Bringing up baby - the first year; how much does it cost?

[Hulababy]

BBC article

The total average figure of £3,605 for the first year of a baby's life included:


£610 on formula milk and £360 on baby food
£550 on disposable nappies and £346 on clothes
£248 on a pram and £234 on a cot and bedding
£168 on nursery furniture and decorations
£150 on toys and accessories

The cost of childcare and the impact of lost earnings were not included in the total.


What do you think?

[beansmum]

sounds like quite a lot, i spent less than £500 on all my baby stuff, including cot, carseat and pushchair. have spent about £50 on clothes so far and ds is nearly 4mths. didn't buy any nursery furniture and don't buy formula. just spent £200 on a breast pump though!

imagine the total if childcare was included! ds starts nursery next week and its £520pm

[yingers74]

I think it is about right, but of course if they added childcare it would be far more. When dd used to go to nursery, we paid 1000 pounds, madness, London is so expensive. Another reason I left work.

[Hulababy]

Been thinking about it and I suppose we must have payed more!!!

Pushchair was dearer, but bought when pg not in first year

Cot, mattress, bedding and year's Grobags would have been more.

No nursery furniture as such so less there, but what about highchair, rocker chair, baby bath and bathroom stuff, sterilser, bottle heater, etc.

We only were able to BF until 6 weeks so formula would be on there too - along with bottles, etc.

Clothes - not sure, wouldn't like to think but did get bought tons as well anyway.

Toys - hmmm, difficult to think. Including Christmas then yes, probably - and maybe more!

My word, it's a dear thing isn't it!?!

[Hulababy]

Yes, childcare would be a biggy wouldn't it. Dd only goes two days a week - but she went from 20 weeks and at £28.50 a day it adds up. Plus I gave p FT to go PT, and only had half pay during mat leave.

[coppertop]

I don't have an exact figure but we spent a lot less than that in ds1's first year. As ds2 inherited a lot of ds1's things we probably spent even less the second time around. The pram and cot were both less than £100. I bf ds1 for 4 months and ds2 for 6 months so I suppose that cut the cost of formula. Baby food was always homemade so I never bought jars. Friends and relatives bought/gave them a lot of toys so I'm not sure how much was spent there. We didn't need nursery furniture so that saved money too.

As no-one has ever done any babysitting for us we didn't have any childcare to pay for either.

[tassis]

Exclusively breastfed, so no formula costs. No way food cost £360 - I didn't really notice a difference in my weekly shopping bill. Nappies are dear, but ds mostly wore clothes we'd been given as gifts or hand-ons. Probably spent more on pram, ( plus stroller) , cot and bedding. Didn't spent much on toys. Didn't go back to work until ds was one, but that involved considerable loss of earnings.

Also carseats (1x first size and 2x next size - one for each car), crib, backpack, sling, bumbo, highchair, babywalker, door bouncer, baby gym, Galt inflatable ring thing, booster seat, travel cot (lots of these were gifts or hand ons).

[fruitful]

That £3,605 must also include another £900 or so that they don't itemise.

I keep track of our spending in a computer accounts program so I just looked up what we spent on dd's first year (including the stuff we bought for her before she was born) and bizarrely it came to £3,610! Call me Mrs Average... The breakdown is different though - didn't spend on formula, didn't spend anything like that on food. Spent about that on nappies but they were cloth so big saving in the second year.

Lets hope no2 is a bit cheaper.

[Fennel]

I also kept records the first year having read those articles about the huge cost. Not including childcare, lost earnings etc it comes to £1,500 for the first year of first child (just call me cheapskate ).

That doesn't include food but it was mostly homemade, and most milk was breastmilk (it also doesn't include all the chocolate I ate while bf) It does include:

£340 on washable nappies (still using the same ones on dd3)
£200 new buggy
£100 Tripp Trapp chair
£100 car seat
£300 dishwasher

most else was passed on by friends or bought secondhand.

[roisin]

Why include the dishwasher Fennel? Actually I often encourage friends that a d/w and a reliable w/m are far more important pieces of kit for a house with a new baby, than the latest trendy pram or whatever. But I wouldn't expect them to itemise it as 'baby expenditure'.

[Fennel]

Roisin, we only bought it because we had a baby and were expecting another. if we'd not had two babies close together we wouldn't have felt the need. so that's why I included it here.

[Flik]

I heard about this article to. The thing is, if you did'nt have baby then all that money would have been spent on clothes, going out, holidays etc. I still do those things now but choose the cheaper options. The bonus with baby is that life time guarantee of love that goes with it. ( Course, the labour pain sleepless nights and less of a social life over shadows that a bit sometimes, but you get over it. Eventually )

[Uwila]

I think these quotes are all too low. A lot of things weren't included here because someone else bought them and then gave them to you. But, they still had to be purchased. How many people had to buy a bigger house to accommodate having kids? Probably everyone. Truth is kids are really really expensive... but they are of course worth it because they are sooooooo cute.

[Tinker]

Um, don't think I spent anywhere near that. Cot was given to me, as waas bedding (did buy a mattress) Pushchair bought by friends for me (and will be used again . Didn't add up nappies so assuem that's right. Food - didn't notice, nearly all homemade. Nothing on "nursery" furniture. Prob toys and accessories right if include Christams and birthdays.

Certainly didn't buy another house! From being a one person 2 bedroom house, it's changed to a nearly 4 person 2 bedroom house. Still can't see us buying another one yet.