What is the minimum weekly budget for a baby?

[DonnaLlyn]

By the time I give birth, I will not be a student any longer, but I will have even less income because I will be without student loans.

I have a part time job, and my partner works, but we really are going to be dirt poor.

I'm trying to budget right now, so I need some help figuring out how much this baby is going to cost. How much do you thnk is the minimum that I ill spend weekly on the baby? Please don't count one-off purchases like cots and prams - that will be taken care of by my mother in law.

I am going to do everything as cheaply as possible, including cloth nappies, and breast feeding at least until 6 months old.

Artandco he seems to be doing fine with the early stages of potty training despite me not changing his nappy very often, he has been doing some wees and poos in his potty since around 18 months but then if we are home or outside and it's warm he tends to be naked so maybe that helped his awareness. I wonder if he wees an unusually small amount as his night time nappy is usually pretty full but his lunch time/dinner time nappy isn't usually very full, he does wee on his potty (or in the bath) every evening so maybe he saves up his wee. He's still breastfed so I have no idea how much liquid he actually drinks but he seems healthy. I don't think that once a disposable nappy has absorbed the wee it feels like wee to the baby, it's not wet so not like leaving them in wet pants/knickers. I haven't noticed a wee wee smell but I'll ask one of my more honest friends if he's stinky although I'm sure mil would have informed us if this was the case ;)

dinky You cannot get reward points on formula.
stripy he must have been a very very light wetter. Though I'm not that organised, at nursery they check the older babies and toddlers on a schedule and we'd take 4 washables in per day, plus one when waking up and one at bedtime. I can count on the fingers of one hand the days when they checked and he was dry on one of the scheduled checks. Plus of course the odd leak at an unscheduled time.

As with most things in life, it's as cheap or as expensive as you choose to make it.

Imo babies cost very little especially In the early days as our DC were bf, used cloth nappies etc. The things I spent money on we're things like a hot chocolate out and about. Clothes were all second hand. Hand me downs from friends or charity shop - by the way everyone comments on how lovely I dress DC ;)
We did this because we were skint frankly!

Other people I know bought all clothes from NEXT, did expensive days out, bags of nappies each week. They were and still are horrified that I dress DC head to toe charity shop but then say how expensive children are ;)

But you do get points on bottles teats and all the other Gubbins you need to formula feed

If you do end up needing a few bottles, they are v cheap on eBay/local selling pages. You'd only buy teats every couple of months but they are quite pricey - Boots 3 for 2 helps here. And for small amounts of sterilising, e.g. a few dummies, the odd bottle, the microwave bags, or Milton, are probably cheapest.

I find the Child benefits covers the basics every week tbh.

My baby weekly costs:
£9 tub of formula, (a little bit less actually but cant remember exact price)
£5 pack of tesco nappies (but I buy every other week on the two pack for £10 from Tesco)
£2 on 4 packets of wipes (50p value wipes from Tesco, they have been great - only ones not to give my sensitive baby a rash!)

So £16.00 running costs :)
She is 6 months old, I am still using the toiletries I was bought by friends when she was born. I have accepted every scrap of clothing and blankets and toys offered and she has tonnes!

All I have bought her to date is a big blanket for £6 from BnM, A pramette/pushchair for £150 from Mothercare, a babasling for £10 off ebay, a travel cot for £30 from amazon, and some very small keep sake gifts when she was born. She doesn't even have a cot - as I am ridiculous and feel the wood is too hard for my precious baby (she is my fourth - I was not like this with the others but I have developed a ridiculous Precious Last Born mentality!)

Total start up costs: £210 ish

Babies are very very cheap if you're not to prim and proud about it all. I admit i spent a small fortune with my first and still regret it - total waste of bloody money! Got it sussed now after the fourth go :D

Don't worry :)

Oh, bottle I had off my sister so they were free too... I never used a sterilizer - I use the dishwasher instead.