How much extra does a second child cost?

[bebeboeuf]

We have a 2 year old and planning on trying for a second.

Things were tight first time round during maternity leave but once I returned to work things eased off.

Does the same happen with a second or do expenses noticeably increase?

(Not taking into consideration childcare costs)

IME there is an economy of scale on the initial big ticket items (pram, crib, car seat) as you already have them.

Also clothes (although we had mostly second hand first time round and ended up buying some new for DS2 as toddlers/school age children tend to wear out their trousers- or mine do).

After that I'm afraid to say there's not much economy of scale because they need 2x food and 2x swimming lessons 2x nappies or whatever.

I’ve just had my second and have been able to reuse most things. So far the only additional things I’ve bought are furniture for the room, new bottles and some more muslins. I’ll get some new tethers soon but I can’t see me needing much else. My toddler is just coming out of nappies so that is broadly neutral.

My biggest cost has been keeping the first one in nursery. I’m doing less activities with baby no.2 as I’ve got more friends I can see and am enjoying being at home on days with nothing on (whereas with number 1 I hated it). However, like a PP said, i think I will notice it more by the end of mat leave once you start having two lots of food or activities and two lots of child care (which I’m not looking forward to at all!)

I’ve just had my second and have been able to reuse most things. So far the only additional things I’ve bought are furniture for the room, new bottles and some more muslins. I’ll get some new tethers soon but I can’t see me needing much else. My toddler is just coming out of nappies so that is broadly neutral.

My biggest cost has been keeping the first one in nursery. I’m doing less activities with baby no.2 as I’ve got more friends I can see and am enjoying being at home on days with nothing on (whereas with number 1 I hated it). However, like a PP said, i think I will notice it more by the end of mat leave once you start having two lots of food or activities and two lots of child care (which I’m not looking forward to at all!)

I'm finding it getting expensive now the second one is school age and needs school shoes, more food, activities like swimming etc. It wasn't much more to have a second baby

We reused pretty much everything although there were a few extras I bought that I decided against the first time and then decided to get - but mostly I bought second hand. I used reusable nappies on second child but only for a very short time on my first so that was a big expense - however like most things I sold them when I was done so didnt lose much money. I also bought baby carriers with second and used them loads - didnt use at all for he eldest.

Car seats was big extra expenditure as other than the baby seat we couldn't reuse anything as older one still in it.

I haven't found the second that much cheaper- you might save £500 on cot, steriliser, etc but in time they need their own bedroom furnished and replacing bottle teats is nearly as expensive as new bottles!

We worked on the assumption that the second would double our monthly 'kid costs'!