Babies aren't expensive

[ImYourMama]

Hi all, I'm hoping you can help. I'm new to Mumsnet and I'm 22 weeks pregnant with first baby. So far myself and DH have bought everything we can think of she'll need, in the summer sales. We've not paid full price for anything! But I'm worries about costs when she's here.

Everyone says it's so expensive having a baby, but I can't work out what will change aside from buying nappies/wipes and possibly formula if breast feeding isn't successful. We can just about manage on maternity pay and DH's wage if these are the main expenses, but am I missing something? I always thought babies were as expensive as you wanted them to be?

Is it more when they get older?

Please help, I want to be financially ready and I feel like I'm missing something obvious

It's £32 for a jumper. Buying 2 each per child is £128 alone

Some schools bits can be bought from supermarkets but usually still need particular logo jumpers or pe tops at least. Add in a logo blazer or dress and the costs mount

School shoes aren't cheap. A black pair from clarks or similar at now £40-50 per pair. That's regardless of where you go to school. If you have 2 children, or more you can see the costs mount

Yes, school shoes at £50 a pop. Ds1's were £55!

YY to secondary school uniforms costing a bomb.

My oldest is off in Sept. to a state academy with a specific uniform, and it's cost about £150 for the basics (such as skirt and blazer) and PE kit.

No 4 quid cardies from Asda at secondary.

A quick glance on m and s for school supermarket clothes shows £11 for x2 polo tops and £14 for one plain cardigan. So a whole uniform for 1 child as you can see is t cheap. Times that by multiple children and the costs mount

Try 3 pairs of size 11 school shoes.
11 adult I mean.
And they need to be not "sad" but also comply with school rules.
And I do like them to last more than a month.

Then we need massive trainers, massive football boots, massive rugby boots...

I

And no teenager ever wears a coat, but you still end up forking out for them.

£700 for school uniform is probably top end for a state school. but not that unusual at secondary I don't think.

Supermarket uniform isn't that cheap once out of primary and the DC often have strong opinions about what they're prepared to wear. Even state secondaries often have some items only available from their own supplier e.g. logoed jumper or blazer and they'll often need more than oneset of sports kit e.g. football/rugby, gym and track etc.

Babies are relatively cheap.

Children, on the other hand, will make you poor!
School uniforms, clubs, trips, clothes, the mountains of food they eat, gadgets, toys, bikes, presents for the endless parties they go to, phones, keeping them amused in the summer holidays.....I could go on!

Totally worth it though. Skint and happy is the way to be!

That's were we are Cantusethatname. Size 11 men's sports shoes that will be barely worn because DS only does the sports he has too. Still has to have the right kit for PE on a rotation of different sports though. . Haven't bought him a coat in 3 years though

£700 was for two sets of uniform and shoes not each. So £350 per child. That's roughly £240 on uniform, and £110 on three pairs of shoes each. I don't think it's exortionate for what we had to get

School tshirt £9x5 35 X 3 kids £105
Shoes £50 X 3 £159
Trainers £50 X 3 £150
Astros same £150
Blazers £25/30 each
Skirts or trousers £8 each
PE hoodie £17 girls rugby shirt £19 boys
Pe shorts £10 or skorts £17
socks £5 pair
Backpacks £30 each
Stationary
(Don't mention bloody tights!!)
Underwear and knickers and swimming stuff

School dinners £3 daily £15/£45 per week

Plus donations for dress down/fates/

Ski trip (not going) £1400
Spain 4 days £800
Geography trip different each year £970

That's high school

Shall we talk about university yet?

former how old are they?
I'm astonished how many pairs of shoes some DC seem to have even in Reception.
I thought we were bad and we'll have trainers, school shoes, home shoes and two pairs of wellies for our Reception DS.

They need two pairs of wellies because they keep one at school but they don't keep trainers at school and if they did, I wouldn't bother getting them another pair for home, they play very happily in a well-fitting pair of casual shoes such as Clarks.

No football boots yet and he'll wear his school shoes for smart or his home shoes (whichever is less scuffed at that point!) it's not like he goes to City events!

And he won't wear slippers! He will be doing dancing but I imagine in trainers or bare feet to start with. He used to do ballet but in bare feet. And they don't need sandals and closed shoes at the same time - we get closed sandals like Doodles for the summer but not in the same size as the closed winter shoes usually.

I however do not find charity shops or second hand sales much good at all past the baby stage (and even at the baby stage, charity shops have very little). I have no idea where all the toddler and preschool age clothes go but it's not for sale anywhere except possibly Ebay, as far as I can tell.

Babies are cheap except for the loss of earnings when you are on ML.
Child care is expensive when you are back at work.
They get more and more expensive every year with clothes, clubs, food, holidays, etc

I've just added that up! No wonder we're not getting a holiday!!

goes for a lie down

My daughter starts reception this sept it has cost me £150 to kit her out with all the school specific logo stuff. Other parents I know have shelled out more as they need blazers and separate pe kit etc. I'm lucky as for reception she's in a jogger suit but I know it will just go up over time. Her school shoes were £38 alone and I'm under no illusion they'll last the year lol!!

Using washable nappies will cut down on costs, as will using cotton wool,and water or washable wipes.

Mine are 11-15 and have cost me almost £285 this week just on shoes..

drspouse
Mine are 5 and 8...It does sound a lot...even worse, my ds literally wrecks school shoes! Cheap or expensive...It doesn't make a difference...He scrapes his feet on the ground as he walks...He gets a cheapo supermarket pair rather than an expensive pair now!

OP I think you should factor in being able to pay for any childcare you need. I'm not sure it's prudent to assume family will look after your children for free. What if they become ill/ move/ just don't what to as much as they think they do?

There are enough threads on MN along the lines of MIL said she'd do 3 days but now she's booked holiday... etc.

and just wait till they start University...........!

My uniform costs are estimated at £700 but that's for 3.
No private schools.
The eldest has 2 Blazers, 2 skirts snd trousers, socks, 5 shirts, 1 tie (bought 2 last year, one was enough but like to have a spare), full pe kit - rugby shirt, Polo shirt, shorts, skort, rugby socks, shin pads, gum shield, swimming costume and towel, indoor trainers, outdoor trainers and football boots. every single item of clothing must be bought from the uniform shop as it has to have the logo.
Middle and younger ones will both have 2/3 jumpers, 5 shirts, 3 sets of either skirts or trousers and full PE kits.
They grow out of everything by the end of every year, or else it just looks tatty so everything is new.
Thinking about it now, I was being very optimistic about spending anything less than £700

Children are as cheap as you want them to be
My sons friend who is also 16 gets £200 pocket money a month we can afford that but he needs to get a job

I have 3 children we own our own home and get buy on one wage I know people with one child who can barely afford there child with 2 adults working full time

" they play very happily in a well-fitting pair of casual shoes such as Clarks" - how do you make that work then? They may be happy but unless they play very carefully and only indoors where it is clean and dry, no climbing trees, no kicking balls etc. etc. then you're surely replacing their broken well fitting casual shoes every couple of weeks?

£700😳

My 16 only ever had 3 Blazers the whole time and you bet they would of been past down if they were close in age

Can't yu pass down the uniform I would imagine even outdoor coats can be passed down unless destroyed

In my tender 2.7 years experience children are very expensive and they will only be more so as they get older!
I reckon I've probably spent £300 on shoes for ds in the last year and a half. My two need a few bits at the moment:ds and dd both need shoes (dd is one but walking) so next trip to Clarks' will be £70, a couple of packs of socks, ds has put two pairs of jeans through this week, dd needs some long sleeved tops- it will be £100.

My sister's dc are 16, 18 and 19. When they are all at home the food bill runs to £200 a week. At one point when they were younger she was spending £70 a week on music lessons and clubs.never mind Christmas, birthdays, holidays etc...

Of course some stuff is just as expensive as you want it to be or can afford for it to be but if someone tells you dc are cheap the they're lying!

I'm a SAHM so for us the biggie at the moment is my loss of earnings, if I were working it would be the £90 a day childcare. My advice would be don't fall out with whoever is offering you free childcare and holidays!.

Other things include increased power bills as you are home more (if you SAH or work p/t) plus we do around 11-12 loads of washing a week. Even though mine are little they seem to eat loads! We already get through at least 30 bloody bananas a week!

I don't think so 5moreminutes. Mine only had their Clarks shoes and wellies until they started school. Once at school they had school shoes and trainers and even now only have the school shoes and trainers they need for school (teenage boys)

As they've got older that's meant a couple of different kinds of trainers depending on what sports they were playing but they wear them for casual too.

If you're concerned about money one thing you do need to teach them young is that clothes (especially branded clothes) don't matter