How much would you budget for a baby?

[JLT24]

I’m trying to set a realistic budget for the first 12 months of having baby. How much would you budget a month for things such as:

Milk
Nappies
Wipes
Nappy bags
Clothes - was kindly gifted everything I need for up to 3 months
Toys
Books
Swimming lessons from 3 months old (once a week)
2 coffees/cakes a week to get me out of the house to save my sanity (will also try to attend free baby classes all within walking distance so no travel costs)
Food once weaning

We also want to save towards:

1. A new cot at around 6 months old as they will grow out of their next to me crib
2. Weaning equipment including a high chair again around six months old
3. A lightweight travel cot as we will be going abroad twice next year (I don’t want to use second hand equipment for sleeping)
4. £1000 to pay for their Christening (meal for close family and friends and our outfits plus donation go the church)
5. £200 for Xmas and Birthday presents for baby
6. £210 for a month’s childcare fee in advance

Is there anything I have missed that you would budget for?

Yorkshire

Our swimming lessons are 90 per term.
coffee & cake - £6 a time
nappies and wipes c 6-8 pw
Clothes - Vinted or supermarket, 40pm would easily do it. They don’t need loads.
we dont use nappy bags and hv told us horror story about local child suffocating with swallowing a bit of one. Just empty your bin daily. If there truly awful then dog poo bags 2 for 50
toys - charity shops or Vinted again. Up to six months need very little. You could spend around 60 at that point and get some interesting pieces to mix it up with kitchen things eg spatula, pans, mine loves a pastry brush!! (I’ve never used it so it might as well be his)
spend Christmas and birthday money on clothes and books as they literally have no idea, it’s all for you. Christening presents - ask everyone to gift a book if they want to give a gift

Thanks so much! Love the books idea as
Christening gifts!

We did baby classes - it was how we met people with similar-aged babies. There's a few free ones near us but they tend to be less community-driven, people don't tend to come to them regularly. We signed up for a couple of different classes to give us things to do each day, especially when DH went back to work. They were usually £50 a term, or so.

Swimming here is £68 a month, but you have to commit to three months at a time.

You probably won't need a travel cot. They get bashed around a lot in the hold, as do car seats, even boxed. If you are taking a car seat, you'll want a "travel" one that you don't use at home.

You may well need a new car seat in the first year, depending how big baby is. Our infant carrier lasted until 14 months. You'll probably want an ERF seat after that which can be expensive, but lasts a lot longer than the spin-style ones.

Food - we only really bought snacks, and then extra fruit and vegetables to cook home-made snacks. We did BLW so he had what we had. He still does, he's a great eater. We don't cook separately for him. We didn't need purees or anything.

We didn't use nappy bags, or a nappy bin, just put the nappies in the bin and emptied it often. We used Pampers, which meant we didn't have too much extra washing, as they didn't leak for us. They cost £6-ish for 50 when he was tiny, and now around £14 a pack? He's been toilet trained other than night times for a couple of months now. There tends to be offers, if you can be flexible in where you go to buy them and when you buy them.

Have you checked the childcare cost? It's very variable. A 1-year-old doing 2 days a week with the 15 hours funding would cost £380 where I am.

We didn't use a walker, we had a Jumperoo but it's far from essential as they aren't supposed to go in for more than 5 minutes at a time and 3 times a day. We got ours from Marketplace. It's held it's value, they're selling for more than we bought ours for now. There's always cheaper designs, too.

Books we buy pretty often, but usually from discounted shops, and that's not an essential.

For us approx:
nappies and wipes - washable. £300 upfront. Lasted until potty trained at 2+ years.
milk - free (breastfed). But it’s about £12-15 a tin weekly otherwise
Clothes - maybe £500 in first year. That’s various sizes, hats, coats, shoes once walking.
toys - maybe £400 in first year? That’s everything from baby gym to books and in between. That’s including Xmas and first birthday (trike was about £100 alone) first year.
Cot bed - £200 ikea. Sheets - £40? Sleeping bags £100
tripp trapp highchair was -£180 ( you can buy cheaper, but Ds still uses his daily as chair at 4 years)
babybjorn travel cot -£200. I think Argos now to a cheaper similar small fold

Other costs on the top of my head, passport application, some vaccines (meningitis b I think wasn’t free, and Ds had tick one due to our location). If you fly you still have to pay for infant fee (It’s the landing taxes) if on your lap, or you buy own seat. If your bottle feeding most have steriliser and other accessories. Some baby seats outgrown by 10 ish months so maybe next seat already or travel pram. Sling.

I think I once looked and it was around £3000 we spent on Ds the first year. That included many things like pram/ cot bed/ travel cot/ car seat/ books/ some toys etc that last several years. So for example bought once. Didn’t then spend £3000 age 1-2 for example as most essentials had been bought.
It only as he’s reached 4 years that he’s outgrown things like rear facing car seat, needed new bed etc.

Thanks I didn’t know that about the travel cot/car seat. We will still buy a travel cot so it can be used in the UK for travelling/baby staying overnight with family. I definitely don’t want our car seat to be bashed about but then don’t want them in a cheap one abroad - 🤔 will have a think! We are planning on upgrading car seat around 15 months so will add that to year 2 budget!

You can definitely take travel cot fine on a plane. That’s why they exist. The babybjorn one is metal frame and the mattress is all inside the metal protected. And then in bag. There’s no way you would even be able to open the cot if it was broken.

car seats I also always take own. The odd time we hired they were either the wrong car seat for his age, or really cheap quality. At home we used swivel isofix with base etc, for travel we used a cheaper but decent brand that was 0-4 years. So no base needed. Graco or joie best bets for a safe seat, at reasonable price (£100 or less on offer) as second back up for travel. We had graco extend for travel

Not a clue!

I'm not sure your can accurately budget for it in advance if I'm honest. You might be able to for things like nursery, but not the everyday little things that add up. Some babies butts work better with some nappies than others, so you don't know if you're going to be Aldi or Pampers? Likewise, there's no guarantees about feeding, you may want to breastfeed and it fail, you may want to bottle feed and baby refuses bottles, you may end up exclusively expressing. You may have to alter plans to go back to work because of a bottle refusing baby that struggled to put on weight (mine 😬). Your baby may be sick after every feed, They may never vomit. You may get through 10 muslins a day, or 10 a month.

You may go to Steve expensive baby horse rather than a cheap one because it works better with naps. You may do another club because a friend of yours does it already.

Some weeks, in the first few months, I went out for cake or lunch everyday. There were other weeks where I didn't at all.

You may buy a jumperoo (new or second hand), with the intention of selling it on and recouping the costs. You may do so, or it may be so ingrained with the smell of bodily fluids that you can't even give it away.

I appreciate it's useful to have some idea though, so I'd have a look at some of the ranges in coast of the big or frequent purchases.

Say nappies size 2, pampers 15p each, Tesco's 3p each. Baby may need 8-15 a day.

A low nappy baby on Tesco's= £1.68 a week
A high nappy baby on Pampers (poos a LOT, gets leaks or rash with cheap nappies)= £15.75 a week.

invest in reusable nappies and wipes, saved us hundreds of pounds overall, especially as got nappies second hand. Get cot, high chair, etc second hand, barely any cost. You don't need to buy a baby presents! We never did. They also don't really need toys and books, and likely you'll get these as gifts, or use library. And we barely spent anything more on food once weaning, we just used what we had already, never bought anything 'baby' specific. never had any "weaning equipment" apart from some plastic bowls from charity shop!

Yes, but then you spend hundreds on reusable nappies in advance, and maybe they are great, maybe you decide they aren't worth it, baby hates them/they leak/your device you'd rather stab yourself in the eye than continue using them (this was me for all of those things, sorry 😂) and you've wasted a load of money. Which you may or may not be able to recoup on marketplace.

That's not to say reusable are bad. They look very cool, good for the environment etc, but they aren't for everyone. You can sometimes rent a starter set for very cheap or free to test them out and see if they're for you before making an investment.

Thanks we were looking at the baby bjorn travel cot as it’s one of the lightest.

Also good to know it’s best to buy a cheaper car seat to take abroad as we have a Cybex that was not cheap, I’ll take a look at those brands x

Thanks yes I appreciate there are a lot of variables!

I’m quite restricted with certain things as I have a chronic illness. I won’t be able to attend another class just because my friend is etc or manage more than 2 coffee shop visits a week. I will be able to do one class a week max and my husband will do swimming. I won’t be breastfeeding to conserve energy so definitely will need to buy milk. For the same reason I can’t use reusable nappies/wipes. I won’t buy something that’s not essential if we don’t have the money for it! Quite happy with second hand stuff except for car seats and sleeping equipment!

I have a chronic illness as a result have to do things that will conserve energy and take the pressure off my husband who works full time and is my carer. I won’t be able to manage reusable nappies or wipes unfortunately.

Appreciate we’ll get toys and books and clothes for gifts. I’ve picked out a play mat for Xmas (£30) and a Play table for their birthday (£110 last into age 4) and want to buy them rather than needing to, and will only do so if we have the money to at the time.

For weaning we will need a bowl, cutlery, a bib that catches food, a catch all tray, a water bottle and some pouches/ready meals (again all needed to converse energy)
I’m also thinking our food bill will definitely increase, we’ll need extra protein (fish/meat), fruit and veg along with snacks such as yoghurts etc

I was surprised at how cheap nappies are. I thought they'd be the main expense but we spend more on wipes.

Nappies are about £1.80 for a pack of 50 from Tesco.

Would you breastfeed? It's saved me so much money and I hated the whole faff of sterilising bottles when I had to pump for a few weeks.

I second the PP who said to use Vinted for clothes and you can then sell back once done if they're still in good condition.

We did local church baby groups a few times a week. Didn't do swimming until little one was about 2, and it was "free" in the leisure centre as we're members. They don't need actual lessons until at least 4 as they can't really swim until then, it's just about getting them used to water.

Charity shops are great for books and toys, but so is Amazon prime and you can get some good value stuff on there to be fair.

Weaning- they can just have what you've already got for the most part.
Blitz up oats for baby porridge, boil fruit and veg before mashing, big pot of meat & veg that you make into liquid with the soup gun, some natural yoghurt, eggs... There's no need for pouches / baby snacks etc.

Sorry. Just saw update on breastfeeding!

Thanks, as I can only manage one baby class a week my husband will do swimming once a week, it’s the only one he will do as he really doesn’t fancy the other types of classes 😂! I just checked and they are £33 a month for ‘parent and baby aqua classes’ rather than actual swimming lessons!

Babies don't need toys. They just don't. I over did it on my first but now I have three children i realise how much money I wasted on my first.
Take the baby around the house with you to do chores, they love pulling the clothes out of the washing machine and banging on pots and pans.
Also, they're in vests and sleep suits for months, don't waste your money on fancy outfits.

Just asking for costs of basic items, I don’t think it’s realistic to say babies don’t need toys or books, they need a few bits. I don’t do chores due to chronic illness so some toys and books will support me with this. We won’t be buying fancy outfits but they still need basic clothes. It’s easy to research prices for individual units of things but it’s the amounts we’ll need that’s not easy to work out as a first time mum!

@Soitis83 - maybe tiny babies. But Ds by 9months was walking. He was still a baby. Was crawling by about 6 months.
Although yes household stuff entertains to an extent, but he was playing in sandpit in garden, with balls outside, on little trike, with building blocks, and other things and loads of books to read. Bath toys.
They definitely need toys, just not a crazy amount.

Is there some violent agreement going on here? Babies need things to explore and 'play' with. These could be 'toys' bought from any number of places, but they could also be things you already own or find (e.g. nested measuring spoons, containers of various sizes, a few massive pine cones, an origami turtle, smooth wooden carving which you're happy for them to gum...), which become the things they play with, and which might then be called 'toys'.

@JLT24 My husband was the same, he went to one baby sensory class and said he wouldn't go back as he was the only man. To be fair, yes, he does the swimming!

Honestly, for the 1st 6 months baby just needs you/food/sleep/nappy changes. A bouncer is nice to have. Any sort of extras (like groups and coffee meet ups) are for your sanity. And much needed!

Baby 1 spat up many times a day so we needed muslins but I've not ever used them for baby 2, and she's 7 months now.

For stuff like that I'd not buy them unless needed, and you can always Amazon prime.

We spent lots on a Next 2 me and it's just an expensive clothes horse as baby number 2 will only sleep in our bed!

A good baby monitor is nice to have for when baby is over 6 months and you can be in another room while they sleep. We got gifted ours but it has a screen, which is fab for peace of mind.

Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind and buy minimal muslins etc as you said it’s easy to top up!

We have bought the Owlet monitor so we can use the sock from birth but then we also already have the monitor for when we will leave them sleeping in a room on their own!

We got gifted so much, either new gifts or second hand. I think we've only bought 10 items of clothing and our baby is 18 months.
Toys again we bought a few second hand bits everything else has been gifted
I would personally not spend on anything new except cots and car seat, not spend on Xmas presents/birthday presents
Weaning stuff again can be got so easily second hand, people are desperate to get rid of their barely used baby stuff
But i'd increase the budget on spending whilst on maternity/paternity, I went to the pricier baby class becuase I enjoyed it more (baby couldn't care less), I went out for lots of nice lunches, spent a fortune in petrol going for days out and went to the baby cinema lots, I could easily spend £30 a day
Also you need to budget to pay the missed/lower pension contribution for whoever is going to be off
And have you been generous with the childcare costs - if they're not going for a year its bound to increase in costs

Thanks so much we’ve pretty much already had all the gifts we’ll receive for being born, should get Xmas and birthday gifts from family so I’ll ask for clothes and toys and books. I just wanted to try and budget an amount each month for consumables, classes and then essentials as they grow. I think some of the paid classes look good and more suited to me than the free ones 😂 Baby cinema sounds good I’ll look into that! I don’t work so don’t have to put aside any extra pension amount than I do already, I also don’t drive and have a free travel pass so no petrol costs. The childcare costs have already been agreed with a childminder we have a place reserved for July 2025.

All of the money. Don’t buy too much, nothing you can’t buy on Prime or a 14 hour supermarket.

Nappies are very cheap if you buy supermarket branded ones and not pampers. Babies do need some toys but they won’t really play with them until a few months old and you’ll mostly be helping them play to start with. Be prepared that if you get a fussy baby you may need to carry them around in a sling and take them on a lot of walks in the pram, some babies really don’t like being put down or not moving if being fussy, and getting outside is great for babies mood and sleep and is free.

You don’t really need much for weaning, a pack of spoons is £3, cheap pack of coverall bibs £5, IKEA high chair £20. No need for a fancy high chair, the IKEA one is brilliant and so much easier to clean than wooden and fabric ones. Fine to use pouches sometimes and out and about but you don’t really want to use them for every meal. You can give your baby what you eat, just blend it or cut into appropriate sizes for baby. I’d buy a few pouches a week at around £1 a pouch.