Monthly budget for a baby?

[NMRJC20]

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone could give me any idea of the cost of a newborn on a monthly basis? We have all furniture, bathing and health stuff, toys etc. But was really wondering about how much people spend on nappies, creams, formula, general upkeep for the baby. We are in an incredibly lucky situation in that we will get a lot of second hand clothes from my lovely sister in law and sister so we are quite stocked on clothes and will just need to top up hurrah! But I’m worried about how much we should sensibly budget for per month for essentials. I’m going to be on SMP (I’ve always worked full time as a teacher but moved schools and although there is no break in service the change of school means I’m entitled to SMP only) which means a drop in income. My partner will continue working full time of course, and we’ve chopped our outgoings to the essentials so we should be ok, but if I could have a round about number to work with it would just be reassuring! Thanks in advance for your help, it’s really appreciated!

It’s hard to get an actual figure. But let’s say for newborns

Milk 1 tub a week 4 a month around £40 (depends how much they eat really and what brand you use)

Nappies: Aldi do 98 nappies for around £4 I think so perhaps 1 a week = £16-£18

Wipes again Aldi do a pack of 4 for £2
One or two a week = £8 to £16

Creams we use Vaseline. Go to the pound shop or a budget store you can pick them up for like £1 we use two a month also you’ll need sudocrem

Boots usually do two for £4

My baby would only take the ready made formula which is hideously expensive so altogether with asda nappies and whichever wipes were on offer it was about £120 a month.

Breastfeeding and cloth nappies and wipes saves a fortune and much more environmentally friendly. Make sure you have a great support network for breastfeeding, find local groups and volunteer advisors in advance. Maybe a breastfeeding class. Find a cloth nappy library, most have newborn cloth hire kits.

About £80 a month so child benefit for first child.

Once you've brought all the essentials (pram, cot, car seat ect) newborns are pretty cheap especially if you exclusively breastfeed. Nappies and wipes are quite cheap as long as you get supermarket own brands. Have no idea how much formula is though. Don't forget you'll also be able to claim child benefit.

I agree with the poster above, definitely try to breastfeed and consider cloth nappies.
We have always found the £20 per week that every child receives to be enough to cover things for our little one... we save it in a separate account and it has covered things such as an expensive new car seat as well as the more everyday costs. All the very best.

For the day to day essentials we spent:
£20/month on Pampers. Friends use re-usable nappies but some find they leak and obvs you need to wash and dry them. There are also biodegradable nappies (expensive) or Aldi/Lidl cheaper than Pampers.

Formula £100: huge hungry baby, SMA pro + premade stuff for outings (that works out pricey)

Wipes: maybe £20 on Waterwipes? Again, you can go to Lidl/Aldi or make your own reusable ones (friend washes and dips cloths in water mixed with a tad of soap and lavender oil).

Sudocrem costs a few quid and lasts months.

Clothes: I ended up using vests and sleepsuits from Primark: excellent designs, very practical and fancy clothes (tops and bottoms etc) were too much fuff. When DS got older, He starter wearing fancier clothes but you can even get whole bundles on eBay for peanuts. Friends also seem to love Sainsbury's baby clothes.

I found that the biggest expense was probably baby classes (there are free and cheap ones too) and associated expenses like lunches and coffees with other mums. And I'm too lazy to cook so used ready pouches and snacks when weaning started but if you cook, you can freeze portions and it can be dirt cheap.

If you BF, very little!

Nappies - no more than 2 packs a week at £2 each, so £16 per month. At 5 months we use less than a pack a week.

Never used creams except for a few days of nappy rash - used a free sample from an NCT sale.

Wipes are 50p a pack in Tesco, 1-2 packs per week in the early days. I now use reusable wipes so only cost is running the machine once per week.

The biggest expense seems to be formula, so try to BF if you can. There is lots of support in the community (or so I’ve found) if you look for it.

They don't really need much I found though it's easy to get sucked into buying loads! I asked for vouchers for places like boots or Mothercare so I could pick up any essentials like dummies, new bottle teats.

Nappies - about £5 from Aldi per week
Wipes - again from Aldi, I buy a twelve pack box when they are on offer which is about £5 and lasts a few months (probably less with a newborn)
Formula - before we started weaning, DS got through a tub every 5-6 days, so probably £45-50 a month on formula.
Also spent about £5-10 a week on classes to get us out and meeting people.

Thank you all so much! This was really helpful and very reassuring thank you! We do all our shopping at Aldi so picking up nappies and wipes there would be great! I’m definitely going to try and breastfeed but I know it may not workout, so will budget for formula just in case. Thanks again all, you’ve helped me relax no end!!!

I shop at tesco.

I spend £3.50 a week on Nappies
£1.50 a week on wipes
Still have the same tub of sudocream I bought when pregnant (he's nearly 2 lol).

When bottle feeding I spent £9 every 5-6 days on formula.

My mum has always bought the majority of his clothes. She just enjoys it lol. But I would say whilst growing fast put £20 away a month. Any extra can go to savings.

Now he is eating food I probably spend £5 a week on extra bits for him. As he mainly just eats what we are having anyway.

Honestly I haven't found it all that expensive after initial set up.

You just need to remember big things like a bigger car seat etc.

Search the charity shops for toys. You can usually find Fisher price toys like new for really cheap!

Agree with PPs if you can breastfeed and get your nappies and wipes at Aldi you'll struggle to spend your child benefit each week. You will probably want some baby wash as well but again it's very cheap in Aldi etc. You also need to consider the extra laundry detergent and associated costs as it's true about doing loads of extra washes! Other than that it's just buying clothes as they grow out of each size pretty quick but you'll probably get given plenty of bigger sizes too.

Ebf till 6 months and I'd say £30 a month. That's about £16 in nappies £6 in wipes and £8 for extras such as creams lotions or calpol (for vaccinations)

Then I baby led weaned so he basically just ate a bit of what I was eating.

Baby costs not much....clothing wise I got charity shop and buy most stuff second hand too when he starts getting big for things.

Also I'd probably spend a little on baby sensory classes or swimming etc. That's not a necessity tho

Agree with breastfeeding (free and easier after the initial few weeks/months) and cloth nappies and wipes. Wipes you could just get 2 packs of cloth ones for about £10 and they would last years and multiple children, nappies if you buy cloth ones cleverly you can resell and I actually made money by doing this.

Otherwise I’d go for the cheapest formula £7 a tub x5 a month (all formulas are the same nutritionally so don’t get sucked in by advertising), nappies again try Aldi’s and their wipes too.

Maybe budget £5-10 a week for baby group donations and parking metres, or more if you'll be getting the bus to things.

If you bf you will need bf bras, I think I spent around £100 for 3(they lasted for 2 dc though ). You also might want a breast pump? Not everyone does but something to budget for if you do. Childcare is the biggie so whilst you're on maternity leave feeding and nappies are really quite cheap.

I’ve twins, and budgeted £50 a week incl formula. At their hungriest, we were spending £30-35 a week on milk, the rest on nappies/wipes/creams etc. Bottles were £40 (4 bottles x 2 kids) the dr browns ones, steriliser was about £50 to fit the bottles and teats were about a fiver a pack.

I’d kind of guess £30 a week for one baby would more than cover it.

It being the costs sorry, not it being your child 😳

as most others have said newborns cost very little once you have all your equipment bought.

I had my baby spring 2018. I worked out we spent £60 per month on formula, nappies and wipes. Might be slightly more expensive now. So your child benefit will cover it all easily as long as you're not using ready made formula and branded nappies/wipes.

Don't be like me and spend a small fortune on breastfeeding equipment and then only breastfeed for 6 weeks 🤦🏼‍♀️ will keep all those stuff though and hopefully will be able to breastfeed for longer if I ever have another.

Nappies (Aldi) About £4 for a huge pack.. I say 1 a week but I dont use a full pack per week

Formula (Aldi as baby likes it as much as Aptimil but he is less constipated on it) 1 or 2 tins a week...

Wipes Asda Little Angels approx 2 packs a week but I tend to stock up as they are 52p a pack.

I use Little Angels Bath Wash etc and Dentinox shampoo.. they last ages..

Barely anything! I use reusables at home and disposables when out, but go out quite often. Even using only reusable nappies they don't cost much if you get supermarket ones. Sainsbury's are nice.

Creams, I bought metanium everyday before my child was born, he's 5 months now and I still have loads! Use it every day.