I was prompted to do this after reading an article which said babies cost on average £3,500 during first year. Right from the beginning I've kept a note of all the big things we had to buy and have estimated the other items but probably erred on the side of caution and put down a larger figure than we actually spent.
I've not taken into account my loss of earnings as this would vary from person to person but this could be offset against FT child care costs if I had returned to work anyway.
The result ....... £1,062 PROFIT!!!!!
We were fortunate to get loads of clothes from SIL plus cot and pram (which we never used) but still paid her £200 for the lot.
Have hardly bought any clothes for her, only socks or pyjamas. Still using gift vouchers given to us when she was born.
Got many gifts and GPs bought biggish things i.e.
car seat, new mattress for cot.
Get family benefit plus tax credits.
I suppose the £3.5k figure would be about right if you were buying everything brand new at top of the range but I try to buy off Ebay or from Charity shops if I can.
My own personal opinion is that too often the cost of child rearing is shown in a negative light when it needn't be so. I'm sure that costs will escalate once DD starts going through new shoes every 6 weeks and is then influenced by her peers but for the first year it has not been anywhere like as expensive as people have made out.
I know everyone is different so curious to hear other experiences.
PS I'll happily post the breakdown of costs, just didn't want to bore anyone too much.