The ’cost’ of a baby?

Im pleased I dont know how much we have spent! Lots! The ammount u spend can vary a huge ammount, on what brands of buggy/cot etc that u buy, if u are given things, can borrow stuff or can con grandparents into splurging! I found that people I hardly knew from work gave me stuff they no longer needed, and everyone loves to buy stuff for babies so we got tnnes of pressies. A good idea is to only buy a few blankets/towels and clothes cos u get heaps, and just save money up to by stuff like that, that u are not given when bubs is born. We have way too many blankets! Lol!

Costs that we didnt know about/expect were maily things to do with me,...the pregnancy vitiamins (these can cost up to $1 a day and says to start when ttc- to end of breasfeeding!),plus before labour other natural remedies ( and rescue remedy for me and DH!) maternity bras, maternity clothes ( I didnt fit any of my normal clothes by 12 weeks preg!), massages ( you ache all over),breast pads ( I got washable, but found them no good) so am still spending $5 a week on disposable breast pads...hmm cant think of anymore right now.

We use cloth nappies (fuzzi buns)- have 12 so far ($500) and will get another 6 of a bigger size to last up til toliet training. Definatly cheaper than disposables. I have noticed our power bill has gone up a bit, we probably do 2 extra loads of washing a day ( one load of nappies and a load of Isla's clothes/blankets etc, and have a bath a day ( DH baths Isla with him), although I was having quite a few baths when preg!

Sorry I dont have ammounts, but I hope was of some help.

the biggest cost is to your sanity...

i dont think tho that in the beginning the bills went up much at all - i was exclusively breastfeeding and ate a bit more but not a whole other person more...and as to cloth nappies - i havent seen much extra in the power costs at all... i think it gets more expensive as they get older... clothes, food, child care expenses, then school...

Okay will give you some figures but some might not apply to you as I bought stuff in South Africa and maybe the moms can help you out with prices on that.

Sleeping. If you co-sleep you pretty much dont need anything.

But you will need a cot or a basinette. (Basinette can only be used up to 6 months.) I have a campcot, Iron cot (handed down) and a carry cot as well.

Then you need a really good mattrass for that and dont know what that cost over here plus 2 sheets at least.

About 3 recieving blankets if not more if you have a winter baby. Dont buy too many as people often give you those.

Clothes. You really dont need that much in the beginning. Dont buy too much as you dont know how fast your kid will be growing. McKayla still fitted in newborn clothes up to a year.

Now off to changing. You dont need a changing table. Just a changing mat and change on the floor, couch or bed. I have a compactum with a built in bath and changing area and helped a lot in the beginning but dont really use it now.

So changing mat wont be that much. Wet wipes. I use a pack a week at most and that is about $3. I know some moms use face clothes ect.

Disposables cost me at most about $45 a month but more realisticly it is for about 6 weeks. In the beginning they go through a lot more so you can be looking up to 10 nappies a day in those first few weeks.

Then you get to bathing essentials. You dont need special baby seats. I found them to get in my way. Just a non slip mat. 2 face clothes and 3 towels. In the beginning it is nice to have the hooded towels. I still use almost the same bottles of stuff that I bought in the beginning. Was given so much stuff that I have enough for the next baby as well. So that cost is so minute I dont even budget for that.

After that you are looking at food. Breastfeeding is free. And it is only in that first few weeks that you will be eating more. And I didnt really see a difference in my bill at all. Food for kiddies can work out a lot if you buy the Watties stuff. If you make your own and freeze it, it is so much cheaper but takes some time sometimes.

After that you are looking at toys. Now this can be as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be. Kids dont really mind at all. McKayla plays more with her cheap stuff than the expensive stuff and entertains herself for ours with the tubberware and clothespegs.

Formula I suppose can add up to a lot but cant tell you as I never gave her any.

You want to get a bottle for water and stuff like that later on. And then you are looking at dummy's and stuff like nailclippers. and if you buy something each month dont notice it at all.

Carseat you can hire from Plunket I believe. I was really worried if we can afford a child but I must really say it just sort of falls into place. You cant always plan for the future and believe that it is going to follow according to plan. Plans changes.

So breakdown of my cost at the moment per month:

Nappies $45

Wipes $12

Breastmilk Free

Bonjela and other medicines $10 ( maybe every 4 month or so but take it per month for calculating perposes)

Snacks $20 (extra stuff I just buy for her that I didnt buy for ourselves before. This is stuff like cow light cheese and stuff like that.)

Playcentre: $8

Toys; Only buy on sales or for birthdays and now and then. Cant put a figure on this.

Sippy cups and stuff like that: Say another $10 a month.

So coming to $105 a month and that is really overestimate of our costs.

But the pleasure I get from my child? Totally priceless.

And oh yeah clothes is really as cheap or as expensive as your own taste is.

Oh yeah I forgot we brought a new car ( well new to us) too!

gsmum wrote: the biggest cost is to your sanity...

...and your boobs...and arse etc etc :)

Trade Me will become your best friend!

Anything that we were happy to have second hand we bought of trade me and saved ourselves heaps! There have been a couple of things we bought and in hind sight I would have got a different/new item (i.e. high chair - our one is rubbish!).

We were lucky enough to have very generous family and friends so didn't need to buy any clothes until Caitlin was about 3 months old (we were invaded by all things pink! lol). As they pretty much require a whole new wardrobe every 3 months we get 80% of her clothes off trade me as I figure that before they are crawling etc not much "wear & tear" happens to the clothes so most are still in "as new" conditions. 10% of her stuff (clothes, toys etc my mum "treats" Cailtin lol and the other 10% is me going loopy in Pumpkin Patch outlet shops

But all in all - what you spend is pretty much up to you. If you want the best of everything and want only new stuff then yeh it'll cost you a fortune to set yourself up!
We've used cloth nappies from birth which have already paid for themselves in comparison to the amount of money we would have spent on disposables, haven't noticed a hike in power/water bills either.

I reckon like with most things - get your budget... then triple it and you should be right

Wow, thanks for all the feedback. I guess the message is that you find a way to make it work, so that it fits within your means. I don't imagine I'd be very extravagant, but its nice to know that so many of you are doing things successfully. I'm not so concerned about the costs as they get older, as once I'm back at work we'll have a fairly generous income (as long as I actually GO back to work, which I'm not totally sure I would do).
Busymum, I agree that if you wait until you can afford it will never happen, but at the same time I'm possibly about to commit to a MASSIVE mortgage that will consume virtually all of DH's salary for the next few years, so whilst I have other commitments to finish in the next couple of years, we'd be thinking perhaps in 3-4 years time might be right for us. (I'm in my early 20's and from a very fertile family, so fingers crossed that I have heaps of time for TTC). A good point made in Stacey's old post (thanks heaps for bumping that up too) is that the new house (one I could see us having a family in) will be easier to acheive on 2 incomes than one. If we save a bit from my income in the next few years, then at least we'll have some savings behind us too which will help. My parents had 6 kids, so I'm pretty good at working within a budget!
So I think that if we do take the plunge it won't force us to delay kids beyond the 3-4 years that we were planning on anyway. We are looking at a new house almost double the value of our current one, but to afford it, I have to take the flash (but stressful) job that I've just been offered. Some days its tough being a grown up - this will be the first real job I've ever had, and I'm already thinking about when I'll be able to leave it to have babies!

If you are still inyour early 20's and plan on waiting a bit, good on you, enjoy each other!