We had a baby in October. This is what we’ve spent money on so far:

$2500 for prenatal care and his birth. (Birth center natural birth, out-of-network on my insurance.)

Maybe $150 in copays for appointments.

Large expenses: car seat (not a good idea to buy used) and breast pump. (We received a stroller as a shower gift. We aren’t using a crib and didn’t buy/receive other furniture – we just use a changing table pad on the bed to change his diapers.)

Diapers: we’re using cloth, so they were a large up-front expense but have cost nothing since then. We used one type when he was newborn – which we bought on Craigslist – then sold those and bought new ones that will last until he’s potty trained, when we’ll resell them. Net cost so far: $300. Our water bill has gone up $8/month, but in the same period of time, we’ve also planted a garden, so some of the extra water is in the yard.

Most of the little stuff we got as shower gifts: clothes (tons!), bottles, washcloth, towel, vibrating chair, a few toys, blankets.

He is already outgrown his infant carseat We found out about a program through a local hospital where they teach you carseat safety and install a carseat in your car, and the whole thing (including the seat) costs $25.

We tapped into a local swap: pay $5. Bring a bag or two of stuff, go home with a bag or two of stuff. We took a bag of newborn clothes and came home with a bag of 6-9 month clothes, for $5.

Breastfeeding, so no expense on formula. Slightly elevated expense on food, as I am eating more. The pump was $300 (minus a 20% off coupon) and has been well worth the expense.

Babies don’t need a zillion toys. We have a rattle and two or three things for him to play with/chew on.

We heard over and over again that swings and other baby-holding devices are not universally loved by babies and to try them out at someone else’s house if possible before buying. We ended up just not buying. We got a vibrating chair as a gift and he loves that (for a short while). Otherwise, no swing, bouncy seat, etc.

Our only huge ongoing expense so far is health insurance. It costs $254 per paycheck for him to be on my insurance (and it cost more to put him on my husband’s). We haven’t needed daycare so far and are working on a plan for one of us to stay home.

So – so far, having a baby hasn’t been all that expensive, especially with people wailing all over about how much it costs. Just be mindful and choosy about what you acquire. You don’t “need” everything on the “needs” list.

A supply of those fleece-like fuzzy washable diapers with covers: $550. Used by both daughters then resold on Craigslist 4 years later for $250.

Crib, change table, then “Learning Tower” for kitchen help and wood “Svan” chairs with trays – buy and sell on Craigslist, +/- $1000.

Double the fruit / veg budget: + $50/week.

Daycare at avg $55 – $60/day, or $1200/month per child. Even with a dependent care “flexible spending account” of $5000 per year… that’s a fair investment at over $20K per year for 2.

In other words, 5 years to dig hole, 10 years to climb out.

As a tangent- I know I’m in the minority because on the whole I don’t think parents have responsibility for a child’s post high school education. If they do, I guess that’s a nice perk, but I think it is an unreasonable expectation. Offering to let a child live at home while he/she works full time and pays cash along the way for the first two years of basics at the community college? Sure, that’s a great agreement. Taking out hundreds of thousands of dollars in your own name on behalf of your child so they can go to a private university and study a gen ed path with no discernible career in sight? Not a good plan, and one I sadly see a lot. I think a huge issue with the burden of student loans on college graduates is the lack of firm boundaries on the part of the *parents* to just tell them “NO, it is not a good idea to borrow $30K a year on a private school education to become a teacher.” Instead, so many parents just sign the papers and go along with whatever their child wants, which truly baffles me.

On the topic- kids are as expensive as you decide. They don’t need much- but you can give them the world. Most of our great Americans were poor or “disabled” at one point of their lives.

Do agree with all the people who are saying don’t have kids just because you think you should. Plan for it, think about it, and make a decision to do it (or not).

BUT, 54k doesn’t buy you a whole lot *right now* — good to great public universities are coming in 20-25k per year with room and board. Making up a spare 50k isn’t something you do with a work-study job. Many “name” (and many not at all well known) colleges are way past 50k per year with room and board right now.

Worst case you save a lot, your kid gets a great merit scholarship because they’ve done so well…and they can use the money for med school or some other graduate training. Or you save more for the first one now and then adjust accordingly when the second one is closer to college age because you can roll over the “leftovers” to child #2.

All that said, we’ve definitely made cost part of the choosing a college decision. Child knows what saved money will cover — and what it won’t and is working hard to make sure he gets out debt free.

We’re planning on cloth diapering, initial outlay is expensive, but overall should be cheaper.

Planning on exclusively breastfeeding, have a cheap manual pump as a gift, budgeted for the more expensive pump if the manual doesn’t meet our needs.

Budgeted for new clothes for mom (nursing tops) and baby (we mostly have onesies because we did not find out the gender). We figure baby will likely spend most of the summer in onesies anyways. Also have all the local consignment stores scouted out.

Slightly higher grocery costs (I anticipate I will be hungrier with breastfeeding, I was hungrier and we spent more on groceries during my second trimester).

529 plan, starting as soon as we know baby’s SSN. We’d also like to encourage family to contribute as gifts, especially when baby is young and has little need for toys.

Daycare, we’ve worked our schedules so dad will be home on Mondays, mom will be home on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and we have hired a nanny for Thursdays and Fridays. We interviewed some daycares and other nannies, and although it’s more expensive, we feel this is our best option.

I feel lucky to be able to move into part-time work, because I love what I do and I’ve worked hard to get where I am, and I’m also looking down the road: My resume will look better with 5 years of part-time work as opposed to a 5 year gap in employment. I will also be able to better maintain my skill set and relevance in my field, which will make me more employable when baby is ready to start kindergarten, which will improve my lifetime earnings.

We’ve Craigslisted a lot, for example, got a fancy jogging stroller for less than 1/2 what it would cost us new. We got a cheapo deep freezer and have spent our weekends preparing meals for when baby is here and we are exhausted.

I know the ins and outs of our insurance coverage and also my employer’s leave policy. I know exactly what we are entitled to and have calculated that into our budget.

My husband also went and got himself a new job that’s closer to home and pays $10,000 more per year, which was the figure we were looking at to allow me to stay home if that was what we decided. So I’m thankful for him being a wonderful provider.

All in all, we’ve tried to plan to the best of our ability, but I know there will be bumps along the way.

I grew up in a house in which my mother was home for my brother and I growing up. When my wife and I found out she was pregnant with our 1st daughter 5 years ago, we both agreed she would stay home in favor of day care. Any job she worked would just offset the daycare expenses. We agreed that she staying home with the kids was better than a stranger raising them basically.

We now have two children and the 3rd on its day. I am by no means rich, as a matter of fact I am at the poverty line for the size of my family. However, my wife being home with their mother is work the financial sacrifice for my kids’ well being. Homeschooling them both does help also.

$325 per week on day care, some of which is tax-free after laundering it through a flexible spending account. This covers about 42 weeks a year. The other 10 weeks, her mother takes the summers off, so there is more than $325 per week of foregone income.

About $400 more per month for a larger home than we lived in pre-kid; though that has an extra room for her future sibling as well.

A negligible amount on food. She never really seemed interested in baby food, going pretty much straight to cut and/or mushed up bits of our adult food. She also has had breast milk (even today), never formula.

A few hundred dollars buying used clothes and toys at yard sales and off craigslist. Another few hundred for used crib, new carseat and crib mattress.

Perhaps $100 per month to add her to our health insurance. This will vary depending on your employer, of course.

*Dogwalker
*Special diet due to chronic illness
*Frequent vet visits
*Continuing education

Wishing I bought pet insurance when I adopted him!

I’ve actually found all the daycare anecdotes to be the most interesting. So expensive! As a former after school care provider for 2 elementary age children, what seemed like a pittance to me probably was a hefty expense for their parents at about $500/month.

I would love to take time off work to stay at home with a child, but then, so would my husband. I wish there were a way both of us could, but even if we had a large enough emergency fund (which we do, thanks to an inheritance), it’s the health insurance that would do us in. Sad that one of us has to work somewhere just for our family to be well-covered. And yes, we’ve been trying to come up with ways around that.

Our ENTIRE budget for our family of 4 is $2500!

If you have an Accord, you should have a little more space than I have with my Civic. It beats having another car payment or trying to trade for used 4 door.

$70/month–nanny
$2000/year top quality nursery school
$100/month ballet classes for the summer
$100/month playing at ‘kiddie parks’ at the mall
$200 food and diapers per month (she isn’t toilet trained yet)