Saving money for baby....

Babybear70 · February 2012

I'm just curious as to what you and your DH are doing to save money for baby? Anything special? Or at you just going to play it by ear when the babe gets here?

AprilAngie · February 2012

For maternity leave? for baby things? Im sorry not sure I undertsand your question.

We saved money before we got pregnant so we have money.

katmacwv · February 2012

For a few months before we got pregnant with DD, we started putting away the amount we were going to spend on daycare and estimated we would spend on diapers and formula each month. That way we saw what it was like to live without that money and it helped us save. This time, we're kind of flying by the seat of our pants;)

Babybear70 · February 2012

I guess just in general how are you saving money if at all. DH and I are in no way concerned about being able to provide for the little one, I was just curious if there were those out there who put so much away each month, or exactly what others plans were. Even after baby comes, will you continue to put money away or just eventually use your "everyday" money to provide for LO? Maybe my question was too open ended and really had no basis....I was just being nosey.

meangene · February 2012

Well, I was a dumb@ss and forgot to change DH's W2 after I did the taxes last year, so we got a pretty substantial tax refund. Tongue Tied

doggie mama · February 2012

We are adjusting a few things, just trying to get more organized so we can watch our money better. We've been married almost 5 years and still have separate checking accounts. So we are going to merge those and get a separate savings account. I think it will force us to be more accountable. We're looking at different phone plans, and will probably cancel the cable after the baby is born. We've also really been watching the heat, since ours is electric and that bill has been out of control.

nerdbaby · February 2012

We were both habitual savers before we got pregnant so we came in to our marriage with those practices/budgets in place. I find we tend to be in the minority among married couples we know, but we keep our finances separate, no joint accounts with the exception of a joint life insurance policy, and various other insurance/mortgage-esque things. Soo... we each have a monthly allotment that we deposit individually to cover any and everything that could come up.

khill86 · February 2012

I'm in Canada so my situation is a littttle bit different. I'll get 55% of my income for 1 year. We're planning on just incorporating regular baby-spending (diapers, wipes, special shampoo, soap, lotion, etc) into our every day spending and not dipping into savings. We're going to continue trying to save (obviously it won't be AS easy with only half of my income) but it won't be for anything specific.

Just think, your spending will most likely already be cut down while you're off work. You won't be paying for as much gas as before, you won't be out buying lunch, if you do, once you get into a routine, you'll probably be more likely to cook every day since you'll be home and not rely on a quick meal after a busy day at work, etc. I don't imagine that our monthly spending will be much different as a whole total. I'm also checking into whether it will make a difference in my car insurance to let them know that I won't be driving my car to work every day.

Beth1031 · February 2012

We are doing a few small things to adjust and save money

1) I am paying off my school loans before Lo arrives, that way we'll save on interest.

2) We had a savings account already set up, but we opened another for LO to save separately for him.

3) As soon as we found out we were expecting we re-budgeted and tried our best to live on just DH's salary and starting putting away more from mine and paying larger amounts on school loans (the only debt we have) to money put away and debt paid off. DH and I are savers anyway. We have also been cupon-ing and stocking up on diapers when we find good deals.

I know we will able to provide and take care of LO, I just like the security!

MrsT0522 · February 2012

We are trying to put all of my paychecks into savings, and just living off of MH's salary.

We are also cutting back on eating out/coffee for MH, breakfast on the go for me, etc. It's hard, but we just need to plan the night before for breakfast/lunches/snacks at work and then stick to eating at home for dinner.

We are making a list of budget friendly meals to make at home, like spaghetti, tacos, pizzas, etc so we aren't blowing our whole grocery budget on two or three meals.

We are also trying to stock up on things now, like a few cloth diapers, making our own wipes, looking for things on clearance/sales, etc that we can snatch up with each paycheck.

mkflower3000 · February 2012

We opened a separate account that's just for all things LO. We're putting pretty much our whole tax refund in there, and taking small bits of our paycheck and putting those in as well. We're also getting a whole bunch of things used and on ebay/craigslist (as long as they're in decent condition).

GreenMonkey1 · February 2012

We've been living on one income. I will still be working post-baby, but we figure this way we're used to living lean. Baby won't probably consume our second salary, but this allows for baby money and saving money.

expletive baby · February 2012

We are doing a few things to save. I get six weeks of paid maternity leave at 60%, so by my due date I hope to have saved that much as extra money to make up the difference. My husband is currently deployed so we are going to bank all of his deployment and additional pay. We also sold our paid-off car and put that money into investments. When winter comes, we'll have to buy another vehicle, but we had a Caddy so we'll probably downgrade and only spend what we can. I am hoping to only have to need part-time daycare, but we are also planning for full-time daycare so we will have enough to cover if worse comes to worse.

These things are a cash suck, man!

JFluvsJD80 · February 2012

We are just living on DH's income right now, saving up anything I get.

Other than that, paying off CC, watching our heat/gas/electric, etc and want to start buying diapers, wipes, etc while we see good sales.

PurpleSnapDragons · February 2012

We have been putting $500/month in a savings account since January 2011 along with a bulk deposit that Jan of a few k so that by May 2012 (the earliest we planned to have a kid) we would have about 12k saved, which according to my conservative calculations would cover all first year costs of babies life + gear except insurance and loss of wages. Then we got pregnant on our first try so we will be having our May baby!

My philosophy is that Baby will cost more than $500 month for diapers, formula if i can't bf, loss of wages for FMLA, daycare and insurance and that if we couldn't afford that much before baby, we had no business trying to have one.

I work full time and my DH is a full time student. We live off my salary and save most of his stipend. We are both savers and like living cheaply. We mostly only see movies at the dollar theater, we mostly cook at home, don't have cable and get most of our "entertainment" from Netflix and hanging out with friends. But unlike some we have no student debt or car loan, just our morgage which equals 1 year wages so it's not bad at all.

While on FMLA, we may stop depositing money into the savings account for baby and then once I go back to work, redirect at least some of that money to saving for babies college.

maggie1526 · February 2012

We also have been putting my entire salary into savings. It was a test to see if we could live off one income and a way to bulk up our savings more.

We are moving next month to a two bedroom apartment in DC (not a cheap area). So that extra 600 bucks a month might mess this plan up a bit...

manduhz · February 2012

this is baby #2 for us and we are in a different (better) financial situation since the birth of our son 2 years ago.

with this pregnancy, all medical bills will come out of our HSA (about 6K). we'll pay any difference with money from savings.

after baby 2's NT scan, i adjusted our budget.

we currently save $420/month for baby 1's "future"--2k in an ESA and 3k in a ROTH. i adjusted the budget to see if we could afford to start saving another $420/month for baby 2. we'll use that $420/month to prepare the nursery, pick up whatever items we might want for baby 2, etc., then once baby 2 is here, we'll keep saving that amount for baby 2's future.

why $420/month? i know it's on the low side of what is recommended (have you seen the projections of how much one would need to save monthly to fund their child's time at college??? INSANE!) but it seemed like a "fair" number to me. also, it's as much as we choose to afford at the moment.

why an ESA and a ROTH? we chose an ESA because we liked that it can be used before college--for private school tuition, etc.. we put the rest in a ROTH because i like that it doesn't have to be used for college (does that sound bad?). i like that if my husband or myself (or the kids) get sick or we need the money for retirement for some unforeseen reason, care for a parent, etc., it's still "ours". my husband and i both went to 4 year universities on academic scholarships. hopefully my kids will be as studious and will make up the difference!

obviously, these are our plans for now. as things change and we (hopefully) continue to improve our financial situation, i may not feel like the money needs to be "ours". at that time, we'll look at putting the money somewhere else. in the end, i'm very much aware that there might be a better way to save for our children's futures. after all, i'm merely a housewife and my degree isn't in finance!

Want a personalized experience?

Saving money for baby....

Re: Saving money for baby....

Choose Another Board

Search Boards