To ask how much a baby costs?

[Kidsandcash]

Hi all!

NC as going to expose some of our financials, we are trying for a baby and have worked out our financials which show we would have a total income of about 2.6k per month after tax and with child benefit.

Our current outgoings are about 1.9k per month, which would leave us 700 per month ‘extra’ to pay for all things baby related. We wouldn’t need to pay childcare fees as I would stay at home for a year and our income (this is with that calculated in) and my income would go up again after that.

We live a fairly low key lifestyle but as below on what we spend;

400 mortgage - 2 bed house so we have room for a child’s bedroom.
250 food - includes occasional takeaways etc
100 elec and gas
100 council tax
100 - water, Netflix, House insurance, Internet, homecare, misc house bits
40 - pet insurance for our cat (has claimed before hence high)
100 - travel (I work at home) partner has small commute
130 - Car insurances and tax (cars owned)
250 - joint savings and holiday fund, sometimes goes on things like the ho
300 - fun money, we split this pretty evenly, going out with friends, dinner out, etc
60 - phone contracts
50 - clothes (usually spend in one go every 6 months or so)

If we added 700 a month to those outgoings does that seem enough to look after a baby too?

So you have one off expenses for a baby...that are absolutely essential...

Car seat
Buggy/pram
Cot/Moses basket

Things like a changing table, nursing chair are nice but not necessary. You can buy a £5 plastic changing mat.

Clothes are cheap and you get loads as presents
Breast feeding is free but formula isn't going to bankrupt you.
Nappies are cheap from Lidl/Aldi

Your next big cost is childcare...that's the killer!

The only real cost is childcare or the loss of income if one parent isn't working.

So nursery for a one year old will.be about £60-70 per day. So can you afford that on top of your existing costs

Real cost is absolutely the childcare element - counting down the days until the school starts and I can have my money back. Day to day like others say you can spend as little or as much as you like! I do regret spending so much on the pram

Babies cost a few hundred pounds for car seat, somewhere to sleep and something to be pushed in. Clothes can be very cheap and you are likely to get gifts and hand me downs. In the first year they hardly eat anything and what they do eat is just a bit more of your meals. Nappies are a significant cost ie cloth nappies are quite a big outlay or disposables.your income is plenty. The major costs with children are childcare and your or your partner's loss of earnings. As they get older my experience is that everything costs more ie they eat more, have activities and hobbies , need uniform , school shoes etc etc

Sounds fine to me. DD is 10 months and has cost us:
About £500 for a car seat (this is, I think, expensive, but I wanted a particular one).
Maybe £2-300 in total so far for clothes, toys, bedding, etc. Almost all second hand (e.g., we had a lovely highchair from Facebook for £10), and we've also been given a lot.
About £5 a week in nappies and wipes.
An extra couple of quid a week since 6/7 months in soft fruit (other food cost for her is pretty minimal as she eats more or less what we do).
About £80 in baby swimming lessons, but that's optional!

She was breastfed so no formula to buy, which isn't cheap, but I doubt that would push you over the edge in terms of spending.

I suppose there's also the cost of stuff for me - I might have spent about £100 in maternity clothes, nursing bras and breast pads. Mind you, I also saved 18 months' worth of sanitary towels!

Go ahead with your baby plans. You seem perfectly situated to do so.

People tend to spend to their income. Eg lots of you people have expensive buggies but that isn’t necessary if you can’t afford it. I remember making the big purchases before starting mat leave and building up savings. To be honest, my spending naturally went down a lot while pregnant and then having a newborn. Childcare is the biggest expense (both in terms of fees but also lost income).

A breastfed baby with SAHM costs hardly anything, you can get all they need second hand . Even cloth nappies. The baby won't know or care.

If you go back to work FT, then FT childcare costs can be very high.
When they start school, you'll still need to buy childcare after school and school holidays. Take a look at local providers and their costs.

What about loss of your earnings while on maternity leave? You need a fund up front to cover costs while not earning much, if anything.

The older they get, the more expensive they are. Childcare is my biggest outgoing. Its the price of a second mortgage.

Don't forget your pension contributions (assuming you top up) and life assurance is something most think about once you have kids.

You'll be totally fine. Babies are really cheap - buy bundles of second hand clothes from eBay (they go through them so quickly there's no point in buying new, and people will buy you nice clothes as gifts). If you can breastfeed it's free and convenient, although can be hard work to get established.

Buy your buggy second hand too, they're crazy expensive new. You'll need a new car seat, but if you can buy one like the Joie stages it'll last till age 12 (from birth) and can rear face till approx 4.

Best of luck with it all, use tax free childcare and don't forget to apply for your child's free hours at least 3 months before they turn 3.

Babies are cheap. Other than car seat and mattress everything can be bought off Facebook marketplace and cleaned and sanitised.
Childcare is a killer. Look into nurseries where you live. That will be your biggest expense if you go back to work (and lost wages if you don't).
Your expenses could go down though. I'm not sure you'll be spending 300 a month on fun with a newborn for example

@converseandjeans

A baby doesn't really cost much if you can stay home. They don't really need much. They get more expensive as they get older I find. However if you can go back to work at some point that should be fine.

If you stay at home they cost 100% of your wages

A baby doesn’t cost that much, but a grown child and family does.

You won’t feed a family of 4 on £250 a month. Our food budget is £450 and that doesn’t stretch to takeaways.

Childcare when you do need it can be expensive. I pay £60 a day for my 2 year old in the East Midlands.

Kids activities can be over £100 a month. It’s £9 a lesson here for swimming, £7 tumble tots sessions, £22.50 a month on tennis. It all adds up.

Soft play for 2 kids is around £10 a time, £25 if you buy lunch and drinks.

I wouldn’t think too much about the baby, it’s the child/family lifestyles later on that coast!

The baby was free. Then he was poorly for about 16 months and I gave up work for 7 years (£5k pm down) but no worries one income could meet our bills.

Baby stuff (cot, pram, changing mat, changing table, chest of drawers, single bed, etc, c£2k - not all essential). Decent sized car, babysitting, au-pair, swimming lessons, football club, tennis lessons, nursery fees, etc, etc.

We had two eventually so throw in about £400k on school fees and uni. Obviously not essential.

You'll be fine for the first year but childcare is absolutely eye wateringly expensive. My 2yo does 4 days a week and it's £1k a month. That's the going rate around my area, although childminders can be cheaper/more flexible but it's really hard to find one with space as a result.

Fun money can be baby money, you won't go out as much once baby comes along

It's really good you have insured your cat, very responsible, but £40 a month seems like a lot? Even if you've claimed before. I know not really relevant to the thread, but could you look at moving insurance companies for that to save yourself some money?
My cats have long term health conditions from being born. Unfortunately I can't insure them because of this - they're not actually covered for much because of their tiny kitten medical records, I just save the money every month in case they ever need. :(

To stay relevant, my baby hasn't cost me too much! A lot gifted from friends and family, most tiny baby stuff is only used for 6 months (moses basket, first pram size) so 2nd hand works great for these situations!

Best of luck x

One thing I would be aware of is that you can do everything on the cheap and have, as previous posters have said, a second hand pram and crib and clothes and Aldi nappies and so on.

But getting out and about with a baby is an absolute must and that isn’t free, even if all you do are walks and the sort of church hall toddler groups. I think many of these have stopped and when I was on maternity leave I did two baby classes and a swimming lesson a week and it came to nearly £30. Then a mum and baby exercise class for me.

Mumsnet will insist they are awful and the babies hate them anyway. I disagree

Hmm it's tricky. I would say from 0-1 our babies cost us very little. But that's not including my lost wage which was approx £1k per month. Aside from my wage though, we spent very little. I went to nearly new nct markets for babgros etc. My parents bought us a buggy. We co slept so didn't need a cot (altho we bought a very cheap secondhand Ikea one). I breastfed so no formula. Nappies and wipes I got from Aldi/lidl.

Also we weren't spending the amount on going out so we didn't notice the lack of my wage. I would say tho, they get very expensive as they get older.

@twinningatlife

300 - fun money, we split this pretty evenly, going out with friends, dinner out, etc

This is a nice to have not an overhead

It needs adding to your £700

Also the £250 a month savings. - luxury for most families I have to say especially when only one is working

£1250 disposable income something most families can only dream of. You'll be more than fine

Yes, this is what I was also going to say. You actually have £1250 a month left after the basics. A baby does not need to cost anything like that! You might want to use reusable nappies to save the planet and costs. We had hand me down clothes (they grow out of them so quickly) and toys (ditto), so month-to-month costs were small. We had to buy formula (couldn't breast feed) and some other bits and bobs, plus paid for a 'baby class' and a 'baby and mother class' (probably about £60 a month between them) and then perhaps another £150 a month on other bits and bobs). So not much more than £200 a month. As they grew, they became much more expensive with childcare and activities but the first year really was very cheap.

Sounds plenty. Babies need lots of stuff but you don't need to pay lots as most baby stuff will last several babies so you can pick up decent stuff second hand.

Like others have said, children get more expensive as they get older. Are you factoring in the cost of childcare when you do go back to work? Things for babies you can get really reasonably if you want to, both of mine have had mostly supermarket clothes or hand me downs and the one I'm expecting will be the same. I saw a sleepsuit today in next for £97 and just thought who is daft enough to pay that for kids clothes

It's all well and good being at home for a year, but you are going to need to pay for childcare for much longer than that OP.
And it generally costs more than £700 per month.

The cost of a baby is peanuts compared to the long term cost of having children.