How much do babies cost?

[thekid]

Hello all you parents out there!

Anybody care to share what they believe is an approximate monthy cost of having a baby (say for the first two years or so). Some friends tell me 300$-400$, others 800$ and over, others have no clue. Was wondering what kind of info this board could provide.

Thanks!

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I wonder how someone spends $800 a month for a baby. Financed nursery furniture maybe?

I don't think my input would be of help, as it has been too long. However, I will say that I hate the thing-a-tization of babyhood. Your baby is just as real, just as marvelous if you don't have every device meant for holding baby in upright, 80 degree, 60 degree and 45 degree angles. if you don't have every bouncy, jumpy, swingy, lurchy, jiggly device; if you don't have a crib that matches a changing table that coordinates with a light switch, a cheery banner, and a rocking chair. If you don't have a car seat each for your car, gramma's car, the baby sitter's car, and the spouse's car, a single seat can just be moved at the same time as the baby. Likewise, you don't need a full change of clothes at all homes where baby will spend a day, nor a box of toys and multiples of those, bouncy, walky, jumpy, jiggley, wiggly-baby holders at gramma's. Take what you need with you.

You have to live where water is god-awfullly expensive to convince me that disposable diapers are no less cost than cloth. If you've got health insurance, probably baby does too and a healthy baby does not go to the doctor very often, really. Co-pays over two years time will probably add up to less than the cost of a high chair and the first holiday outfit.

I could go on and on. It is so subjective, but I guess you can sense my attitude that babydom is not about leaping into a whole new aspect of retail consuming. Some people so enjoy outfitting their home and surroundings for the baby, but very little of it is necessary for a comfortable life with the little one.

If you need paid infant care save most of your money from all that other stuff and spend it on some really good childcare.

[34saving]

The big factor is whether you're paying for childcare, are you? I will claim that disposables are signifcantly cheaper than cloth and I live in the Land of 10,000 lakes. (I also pay the drug store game big time and never pay more than 1/2 price for diapers. ) My 4 month old costs about $25 a month. She has a significant medical issue (cleft lip and palate) so I'm also planning on $100 a month in medical. (Out of pocket max. on our insurance is $1200 a year, so I budget $100 a month, even though a huge percentage of that will come all at once when she has her palate surgery.) Crib? Hand-me down Carseat? Shower present. Swing? Shower present. Changing table? Re-purposed desk. Diapers/wipes? Sale/clearance Clothes? Presents/hand me downs Food? Breastmilk with some supplementing. Supplementing is from samples and 1/2 price formula from playing the drugstore game.

[zetta]

I've got a pretty detailed post on what I spent for the first 15 months in my blog, in the motherhood catagory. The bottom line was that I spent about $1500 in startup purchases, and about $150/month thereafter (which I estimated I could cut to $80 fairly easily.) I wasn't striving to minimize costs, so I'm sure others here have been able to spend much less.

Zetta's Striving to Get Rich Slow - Archive for the 'Motherhood' Category

Scroll down to the "How Expensive Are Kids, Really?" entry.

[PrincessPerky]

Well since I spend the same amount now for 3 kids as I did for none, I guess they are free!

Actually I just adjusted what I spent on.

The cost of birth you can google for your area, or call your hospital, don't bother calling your insurance they will lie. I paid 270 for one, 4K for another and 300ish for the third.

The diapers either way you go are not cheap, I recommend ECing to ditch them entirely sooner rather than later (though I wont go totally diaperless myself)

Food, if you breastfeed you wont notice much more than easier weight loss for mom and continued hunger similar to pregnancy...and while you need to keep it healthy you don't have to break the bank for food.

When table food is intro-ed, feed em yours with water...use a hand blender and skip the jars. (do follow the 4 day wait rule, just get used to eating the same fruit or veggie 4 days in a row for a couple months)

Stuff wise, nothing but a blanket and a car seat is needed, all the fluff can be bought pretty cheap -just don't fall into the trap of buying it just because it is cheap, keep the stuff low and get in the habit, they will grow and cheap will become a bit harder to find (though never impossible)

Anyway, no we can't tell you how much one costs...actually technically the baby is free, it is the stuff that costs money....

[thekid]

Thanks for all your replies.

I should have specified that I am Canadian and hence all medical/hospital costs are covered by our national plans (no user fees). I'm also not planing on having a baby in the very immediate future (more in one or two years). The question came up while I was budgeting for a possible career change. One of my friends which has a newborn told me to expect first year costs around 800$/month, which knocked me off my chair (albeit, this is a friend who makes considerably less than me and has a Mercedes, huge house and huge debts...maybe not the best reference).

From asking around a bit, I was told to expect 150$/month on diapers (but we would also consider using cloth), 100$/month on formula and extras for clothing, furniture and stuff. Not many of my friends budget and hence have no clear picture of costs added for the baby. I kinda had a picture that 500$ would be ballpark, but wanted to have a clearer picture. Thanks for your replies so far.

[jodi]

I assume you are talking $800 Canadian? That's still pretty outrageous. Here are some of my estimates (American $):
Medical (might be irrelevant for you, but I want to account for all costs): births were $100 for the first, $200 copay for the second (different insurances). Well child visits did not have a co-pay. We took them to the doctor maybe 2-3 times a year at $15 a pop, plus the occasional prescription, so maybe $150 per year.
Diapers (disposable) and wipes: Bought 2-3 packages of diapers per month at $10 per package. Wipes were $7.50 per bulk box every few months (all generic brands). Annual cost: $330, let's say $400 to estimate on the high side.
Clothing: I think we spent about $20, but that was for special outfits. We didn't need to purchase anything after the shower. Let's say you didn't have a shower - you might spend $100-200 a year if you shop carefully, don't insist on the biggest name brands, and buy secondhand.
Furniture: Again, bought for us by friends and relatives or handed down. I think the only thing we bought ourselves was the carseat, about $50.
Food: Breastfed for over 6 months with my two kids, so cost was minimal for the first 6 months. Breast pump and bags: a gift, but cost about $60. I ended up buying a second pump, cost $100. Formula: About $50 per month from months 6-12. Food: Maybe $20-30/month, but it could have been done cheaper if I had wanted. Annual cost: About $650-700.
Toys: gifts and hand-me-downs. Maybe spent $50 on Christmas.
Total annual cost for first year: $1550 American, estimated on the high side and counting medical expenses, so that would be about $130 per month. It could have been done cheaper than we did it, but it could have been done a lot more expensively too If you don't have a baby shower or a source of hand-me-downs, than you might want to budget $1-2k more up front to cover the costs of furniture/clothes/toys, although kids do not need much of anything to be happy!

[thekid]

Thanks for the very informative responses. I can rest a little easier now

[jIM_Ohio]

Hello all you parents out there!

Anybody care to share what they believe is an approximate monthy cost of having a baby (say for the first two years or so). Some friends tell me 300$-400$, others 800$ and over, others have no clue. Was wondering what kind of info this board could provide.

Thanks!

childcare is ~$100/week
formula costs something.
diapers cost something. (Remember the weight listed is the baby weight, not how much the diaper holds)
baby clothes alone would be $800 each year (babies do grow).

The kicker is having the baby. If you can pregnant the old fashioned way, that's cheap. If you need fertility treatments, the most reliable procedures are 50% effective and cost 10k, and that is before drugs. The procedures and drugs are NOT usually covered by standard insurance.

[MonkeyMama]

We don't really spend much on the kids but our health insurance has gone up to $900/month. Yeesh. The kids cost around $800/month+ in that regard.

That one just gets me because it was the unforeseen cost of having kids. I would have waited a couple of more years if I knew medical expenses would be 20% of our household cost in just a couple of years. But it really depends on your situation of course. SOunds like that one won't get you.

Overall we are pretty frugal. Formula is expensive, breastfeeding is not (though don't discount the fact that mom will eat like 3 people in the meantime. ) Clothes and activities we have found quite inexpensive.

& well my 18-month old eats about as much as a full-grown adult.

Also, a second child is pennies on the dollar. You have the start up costs done, the hand-me-downs. We have a clothe diaper service, I paid as much for 2 as 1 essentially, where it finally paid off.

Daycare can be huge.

(Childcare $100/week - I wish - hehe. All of this REALLY depends where you live I guess).
I think anyone will say it can be as cheap as expensive as you want it to be, for the most part.

Clothes we spend $300/year or so buying used. Kid needs a new wardrobe at least twice a year at this age. We spend maybe $150/year on clothes and jackets, then there are the special occassions, halloween, shoes they outgrow every month, etc. Of course going all new this could easily be in the thousands - depends how you shop.

[DebbieL]

I'm Canadian, and your friends seem out to lunch with their estimates to me. Babies really don't need much material stuff. You will probably get enough clothes for 10 babies given to you (seriously, my daughter lived in sleepers for the most part). I gave away many clothes that she never even got a chance to wear (you tend to put them in a sleeper - and use the same bunch of sleepers alot). What does a newborn need shoes for? She had about 5 pairs (none were ever even put on her feet - why bother when they can't walk or even move yet).

The grandparents bought the major things like carseat, stroller, crib, playpen, etc. Hopefully you have parents that are willing to help with that stuff (or friends to hand down things)! Even if not, the total cost would not be too high and is only a one time purchase. I had a change table - never used it, don't need one. A baby blanket on the floor works just fine for changing. She slept in her baby carriage/stroller for about the first 5-6 months, so I really didn't use the crib until after then. The carriage worked great because I could just use my foot to push it back and forth a bit if she started fussing at night (kept it by the bed), and it lulled her to sleep without me having to get up, lol.

I breast fed, so no cost there. I would express a bit of milk daily (with a cheap $10 hand pump which I find works alot better than the expensive electric ones anyways), cool it off in the fridge, and put it into one of those bottles with the plastic liners in the freezer. The next day I would do the same (only adding the milk to the previously frozen milk after it had already gotten cold in the fridge). After 2 or 3 days of doing this, you have enough milk to leave with the baby if you want to go out somewhere for the day/evening. I usually tried to keep about 2 bottles at any time (keeping in mind that they don't eat as much when really young, so a 4 ounce is probably enough then, then it increases gradually). I did usually keep a can of formula (cheap stuff) on hand just in case it was needed. Luckily she accepted bottles and formula just fine, even though she was a breast fed baby. If you are planning to breastfeed, I recommend introducing a bottle (with your own breastmilk) once in a while very early on. That way, they will probably accept it when you go out and someone else has to feed them.

For diapers I would usually go to Zellers or the drug store and buy their no name brand. This was back in the 1990's and we didn't have a Walmart until she was out of diapers, but I'm sure that Walmart probably has pretty cheap diapers. I also had cloth diapers given to me, but didn't use those very often.

I would say that I probably spent about $150/month maximum if it were averaged out. In today's money I would think that $250/$300 would be plenty to budget (unless you are into buying all the latest gadgets, fashions, etc).

These numbers go up dramatically if you will be needing daycare for an infant - YIKES. I didn't need daycare, plus I had both sets of grandparents nearby = free babysitting whenever I wanted it. Alot of your expenses will depend on how much family/friend help you have available, and whether you work outside the home (which I didn't at that time).

[Squantum]

I don't have a child, but from the many people I know that do, infant day care is $1000 - $1200/month here. that's the major expense, unless someone is staying home with the child.

[markio26]

kids cost alot... when i worked full time. .. i had parents on standby, in case kids got sick at school and they could pick them up...2 baby sitters during the week, another one for the weekend, and my spouse and i took turns babysitting.. we hardly went out together, due to our schedules at the time... clothes were priced reasonably... school lunches and costs were high for us to pay for... homework was too much too..

[PrincessPerky]

Oh well I get out of the school lunch and homework

[shelbylovesmelby]

Lets see diapers cost me maybe $25-50 a mo depending if you buy store brand like me from Wally World wich work the best of the no-name generics & how old the baby is the older they get the fewer diapers per day they use.

$20-25 / week for formula provided you can't nurse or don't need an expensive formula.

Baby food, you can get cheap @ save-a-lot for almost half the regualar brands or like PP said make your own. Use a hand mixer & puree it yourself & freeze the differance in an ice cube tray for later. Invest in a kitchen scissors when they start eating table foods.

I think the initial things wich we saved up for like the crib, car seats, & clothes as our family is CHEAP on both sides and you need to be prepared to compensate for what you don't recieve for your baby shower.

I don't pay for day care. We did work opposite shifts for a while but dh couldn't sleep w/ a toddler who didn't nap as much as a newborn did. So I ended up being a SAHM & so far we are surviving.

Now I wish I could say how much day care costs, but if I could find it for $100 a week for all 3 I'd be back to work!! Try around here $200/wk per kid minimum!! So I'd be forking $600/week..... Um I had a good job & I didn't make that in a week either. So weigh your options as far as income & childcare requirements.

Clothes... can vary like most anything. You can buy new (preferably on clearance), hook up w/ someone who's child is a lil older & get their handmedowns for free or a small amt of $, thrift stores, or my personal fav rummage sales!!

hth some