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?

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.

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.

Currently 24 weeks so probably more to buy

Cot bed and mattress -£120
Pram/pushchair & car seat -£200
Maternity clothes £30
Moses basket & mattress £50
Clothing storage for nursey £ free!
thermometer £23
Breast pump £ 15
baby clothes £50
Blankets £ 20
Bottles £10
Electric steraliser £ free
toys/playmat etc £40

Theres probably a lot more to get but I think we've done really well on not spending too much especially as we are currently buying a house so that is taking up a LOT of money at the moment!

Renting a hospital grade breast pump is a good idea, and buying bottles for expressed milk is also a good idea.
Teats and a steriliser for the ebm.

Don't forget to factor in breast feeding consultant fees, and also a physiotherapist appointment or three.

Cranial osteopathy is your babe cries a lot is a good investment.

Tens machine rental for labour is a good idea too.

Also disposable knickers for the after birth lochia period- never underestimate how many packs of size 20 you need, I went through hundreds, before the first week was up. Then I graduated onto granny knickers and massive pads.

Save for the maternity leave and loss of earnings afterwards.

I estimate I lost £36,000 in that first year - I had a horrific delivery and was in freaking agony for about two years with internal scarring, and couldn't work ft anymore. Nappies and baby grows fade into insignificance compared to loss of earnings and childcare costs, especially if you are moving to pt work.

We were the first of our friends/families to have babies so had to buy pretty much everything ourselves.

We spent the best part of £1k on baby equipment and furniture all in - although that did include a comfy armchair for the nursery (for feeding) that we still use now. GPs were very generous and bought the cot and the pram, too. I did lots of research and bought well I think.

I also spent a few hundred on maternity clothes I guess but they did me 3 babies so I got plenty of wear out of them. I found that proper maternity stuff didn't fit me until fairly late on though (apart from under bump jeans, which are a bit marmite I think but I loved them) and next-size-up clothes were great for the middle of pg and immediately after the birth. I got back into normal jeans fairly quickly but was bigger on top still thanks to bfing. Never saw the point of "proper" bfing tops, managed fine with normal ones.

DS1 - pregnancy test - £3, maternity clothes - about £50, birth pool - £80, t-shirt for ds - £4, maternity/breast pads - £5ish I think. Everything else I was given.

DS5 - pregnancy test - £3, maternity clothes - £150, maternity pads - £10, buggy - £125. Still need to get a car seat and a new babygrow and new matresses for cot and moses basket.

Loss of earnings was shed loads. Won't bore with details but about £21,000!

Then had to buy:
Pram £275
Car seat £70
Cot and loads of second hand clothes from a friend £150
Mattress for cot £80
Moses basket £35
Chest of drawers: £75
Blankets, sheets, baby towels £50
Bottles and steriliser £60 (we were given one full set too)
Breast Pump £80
Perfect Prep machine £65
Maternity Clothes £240 - Debenhams and New Look
Baby bath seat £20
Breast pads, maternity towels, stuff for hospital £70
Muslins and bibs £30
New baby clothes £40
Baby change bag £25
Changing mat £10 (plus given another one)
Gro bag £20

Also various toys etc but not essentials so I've not included them or dummies etc.

£1395 in total not including loss of earnings.

To keep costs down I say take everything people give you, even if you don't think you want it, you may. I would also shop around on line, use voucher codes to get things delivered free (like we did with the perfect prep machine) and look out for sales all of the time. Have department store vouchers for presents as well as this helps with buying things such as mattresses and bed linen.

The loss of earnings covers the whole maternity period, the baby stuff covers what we spent whilst pregnant and the first couple of months.

It's as expensive as you want it to be. Personally for us we have brought all new- it will probably be our only child (i'm 37 and DH is 42) and well...we can afford it. I think it would be pretty selfish of me to go down to a charity shop and pick up a bundle of baby clothes for £5 when I could manage £50 when there are people out there who couldn't.

We spent no where near as much as other posters on here!!
BUT........we were given a lot!!
My in-laws bought us the 3-in-1 pram/pushchair & accesories, we bought the cot 2nd hand for £20 & paid £35 for new mattress(was 16 years ago!), my mum bought all the bathing stuff-bath, sponge to go in bath, toiletries box etc, my sister bought us a really fancy, comfy bouncy chair.
We decorated the nursery at a cost of about £120-that was for paint for 3 walls, wallpaper for 1 wall, curtains, border for 3 walls & stickers for the walls!! All the wallpaper, border, curtains etc was matching-Peter Rabbit!!
After first DD was born, my mum & sister went to town on buying clothes Also got clothes bought for DD from in-laws aswell!! But in-laws bought us practical stuff as well, like a small tumble drier which we did not have!!
We bought the car seats, the first car seat cost us about £45, the next stage up car seat was about £70 & then we bought 2 booster seats at about £15/20 each.
We handed things down to 2nd DD, who was only born 15 months after 1st DD!!
Other things you get as you go along-when you have the money or when needs say you must!!

Hello OP

It depends on how you look at it. Some people will factor in maternity leave/ loss of income, childcare etc others won't.

For us it was really cheap. We were bought and given a lot and only had the mat grant and income support level of mat benefit.
We made only necessary purchases and ds1 was fine. You can spend as little or as much as you like.
If you plan to have several dc it maybe is more beneficial in the long term to make some relatively expensive purchases and pass down.

Also, have you heard of Freecycle??
We gave away LOADS of stuff on there, just to free up attic space & because we were too lazy to do a car boot!! Just sorting the attic was work enough

Loads on physio and chiropracter

So, there are the weird unforseen things, too.

unforeseen.

neither of those look right.

About £800.

Forget eBay - Facebook buying pages.

And this is a really good guideline

www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/categories/having-a-baby

I boight second hand and sold it on afterwards so maybe cost £100 net.
I was keen to spend as long as possible on mat leave amd made it to 6 months. V jealous of a
nyone who managed a year off!

Biggest cost, lack of sleep in the first 6 months and loss of sanity for about 3 years - or possibly still ongoing.

You don't need to buy all new stuff and a lot of baby stuff is just for show for the parents to spend ridiculous amounts on designer stuff that gets puked up on and they grow out of it so fast.

Agree with onlittle toddlerterrormain cost now is getting about on the bus and for meeting up with people to stay sane.

We budgeted about £1000 for baby stuff and spent about £150. We were very lucky with gifts, second hand stuff and a relitive with access to a factory shop. Now he is here I have spent another £40 on a few bits as they have turned up in sales or charity shops such as the next size up clothes and a play pen. We spent the budget on a new efficient washing machine and updating the heating which in the long run was probally the best thing for us as now its saving us money.

Its hard to not go overboard, I tended to wait and see i needed something before getting it, eg. Bb is much happer sat on dads tummy in the bath than in a babybath which we don't have room for. Dhs clothes were much more comfy than mat clothes.