To ask if a newborn baby is expensive

[brownpaperbag1]

I’m pregnant with DC1 and due to give birth next year. I was wondering how much it costs to buy everything you need for a newborn - is it a lot? How much should I be aiming to save to ensure I can afford everything the baby will need?

I’m not talking about childcare here - just all the basic stuff, food, clothes, nappies, pram and any other essentials.

TIA

Generally speaking a conversation that should have been had before conception! Babies are not massively expensive but if you include loss of earnings and the cost of raising them to 18 then it’s extortionate!

It depends on you. If you want to put your kids into designer clothes straight away and all branded stuff it costs ££££. We were given a crib and bedding by my parents. We bought 0-3 months clothes (vests and babygros) and were given lots of clothes too. We were given a bottle set and steriliser. I bought lots of muslins, baby bath and was gifted bath stuff. We shopped around, bought in sales and went to expectant parent events where you can get good discounts but have to be savvy. A lot of other things like bouncers, play mats and snuzz pod were given to us as gifts. Our biggest outlay was the pram for £600 which now stays at my mum's house, we had to get a double buggy as ds came around quicker than planned and again that was expensive at £800+ .We were very lucky to have a generous family who said what they wanted to buy us when dd was born. Hope all goes well for you.

. 4 vests, 7 ‘all in one’ babygros, 1 cellular blanket, 7 muslin cloths, 1 or 2 cardigans
You would have the washing machine on by dinner time if that’s all you bought!
Babies can easily go through that many clothes in a day and meet two blankets if it’s cold , which they then are sick on so what would you do?

You need a cot (can get cheaply in Ikea etc) - and a new mattress. You don't need a separate crib or Moses basket, baby can go in a cot from day 1. Or if you buy a pram with carrycot, some are safe to use for sleeping in at night.
You will need something for baby to sleep in until you go to bed at night so just a cot upstairs is not enough.

If you want to put your kids into designer clothes straight away and all branded stuff it costs ££££.

I'm definitely not into designer clothes - complete waste of money in my opinion!

You will need something for baby to sleep in until you go to bed at night so just a cot upstairs is not enough.
DP's shoulder, cost nothing

@brownpaperbag1

To begin with, I found the idea of reusable daunting, and a bit off putting. We bought second hand initially so that we could buy a few brands and find what works, and do that if we decided we didn’t like them/didn’t get on with them, we could resell and the cost would be negligible.
I started when he was about 10 days old, and told myself I’ll just do one or two nappies a day and work up from there. In the end, we did one day like that and just cracked on because it wasn’t all that daunting. I think the most important part is getting your ‘set up’ right. Ie where to keep clean nappies, dirty nappies, wipes ready to use etc. The washing is very simple. Pull everything apart, chuck in machine on correct setting, hang up to dry.
I think the hardest but is getting the fit right. But it’s not usual to go through a few brand of disposable before you find ones that suit your little ones, which is where buying second hand works better because the cost outlay is not as much if you don’t like some.
We bought about 10 initially, about 4 brands, and then when we settled on what we liked, we sold what we didn’t and bulked out (some new, some second hand) our stash of what we did. Now using reusables just seems second nature.

We got a ton of use out of our Moses basket. We almost didn't bother after reading so many people on here say they weren't worth, but she slept in it loads downstairs. She wasn't a baby that liked sleeping on people overly (still isn't), so she was perfectly happy in her Moses basket. We ended up getting another stand for it so we could have one in kitchen too so we could move it around easily. The Moses basket only cost £40 from Asda so it was definitely worth it for the use we got out of it in the first three months. I can't imagine having to hold her constantly downstairs while she slept but I accept some people have no choice. It would have driven me bonkers so we were very lucky!

Also you can never have enough vests and muslins. We had a very spitty up baby, perfectly happy about it, just spat up 20+ times a day when she was tiny. We got through a lot of muslins in a day! DP was even dispatched to buy more when we were still in hospital

We didn’t buy a cot for our first baby. Never had anything but a blanket in the laundry basket or pram downstairs.

We used our Moses basket all the time. To be able to carry it from room to room, upstairs, downstairs was great. Used it until the baby went into a cot.

Oh and don't buy bouncers and rockers until you know your baby likes them or if you can get it v cheaply. We had bouncers, rockers, swing chairs, vibrating chairs, and DD hated them all The swing chair was a particular disaster. Now I try stuff out for her at baby classes or other peoples houses before buying our own!

You can buy pretty much everything secondhand and in near perfect condition. Babies grow out of everything so quickly that the stuff hardly gets used. This is especially true of clothes but also prams/travel systems and cribs. I really regret buying so much stuff new when I had mine. It was so wasteful and unnecessary. We didn’t need to buy secondhand to save money but it would have been by far the better thing for the environment. It might have offset the huge number of nappies that ended up in landfill!

There are loads of good kids charity shops and take a look on eBay/Facebook marketplace/gumtree.

Also, formula is expensive. You will save money by breastfeeding.

* You will need something for baby to sleep in until you go to bed at night so just a cot upstairs is not enough.
DP's shoulder, cost nothing*
From the minute baby was awake in the morning until the minute you went to bed. So 6am to 10pm for example? I don’t think so!

It’s impossible to put a figure on it, but we’ve spent more than we expected since he arrived.

Car seats and bases are expensive and you can’t get them secondhand for obvious reasons.

We splashed out on a new Uppababy Vista before he was born. We got a deal that included the car seat and isofix bass and I think that came to £1100 all in. Could have gone secondhand but still would have had to get new car seat and base.

Our top three baby purchases were all purchased after he was born:

1. The Sleepyhead (£130ish)
2. Baby Bjorn bouncer chair (£100ish)
3. The Ergobaby carrier (£150ish)

You can definitely get cheaper versions of all of the above though!

Things I think we wasted money on:

1. I wish we hadn’t splashed out on a nice bedside crib before he was born because we’ve just ended up co-sleeping with the Sleepyhead. By the time he grows out of that he’ll be too big for the bedside crib and will need a proper cot! But we didn’t intend to cosleep before he was born, it just worked out like that.
2. I also spent about £100 before he was born on a breast pump that I’ve barely used. I just haven’t had time to express. Other feeding paraphenalia was a waste of money for us (everyone’s feeding experience is so different - if I could go back I’d wait and see how things worked out rather than having all these fixed ideas about feeding).

We’ve really saved money on:

1. Clothes - we got loads of hand-me-Downs and secondhand stuff. We realised very quickly that you go through clothes at an unbelievable rate (our son is very refluxy) so expensive new clothes are a nonsense - they tend to last long enough for a photo.
2. Reusable baby wipes. I also want to move to reusable nappies ASAP.
3. Toys - charity shops are great for toys and books.
4. I know this sounds daft but get your Muslins from Primark. I spent waaaay over the odds on muslins at first and we need so many!!

Congratulations and good luck!!

Also you can never have enough vests and muslins. We had a very spitty up baby, perfectly happy about it, just spat up 20+ times a day when she was tiny. We got through a lot of muslins in a day! DP was even dispatched to buy more when we were still in hospital

Exact same! I’d bought a pack of 3 Muslins and a pack of 5 vests... and quickly realised that wasn’t enough 😁😁😁

I would say don't get swept up in buying everything you think you need before they arrive, you don't know what type of baby you're going to have until they're here!

For the first few months all you need is..
Something for them to wear; plenty of vests and babygrows are essential
Something for them to eat; boobs or bottles and formula
Somewhere for them to sleep; we went straight for a full size cot to keep costs down but appreciate that not everyone has room in their bedroom, they slept in the pram bassinet when downstairs (or on us!!)
Something to poop in; reusables or disposables, don't stock up on too much of one brand as babies come in all different shapes and sizes! I would also start with disposables even if you want to cloth nappy as the newborn haze is knackering enough without the added washing.

Everything else can be picked up along the way when you know more about your little one, I also listened to a lot of people who said not to bother with newborn sizes and go for 0-3, but they absolutely swamped my 8lber for the first 2 months so would definitely have some newborn sizes unless you're expecting a huge baby!

Travel system ideally ought to be bought new as it includes the car seat element. My kids are older but maybe allow £500-1000.

Moses basket and stand and bedding pretty much essential (cot can wait), can be second hand but mattress new.

Clothes - vests and babygros and a little hat are all you'll really need for newborn stage but plenty of them. Lots of muslins! You'll get lots of little outfits as presents too.

Newborn nappies, wipes, change mat, aqueous cream (changing table is great but only if you have room). Mild baby wash for bathing.

Even if you're planning to breastfeed I'd suggest having 2x small bottles with newborn treats , couple of packs of ready made sma, and a microwave steriliser. This saved my sanity in the middle of the night when I had my first born.

Manual breast pumps are a faff. I'd recommend hiring an electric one from NCT once you think you'd need it.

From the minute baby was awake in the morning until the minute you went to bed. So 6am to 10pm for example? I don’t think so!
Yes? Archetypal fourth trimester baby. Slept on us or in the sling. While awake, lay on the floor. Wasn't interested in the Moses basket or pram. Still isn't.

Oooo I forgot carseat, we went straight for a birth-4 rather than a carry type one, and aaaaaalllll the muslins!

We have barely spent anything on our little one really, almost everything second hand aside from feeding essentials (which obvs costs nothing if your breast feeding)!

On a week to week basis milk and nappies costs us about £20.

It’s going back to work and paying for childcare and bigger clothes which fills me with financial dread!!

From the minute baby was awake in the morning until the minute you went to bed. So 6am to 10pm for example? I don’t think so!

Mine (all three of them!) woke up and screamed as soon as they were put down pretty much anywhere for the first three months.

Funnily enough someone shared this on FB the other day.

You can get most things second hand tho or even free. Especially clothes.

Same, one of us had to be holding the baby for months. It was excruciating. We did it in shifts. I wish I hadn’t bothered with a crib.
How lovely to have a new baby that sleeps when you put them down!

He’s fine now though OP and sleeps through so don’t worry!

We didn't buy much to be honest, friends/family usually go mad especially for your first. Second hand things came really handy as previous posters said, babies really dont stay in clothes for long! Also, my partner and I when I was pregnant would grab nappies (different sizes), baby wipes etc when we went food shopping so we had stacks prepared. We also bought a pram second hand £80 in brilliant condition I couldn't justify spending majority of my wage on a pram but everyone is different it depends what you want to do! Second hand vests/baby grows are a god send for all them poops!