My husband and I are trying to budget for an unexpected (but much welcomed) addition to our family. He is worried that a baby will be very expensive, but I keep thinking that most of the costs will be one-time, at least until the kid is big enough to walk and break things and need an education.

We're minimalists and don't want to fall prey to baby advertising. What are the things you really need to get, and what are the real recurring expenses? We hope to breastfeed and do cloth diapers. A friend is giving us a few items - carriers, etc that their son no longer needs.

I've gone to some baby websites but they are beyond overwhelming. Yikes!

We just had our first child a few months ago. Are you asking about what you need to buy to get started(i.e. furniture, stroller etc) or what the recurring expenses are? Are you planning on going back to work while you are breastfeeding? If so you will need to buy a breast pump and bags to store it. We use about 3 of those a day on weekdays and they are roughly .20 each, so thats about $12 a month. Diapers we tried a few cloth ones but wow that was not worth it IMO. Our little one goes thru about 5-8 a day. Also baby wipes, shampoo, lotions etc. So far I'd say its only added about $60-75 a month in recurring expenses. That does not include doctors visits and vaccinations which will vary depending on your insurance.

I have a 5 year old, and the biggest recurring costs for us have been health insurance and childcare.

As far as stuff for baby, definitely skip the personalized bibs and $20 teethers. I get so annoyed when friends register for junk like that. We did get a lot of things like a bouncy seat, a swing, an exersaucer, etc. They aren't absolutely necessary, but our DD was very high needs and having different things for her to do when we weren't holding her made our lives much easier and her much happier. We bought most of them used. The funny part is that many times, we sold this stuff later for more than we paid for it because we took the time to really clean it up and then took care of it.

Go to garage sales, consignment sales, and buy stuff on Craigslist. Get in the habit of buying clothes on clearance for the next year. Sell things as baby outgrows them to recover a bit of money and keep the clutter down. Make things yourself - we made our own wipes with paper towels and made a lot of baby food. (And no, you don't need a $120 "system" to make your baby's food, just a fork...all the baby marketing drives me nuts!)

The real needs are a safe place for the baby to sleep(bassinet, and then a crib), clothes for the baby to wear(we got roughly 8 billion pieces of baby clothes given to us by other people, so I dont know if you will actually have to buy any of this), bottles(if you are planning on going back to work, someone else will need to feed the baby), blankets(although I prefer sleep sacks, which are just blankets with arm and head holes that you can zip up. Blankets in the bassinet/crib can cause SIDS, so these are perfect.), diapers(cloth doesnt seem worth it IMO either, but I see how they could save money), car seat, wipes, lotion, shampoo, pacifiers...

A secondary cost is that the baby takes up so much time, you find yourself spending money in unexpected ways. You are too tired to cook so you eat out. You are too overwhelmed with a newborn baby so you dont have the time/energy to do any money making side projects. You use more electricity and water from washing baby clothes, washing bottles, washing pacifiers, keeping the heat up higher in your home so the baby isnt cold, etc... And of course, if the mother is working now, she will be out of work for at least 6 weeks, possibly longer. That means you have to temporarily(and possibly longer) survive on 1 income.

Save up a good buffer of funds for those first 6 weeks or so, because its so overwhelming taking care of a newborn that common sense can fall to the side.

Really though, if you are prepared, and you adjust your budget to the new reality, then the financial part isnt that bad. Assuming you have insurance, the birth isnt that expensive(a few hundred dollars), and family/friends offer lots of help with all the random stuff you need.

I would be more worried about being prepared mentally for the challenge of surviving the fist 3 weeks or so. That part was much tougher than I imagined.

The thing about the "one time" costs is that they keep coming.
The birth
A crib and car seat (bare minimum)
Cloth diapers. And then more when the baby outgrows the first size.
Clothes (you WILL get a lot of clothes as gifts and you can and should buy used clothes from yard sales and craigslist) and shoes as the kid outgrows them
etc.
Babyproofing doodads. (if you babyproof properly or even improperly, you probably won't have that much broken)

The baby grows fast at first, meaning a lot of these costs hit fast in the first couple years. But then as the growth slows down, the costs of individual items go up. E.g. you might get onesies for 50 cents, but outfits for age 2 cost one to three bucks used.

And of course, eventually the kid grows up enough to start asking for stuff, for instance their own room, or to participate in a sport or learn an instrument.

However, don't pay too much attention to those calculators about the lifetime cost of raising a kid. Almost every item except for the car seat you can get used. I don't know who buys all those new clothes and bouncers and cribs, but it doesn't have to be you! And as you know, a lot of the "needs" are just marketing.

A birth doesn't have to be cheap (it depends very much on your insurance) and the first few weeks don't have to be expensive (make some freezable meals ahead of time).

Good info. Yes, I'm asking about both one-time and recurring costs, specifically in the first year.

I'm thinking of taking a year off from work (since we're moving out of state and I'm leaving my job anyway) and I know that we can live on one income with our current needs, I'm just wondering how much extra I need to factor in for a baby.

Funny reactions to cloth diapers! I'm not too worried about them, my mom and MIL both did it. I'm all about composting and worm bins so I'm not afraid of poop and can't bear the thought of throwing away so much trash.

For the first year, ignoring the opportunity cost of not working, and assuming you breastfeed successfully, and assuming you don't buy a car (new or used) to fit the baby into, and assuming you have good insurance such that the birth only costs a few hundred... Yep, the baby is pretty cheap that first year, in my experience.

One bit of advice regarding the cloth. Depending on what brand and/or style you get, the baby may not fit in them right out of the gate. As much as I, too, hate throwing things away, you might want to get a couple packages of newborn size diapers. S/he will grow really quite quickly in the first few weeks, and grow into the small size cloth diapers before any newborn size cloth diapers have a chance to pay off (monetarily or environmentally).

our first baby is coming in a few months, so i'm in a similar boat.

-prenatal care/birth services will cost us several hundred out of pocket.
-speaking of healthcare/insurance, we already pay the "family rate" (the options were Single or Family, there was no rate specifically for me + spouse)
-some basic things for me have probably cost us a couple hundred (maternity clothes on sale or at consignment shops, some new slip-on shoes, etc)
-we're very minimalist so we've identified only a few basics that we consider absolutely necessary. i'll be returning to work, so a breast pump and bottles are a must. we have a car seat and a crib- seat was given to us and i hunted sales for months for the crib. we'll be using cloth diapers and wipes as well. we're honestly stunned at how much our small family and group of friends have given us already- i had to register for more, so they had ideas of what to send!
-i did not register for clothing. i have two very young nephews, so there are plenty of boy clothes in the family and my sisters are happy to get rid of it all.
-do some legwork on cloth diapers, there's a lot out there. we plan to use newborn disposables and have some disposable wipes for on-the-go, but we've found cloth diapers that are one-size and made to grow with baby.

We have a 4 month old that we adopted at birth, with only a couple of month's notice. We were able to get a lot of hand-me-down items, relatives scoured garage sales for deals, and we had a number of showers thrown for us. So, our "start-up" costs were minimal - maybe $250.

Our budget shows that we have spent about $150/mo for baby stuff, mostly diapers and formula. I lost about 6 weeks of income because of unpaid leave. Our health insurance is $160 / mo for baby. Childcare is $560/ mo. At about 6 months, we will have to buy a new car seat. Like someone else said, the thing with having a baby is that the "one-time" expenses come frequently. Our biggest expense is the actual adoption expenses, so we have tried to spend as little as possible on everything else.

Our water and electrical bills have gone up - more laundry, higher temp for heating, using more of our house and thus heating more space, home during the day when we normally would be at work, and leaving more lights on so we don't trip while carrying baby. We have spent more on gas because we have been traveling to see relative more, and some increased food costs because of eating while on the road and also hosting weekend guests.

One expense that I did not think about before hand was photos. Announcements, studio portraits, and our own prints for ourselves and relatives added up.

Disposable diapers are expensive, but cloth diapers can be too. We go through an average of 6 diapers a day. So, if you are using cloth diapers, you probably want enough for at least a couple of days between washings. For breastfeeding, you will probably want a good-quality breast pump. Sometimes this can be covered by medical insurance, so ask. You may also need to buy special bras and different clothes if your previous ones don't fit.

I will post more later but we are currently cloth diapering an have been successfully for a year.

We have had the most success with Grovia. Also have some pre-folds with covers too. We got some on clearance and some slightly used. You will most likely deal with disposables in the hospital (if you go that route I'll talk later since baby is starting to wake up now.)

Another factor is finding childcare where someone is accepting of cloth diapers (most will be turned off by it initially). our current sitter told us she had no experience with cloth diapers. A quick demonstration and she's actually told us it's easier as long as you stay on top of laundry. We have (I think) 10 covers and about 20 inserts and altogether I think the cost was around $200, but we also use flushable biodegrable liners which cost more but make cleaning up #2 a LOT easier. We wash and hang dry the ones where the kid just went #1 on them.

Also, START STOCKPILING CASH FOR THE HOSPITAL AND DOCTOR BILLS. We had a high risk pregnancy and the medical bills came out around $10000 when it was all over but if you have cash up front many of them will settle.

go to http://www.clarkhoward.com and he gives some advice on there about how to trim medical bills. I got our $5100 hospital bill cut down to $2900.

Also, the wife's aunt got us a bouncy seat for baby. We hated it when it showed up and didn't put it together initially but never got around to returning it with the gift receipt. Turns out that was a good thing the baby loved it and we could put him in it and he'd entertain himself for hours while we could get things done.

That's it i have to go feed baby now

update your health insurance as soon as the kid is born. you have to register with like 3-4 weeks of the birth so if there are any issues with the baby the insurance will cover their part (like a circumcision, for example.)

Cloth diapers also have different detergent needs and typically need to be hung dry, factor that into the equation.

Carseats expire, so if you get one used you have to find the manufacture date. Some jurisdictions if you get pulled over and they check the expiration date on the car seat you can get fined if it is past it.

Also, used cribs are okay as long as you know what you are buying. research recalls and other stuff. We got ours for $100 and it's fine but I know of others who tried to go secondhand having issues.

Get enough clothes to get you by the first few weeks but usually relatives (especially grandparents) and coworkers have a lot of hand-me downs and gets the job done.

Regarding carseat: At the hospital, they checked the expiration date on our carseat and confirmed that it did not have any recalls. They would not have let us leave the hospital with an expired car seat. But, I know of some hospitals that give out new car seats for all births. Check to see if your does this.

Regarding hospital costs: Circumcision is now considered a cosmetic proceedure and may no longer be covered by all insurances. Ours (Health Partners) will only cover the cost if it is deemed a medical necessity because of repeated infections, etc. If you are paying for it yourself, it may be $400-$600. Also, if you are going from single insurance to family insurance coverage, you may have a higher deductible.

A little off topic, but... Car seats expire and have expiration dates? Why would they expire?

Changing regulations, straps wear out from constant tension being in a car, technological advances would be my guess.

And doing a little more research i'm not far off:

http://baby.about.com/od/healthandsafet ... ration.htm