This may not be the best forum to ask this question in, but please bear with me! I have Googled and researched this question a lot but I haven't seen it tackled from a personal finance perspective.

Now that our CC debt is paid off, my husband and I are looking forward to starting a family next year - IF we can afford to! We are the first of our friends to think about having kids, and we are unsure how much money we need to save.

The bare minimum is $2000, because that's the total out-of-pocket expenses our insurance company will charge before they cover expenses 100%. I would think that the actual BIRTH part (meaning the delivery and hospital stay) is the most expensive portion of pregnancy but of course prenatal appointments cost $$ too. So I want to put $2k in our FSA to cover those medical expenses.

Ideally, I would like a fully-funded emergency fund of $2000 before we add to our pregnancy/baby savings account. I am well aware this means we may not be able to have a baby next year or even the year after. I'm just looking for some anecdotes about what has worked for other people here.

I will be returning to work after the baby's born, but my parents will be covering daycare so that won't be an expense. We plan to breastfeed, cloth diaper, etc. I'm wondering: how much money should we have socked away in our "baby fund"? How much did you start out with? I know babies don't need nearly as much as the Babys R Us-type stores of the world would like to have us believe.

So what's a good starting point for a baby savings account? How much would you need to feel comfortable getting pregnant?

it can cost whatever you like.

Our kids had old toys and clothes, but enjoy vacations over the ponds, piano lessons, outdoor activity etc. They don't have a wii or any other video game system. They also will have 4 year tuition (at a state school) saved for them.

You don't have to go to a hospital to have the baby either. Midwifery will save you oodles.

Everyone has at least one opinion on this topic.

Congrats on paying off your CC debt. I'm not sure if people are ever "ready" or can honestly say it is a good time "to afford" to becoming parents. That said...

We had a baby this year. Parenthood is a great adventure!

We spent about $2000.00 out of pocket on our baby before he was born. This doesn’t include the deductibles for insurance (about $2600). However, we also had 3 baby showers so we didn’t have to buy as many things as some people have to. And a lot of the items we were given we didn’t even use… Don’t forget your child will likely have to pay a deductable along with Mommy. And don’t bother buying clothes until after your last baby shower unless they are 50% plus marked down. People will give you plenty of those.

I. A couple of preliminary questions to think about:

A) What other debts do you have?

B) Is your family on a budget?

C) Fully funded E-fund of 2K? That is how many months worth of expenses? I would imagine 3-6 months of expenses would be a good place to be at to be considered “fully funded”

D) Do you plan on using a mid-wife or a doctor/hospital?

E) How many baby showers do you think you’d have?

F) Is your family planning on contributing major items (Crib, Car Seat, Mattress, etc.) or will you have to pay for that yourself?

G) Will you be decorating a room? If so you will need paint, decorations, etc.

II. Here’s the basic list we made for our baby. We didn’t actually get all these things but it is a good starting point. Especially the items that are bold.

1. Furniture

A) Crib or bassinet
B) Mattress
C) Mattress pad (2) – to avoid leaks
D) Crib bedding set
E) Fitted sheets (2 to 4) – You will want to wash these

2. Baby

A) Baby CDs with classical, lullaby, or fun music – Our son particularly enjoys Kenny G. Lol!
B) Receiving blankets (4 to 6) – This is what the baby will be in the first few weeks of his/her life.
C) Absorbent bibs (4 to – These are a life saver! I would say 10 actually would still not be enough
D) Booties or socks (3 to 6 pair)
E) Shirts and one-pieces (6 to
F) Bouncer seat or Swing – Some people have one or the other. We were given both.
G) Stroller – Our child is a couple of months old now and we still haven’t used this.
H) Rear-facing car seat – Can’t leave the hospital without one. This is where we carry the little one.
I) (If needed) Car seat base for 2nd car
J) (If needed) Sling or soft carrier – We found that we don’t particularly like these. Some people do.
K) Diapers – If buying disposable diapers Amazon Mom allows you to buy diapers at a 20% discount. For boys Pampers; for girls Huggies.
L) (If needed) If cloth diapers, plastic pants and/or Velcro® covers (6 to 12)
M) Diaper bag – We registered for 1 and got 4. The more the merrier. Keep an extra with diapers/wipes in the car.
N) Diaper and accessory organizers
O) Rash ointment and powder
P) Wipes (at least 2 packs at all times; don’t want to run out of these) – We prefer to buy in bulk.
Q) Washcloths (6 to
R) Gentle shampoo or body wash
S) Bathtub or contoured sponge
T) Hooded towels (2 to 4)
U) Baby Monitor – We live in an apartment so we really haven’t used the one we got.

3. Just for Mom

A) Prenatal vitamins – One a Day is what my wife took.
B) Maternity wear (pants, comfortable shoes, etc.) – for 1st, 2nd, 3rd trimesters, as well as post-delivery; wifey borrowed a lot of these as wow maternity clothes are so expensive!
C) Sleep pillow – Guys don’t generally like these but the ladies seem to love it. Very comfy to sleep in at night I hear.
D) Parenting magazine – helpful, my wife read these. I just went with the flow)

If Nursing:
E) Nursing bra – Cup sizes increase during pregnancy and especially if nursing.
F) Breastpump
G) Breastpads, shields, and cream
H) Lap pads (4 to 6) and burp cloths (3 to 4)

If Using Formula: (Keep in mind that not all women can nurse)
I) Formula

For Both Nursing or Formula
J) Nursing pillow and/or nursing stool
K) Bottles (6 to 8 of various sizes) and nipples

Bottom line Bichon Frise’s comment is true – it can cost as little or as much as you like. I agree with Bichon saving for children’s future is important as well.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful responses! I have also heard that there's no "magic" number. I think you raised several important points, especially about the emergency fund.

Thanks again!

It depends. HTH. The first year can be relatively cheap, since the baby doesn't need its own room, eats mostly breast milk (I don't have personal experience with formula but I hear it's expensive), and you can use cloth diapers which are more or less free once you pay the capital cost. You get most of the clothes as gifts and you can buy as many more as you want at yard sales for 50 cents a piece.

After that it goes up, though.

Didn't mean to run you off. Perhaps I get a little too excited about certain topics. Maybe I should've just responded with a couple paragraphs.

Any thoughts besides there is no magic number and the E-fund?

i'm just working out our costs for a new little one.

medical: roughly $1800 but this varies of course (and consider what if the pregnancy crosses more than one insurance year, i had to meet the deductible twice.) add in prenatal vitamins and whatever it takes to get you through the fun physical experiences. i am still consuming lots of nutrition shakes to keep up.
baby supplies: i don't even know. we spent a few hundred ourselves i guess. you can get a LOT at kids consignment swaps, that saved us a bundle. and people will give you things. lots of things. new and hand-me-down.
lost income during leave: obviously depends on what you make and how long you're home.
you will spend more on easy to prepare food early on, even if you fill your freezer with premade food. our grocery bills went up as my spouse made lots of little trips out for things instead of our usual occasional large grocery run. this also cost some gas money.
certified records cost us about $75.
you may pay more in insurance premiums to add another family member.

breastfeeding seems cheap, but you still need a pump and bottles to go back to work. cloth diapering is great, we love not buying disposables. there is a big up front cost (to you or to people who are giving you gifts!) but after that it's pretty cheap. there is a time investment, but it's not horrible if you get enough diapers to wash every couple of days.

we didn't wait for a numeric goal, or we would never have had a baby. we waited until we felt some job stability, felt generally comfortable with our finances and had made a nice chunk of progress toward savings goals.

Don't forget to account for the "costs" to your marriage, home life, and social life. A lot of parents-to-be think it's all going to be giggling babies and rewarding family time. But suddenly you are no longer the most important person in your wife's life. You will forevermore be second-fiddle to a noisy, smelly, demanding, ungrateful toddler. Your wife's identity will become "mother" first, "wife" second.

I'm not saying it's not worth it (that's an individual call) - I'm just saying be aware that your finances are not the only thing that are going to change drastically. A lot of couples are driven apart by having children.

This is actually a great point and very true. We had to pay a deductable and part of our co-insurance for 2011.




Yes, might need to adjust the budget and E-fund accordingly.




We spent on average 1.5 times during pregnancy on groceries. Mostly because we bought primarily organic groceries for the pregnant lady




Will pay more is more like it. Insurance went up $20-30 a month. Good thing I got that pay increase at the beggining of the year... Basically making the same thing now as I did last year.

Also don't forget the amount of added washing (electricity, water, detergent) you would be doing with the baby clothes, burp cloths, towels, and cloth diapers (if applicable).




This is also very true! We waited until I had secured a decent position with a company that had good insurance coverage. Then we adjusted the budget and savings accordingly.

A quick interwebs search indicates that formula costs $100 to $200 and a decent pump costs maybe $250. It would pay off in one or two months (and if for some reason you only needed a pump for two months, you can rent them for about $50 per month). You would need bottles for formula too so that's a wash.



Mainstream disposable diapers have gel or whatnot in them that soaks up an amazing amount of pee. So you need to change the diapers far less often (as in, more than twice as often). DW and I still use them but I don't think they are as much of a slam dunk as it seems. Also most cloth diapers come in sizes meaning that supposedly one-time up front cost keeps coming back as the child grows.

i wasn't implying that formula was any cheaper, just that breastfeeding isn't "free" as i had heard thrown around quite frequently when i was preparing for baby. there are also replacement parts for the pump, and i ended up having to get some better fitting inserts to improve comfort before i go back to work.

i suppose the diapering experience depends heavily on the type of cloth diapers you get, but the ones we have are made to grow with the baby from 7-35 lbs. our set of 24 is enough to comfortably do laundry every other day (for a 6-week old). we have the occasional blowout, but they are much less frequent than we had with the brand-name disposables. we'll see how they perform as he grows up.

regarding cloth diapering maintenance costs, i found that our local electric, gas and water rates and the cost of laundry detergent added up to an additional $190/year in utility costs for washing every other day. (i'm line drying this summer, so that reduces the electric- and we'll see what the bills add up to this year compared to my calculations!) meanwhile, regular priced huggies at the local target are $20 for a box of 72 diapers. we had a couple of these boxes, they lasted just under a week each.

certainly there are social and family costs. from the new baby trenches, it's hard work and it changes the marriage dynamic dramatically. sleep deprivation is rough. but anyone who doesn't expect these things is pretty short-sighted imo.

we were a high risk pregnancy.

Medical bills added up to be near $10000, the exact figure escaping me. Partially due to the kid being born in February, so we hit one years deductibles and then when the big bills came in at the end we had to meet another set of deductibles. The last month we were at the doctor 3-5 times a week and it was grueling.

there are going to be costs you didn't even think of. Transportation added up quickly. We garage sale and craigslist everything else and it was still $1000+ to get things started. You can get a decent breast pump cheaper than it costs to rent one from the hospital.

Negotiate the medical bills upfront if you can. I wish I had though of this before we got buried.

We got out of debt the day after our son was born only to get buried by the onslaught of medical bills. there will be bills for every test, nurse, etc every step of the way so don't think of it as being just one bill. There will be some things that won't be as bad due to the health care reform bill taking effect vs what we went through but it is still a tough go and very expensive.

Not to mention your life is going to completely change.

So FTM here - and baby isn't actually here yet, but is due in 10 days, so prep is mostly done.

To this point we've spent about $4000 during the pregnancy, of which ~$2500 was categorized as "Needs". The "needs" have essentially been the medical expenses so far, a pretty bare bones maternity work wardrobe for me, and a few baby supplies that weren't gifted. I wasn't brutal about the needs/wants designation, so we could have easily shaved another $300 or so off that. (The "wants" expense is mostly because our nursery has really really nice art that I love.)

In addition to that, as we made the decision to start trying, I started saving towards a $10k baby account. Idea being that I'm our only income and would need to cover my income while I'm out on leave and then working part-time for a while. That piece would really depend on your own situation and what you choose to do.

In my opinion the average cost of having a baby should oscillate between $4,000 and $5,000

Daycare is what gets you, but if you have a pre-arranged responsible person willing to do it for free, then that will save a lot of money.

Word of caution on that. It will work fine until your child is a year old or so, but at that time, if you have an only child, you will need to find time for your child to associate with other children. You dont need daycare to do that, but its the easiest way, timewise. Else you will have to network with other parents, etc...

We decided to put our child into daycare this fall in order to be around other children more, rather than just older folks and her parents.

As for costs, minus the daycare costs, its not too bad. Barely nudged the budget. Maybe $200 more a month at most, plus a few one-time costs(crib, car seat, etc...).

We had grandchildless parents on both sides of the family, though, so we received tons and tons of baby stuff.