OK, so what are the running costs for a baby?

[SmokeMeAKipper]

This must be on here somewhere but my searches either have thousands of hits or none at all, so...

Excluding capital outlay on carseat, cot, pram etc (which we hope to be given/borrow or will come out of savings), how much does a new baby cost to run per month in nursery fees, nappies etc, if both parents work full time?

DH, ever the organised money type, wants to work out how much it's going to increase our monthly outgoings before we even start ttc.

Any advice, links, warnings, recommendations etc gratefully received...

I think the CPAG did some work on the cost of raising a child to the age of 16, which was a somewhat horrendous amount.

Frankly, it's better not to think about it, really, as it'll be quite spinechilling in its enormity. Having said which (a) you don't go out much (in my experience - although if you do, it's a considerable expense in baby sitters unless you have obliging rellies or suchlike) and all in all it's rather like that story of the rabbi and the goat - you know, the one where the rabbit tells the overcrowded family to take the goat into the house, and after two weeks to take the goat out and they say Oh Rabbi How Spacious It Is Here. I stopped paying two lots of childminding fees last September and I am still basking in my unexpected riches even though I'm still paying one lot.

Have realised I didn't put in category (b) there - it was the rabbi story.

Also you have to consider value for money. A lot of the time they are enormously good value for money.

Real nappies and breastfeeding help cut down expenses, although then you have to think about buying a decent machine to express with and...oh, it's too much, just don't, really, just don't...

that survey on the cost of children was a load of old bollocks though. presumably they included school fees or something.

nappies: about 50p a week in washing costs
childminder (cheaper and imo better than nursery - I wish they had them in spain): about 120 a week? are you sure you'll both work full time though?
food: next to nothing really. well, maybe a couple of quid a week in fruit and porridge. other than that mine mostly eat leftovers anyway.
what else? days out: less than you spend now on going out, that's for sure.
babysitters: 20 quid once in a blue moon. but you appreciate the night out that much more!

And they are nice.

you make it sound like a car! cost to run a baby! hehe

loadsamoney is the answer

I found it more cost effective to return to work 2 days a week than full time so that should give you a hint, however, if I was at work full time my monthly running costs would be:

£597 Childcare inc. adjustment for voucher savings
£40 Nappies and wipes
£30 Baby food (when you get to weaning)
£50 Toys & extra clothes/equipment (we budget that amount - could be more)
£50 Estimate of energy costs of extra washing, keeping house warmer through winter, extra hot water etc.

Bear in mind these are basics - babies cost as much as you're willing to spend! Sobering for me to write it down though as I'm about to double my childcare bill in a few months!

All in that works out then at £767 per month

My best money saving tip is real nappies - time consuming but worth it. We spent £170 on nappies (cotton bottoms birth to potty pack, ebay)before DS arived and only used disposables when going out and then at nursery after my leave had finished. I reckon this saved us about £30 per month and we still have them for number 2. So after 5 yrs estimated use this works out at £1800.

My second best tip is let people give you stuff, go to car boots and become an ebay addict.

Don't forget you will get Child Benefit and possibly Child Tax Credit. Child Benefit is current around £17 per week and will easily cover the cost of a pack of nappies and a tin of formula milk powder (obviously will go much further if you breastfeed).

Looking at Liquidclocks post reminded me that phone bills go through the roof when you have a baby/young child!!

Oh yes - if you FF then add £20 ish unless you can be jammy like me and get prescription milk because baby has reflux!

I should also add that I had DS unplanned straight out of uni - don't worry too much about money, the fact is that you manage - somehow!

Mercy - we switched to talktalk and got free calls otherwise we would definitely have been bankrupt

If you're going to buy new stuff, keep the boxes and sell it on ebay when you're done with it. (boxes add value for some reason)

The thing is I think we'd manage fine, especially on two salaries, but I think DH thinks that a three-person household will cost half as much again as a two-person household, even if the third person is very small!

LiquidClocks, you sent me into panic at nursery costs - suddenly it looked more economical to give up work (which might be fun but wasn't in the plan, could we still pay mortgage etc etc) - so I've spent the last half hour with a pencil and a calculator looking at my salary sacrifice scheme - turns out that all-inclusive nursery will cost us £362 a month, which seems remarkably reasonable... if we can get a place, of course.

And I'd never thought of phone calls being an added cost of having kids - maybe I'll keep that 100-free-mins-a-month mobile package after all!

Will definitely be buying stuff secondhand - and we'll be the fourth of our circle to sprog so are hoping to borrow lots of stuff that's not being used between children (iyswim).

Like the idea of feeding children leftovers too - we're definitely hoping for the econo-version rather than the high-spec type. And DH has (fortuitously) just bought that estate car to carry work kit around...

Anyone else? Or should I get off the computer, bin my Pill, and get amorous with DH immediately?

Smoke - if you can get childcare for that much then a) book a place as soon as you get a due date and b) where do you work? any vacancies...?

It is a strong person indeed who can resist spending no more than they have to on a baby.
It's unrealistic to suppose you can borrow all the kit for as long as you're likely to need it - I mean you need a cot for 2 yrs+, car seat a year for the first one, high chairs go for about a year and a half...won't your friends need them in that time or get pissed off?? Stair gates - well the better ones are the ones you get fitted, they're just so much better and less faffy.
And then, there's the sling you quite like, and then another one for a different kind of carrying. And it's far better to get more than one car seat so the grandparents can take the baby whenever you need them to. Childproofing costs a bleedin' fortune - new shelves/containers, maybe, stair gates, fiddly little locks (we needed them...) Toys can be borrowed but you'll most likely want to buy a few biggies like a playhouse or little trampoline (obv not for a while though).
Don't forget to factor in the price of coffee - there's a lot of going out to cafes and revelling in normality whilst the baby sleeps.

MI, you don't have to express if you bfeed

I'm uneasy with "what will it cost us to have a child". There's no way DH and I can afford our DSs on paper, absolutely none. But somehow we are managing.

And you get a lot back from having a child too - a leaping lurch in your heart when they do something for the first time, a melty feeling when they come and ask for a "huggle", when they gaze up at you before they go to sleep because you are their world and it's safe and cosy because you're there

What about when you lift them up into the air, hunker, and they vom in your mouth, huh ?

Priceless.

oh god yes, the money side just melts into insignificance, doesn't it?
I have found it quite expensive but I've found that we've needed to buy quite a lot to make life feasible (or at least not irritating) in the rather inconveniently-shaped house we've been living in. None of that has been absolute essentials but has made things easier.

Wow... v. v. imminent then. Hope the move goes smoothly and that your unpacking isn't hideous and that the new place works out just fab.

I was going by the fact that SMK works full-time, Hunker. In which case some of the bottle-feeding kit and an expresser are necessary but it's still a saving, I reckon, on formula.