How much did you spend on baby essentials

[NphysT]

Hi all, currently 8 weeks pregnant and trying to figure out how much it will cost for all the baby essentials we will need before baby is born. Plus how much is needed to survive maternity pay. Will be on enhanced maternity pay so a bit more than smp but still a lot less than what I actually make.

Could you possibly share a ballpark on how much you spent on baby essentials and saved for maternity. Appreciate this will be different for everyone but would just like to get an idea.

Thanks

I'm in Ireland but here goes...
Travel system: €2000 for iCandy. We went with a more expensive one for a few reasons... Ability to sell on after use, withstand time / wear and tear if we had more children, a lot of features. This included our isofix base and carseat which we still use (16 months old now), bassinet which she slept in during the day as a baby, bassinet changed to a buggy which we use all the time now.
Changing unit: €60 second hand on Facebook market place. A lot of people say they never used theirs, we stored in baby's room, we still use it all the time to change and it stores a lot of baby's belongings for us.
Cot: €150 frame second hand on Facebook market place plus new mattress. We didn't buy this until 6 months after baby was born
Things we borrowed / got gifted: baby bath, next-to-me style bed, baby monitor, bottle maker and bottles

Can't think of anything else. I wouldn't be bothered doing up a room for a nursery or anything like that. It's expensive and you won't need it!

Maternity then, I got was lucky with my job I only had to take a few weeks unpaid, I had almost a full year fully paid so can't help you there!

Forgot to add, I started stocking up and nappies and wipes early on in the pregnancy.

About £100 then the car seat was a few hundred quid when we needed one. We bought a cheap second hand pram, cot, and clothes bundles from Facebook as and when we needed them plus nappies and wipes in food shops for a few months prior. The biggest expense was the not actual necessities but items you decide you need at 3am whilst up feeding! You need to budget for car seat and mattress new.

Extra pay is way too variable so you'll need to work out yourself. I had a spreadsheet of essentials, nice to haves, and maternity savings on things like commute, then pay and things like coffees and classes. Don't forget to also include the gap between return and normal pay day.

I spent just under £1,000 but it's absolutely manageable to do it much cheaper (just as people spend a lot more if they want as well)! There were a few bits I got that aren't necessary for everyone (moses basket etc) but I have a dog so wanted to make sure I had somewhere downstairs for naps while very small. I plan on breastfeeding but want to express eventually as well so bottles, pump etc may not be needed for others. I also wanted a few weeks worth of breast pads, maternity pads, nappies and all newborn clothes ready to make the first few weeks easier. My list is below if that helps at all, with the rough amounts I spent.

Changing bag - second hand £25
Car seat and base - £180 (this was a gift so not factored into my budget)
Chest of drawers - £100
Bouncer - £25
Thermometer - £30
Moses basket - second hand £5
New moses basket sheet and mattress - £15
Cot bed and sheets - £160
Next-to-me crib - £99 (turns into a travel cot after for holidays)
Breast pump - £16.99
Footmuff - £14.99
Bottles - £20
Baby carrier - given by family member
Pushchair - £220 ex display
Newborn clothes - £100
Microwave steriliser - given by family member
Breast pads - £10
Breastfeeding bras and tops - not bought yet
Breastfeeding nightie/pjs - £20 for two
Maternity pads - £10
Muslins - £4
Dummies - £4
Drink holder for pram - £7
Sleeping bag - £10
Baby body wash + sponge - £2
Two hooded towels - £5
Nipple cream - £4
Nappies - £20
Wipes - £3
E45 - £3
Nappy bags - £1
Changing mat - £7
Playmat - £20
Scratch mittens - £3
Car seat mirror - £7

Probably £3000?

But it really depends what you define as essentials and if you mean only for newborn age.

I mean our car seat was around £250, but it’s a 0-4 year one so we are still using it 3.5 years on. A cheaper one for just tiny baby might have been cheaper but we would have had to buy second one by now otherwise.
Chest of drawers (ikea 8 drawer thing), about £250. But it’s been storage since newborn, has changing Mat ontop for 2 years as changing table, and it will last forever. It’s not really just newborn essential.

Approx:
Car seat £250
Pram £600
Drawers £250
highchair (bought at 6months old) £200
bouncer £150
Toys 1st year £300? ( that included baby toys, teethers, hard books, teddies, playmat)
Clothes - do you mean newborn only or up to 1 year? As that’s about 6 different clothe sizes £400 at guess ( we didn’t buy much but they grow)
washable nappies- £250 (lasted until toilet trained)
cot, mattress and bedding - £400 (ikea cot, organic mattress, x2 sheets, sleeping bags)

Probably a couple hundred of other random stuff like pram footmuff, breastfeeding stuff, whatever else

@fitforflight - that’s just preparing for newborn cost though isn’t it? Not the first year? A baby at 4months/ 7months/ 10 months will need extra stuff ie bigger clothes, toys, highchair, items that run out.

Definitely, but the OP didn't specify all the first year costs, just baby essentials and I think like another poster said what she spends/has to save for mat leave is very personal and will depend on her circumstances. I'm not having to save anything for mat leave because my partner earns enough to cover us both and things like toys and clothes can be as expensive or cheap as you like. Some of the stuff like I said are normal (nappies etc) items that you need I just factored in the first few weeks cost so we didn't have to make a trip out for them initially.

I think we’ve probably spent about £2k, but you can definitely do it a lot cheaper.

Rough costs:
Pram c.£1k (bassinet, pram, foot muff, rain cover, changing bag, coffee cup holder etc. came as a bundle)
Car seat: c.£500 for car seat and isofix base. This will last until baby is 4.
Next to me crib mattress: c.£30. Crib was gifted.
Baby carrier: £120
Sling: £40
Highchair and bouncer: c.£200
Clothes: About £40 maybe? Lots have been gifted
Baby bath: £20
Muslins / bibs: maybe £20?
Sleeping bags: 2 for £30
Toys: none yet really! Hoping to be given some as presents.
Misc: things like drawer dividers, baby hangers, sponges, blankets, nipple cream, spritz for bits, playmat, changing mats, nightie to give birth in, thermometers, baby nail clippers. Maybe about £120 - £150?
Changing table / dresser: £200.
Maternity bras: £60
Wipes / nappies / nappy cream - unsure, we’ve been adding to the grocery shop as we go.
Bottles: £35 starter set from mam
Steriliser: still need to buy….

Written down it’s actually a bit more than I thought as all the misc little stuff adds up.

The big thing we still need is a proper cot, and there’s all kinds of things like decorating the nursery which I’ve not included as that really depends on how much you’re doing!

As pp have said there are a couple of things you need to buy new (mattress, car seat). Everything else you can buy second hand. I would recommend that before you buy anything you try going to an NCT nearly new sale or a Mum2Mum market (or similar, different areas seem to have different franchises). These are particularly good for clothes and toys and you will be amazed at how cheap you can get things. You can literally kit out a baby with all the clothes they need in every size for about £20 a size whereas even if you
shop at Asda a single snowsuit will be £10. Vinted is also good but not quite as cheap.

You can spend almost infinite amounts on some things, particularly clothes but also buggies, nursery furniture, toys etc… so I think you are asking the question the wrong way round. You might get 20 responses and the average amount spent might be £1500. That doesn’t mean you have to spend that, nor does it mean you can afford it! So I would work out what you have to buy new and price that up, then work out what you need to save to make up your short fall in earnings, and then work out how much you can afford on top of that to buy all the rest.

Maybe £300-400 all in for the stuff but I was very lucky.

I bought a Joie pram which had a detachable carrier/baby car seat included. I also bought a base unit that went in the car that the carrier slotted into for quick/secure travel. That was about £200 (£90ish for the pram/carrier and another £90ish for the base unit). I got it from Toys R Us when they were going out of business so probably cheaper than it would've been. There are loads in Facebook marketplace though, and babies are only in them for a few months so get second hand if budgets are tight.

I got a cot off of marketplace for £20 and bought a new mattress online for about £40.

I didn't bother with a changing table, just put a changing mat on the floor. Less than a tenner.

Baby bath was probably £20 maybe.

I was given a steriliser and some bottles, and a breast pump, but I mostly breastfed.

I was given a big bundle of baby clothes, sleep suits, moses basket etc from a friend who has a kid about 6 months older than mine, and then in 6 months I was given the next bundle. £0.

I was given a sling from another friend.

Muslins and blankets I was given as baby presents.

My baby was tiny and I was given a load of nappies from my NCT group who had all stocked up on size 1 nappies but whose babies were quickly in size 2 nappies when mine was still in size 0. Obviously has to start buying them once my DC was a bit bigger.

Baby groups were a few quid each (some cheaper ones like baby rhyme time at the library (£1), singing/dancing/stay-and-play groups £3-5, baby signing £8. Also going for coffees and cakes was quite a thing when I had my first (second born in lockdown so didn't have the same expenses) so maybe budget about £50/week for social life and getting to know other mums/building a support network.

With our last child
£1800 on a bugaboo fox complete with summer hood, liner and winter footmuff, changing bag and car seat. They did lose our original order so we were given a good will gesture. They then sent the wrong order as replacement. Another goodwill gesture ( both times was given a partial refund) ended up costing us £600 in total.

Next to me crib £100 we got this on offer.

Cot bed we already had but I paid £45 in a clearance sale from a baby shop a few years ago. New mattress was £50

Swing £60 on sale

Highchair £40 on sale

Baby carrier/ sling £70. Then did £100 on a toddler Tula and £170 on a lenny lamb preschooler.

Breast pump medela swing £25 boots clearance

We probably did around £100 on bits like nappies, wipes etc.

Clothes I'd say less then £50 as we was gifted so much

Toys £0 we was gifted

Baby monitors again was gifted a gift card so we purchased monitors. But they were £65 on sale

My biggest expense apart from pram was definitely breast feeding friendly clothes. I've probably done around £1500 over 2 years.

Our older children were much cheaper in terms of spend. But we definitely had a much tighter budget then, pretty much everything was gifted or brought second hand.

This is how it was for us, we were gifted most things.

Car seat and base £250
Push chair/pram - £250
Moses basket - free hand me down
Moses basket mattress - £40
Cot - free hand me down
Cot mattress - £130
bedding - £30
Nusing pillow - gifted
Reusable nappies - free hand me downs
baby bouncer - £12
sling - free hand me down
Baby wearing coat - £120
changing mat - £10

We already had drawers that we put the changing mat on.

I don’t think we bought any toys as we were given so many!

Factor in a higher food bill, breastfeeding makes you hungry,

I didn’t want baby on foam so bought natural wool/coconut mattresses that were more expensive than basic ones.

Baby clothes wise, DS grew very quickly so went through about 6 different clothe sizes in the first year. I bought most of it in bundles from eBay, probably about £25 each time, one size I bought new and it was over £60 and didn’t do that again!

As above DS was huge so he grew out of the infant car seat before he was 1, the next size up was probably close to £200.

We also bought a stokke tripp trapp high chair at around 6 months, They take up much less space than other high chairs but I think that was about £300.

I went back to work after 6 months and expressed milk for the next 6 months. Breast pump was £200 ish and glass bottles were probably about £80 in total. I only needed these because of when I went back to work.

First time round we used about 8k of savings to cover mat leave but at the time my DH was only earning about £15k pa (phd grant) and I was usually the main earner by a very wide margin. Second time round (DH has finished the phd) we’ll only use about 2k of savings and if we do that’ll be for a holiday or something.