How much to save before baby #1?

[Lauraloop1516]

Hi all!

I know this is a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' question, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on how much it costs to comfortably start a family? Depending on when I get the BFP, I may not be entitled to maternity leave - but I'm tired of waiting to start a family and think we should just go for it now. We've been saving for a while and have a wee baby account that we would use to sort the nursery and get the essentials. I would definitely try to get some things second hand, but I don't want to be hard up. Any thoughts much appreciated!

Around 12 months of your income to cover maternity and childcare for the first year or two (how far that will go depends on maternity package and what childcare you have) plus about £1000 the nursery and car seat/push chair type stuff.

I am sure there are many who would save much less and many who would save much more though - it really varies.

We didn't save anything. We were ttc after 2 months together. I was a student, now dh didn't have a well paid job, but we knew we were ready and wanted a baby.

Contrary to what many will say, babies don't have to cost very much at all, the main issue is loss of income during maternity leave and nursery costs following. So it really depends if your dp can afford to cover household costs during maternity leave as smp is pretty low though is sufficient to cover nappies etc.

Babies really do cost what you allow them to cost! Everyone has a different idea of minimum standards of living and what they are willing to forgo.

Depends on your income and outgoings and what childcare costs would be. We have enough saved to cover my decreased income on mat leave, plus the first year of me being part time and paying high nursery fees. However I know lots of people who wing it and seem to be ok! I think we just wanted to know our lifestyle wouldn’t be too impacted and that we could relax without worrying about money. Having
Said that, apart from a buggy, most of our baby stuff is second hand or borrowed and we aren’t extravagant. I think you can spend very little on baby stuff or go crazy! The irony being thar the baby has no idea!

We budgeted it as the following for year one costs

• The difference between what would have been earned vs what will be earned on maternity leave

• My earnings for a week after birth plus a predicted 10 days over the year to cover illness, emergencies etc.

• Initial purchase costs of £2,000 for equipment (came under budget)

• Additional weekly costs of approximately £70 to cover increased use of heating and misc. baby stuff including nappies, formula, infacol, calpol etc.

Oh I feel a bit bad now, I'm just saving enough to cover the drop in my income while I'm on mat leave. I think we can cover baby costs and nursery once my salary goes back to normal and we've been buying something from the list of 'big' things we need each month. I've not factored in child benefit or the government top-up to childcare so that is my margin for error in my maths (hopefully!).

Ask me again in 12 months 😂

The only big costs are your one offs pram, Moses basket etc and the drop in income. The drop in income is hard to handle if you’re reliant on both wages to survive so I’d say the more you save the more comfortable you’ll be. I hated going back to work after maternity and quit soon after, that’s when we suffered financially. Milk and nappies don’t cost much so I don’t think babies cost much in that sense.

We saved enough to cover my share of the bills once on maternity leave (I took 13 months off)

This is our first, we saved enough to cover the time off work where i won’t be getting paid at all. I’ll worry about childcare on going back to work later!

We’ve barely spent anything on equipment, got it all second hand for next to nothing. The only thing we bought new is a monitor and clothes, mattress and sheets. Babies don’t need that much really.

I didn't save anything although am lucky that my DP earns enough to support us both comfortably whilst I take my maternity leave, all the equipment I needed for baby has been bought on buy and sell groups during my pregnancy with the exception of the cot and car seat which I purchased new - total cost probably £600

As much as you can. We saved enough to cover the drop between standard pay and smp for 8 months, but I’m not very highly paid. But proportionately it was about 12% of our take home whilst I was pregnant. It worked well for us. I also started a tax credits claim as soon as I could get my brain in gear, as being on smp dropped us into qualifying

This is really helpful - thank you all! I guess there's not much I can control at this point - saving is one thing I can do? @anniehm - you're totally right. I think in this Instagram world we are all tempted to have the perfect nursery ready for baby's arrival, when the reality is the baby will be the last to notice the wallpaper! @iwouldprefernot - that's a helpful breakdown. @abouttimemum - I've not even considered possible child care costs!

@iwouldprefernotto - I tagged you incorrectly above! Still new to this.

I think all the above advice is really good. A good place to start might be to just consider what is important to you- you mentioned you would get some things second hand, so I’m guessing you don’t have your heart set on brand new everything for your baby (which just to say, no judgment on those who do). Is it important to you to have lots of technologically advanced baby things? How about eco-friendly or organic items? What items are you comfortable having second hand?

Another thing is just remember that anything you plan might change. For example, you might plan on breastfeeding, but may choose not to later on so you will have the added expense of formula. I was really set on giving cloth nappies a try (pretty successful so far), but I had to keep in mind it might not have worked out and we’d have to buy disposable.

Just an aside, we tried and tried to conceive for months while I was going back and forth over leaving my job, of course the next month after I finally quit we conceived! So no maternity pay for me but we make it work!

@lapanda - typical! That may well be my situation too. We plan to start TTC in May but only have a few months window where I'll qualify for mat leave (fixed term contract).

Save what you can buy also don't go crazy when you start buying things.
Look at preloved or outlets for the travel system, they only use them for a short period of time so don't spend a fortune. Obviously get a decent car seat but even cots and Moses baskets can be bought preloved if you get new mattresses.
I got my next to me crib for £50 of eBay and a mattress for £10 off amazon!
Baby doesn't need the best of everything it's a waste of money. Use the money where it's needed more. When wanting to buy things look at it this way -You can't get time back so if it's a choice of a brand new pushchair but a month less off with your child then it's a no brainier really.
Also when buying clothes bear in mind most people will buy new born or first size when buying gifts so you can save your self money there.
It's amazing how you adapt to the less money as well, as long as bills are paid don't worry you have to do loads of things that cost money, there are plenty of free things around. Most soft plays let you in for free under a year. Good place to meet other mums and enjoy sensory experiences!
Good luck x

We saved about 5k but had big items bought for us and got everything else second hand, that was just to top up my maternity package and cover my share of bills for 5 months after my full pay stopped. Best thing is to decide how long you want Tobe off for, work out how much you'll be short over the time you are not getting paid and then work out how much you need to put aside per month.

Having read many posts on MN where women are expected to keep up paying their share of bills while on maternity leave, I would say that you should have that conversation with your dp. Is he willing to shoulder the full financial load while you are not earning?

I am the higher earner so depending on circumstances, I may be taking off 6 months and DP will take the remaining 3 as shared leave. To account for his drop in income we need approximately 2k for that period. My maternity pay, while not the same as my full salary, will be around 70% of net pay so is more than enough to support us during leave.

So other than the 2k for DP, the rest will be for kitting out the baby. Maybe 2k or so? Obviously babies cost as much as they need to, but I have my eye on the Egg pram which isn't one of the cheapest!

Hoping to save from BFP solely for baby savings, which hopefully will be around £900 per month. More if DP can save too. Obviously that's the top scenario, will probably be a bit less as things crop up.

We saved £12k which covered the drop in income for shar

...

Ed parental leave plus all baby equipment etc. It was way more than enough as our costs were down on normal. I had a lovely time on maternity leave though!

@loving Lola all very well if bills can be covered by one wage earner, I don't know many cases where that is possible, most people I know are in two income households for s reason and particularly if the woman earns the same or more ( in most cases) then it's often not possible for the dp to shoulder the full financial load.

^^
I am not disagreeing with that.
But it needs to be discussed up front.