How much will you spend for baby's first year?

k2k2tog · January 2014

There seem to be so many conflicting opinions out there about how expensive babies actually are, so I'm curious! How much do you plan on spending on the baby for his or her first year? Or, if you're a STM, how much did you spend on your first baby's first year?

Feel free to elaborate on how you spent that money in the comments. I'm curious to see actual numbers from your baby budgets if you're willing to share.

ETA: The first item in the poll is supposed to read 'less than $1000'. Fail.

k2k2tog · January 2014

Hmph. The first option is supposed to read 'less than $1000', but of course, I used the symbol instead of the words, so it thinks it's code. Anyone know how to edit a poll?

MrsRahl · January 2014

wareagle1220 said:
I have no earthly idea. We plan to breastfeed and cloth diaper. Hopefully this limits the out of pocket expense for the first year.

This exactly.

SecondTimeinMSU · January 2014

Does that include childcare? If yes than that would push me into the highest range. For one time stuff probably a few hundred dollars with the crib and carseat, most of the other stuff was gifts and I did good shopping for clothes second hand. Probably $150 a month in re-occuring expenses with diapering supplies, formula when I needed to supplement my pumping, clothes as he outgrew stuff, etc.

wtfisup · January 2014

If counting child care, $5k. If not, about $1500 or less.

Kc4mom · January 2014

It depends on what you want to include; all the baby gear you will need before baby arrives and if breast feeding, etc.
I voted 2K-5K, this is my 4th and I nursed all my kiddos. This one may cost us a bit more. We were not planning on having anymore given that my littlest is now 6 so we got rid of everything. Back to square one again.

alicatand · January 2014

I put $5-$10k because it's our first and we need to acquire all the nursery furniture and we plan on footing the bill for our big ticket items as we're not comfortable putting them on the registry. Also, with having to pay our 2014 health insurance deductible that will be a huge chunk as well.

edited for spelling

kittenslove · January 2014

I voted 5-10K, but after thinking a little more, I should have voted $10000+. The insurance alone is $2400 (right now DH and I are both free because I work for a non profit, but LO will make us a "family" so it is 200/month). Plus child care, the extra life insurance we are taking out on ourselves, the physical upgrades we are doing to the apartment for the baby, its adds up quickly.

MrsCase1 · January 2014

We were gifted with diapers the first year so that saved a lot. We also used mostly hand-me-down gear and clothes ( by choice, not necessity. I am frugal!) We did spend money to get a pack n play and a swing. Both cost us less than $500. I breastfed so that was nice and free. I used gift cards to buy a breast pump. Had I not had those gift cards I suppose we would've been closer to the $1,000 mark.

Valie18 · January 2014

LOs daycare alone will be 5000+. Ouch!

ETA: for 4ish months.

MamaTree17 · January 2014

Daycare alone put me in the over $10k bracket for just 8 months out of the first year.

JNerd · January 2014

Likely under $1k. Nursing and cloth diapers take up most of the expenses and we have most everything else from DS so don't need to buy much. The nursery will likely be the most expensive as I want to paint and decorate.

chickpea912 · January 2014

Uhm, if you're including childcare, just put me in the $10,000+ bracket.

tdf2010 · January 2014

I voted for the most expensive, but that includes daycare and the bills from the hospital. Otherwise, it would be in the $1k to $2k range.

tbmadeamistake · January 2014

Daycare takes all the money.

Eta: autocorrect is odd.

clee2009 · January 2014

Well when I factor in daycare and increased health insurance I am sure the number exceeds $10,000. Also, we purchased disposable diapers and switched to formula once I returned to work at 12 weeks.

I am hoping the amount will be a little less this time around since we already have clothes for a boy/girl, crib, bedding, etc. I am sure it will be close though!

flojo973 · January 2014

alicatand said:

I put $5-$10k because it's our first and we need to acquire all the nursery furniture and we plan on footing the bill for our big ticket items as we're not comfortable putting them on the registry. Also, with having to pay our 2014 health insurance deductible that will be a huge chunk as well.

edited for spelling

This. I think nursery furniture and other furnishings will be about $1500- 2000. And I fell in love with the UppaBaby Vista and I'm not comfortable putting that on my registry so I will just buy that myself. I also included daycare costs. I just think that there will be a lot of little expenses that will pop up that I can't even predict now, so I'd rather over-budget.

FutureMrsW9 · January 2014

If this includes furnishing the bedroom, buying all of the food (if BF doesn't work) and clothing and diapers, etc., and child care then yeah WELL above $10k, and that wouldn't even touch anything but the childcare part. Plus if you factor in lost pay from being out on maternity leave longer than what STD pays for then chalk it up. Babies are EXPENSIVE no matter how you dice it even if you buy used, cloth diaper, BF, etc. etc. It's another human. Think about how much it costs you as a human to function from day to day for a year - same thing only their needs are a bit different and probably more at this point.

ElTrain5 · January 2014

Oh shit, I didn't realize we were talking childcare too...Add me to the 10k plus than

k2k2tog · January 2014

For some reason, I always forget to add in childcare when thinking about budget. I picked $1000-$2000, because we're hoping to breast feed, cloth diaper, buy used, etc. to keep our costs down as much as possible. But, we're likely going to need to line up some kind of part-time childcare, since I'm planning on going back to school, which will likely run us around $500/month.

@FutureMrsW9, good point, though you if you're including lost wages in your budget, you have to remember to subtract day care costs from those lost wages since, by not going back to work right away, you're saving the money you would have been spending on day care. In my area, full-time day care runs around $1500-$2000/month on average, a decent paycheque for many.

FutureMrsW9 · January 2014

sempre_staccato Yup, I factored that in. I probably will only be able to take 3-4 months of leave, and about a month of that will be unpaid. Then baby is on to daycare, so there's not that much overlap for us. Same here with cost of daycare, it's insane - almost a second mortgage payment!

k2k2tog · January 2014

@FutureMrsW9 It is insane! My husband was talking to one of his coworkers, who has an 18 month old. He said 95% of her salary goes to childcare. She doesn't want to give up or put a hold her career so they just swallow the cost. Having babies is a sacrifice one way or another, whether you stay home or go back to work!

MNOpea · January 2014

I have no idea how much we really spent the first year.. We cd ($600 for our stash) but had a few months of disposables in there between the nb period, an awful yeast infestation that wouldn't go away, and for awhile night time diapers so that was probably another 100+ then we bought most of the nursery furniture out of pocket, I ebf so that was free and then did BLW but still bought things specifically for DS to eat.. We used a lot of hand me down clothes but also bought some new (always on sale). I also am obsessed with kids books and bought around 600 the first year (98% at yard sales etc) I guessed 2-5000 but I think we were probably closer to 3-4000

k2k2tog · January 2014

@MNOpea 600 books? That's amazing! Your LO must have an amazing library!

Pepper6 · January 2014

I hadn't really thought about it in an actual dollar amount, but since we are extremely lucky that MIL will be watching LO, we'll save quite a bit (we're still going to pay her, but it won't be as much as daycare).

rainstar752 · January 2014

We spent probably $18k on daycare at a center the first year (very HCOL area).

Diapers were about $40 per month, and once I switched to formula at 5 months, that was pretty pricey too, probably $20 every 10 days.

Other than that I can't think of any other major expenses beyond what we already had paid for all the baby's stuff/furniture/clothes/etc though most of that was gifted to us.

Lynnja616 · January 2014

I've had 2 and have no idea! I mean diapers are like $40-$50 per month and there are other expenses clearly...but hard to lump it all into one "baby" category. In our budget it's split up between diapers, clothes, food, healthcare/copays/etc.

MrsLabRat · January 2014

The delivery costs alone blow me out of the first bracket. Add on lost wages and daycare, definitely 10k+!

MNOpea · January 2014

@sempre_staccato
This isn't all the books (we have a small book case in the living room with some too) but here's the majority of his library
(Excuse the diapered boy, he doesn't always like pants lol)

rainbowdashh · January 2014

I would say $1000- $2000 for this one. We already have most of the expensive stuff left over from DD. But we do need a new carseat and if it's a boy, I'll probably spend a little more than I should on some new clothes. Other than that, it's just diapers and the $250 it costs to deliver!

LegalLadyBug · January 2014

If we're including health insurance co pays etc. it will be around $10,000 or more. If not, hopefully only a few thousand.

LegalLadyBug · January 2014

sempre_staccato said:
@FutureMrsW9 It is insane! My husband was talking to one of his coworkers, who has an 18 month old. He said 95% of her salary goes to childcare. She doesn't want to give up or put a hold her career so they just swallow the cost. Having babies is a sacrifice one way or another, whether you stay home or go back to work!

This. I don't even know when I will be able to get a job. Child care for a toddler and two infants is insane. I would essentially be working so I could send them to daycare.

ETA: I just looked up pricing at a childcare center in my town and it would be $2544 a month for my three kids!

Luna C · January 2014

I'm totally guesstimating, but I figured about $8k that first year -- that's mostly 2x/week day care at a pretty pricey facility so I can re-establish my freelance career. We're hoping to reduce costs by breastfeeding and cloth diapering, and later on, given my flexible schedule, making my own baby food.

Most of our big up-front expenses (car seat, etc.) will be taken care of before baby gets here, so I didn't include them, but that's probably another $750, pushing us close to $9k.

Neuron79 · January 2014

Child care alone ranges from $16,00-19,000 a year for the decent centers around us so I'm afraid we will blow the budget way out out of the water.

texasmama2014 · January 2014

Including the cost to actually deliver the baby... Up to $5000 right there... Plus around $650 per month daycare... Plus whatever we aren't blessed to receive at a shower (if we get one...) I know we won't need a crib, and I have several nieces/nephews to use other big items, but I would guess at least $9,000-10,000... Luckily we've saved for the hospital, and our budget has wiggle room as we pay down our debt, but still! Babies are expensive!!

Julie&Micah · January 2014

We spent probably more than I'd like to know! Hospital/dr bills and daycare being the majority of our costs. We do monthly budgeting though so I know it was never out of control and crazy or something. I hoping to spend a lot less with this one as we can reuse a lot of items!

skyview222 · January 2014

The baby will be in day care from about 8 weeks onward. It seems the typical infant day care in the area costs about $1200/month. So that will be $10,000 plus right there.

+breast feeding supplies, cloth diapering, clothes, furniture, health care, baby gear. I will estimate about $20,000 (with the majority of that being child care and health insurance)

Rkfishy · January 2014

Definitely more than $10,000 by the time you factor in (as many people have already mentioned) child care costs or lost wages if you're on maternity leave or a stay-at-home mom, hospital bill, health care insurance premiums and sick/well baby check ups, food (I plan to breast feed exclusively until we introduce solids and then supplement with breast milk), furniture, clothes and diapers. Kids are expensive!

Is anyone else starting a 529 education plan for their baby? (I'm including this in the first year cost for baby, even though it'll really be for the first 18 years.) It's a plan for college savings, the money in the account can grow tax-free, and each state offers a slightly different plan (some with additional tax benefits for residents of that state, like the NY state plan). You can sign up for any state's plan, even if you're not a resident of that state, you can change plan beneficiaries annually and roll plans over to siblings if one child doesn't use the money. (DH is the current plan beneficiary and we'll change it to the baby after it's born.). Other thoughts/ideas on college savings for baby?

k2k2tog · January 2014

Rkfishy said:

Is anyone else starting a 529 education plan for their baby? (I'm including this in the first year cost for baby, even though it'll really be for the first 18 years.) It's a plan for college savings, the money in the account can grow tax-free, and each state offers a slightly different plan (some with additional tax benefits for residents of that state, like the NY state plan). You can sign up for any state's plan, even if you're not a resident of that state, you can change plan beneficiaries annually and roll plans over to siblings if one child doesn't use the money. (DH is the current plan beneficiary and we'll change it to the baby after it's born.). Other thoughts/ideas on college savings for baby?

One of the first things we did after we found out I'm pregnant was go to the bank to move some money around in order to help us start saving more. While we were there I asked about when we could set up an RESP for the baby, which is a government sponsored education fund here in Canada. We'll be doing it right away and setting aside an amount each year to go to it!

FutureMrsW9 · January 2014

LegalLadyBug said:

@FutureMrsW9 It is insane! My husband was talking to one of his coworkers, who has an 18 month old. He said 95% of her salary goes to childcare. She doesn't want to give up or put a hold her career so they just swallow the cost. Having babies is a sacrifice one way or another, whether you stay home or go back to work!
This. I don't even know when I will be able to get a job. Child care for a toddler and two infants is insane. I would essentially be working so I could send them to daycare. ETA: I just looked up pricing at a childcare center in my town and it would be $2544 a month for my three kids!

I know what you ladies mean, it's definitely a hard decision to make. However, you have to think about the long-term benefits of going back to work. While most, or maybe even all, of your salary will go toward child care, you're still accumulating retirement benefits and 401k contributions, etc. You're still working so you would assume each year you're getting some kind of bonus and/or cost of living increase if not a promotion or two! Once the baby is 5+ the cost of child care goes WAY down so you no longer are feeling such a hit...and think about all of the extra savings and salary increases you built up over that time. It'll be a struggle for a bit, but it's the smart financial decision in the long run.

How much will you spend for baby's first year?

How much will you spend for baby's first year? 185 votes

Re: How much will you spend for baby's first year?

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