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Wow. My fiance and I are young and our little bundle was a bit unexpected so we know just how much a baby drains your wallet. I live in the midwest so the costs might be higher where you live.
Formula - $100 for 14 cans which lasts about a Nonth
Diapers - A pack a week each about $20
Laundry detergent - About $20 a jug which lasts a couple months depending on how often you wash
Daycare- My child wasn't in daycare but a friend of ours paid $500 a month. Yikes!
Baby food - $1 a jar, 3 more jars a day...
Clothes and shoes - Who knows!
Crib - $100-500
Swings - $50 - 200
Carseats - $100-30
Bottles, wipes, cloth diapers, bibs, toys, pacifiers, blankets, strollers, high-chair, shoes, utensils, plates....oh the list never stops!
Did I mention shots, doctors appointments, pictures and birthday parties?
It really varies.
You can spend a lot..or hardly anything at all.
Do you plan to breastfeed? Or giving formula. The later is expensive and you can spend easily a $100 bucks a month.
Also diapers, depending on how old the baby is (new borns poop like 8 times a day) can cost alot. A bag a week is pretty normal(20-30bucks). Go to costco and stock up there and you can save. Formula at Costco is cheaper too.
Child care for a new born is approx $700 a month where I live.
I would roughly say $100-200 a month but it goes down when they switch over to cows milk(and start eating the same food you eat) and youre not changing so many diapers so often.
Hope that helps a little :)
Okay I'm not a mommy and don't have advice, but in highschool for a "home ec" elective my teacher had us calculate the cost of having a baby and WOW. It's so expensive!
So to riff off of Mrs. Taylor- We're doing cloth diapers, so total investment was $300 + cost of detergent and water (estimated at 15 cents/load), so way cheaper than disposables. No formula for us for the first few months, breast milk is free! We haven't bought any clothes and just plan to use what friends have donated to us.
Car seat $230 Britax Chaperone
Stroller $75 BOB (sale and gift certificates)
Crib/bassinet- gifted to us
Storage containers/ dresser approx $80
My partner and I are splitting the year on staying home, so no childcare for the first year.
That's about it for us. We really don't believe in spending much on the baby right now. We're going to have plenty of expenses to come, and we're of the mindset that babies don't need a lot of stuff.
@bamboo: we had to do that project too! We had to research and project the cost of raising a child from birth to age 18. We didn't include college, health insurance, cars, etc. and the number was still insanely crazy!!
We'll be paying about $1000/month for childcare. :) Of course, we won't actually start until the baby is about 6 months old; until then, my husband and I are actually splitting time off.
For baby items, we could easily spend about $2000 if we bought everything new. Luckily, we have gotten a lot of hand-me-downs (crib, clothes, etc...) and the other big items were purchased for us by our super excited parents (car seat, stroller, etc...). We've spent about $200 at the moment stocking up on some baby supplies like diapers, baby wash, detergent, etc... I expect we'll spend another $200 - $300 finishing the nursery and stocking up before the baby gets here.
Let's see, as far as monthly baby costs go, we're budgeting $250/month on formula, diapers, food, clothes, etc... for the first year. We will be practicing infant toilet training and making our own baby food, though, so hopefully that will cut down on some of the monthly costs (we're aiming to spend more like $150/month). We also don't pay anything for medical care, so doctor's appointments, vaccines, prescriptions, and other medical expenses will be free.The other thing we have added into our budget is new savings amounts. $100/month for education and $50/month for birthdays, Christmas, etc...
Altogther, our monthly baby spending is budgeted at $400/month for the first 6 months, and $1400/month after that.
I loved this post from OMG Mom (AKA Mrs. Dumpling) on this subject!
http://omgmom.blogspot.com/2010/02/is-it-expensive-to-have-baby.html
Daycare = $500-$700 (depending on daycare!)
Formula = $15
Diapers = $35
that is roughly what I spend a month for the first year. i breast fed for a bit, but wasn't going to for a whole year. Then he started on babyfood, but it was like $0.60/jar and he would do about 2-3 jars a day. Car seat, stroller, all that stuff is just a one time thing. But, Dr appoinments add up! $70 at least every time we had to go, but it wasn't once a month.
@jeni- omg that post was hi-larious. and yes yes yes yes about insurance. I don't have a kid but I'm on private insurance and the guy didn't TELL me it doesn't cover maternity until I thought to ask like 6 mo after I had it. That would've been a big freakin kick in the pants if I'd not realized it and gotten prego!
My childcare is $200/week and I found that to be pretty much the norm.
Fortunately, our families were generous and we didn't have to buy much of the "big stuff" but I've gone through 2 breast pumps (my first quit on me - panic!!) purchased on my own and we're moving up to the bigger car seat now, also on our own.
We've also been fortunate to have tons of clothes passed to us and she has her entire summer wardrobe set, nothing to buy now! Except diapers and wipes - probably about $40-60/month.
Oh my gosh where do I start......
1. My son was on a combo of breast milk and formula ...Similac Neosure because he was born premature (4lbs 11oz) That milk was about $16 a can. The breast milk was free of course. Breast pumped was gifted but the cost was $300
2. Clothing was and still is expensive because my boy's a name brand boy. The price really just all depends on how much I buy. He probably averages about $3500 worth of clothes alone everytime the weather changes. Shoes are a whole other topic, we'll leave that where it is. Lol.
3. Diapers: nothing but Huggies Supremes diapers and wipes for him $20-$30 a case on the diapers depending on the count and about $10 a case for the wipes.
4. Stroller, infant carrier/car seat, pack in play/bassinet, swing, bouncer, walker, high chair, diaper bagx2....was all from Graco and matching...some of that was gifted but the total cost was about $1000-$1200
5. Crib, mattress, changing station, dresser, hamper...some gifted came out to about $2000
6. Baby food was less than a $1 per jar. We often bought multi-packs.
7. I used dreft laundry detergent or all baby on his clothing because he has sensitve skin and I think thats like $7 -$8 a bottle.
8. Bottles: Playtex Nursers about $5 each and he had at least 3 in every color and matching pacifiers $3 for 2 MAM brand
9. Toys...I couldn't even give you a number. I don't even remotely know where to start.
10. Blankets...he had those to match everything he wore. I can't even get numbers together for that either.
11. Daycare is free because I own it.
12. My son stayed sick so factor in buying fever reducer/pain relievers, thermometers, pedialyte, and so on and so forth.
So many other items .....bottom line...kids are expensive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll need to get the stats when I get home, because I don't have my budget book here with me, but according to the "Budget for Baby" class that I took, the average couple will spend ~$6,000 preparing for their newborn. So far DH and I have only spent about $2000, and we've been getting a lot of stuff second hand (like the crib, the changing table, etc). The majority of my costs have actually been for maternity clothes!
One thing a pregnant friend of mine mentioned that I don't see on any of your lists ... maternity clothes!! I plan to be working far into my pregnancy - whenever that happens - so I will need to buy clothes to be able to wear to work 5 days a week, plus clothes for weekends/sleeping etc. No clue what the cost would be, but definitely something I would consider budgeting for!
That question totally depends on where you live, whether or not your child will be in daycare full or part-time, etc.
With my son, I breastfed exclusively and stayed home the entire first year. My over generous family and friends purchased EVERYTHING needed for the first year. I was also given tons of baby clothing, so my expenses were really just diapers and the occasional fun outfit or small item, like a babyfood grinder. Also, I did not purchase any processed foods, made my own babyfood, so it really wasn't a lot.
With my daughter, we had to buy everything pretty much in advance, but our month-to-month expenses were still relatively inexpensive. I really think a lot depends on whether or not a person breast or bottle feeds, whether cloth or disposible diapers are used, etc.
@JeniRae: OMG mom's blog is HYSTERICAL! I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes!!! FI was like "what are you reading?"....so then I read it to HIM and he was dying laughing. What a hoot! Thanks so much :)
It can really vary. Will you breastfeed? Cloth diaper? Buy everything new?
This is a neat tool, cost calculator for your babies first year -http://www.babycenter.com/babyCostCalculator.htm
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My FI and I were discussing our finances and goals for the next couple of years today.....the topic of budgeting for a baby came up. We were trying to decide about how much we thought the average person spends a month on an infant....bascially I thought that would depend a lot on childcare costs, and FI agreed. Just wondering for all of you mommies out there what an approximate breakdown of your monthly expenses is for your <1 year old. Thanks so much!