To wonder how much you spend on 1 year old a week? This seems like a lot?

[munnyworries]

I spend around 400 a month on ds who is one, outside nursery fees. This includes a weekly shop of six ready meals so I don’t have to cook every meal from scratch (I work full time), a pack of 32 nappies 11 pounds, whole milk, 2 packs of wipes, one pack of Milton wipes and snacks like organix bars etc then fruit and veg. This comes to around 35 a week. On top of this there is petrol to and from nursery, ten pounds a week. Entry to farms or soft play twice a week, 15-20 quid. Then things like new vests or socks here and there, or the odd toy now and then. Easily spend 100 a week. I don’t think I spend too much or too recklessly, I consider these things ds needs? Is this similar to other people’s spending? A family member has said they can’t understand how I would need to spend more than 25 a week!

For snacks, on Sunday you can just mash some bananas and mix with porridge oats, peanut butter and any leftover berries you have. Spread onto a sheet and cook for 20 mins, and oat bars.

That said, if you want to spend a little more for convenience (I do!) that's fine and no one should judge you. Lots of the UK prepared foods are great, no additives and v few ingredients. Can't say the same for USA foods unfortunately.

Don't feel judged by nasty comments: busy people are perfectly entitled to find ways to save time! If you can afford it, nothing wrong with finding time savers.

Also totally understand not being able to just feed your baby your food. Our DD eats her tea at about 5:30pm, almost straight after we pick her up from nursery. No time to cook an adult meal in time. Bathtime is by 6:30ish.

Our leftovers often aren't suitable. If we need to log back on at work we might have a glass of wine and something really quick like eggs on toast, breaded fish in the oven and veg, oven pizza, omelettes etc. Those things don't reheat well!

So for DD's teatime, we rely on pre-cooked pasta, rice, daal (we do in batches) or if we haven't managed to do that in advance... quick scrambled eggs or gnocchi.

Obviously it depends how much disposable income you have.
A couple of areas you could save easily:

Ready meals- you could easily do very quick meals that are more nutritious, even peanut butter on toast with fruit, pasta with frozen veg and grated cheese, scrambled egg, sardines on toast etc. Things that take literally minutes and would save a bit.

Soft play and farms - at one, local playgrounds, library groups, church playgroups, walking down the lane to see sheep and horses etc, feeding ducks in the park will be just as fun. Save soft play and farms for a treat every couple of months or so.

It does seem a lot. Things like ready meals and some of the toddler snacks I do also get as v intense lifestyle. Dd 1 is a fruit fiend too, so we go through a lot! We use tesco nappies though, about 5.50 for 48 or so? Wipes obviously are needed, and the odd toy/puzzle/book type thing, but charity shop is fine. We only occasionally do softplay type things as kids at school and nursery 5 days a week - weekends are for catching up, chilling at home, park and beach, usually.

What adds up for us is the barista oat milk and peadiasure for ds, who has weight issues and still drinks a litre per day! Even with amazon subscribe and save, that's 60 or so a month!

You might have time to batch cook if you didn't do soft play and farm park every week!

Sometimes we do these things because it makes life a little easier and at points that is desperately needed. But there's a lot to be said for stepping back and asking if you need to keep it up, you might want to scale back expectations of a steady stream of new toys and trips out before your child gets older and the toys and trips get more expensive.

We walk to nursery so no fuel cost, DD1 eats what we eat but we do spend maybe £12 a month on baby snacks (veggie straws, melty puffs etc.) as they really help to remove a barrier to getting out of the house.

We did use cloth nappies (and had to buy several types because my chunky baby didn't fit birth to potty nappies from 13m!) . But now due to ongoing fungal infections we are using Pampers which cost us £30 a month.

For activities (weekend + one day each for me and DH) we spend £10 a month on forest school, maybe £2 on donations for free groups, and have annual passes for local lake/woods and zoo which cost maybe £20 a month. The odd soft play too. So £40 a month all told.

I buy almost all her clothes on Vinted but am quite shocked to add up that I spent nearly £50 a month on that in the last 6 months! I really don't feel like I buy more clothes than is needed but she has grown a lot so that's 2 whole sizes of clothes and different seasons so shouldn't need more until the summer. I think because I only buy things I really like so am not very efficient with postage, and also buy high quality brands that I'd like to keep for future children i.e. Polarn O Pyret snowsuit. That also doesn't include shoes and wellies now DD is walking, so more like £60 a month on clothes and shoes.

Toys and books I buy secondhand and that's maybe £5 a month excluding birthday and Christmas.

All in all maybe £150 a month? Clearly I could cut down on clothes spending if I needed to by buying bundles of stuff I'm not too keen on, but I'm happy with what we spend.

If you can afford it nothing you are spending sounds completely over the top, and the cost of living is now such that it will be more expensive to have a one year old than it was 3, 5, 10 years ago.

Where you could cut back is buying membership to the farm park/soft play that you use most frequently. I used to pay about £120 p.a. for a family pass to a local farm park that we went to weekly and it saved me a small fortune over the years compared to paying at the door.

If you have time you could also save some money by batch cooking. I used to cook one or two dishes each weekend and freeze 5-6 portions of each. By doing a bit extra at the start and cooking different things each week you can build up a stash that gives LO plenty of variety and is healthier than ready meals. At that age you can also start thinking about adapting what you eat so baby can eat that too, which saves a lot of hassle. Similar with snacks - chopped fruit or veg, little boxes of raisins, greek yogurt in a little reusable tub, plain rice cakes are all much cheaper than those specifically marketed as organic baby snacks.

You also seem to use a lot of wipes, especially considering baby must be looked after elsewhere most of the week? I can't really remember how many general wipes we used at that stage, but a packet of Milton wipes per week really surprised me - we used to get through one packet every three months or so at that stage. It's not necessary to sterilise everything, and some exposure to germs helps build immunity.

Toys: buy second hand, particularly if the sort that are quickly outgrown. You can then either resell for very close to what you paid or charity shop them if too time consuming.

Snacks: fruit, veg, cheese cubes, bread sticks etc.

Dinners: feed a portion of whatever you're having. If the issue is DC eating earlier than you, save a portion to reheat for DC the following day. Cook without salt and minimal chilli, then add more to yours at the table if needed. Swap any honey in recipes for maple syrup, and finely chop any nuts. Those were the only adaptions we made to our cooking, and we eat a wide variety of foods and flavours.

Soft play: buy a membership.

£100 is a lot.

For both DC I used to cook a massive cottage pie or risotto which would make 12 portions for a one year old and save them in little plastic pots in the freezer so I had my own ready meals if I was pushed for time (I’ve always worked FT) otherwise they are what I ate which I cooked each night.

Nappies were bought from the supermarket so were £4 a pack. I but a box of Amazon own brand wipes (£10 for 18 packs once a month).

2 x 4 litres of whole milk = £3.50

Snacks were fruit, veg, breadsticks, crackers, ricecakes and an occasional pack of baby snacks.

I didn’t use Milton wipes. Stuff was either bunged in the dishwasher on a hot wash or I used Milton tablets in a bucket of water.

That seems like quite a lot to me.

Supermarket nappies and wipes are fine. Nappies were about £4 a week. I bought boxes with 12 packs of wipes for about £8 very couple of months.

Mine mostly just ate normal food, I know you say you don't have time to cook, but surely you eat. Just give them a bit of that. For snacks mine had fruit, normal cereal bars or ocational biscuits, crackers, cheese (slice from block), yogurt (Supermarket own). Still all costs, but not as much.

It's the outings that seem like a lot. We go out a couple of times a week, but don't spend that much.

Swimming at leisure centre - £5
Soft play at leisure center - £3
Trip to the library - free
Park - Free (one near us has small farm)
Local woods - just parking
Museums- free (depends where you live)
Visit family/ friends- free
Have people over - cost of snacks

We also have annual pass for a few places. Most let under 3's (or 5's) in for free so you only need a pass for yourself. We visit each place about 10 times over the year, so it works out a few £ per visit.

As a rough guess, mine probably cost £30-50, depending what we've done and if they've needed anything new.

I'm impressed by the number of trips out. We don't do any in the week (as DD in nursery all day). For my family, weekends are mainly just going outdoors (park etc), riding in the supermarket trolley, and coming out for lunch or to a cafe with us. Some of our friends have kids and we hang out with them. And playing at home of course.

We rarely do paid activities : not cos we are tight but I think we tend to just bring our DD to what we are doing. Is that bad?!

Another tip is toy rotation. If you only put a few out at a time (and rotate) they keep more novelty. Should also encourage development... I'm sure I read that under Montessori principles it's better to spend longer with each toy, rather than picking up and putting down loads.

We have a toy box out of sight/reach and swap things in and out of it. Reduces time tidying up as well if there are fewer toys around!

"Helping" with washing up and things is also basically free (just give a clean washing up sponge to splash in the sink with, with clean baby plates)... although would require an up-front investment in "learning tower" if you don't have one

I don't know exactly what we spend on toddler specifically. It's all just in the common pot. Nursery fees are obviously a lot until he turns 3 next year.

I wouldn't bother with the toddler snacks. They're extortionate. Easy on-the-go snacks for my 2 year old are cream crackers, breadsticks, mini cheddars, humous, fruit, yoghurt pouches (brands like Graham's dairy and The Collective are yoghurt and fruit only with no added sugar or sweeteners), sandwiches, cheddar or feta cheese cubes, cocktail sausages, dates etc.

We don't do softplay but we have a national Trust family membership and we spend a lot of time at the park, feeding the ducks, going for walks in the woods. Lots of free things.

A walk around the charity shops in town is always a hit and he can choose a toy. He's happy and it's cheap. Vinted and Facebook marketplace are good for second hand toys too. Toddlers don't care if their toys are second hand.

Yes this! Toy rotation is fantastic. We have a cupboard with all of his toys organised in boxes and hidden away. Every fortnight or so I'll switch out all the toys (Kallax unit). It makes a big difference. If you Google Montessori and toy rotation you'll get lots of ideas.

I think it’s quite strange to have broken down costs on your baby as far as petrol tbh and then to be discussing it with others.

I dread to think how much my two cost me on a weekly basis if I were to break it down, I don’t think about it I just spend in terms of the whole family - food for the family, petrol for the family car, days out for the family etc.

Anyway that aside it’s only too much if you can’t afford it and there is nothing wrong in paying for convenience.

I don't think that’s too bad. When dd1 was a baby we spent £1000 a month on her, including nursery fees. She’s 12 now so that was a while ago!

you could definitely cut back with the food and own brand nappies etc, as well as toys.

• Batch cook on weekends, using easy one-pot slow cooker recipes, to save money
• Start using reusable nappies. Once you get into the swing of it it's really no work at all.
• Use cheeky wipes. Chuck them in the wash with the nappies.
• I make about 30 x carrot and orange, and cheese and spinach muffins once a month and freeze them instead of buying snacks. It's only once a month so it doesn't feel like much work.
• Instead of farms and soft play, go to church toddler groups.
• For clothes - use Olio and put up a "Wanted" ad whenever they need new clothes. I've found plenty this way.

I've no idea how much I spend on the kids per week. Shitloads, roughly.

I've never batch cooked for them, and never ever got the hang of reusables (gave away my cheeky wipes and tots bots).

That said, I make very liberal use of hand me downs from friends and family, charity shop clothes and toys and books, Vinted etc. For outings, playgroup is £2 and includes a snack.

I've never bought pampers, the prices always seemed absolutely insane. Ditto organix branded bars, I buy the Aldi version.

I feel like there are some fairly easy swaps you could do to save money that don't impact on your time/convenience. Just not brand new or a brand name.

I have an 8 month old and a 4 year old and don't spend anywhere near that amount month as we simply don't have it. theres alot you could do to save money very easily op.
Buy own brand, nappies, wipes, snacks etc so much cheaper than pampers and just as good.
What do you eat? Even if you eat at different times, Make extra and give him it for dinner the next day.
Expensive trips to farms and soft plays twice a week is a lot, do any of them offer a membership? you can usually save a lot that way. Or do free activities, parks, swimming, museums, libraries etc

Just curious, why are people saying swimming is a free activity? Am I missing out on something?

@biedronka6 in our area under 5s are free, adults are under £5 loads cheaper than a farm or soft play visit

You are wasting money. Aldi nappies size 5 are far cheaper. Batch cook and freeze. When the weather is better opt for the park as it's free.

aldi size 5 nappies are 4.99 gbp for 72 nappies.

wipes are about a quid, nappies wipes also about a quid. 1 year olds don't need milton.

Try Primark for vests etc - the quality is good enough when you consider how fast they grow.