How much has being pregnant cost you?

[ithinkineedahug]

Planning at the moment to ttc #1 and interested to know how much people spent in preparing for their babies to arrive. looking at total expenditure including maternity wear, baby furniture, clothes etc how much did you spend?

The equipment was second hand or from earlier children. With the last bith it was hiring an independent midwife. No lost wage (which for most women is far and away the biggest cost unless their employer gives them 3 months off on full pay and then they go back full time) as I worked until went into Labour and returned in a week or two full time. The biggest costs are things like cost of childcare eg. £14k per child in London and in our case over £1m on school fees over a long time with a lot of children. And I wouldn't have it any other way - the children are one of the best things I ever did.

Well we had IVF (one cycle but v expensive) and had twins so our costs were pretty high:

IVF = £18,000
Maternity Clothes = £400, I got so big I grew out of lots of things
Cribs x 2 = £20 each (ebay) + new mattresses £40 each
Moses baskets and stands x 2 = £70 each
Blankets and bedding = £70
Newborn clothes = £100
Double buggy = £950
Car seats and bases = £360
Maternity related toiletries = £100
Random bits and bobs = £500 ish, this includes taxis across London from A&E visits, snacks, toys, hospital stays etc.

Once they're born though the costs keep on going, for instance we spend over a £100/month on formula alone.

Pregnancy and First Year Costs

Maternity clothes including bras- 90
Pregnancy exercise ball and DVD - 5
Pregnancy vitamins and folic acid etc. - 30
Baby furniture - 270 for cot, mattress, IKEA shelving unit, pictures for wall, changing , stair gates etc. (a lot was second hand)
Monitor - 45
Blankets, sheets, grobags - 20 (most second hand)
Baby clothes - 60, given loads, and bought second hand
baby bath - 5
pushchair and foot muff - 500
sling -100, bought two
breastfed and didn't buy any bottles/formula/etc
car seat - 190 (first and second car seat, we never had isofix base)
nappies - buy Aldi ones, with wipes and bath stuff etc. probably 25 a month
toys, bumbo, boucy seat - 60 (most second hand)
books - 100
Classes/groups = 100 over the year (didn't do NCT, and non franchise swim classes)
Baby food, and cups, spoons, bowls etc. - 200?
Christening - 500
Childcare - 800 went back two days a week, at nine months.

We are frugal on some things, but splash out on others (e.g. Christening).

37 weeks and so far we've bought:
Maternity clothes: £200
Pregnancy Pilates: £150
NCT: £175
Vitamins £120
Travel system: £970
Car seat and base: £250
Nursery furniture: £900
Nursery accessories: £150
Swing chair: £90
Moses basket and stand: £150
Baby bath: £30
Nappies, wipes etc: £60
Clothes: £160
Bedding: £80
Organic mattress and protector: £180
Breast pump: £45
Monitor: £80
Bottles and steriliser: £60
Playmat: £45
That's not including loss of earnings or the bigger car we need to buy - yikes!

Does anyone think they may have saved money by going out less, not drinking alcohol and going on scaled down holidays? I went right of socializing as usually was asleep by about 9p.m.

For my first pregnancy :

Pregnancy clothes : about £50
Cot + mattress (which DS never used - we co-slept) : about £50.
Breast pump (which I never used because DS wouldn't drink my milk from a cup) : £80
Clothes : about £30 (I bought a couple of outfits, family donated the rest).
Baby bath, car seat and baby carrier were also donated.
Second-hand pushchair : £30 on ebay.

The pregnancy also cost me 6 teeth.

Creamy - we still ate in restaurants and went out as much as before but with baby attached in a sling. If anything we went out more as sleeping babies are fairly boring

How much you will spend depends on how much you want to, how able/ willing to help grandparents are, how you feel about second hand stuff and how many folks in the immediate vicinity are in a position to pass things on! We had to buy or be given almost everything new (premature, no time to ebay.....) but those following have lucked out massively as they can have anything we're not using.

You'll need a Moses basket/ cot and if second hand or passed on a new mattress is essential, change mat, pram, sling and some initial newborn clothes. If breastfeeding you might not need any bottles etc unless you end up expressing, which I did bit got those at a later date. Don't go mad with the clothes (other than maybe body suits) is my advice as we got deluged in them, people were incredibly generous and I wished I'd saved my money to buy bigger things later on! Baby gym was great from about six weeks and some kind of swing/ chair thing is useful. If you buy maternity clothes maybe look at getting ones that will allow feeding if you go down that route as I was cross with myself that I didn't do that. Some people get by with a belly band for their jeans and extenders for their bras, others (like me) just get too big and need more room everywhere...... I would buy as and when you need.

Didn't see the outlay on gaviscon in pregnancy coming though, didn't see that one coming at all....... Never occurred until too late that it could be got on prescription, duh!

Good luck!

V similar to Cupcake but spent quite a lot more on maternity clothing as I have to look very smart for work and I stressed too much about that.

Friends have done very well now that we've finished (I hope) as I don't have the time to try to ebay clothes for v little value. I'd rather give stuff to friends and have them pass it on.

You could spend several thousands to be honest but you can definitely do it for enormously less. Some things are worth spending more money on if you are planning more than one child.

Vests for example, are not - you'll want to bin them when they are irrevocably stained and disgusting looking. Bit of a killer if you've splashed out on organic cotton or something.
Lots of neutral clothes are good too - you can reuse for a different gender, or friends will get more value. You will get tons of pink/dino/truck themed stuff from family and friends anyway and bizzillions of toys.

A good solid pram - I'd rather buy a good one second hand than a cheap one brand new that you can't push with one hand (essential if you are holding a hand and pushing an empty pram within a year). Most people use liners anyway to avoid the hassle of cleaning a pram so the worst case is possibly to buy new wheels. The really good prams come with a 3 yr warranty too so buy one that's a year old and you still get the benefit.

This is a question that could have a million different answers..

You could spend almost nothing. My friend didn't wear any maternity clothes, just lose tops, jeans under the bump etc. (but then, her bump was relatively tiny)... She co slept, she breastfed, she was given a pram and loads of clothes by her cousin. Asked for nappies & wipes etc as gifts from family & friends and was really frugal.

I bought 2 prams, one was £900 and the other £400. (Plus all cosytoes, pram toys, new blankets, cup holders and shopping clips)

I got a crib and mattress for £150, a Moses basket & stand for about £80, nursery furniture including cot for about £2500.

Baby bag - £100

Maternity clothes - maybe £2-300

I FF and that was expensive (still is!)

Bought into every gadget like video monitors and nasal aspirations, spent every day from scan to birth (and after!) clothes shopping for the baby.

Had a baby beanbag, 2 bouncy chairs. 2 playmats, 2 carseats, 2 carseat bases.

It cost us thousands and thousands.

But it doesn't have to.

You can spend as much or as little as you want. For us the biggest expense has been, like a lot of others, loss of earnings. Statutory sick pay is next to nothing and being signed off since 17 weeks on it has been rubbish to say the least.

We've bought everything brand new (don't have anything against second hand) but we've been very lucky with gifts from family and frugal with stuff that we have bought.

Maternity clothes from sales at New Look and Debenhams plus lots of cheap leggings.

Pram, carseat, cot, bouncer all gifts

Baby clothes cheap from places like Asda (though we haven't bought loads because we don't know the sex)

Bottles and steriliser set price matched with Amazon from Mothercare.

Moses basket £22 from Asda during their baby event and lots of other bits from there as well, 10 bibs for £3 etc.

We've just looked for offers on nappies, wipes like 3 for 2 and joined Boots parenting club to get the free changing bag. Our biggest expense in one go was probably the nursery, decorating and buying all matching curtains bedding etc probably cost us around £150. We started buying baby stuff early, little bits here and there so we haven't really noticed the spending much

I'm on the frugal end, not through desire to save money, just through not needing much.

Didn't use maternity clothes, just normal clothes. Used same normal clothes for bf.

Stuff for baby, was given a Moses basket, so bought blankets for it. Used pillowcases as sheets. I love charity shops anyway and they are awash with baby clothes so clothes from there, never more than 50p an item and I really enjoyed shopping for them.

Thought I would buy a pram/pushchair if I needed one, never have bought one so saved on that.

Did buy two wraps and a mei tai.

Did fb and when I had problems was given a breast pump and syringes to feed with, but did buy some milk bags.

Didn't have a nursery to decorate, dcs have gone into their own rooms around 1-1.5 years so not something done in pregnancy or new baby stage.

Bought birth to four car seat half price on kiddicare, but was offered infant seat from friends so could have saved there but I don't like the seats with handles as they hurt your back to carry and get overused!

Bouncy chair was grandparent gift. Baby gym thing was 99p local pick up on eBay.

High chair was bought at 5 months old and cost £38.

I was given nursing bras but bought button down nighties for nighttime co sleeping and bf.

Probably the whole pregnancy and baby kit and caboodle couldn't have been more than £400 spread over about 2years.

pregnant with DC2 and biggest cost has been over £20k on fertility treatment...

Everything else seems cheap after that!

I spent around £100 for everything for my new babies.

Depends on your parenting style.

Things I didn't buy were:

Cot
pram
bottles steriliser
furniture
breast pump
bedding.
changing bag

I didn't need any of that- others may find them essential.

Pregnancy cost me my job! Got a decent payoff though as they knew I'd take them to a tribunal - and win! - otherwise.

Very little. I made sure we didn't buy things we didn't need and I tried to get as much as possible second hand/sales. We have twins.

Cots: Both free (one from a friend, one a gift)
Mattresses & cot linen: 150
Double Buggy: second hand 200
Car seats: sale 60 for both
Bouncy chairs: One free and 15 for the other (second hand)
Play mat: second hand 10
Monitor: free
Clothes: Given loads (second hand & gifts) I probably spent around 100 for both of them
Highchairs: One free & other 15 (Ikea)
Bottles & sterilisers: 80

This is not a "I used one chicken for 35 meals" post. It really is possible to
not to spend a lot of money on babies. Don't fall for the advertising. You really do not need all the stuff they sell.

neversleep I agree, but I didn't need half of the stuff that you bought- but then I didn't have twins!

I co slept- we never bought a cot, I have never formula fed and never used a pram or buggy.

Yep out of your list we didn't have playmat, bouncy chair, monitor, high chair, bottle, steriliser. But like I said still cost loads in lost in income, childcare etc

twelve I love that my babies sleep in a cot and not with me so cots were one of the first things I bought! I BF until I was admitted to hospital for emergency surgery and carrying them in a sling is impossible, they weigh over 50lb between them now!

would have bought

Got some stuff new e.g. cot mattress,some baby & maternity clothes,moses basket (stupid me).
Now I' pg with DC2,just got a huge bag of maternity clothes from one of the FB groups for 20 pounds-all in good nick and brandedstuff.
If you're looking for a cheaper solutions-FB baby & toddler buy swap and sell group (you can place an ad yourself about what you're looking for),gumtree and car boot sales-shitloads of clothes,toys and all sorts for a few pence.

neversleep- but that;s what I mean, it comes down to parenting style.

The type of parent you imagine yourself being often goes out the window when the baby/babies arrive :) Mine certainly did.

I agree neversleep, I had never planned to co-sleep and was going to breastfeed only for 3 months. My mother bought me a cot and formula, but both were eventually chucked out unused.

I was stuck in the house desperate for some fresh air for a few days after birth waiting for emergency wrap sling to arrive from Amazon as DS was far too small for the structured sling I had bought. Something to consider if you are expecting a little one.