to think £5200 is a ludicrous amount to spend on a DC's first year?

[dustbunniesmakegreatpets]

According to this article, it's the average amount. Does that seem crazy/incredibly unlikely to anyone else?

I know we spent nothing like it but then we've always been very cheap careful.

It includes a grand on baby food and formula fgs, which surely must be a maximum, rather than an average, given all those who bf and don't buy bespoke jars? And 800 quid on toys (not including bouncers - they're in a separate section) - surely this is unusual?

Oh yes and two monitors (one for listening and a breathing one) so that's another £150. 3 x grobags at about £30 each so close to another £100.
I seem to be getting closer to it!

Loving, you need to be introduced to the wonders of ebay, fast! Or failing that TKMaxx. £30 on a grobag!!! Madness.

I forgot a couple of items:

Highchair £30
Portable high chair £20
Top cot changer £20
Footmuff £30
Monitor £70

But that still leaves the total to under £2000.

I didn't spend that much and I had twins! Mind you, I got a lot of donated bits, gifts and second hand.

It was the nappies and formula that cost a lot, as I was having to buy many of each on such a regular basis.

DC3 here due any day, i spent 500 quid the other day on muslins, nappies, nipple cream steriliser etc, just bits so yes i would think it is easily done.

Have also coughed up a small fortune to hopefully make birth go smoother, hypnotherapy, birthpool, treatments, yoga classes probably nearly knocking on a grand

I was amazed by the £800 quoted in the Guardian today as the really frugal amount this couple spent during the first year...

I'm sure we spent a fraction of that with DD1, maybe the biggest cost was the heating bills as we wanted to keep our home warm. To be fair we got given LOADS of stuff: moses basket with bedding, lots of clothes (didn't buy any clothes for ages), sleeping bags, a sitter, toys, books, a baby carrier etc.

We bought a cot from ebay for £50 which came with lovely cot bumpers. No car = no car seats. No buggy until DD1 was one, then bought one for 60 euros. BF so no formula. When DD was weaned we did BLW so her food cost almost nothing.

Nappies, wipes, sure but they aren't that expensive...

5000! Can I send DD back, I never budgeted for that! Thankfully we've not spent anything like that, even with DP's new found Buggy habit (3 bought by 5 months!)

I can't really see how you do, but there's still a lot of the year to go.

Oh year, a highchair but that was £27 from John Lewis. And a travelcot which was about £60.

I would guess we spent around £1500, but I would include maternity clothes etc in that as they were caused by the baby, plus lots of extra electricity for all the washing! We also were the first in our family and circle of friends to have a baby, so didn't get many hand-me-downs and I was a bit wary at first of buying second hand if I didn't know where things came from. I also have a huge baby who is in a mix of 9-12 and 12-18 clothes at 6 months, so we have had to purchase lots of things in his first year like more clothes and a bigger car seat that really should be second year things!

travel system £550* plus extras £200
second car seat £150
maternity clothes/bras etc £250
cotbed and mattress £250*
blankets, sheets, grobags £100*
clothes £200 (complete guess)
nappies cloth £150
nappies disposable £200
high chair £80
bouncer £75
bumboo thing £40*
huge cupboard thing for his room £200
decoration of his room £15
electric/water/gas for more heating etc £100 (guess!)

Lots of stuff* were gifts so I wasn't so careful about price!

Oh, actually I just forgot. We are way over the average. We had to buy a new car: £7k ish as a car seat wouldn't go in my old car safely. So we went way over average!!

Actually, just added all my up and it's easily over £5K .

I remember hitting John Lewis 17 years ago and buying everything we needed to start including a pram and a cot for about £600. I can still remember the lady trying to sell me all the accessories for the pram and telling me how important it would be to have a footmuff and sunshade in the exact matching fabric and looking askance at me because I said I didn't think the baby would be all that bothered. I also remember being stunned about five months later when I did buy a footmuff, raincover and a sunshade and together it came to over £100!

DS was quite a sickly baby with lots of respiratory tract problems and the very expensive rocking/nursing chair my dad bought was a godsend especially as dd was much the same. It is still my favourite chair and lives in the kitchen living area - admittedly now recovered - not an essential I have to admit but a very welcome luxury for all the nights when little babies would only sleep upright because of their chests and manky ears.

Oh my god, this is really frightening me! DH and i have a very limited income and by the time the baby comes we will have saved up 500 (which has meant no meals out, takeaways, trips to the cinema, new clothes etc for over a year).
How can a travel system cost 550 plus 200? that is more than we paid for our car.
Hugely panicked.

Onlinefriend, the second pushchair I bought was 2nd hand when my DD was about 4 months old. I got it for £30 and it was much better than my first one, just research the type of pushchair you'd like and keep an eye on ebay and gumtree etc.

onlinefriend seriously it doesn't! we bought a new carseat suitable from birth to pretty big for 120, we got buggys from ebay for 50 quid for two of them. We only bought a few things new - a cot that could hang off the side of the bed that was 75 quid. The stuff expense can be avoided, and see if your family can help out with gifts there.

But no you absolutely do not need to spend lots on a travel system, and I think it's only if the system really fits with your life is it even useful to spend the extra money.

I think we must have spent somewhere over £1000 in the whole of the first year with DD1, but wasn't writing it down at the time.

We got lots of clothes given by a kind colleague of DH, so didn't have to buy much clothing (although I did get a bit) - probably £100 worth over the first year.

We got an expensive pram - £250, but then a second hand sling for £10.

Lots of stuff we bought second hand - high chair, moses basket, cot, lightweight buggy, baby bath, nursing chair - prob got the whole lot for around £100. But then had to spend loads on a new mattress.

No idea what I spent on food - didn't buy any formula but did have to hire a hospital breast pump for several weeks at I think £25 a week.

We used cloth nappies but can't remember what they cost.

However we have spent very little on DD2 - a bit on clothes as she was born in a different season and needs more warm cardigans.
I have bought an expensive electric breastpump, and a new highchair (cheapo from Ikea), and again had to pay through the nose for a new mattress for her cot and moses basket.
And we took her on holiday so spent a fortune on her passport
But mostly she uses DD1s old stuff, including her washable nappies - definitely saving loads there.

Cailin, can you buy actual Grobag grobags from TK max? I have always bought them from either Grobag themselves or John Lewis. I wouldn't want to put my newborn in second hand sleepwear from Ebay tbh. It's not like buying a second hand pram or cot.

Onlinefriend, try not to worry. You can get lots of things as bargains and you don't need half of what most parents buy such as baby bath and moses baskets. Babies can go straight into the cot from birth and cot prices vary dramatically.

I did think the £200 we paid for the infant car seat and base was a lot considering what a short period they use it for. At least they get a few years out the second one.

strandedbear, you buy secondhand and should you be forced to buy new you buy 2 sizes too large. And you save it all for the next child. I think 90% of my firsts clothes were second hand. I didnt see the point of new given they grow so fast.

online, you also dont need secial cot sheets or moses baskets sheets. Normal sheets work but tucked under.

I think you'd be surprised - £5k sounds a lot but some of you are closer than you realise (if you add your lists up properly....)!

We were relatively frugal with the big stuff, quite a lot 2nd hand, no special furniture for the room (everyone else I know had the whole nursery kitted out in special nursery furniture), that was about £680 (biggest part was the travel system). But there was loads of little things that really added up - cot sheets, moses basket sheets, muslins, blankets, monitor, dummies, nappy cream, vests and babygrows etc. At 6m there was a sudden new big outlay (the 2nd hand stuff stopped coming) - highchair, travel cot, new bath sheet, later THREE new car seats (one for each of our cars plus one for my mum's).

And although I BF until 8m, when weaning I spent quite a bit extra on vegetables for the first few months (butternut squash etc not cheap...) not to mention things like yoghurts etc.

So while I think I am less than average as I had a smaller initial outlay than most of my friends, I suspect I am getting close to £5k if I could go back and work it out.

I know someone who apparently spent £10k just on the nursery, so she is skewing the figures too!

strandedbear we've spent ~60quid and we're halfway through the year (I can tell because all but one of the items was bought at Tesco) we'll probably need another couple of packs of baby grows so I'm sure it'll reach 100, but it's not going to be loads more. We've been given clothes as gifts for sure, but not that many and I can't see more than 200.

50 quid on a Nappy Bag? We got a free one from some place (boots?) but it doesn't get used much anyway we had plenty of other bags which are fine, that's just a waste of meny. Sure you could spend it - you can easily spend 5000 on a baby, just like you can spend 50000 on a car, but 5000 will get you something that works well and 500 will get you something that works just about.

strandedbear - we spent way less than 200 on clothes. We dressed DD in a babygrow with one of those long baby grows over the top until she was 9 months every day. The other dressy clothes we had we bought from the charity shop or the car boot. I never picked anything up without thinking about it as couldnt afford it. I did have 2 dressy outfits I bought off ebay for 3 pound each one was a monsoon dress. I bought those for her free bounty photos at 6 months and 9 months.

I would say I spent under 50 on clothes for first year. You live in a different world to me if you spend 50 - 60 on a nappy bag every parent I know uses the free one you get when you join the boots advantage parenting club. It gets confusing at my nursery as there are loads of them, so we started putting keyrings on them

I am that such a short article can manage to get co-sleeping, breastfeeding, baby led weaning, doulas, reusable cloth nappies, and cot deaths all in there....

Actually, I can see how it happens if you take into account absolutely everything. I imagine the retail value of all the stuff we got was prob £5,200, but I am an avid e-bayer so travel cot, travel system, Grobags etc all second hand.

I also got lucky and a friend of a friend gave me a Stage 1 car seat and various friends with older kids gave me other bits and pieces- pop up travel cot, swim ring etc.

online A lot of stuff is actually really not necessary. Write a list of what you really need and look on ebay, freecycle etc for cots/pushchairs etc

Strandedbear, a lot of the stuff you mention just isn't essential.

And are there really people who don't get anything handed down by friends and family? Or are you one of those people who have to buy everything new?

Your list...I'm sure John Lewis babygros are about £10 or less for a pack of five (bought many from there later on). Pram - you don't necessarily need a pram. Car seats - depending on where you live, a car and car seats are not essential for everyone. A moses basket isn't essential - a baby can sleep with the parents or go straight in the cot. Formula, bottles, steriliser - why do you see that as an essential? Baby equipment: gym? Oh dear...

If you can afford it, why not? But you really don't have to spend that kind of money! I guess most people are such model consumers for whom shopping is a practically their raison d'etre!