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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

130 replies

dustbunniesmakegreatpets · 15/11/2011 09:41

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?

OP posts:
Halbanoo · 15/11/2011 11:16

Private, planned c-section can drive up that number fairly quickly too Wink

lovingthecoast · 15/11/2011 11:16

Molly, my DC4 is 6wks old so and my nappy bag which I used with the other 3 was on it's last legs so we went to John Lewis to look at a new one. Straight away DH said to me, 'don't even bother looking at this third shelve as we are not spending £300 on a nappy bag!' There was about 5 or 6 bags all costing upwards of £200. So £40 or £50 sounds like a pretty good deal for one these days. And obviously that means that plenty of people are spending £200+ on the nappy bag alone.

vj32 · 15/11/2011 11:18

If you add everything it is way over £5k - if you are thinking about cost of a baby rather than how much you spend - loss of earnings, extra utilities, little extras you just pay like cost of hospital car parking. Maternity clothes/nursing bras/after baby clothes are really expensive.

Plus some people spend hundreds on those baby courses - baby swimming for a year is £750 or something if you go through one of those swim schools, baby sensory/dance/music. Even if you only go to your local pool and spend a few pounds a time, baby activities are quite expensive if you do something every week.

It also depends if you plan on having a second - in some cases we have spent a bit more to get something that is better quality that we know should last for two children.... the loft is rapidly being filled up.

KalSkirata · 15/11/2011 11:19

why buy a nappy bag? Any bag can hold a change of clothes, nappy, bottle, wipes etc. I used some tassled hippy bag that was a fiver. It had a long long handle so would fit over the pram (Maclaren umbrella fold from birth) handles. It is just to hold napies!

molly3478 · 15/11/2011 11:20

Yeah but it isnt essential and I wouldnt say its even normal. I have never seen it happen and dont think its that widespread and have worked in different places around the country in early years settings. Never seen anyone with an expensive looking nappy bag, probably another of those mental london things you see on here!

lovingthecoast · 15/11/2011 11:21

MarianneM, you said,

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?

Not everyone has family and friends to pass things to them. DH and I have no family, my kids have no GPs, aunt or uncles and we were the first of our friends to have babies so needing to buy everything yourself isn't necessarily indicitive of being a dream consumer.

MarianneM · 15/11/2011 11:21

I was trying to think, what is a nappy bag, and oh, you mean a bag you take with you for the baby stuff when you go out? Do you need a special bag for that?! I just used my (large) handbag or an old backpack for the baby paraphernalia. Good grief, why do people buy this bollocks retailers want to sell us such as special "nappy bags" Hmm

And if you have a pram or a buggy - don't they all have a basket at the bottom where you can put stuff?

StrandedBear · 15/11/2011 11:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

vj32 · 15/11/2011 11:23

MarianneM: I think people's ideas of what is essential do vary. But if you have a car, a car seat is essential. Somewhere for the baby to sleep safely is essential, a pram is essential if you can't carry the baby all the time for whatever reason... there is lots of stuff that you just have to buy.

And I got one box of baby clothes 'handed down' to me from a kind person at work, that was it. We had to get everything ourselves.

That said, I do like shopping. But, I was genuinely surprised how good supermarket baby clothes are.

StrandedBear · 15/11/2011 11:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

lovingthecoast · 15/11/2011 11:24

Not London but we're in Sussex so technically SE. Before that we lived in Cheshire and believe me, £200+ for a nappy bag was most definitely the norm. I'd say in all seriousness that 80-90% of all prams were £800+ bugaboos with many being those limited edition 1k+ ones. We used DS1's pram for the girls so didn't quite fit in! Grin

MmeLindor. · 15/11/2011 11:26

If you buy everything new and want very good quality then I can believe that.

Cot and matress - ?500
Pram - ?500
Car seat ? 80
Car seat (second stage) ?80
Formula ?150
Bottles and steriliser ?150
Nappies ?500
Clothes ?500 (totally rough guess and we got loads of presents)
Toys ?200
Highchair ?250
Travel cot ?80
Shampoo, dummies etc ?100

So more than ?3500 at a very rough guess. And that was almost 10 years ago.

Who said ?200 for nappies? I used to pay about ?20 for a box of 84 nappies that would last about 2 weeks (sometimes more) so that would make ?10 a week. I would say ?500 for nappies is realistic.

At the end of the day, you can get a pram for ?50 at a car boot sale, and a cot from eBay for next to nothing. If you are on a strict budget you can save on the big expenses by doing this.

Although I have to say that anyone who buys something like that Babydam is just daft. You'd be better off with a baby bath and at least you can use it as an ironing basket later.

daveywarbeck · 15/11/2011 11:26

formula - nope
bottles - nope
nappies - nope, not after initial outlay of £100 on cloth
clothes - mostly borrowed/gifted/second hand £200 about right for what we actually bought
steriliser - nope
nappy bag - nope, came with the pram
2 car seats - nope, borrowed

molly3478 · 15/11/2011 11:27

Depends on the area then because the areas I have lived it is definitely not the norm or even happens at all. Its either that boots bag or a normal bag.

MmeLindor. · 15/11/2011 11:28

Marianne
" Formula, bottles, steriliser - why do you see that as an essential? "

Well, it was pretty essential for me as I didn't bf.

And I would say a pram and car seat are essential otherwise I would have hardly been able to get out of the house.

MarianneM · 15/11/2011 11:30

an expensive baby monitor with the sense pad/camera built in

Stuff like this as well - why Confused

Is it so you can put your baby in its own room at one end of the house while you are at the other end as per the English obsession of putting a baby in their own bed/room/annex when it's barely out of the womb?

molly3478 · 15/11/2011 11:32

I didnt even know they made baby monitors with cameras!

MmeLindor. · 15/11/2011 11:34

Marianne
Some people have lost babies to cot death, or know those who have and the monitors with cameras and sensors give reassurance.

daveywarbeck · 15/11/2011 11:35

My £10 tixylix monitor is still going strong after 4 years.

Forgot about the boots club bag, I did have one but I think I gave it to someone else because my pram included a bag.

Cheshire is just like Planet London really, isn't it?

youtalkintome · 15/11/2011 11:36

This is all a bit pointless, surely the point is you can spend as little or as much as you want but that the national average is £5200.

Everyone's essentials are different Confused

MarianneM · 15/11/2011 11:36

MmeLindor - sleeping in the same bed/room with your baby and generally being close to your baby is a much more effective way to reduce the risk of cot death than bying a monitor.

quornsausages · 15/11/2011 11:36

Sorry, I just did my calculation again (I think the calulator on my computer was not registering the clicks on my mouse at times - that's my excuse anyway!) it's just over £3000 for us and I'd say I'm pretty tight at times.

MorallyBankrupt · 15/11/2011 11:36

It does piss me off when people are all holier than thou with 'oh no we spent nothing like that as we were given so much'.... Well bully for you! Not everyone actually has family who buy everything you need. Some people actually buy everything themselves. So maybe the figures aren't based on people buying their DC a diamond encrusted pram. Just on people who don't get bags of gifts!

MmeLindor. · 15/11/2011 11:38

Oh, and I had the matching nappy bag and even the stupid parasol for the pram.

Of course you don't NEED it, but we thought we did. I would not buy one now, but that is the benefit of hindsight.

It is silly though to say, "Oh, how ridiculous. NO ONE could possibly need to spend that kind of money on a baby's first year".

Some people do. Some people don't. It doesn't mean you have to.

Same as some people drive a Renault, some a BMW.

elliejjtiny · 15/11/2011 11:38

I bought nappies (disposeable and cloth), a sling on ebay, paint and offcut of carpet, few clothes mostly from ebay, baby swing, jumperoo, few toys, few jars, couple of bottles, cups, bowls, spoons etc. We bought a new buggy when the one we got given fell apart. I think that was it for DS1. Everything else we got given, mostly second hand but inlaws got us a new car seat and my mum and dad got new mattress and bedding for the cot and a changing table.

DS2 got all the hand me downs. We bought him a bumbo (athough that was after his first birthday so not sure if that counts). We bought him a few new clothes because he was born in a different season. He had more bottles and nappies, new cups because ds1 had used his as a teether. We bought a double buggy.

We spent the most on DS3 because we needed a car that fitted all 3 children in the back. He had nappies, a bouncy chair, few new clothes, couple of new toys, few new bottles and a sterilizer.

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