 weeks soon of unpaid maternity leave so for that time we will be dipping into our savings to cover our monthly costs.

Overall though we'll still have more money in the bank at the end of maternity leave than we did at the beginning.

It's the childcare costs afterwards that are huge - luckily we have both sets of grandparents nearby who are willing to share childcare duties

you are clearly in a financial intelligent state - that's more than sufficient. it's not the before children you have to worry about, it's the after birth. the hormones kick in and the urge to nest gets really strong.
my rational wife went all nesting mode with our first.
if you are aware of that natural compulsion and control accordingly and maintain current mindset- you will do well.

I agree that it's better to stimulate children to help but it's better not to do it with money, because that can backfire. At a certain point they might stop doing things for free.