Budgeting for a baby

[lucky1979]

As I'm terminally bored at work (start maternity leave in 4 1/2 days!) I've been creating an updated budgeting sheet for me and DH for us to use.

But I'm really at a loss to work out what to put in for the baby bits! I was just wondering if people could let me know roughly what they spend monthly on specifically baby things. Things like nappies (will be using disposables), formula (would like to breastfeed ideally but would also like to know roughly how much people spent on it per month), wipes etc. Clothes and toys and so on will go seperately, it's just the monthly regular purchases that I have no idea about. If there is anything I've not thought of that is a regular expense, please let me know

Can anyone help?

[LadyBee]

This sounds a little frivolous, but you might not want to get rid of that socialising budget completely , I found to stay sane, I would be out with my baby meeting other mums for coffee after a rhymetime or just in the afternoon, or going to mum&baby cinema, or a lunch at least once, sometimes 3x a week. Obviously this isn't compulsory, neither do you need to spend a lot, but if you're doing a detailed budget it might be a good idea to work out how much you think you can afford for that per week.
I also paid for some activities - a baby swimming class - for example, which was great fun. Friends did various other things - post-natal yoga was one thing. You might want to allow for something like that.
Also, if you're not normally home during the day, you may want to allow for increased heating and electricity bills, especially as you'll be at home over the winter.

[lucky1979]

Amarantha that's the day I start my maternity leave, I'll definitely have a look, thank you

Alanna, I've done one of those tax credit calculator things online and we don't qualify unfortunatley. Just trying to get a handle on how much to expect for outgoings on everything at that I haven't forgotten anything vital

[Clary]

yeah cloth nappies and breastfeeding very cheap.

I never used baby wipes either - just use damp flannels (cheaply available at Wilkos ) and had a pack in a bag for when out and abaout.

Prob bought about 3 packs on my entire life. But agree with others, if you do use them, make sure you get them on 2 for 1 offers etc.

I mixed washables with disp nappies (at night and when out sometimes) and found Boots own brand fine and pretty cheap.

[amarantha]

Asda are starting a baby event on Tue with mega packs of pampers for 12 and 756 wipes for 9 :-)

[mummeeee]

i'd second the info about using cloth nappies. we use a mix of both, with disposables at night (medical reasons - a long story). I think if you have a drying space (washing line in the garden, radiators, airing cupboard) it can be pretty cheap. If using disposables, one thing I'd say is that they go through the first sizes quite quick and then slow down (my dd has been in size 4 for months now, but flew through sizes 1 & 2). Just in case you were planning on buying lots of size 1's in bulk.

one thing I'd add is that it's easy to spend a lot on essentials that aren't toys or clothes, like stair gates, high chairs etc). i find a quick bit of research on the net about what type you want and then looking out for a baby event at a supermarket, especially asda, really works. Also, I didn't buy anything on ebay until I was pregnant and now I'm quite an addict. If you know what you want you can search and buy quite quick....yes, I now have a toddler and browsing round the shops is not something I do often!

[alana39]

Not sure if it's already been said but child allowance should cover the essentials - it's everything else that you can spend as much or as little as you want on. And don't forget to check out your entitlement to tax credits, based on what work you actually think you'll be doing for 2009/10 - you'll only be working for just under half of the tax year so if you're planning a year off you've got 2 tax years on reduced pay and it might mean you are entitled to more than you had originally thought.

[lucky1979]

Thanks everyone! We've done the majority of our purchases upfront and some generous relatives had helped with the big bits, but just was trying to estimate how much things like the weekly shop will go up and so on.

Some really good tips for money saving too, thank you again - I will be staking out TK Max

[SparkleandShine]

thanks for the milk advice! I'm planning on turning into a partial FF'er soon as exclusive BFing is getting a bit too much - So was introducing formula in babyrice as a starter to get him a bit used to it.

[pooexplosions]

One thing about the clothes, ime, everyone will give you newborn stuff, and you will end up with a ton of stuff worn once or not at all. At least half the stuff you get, don't open and you can usually swap them for larger sizes in the shops.
Makes much more sense than having loads of tiny stuff you never use.

[BornToFolk]

Don't buy any clothes at all. You'll be given loads and if you find you're short of something, you can pick them up at the supermarket for next to nothing.

[ilovetochat]

if you are going to drop from 5 days a week to 3 and your wage is going to fall to 60% then start living off that figure now. its no good saying we cant as you will have to soon enough. then use the other 40% to buy baby stuff.
also when your dc is born you will get some vouchers for mothercare etc, dont waste them on more and more clothes as babys grow so quickly, you can use them for essentials like nappies/wipes.

[Stannie]

I'm too terrified to budget!

Interested to see the replies though..

[pooexplosions]

Apologies, I made the same mistake. my bad

[ilovetochat]

tesco own wipes are 98p per pack and are fine, start buying a pack a week now.
tesco own nappies are fine in newborn size (found they leaked once dd crawled so swapped to pampers) and dd used 10 a day to start with so needed 3 packs a week.
i bf but my friend spent £10 a week on formula.

[MrsBadger]

ah I have just read the original post more carefully - sparkleandshine is buying formula just for making up baby rice with

and you can use cows' milk in cooking from 6m, just not as a drink.

[pooexplosions]

Really bad advice there, don't listen to it. Cows milk is far too high in sodium for just a starting point.....

[BornToFolk]

I agree with your colleague at the one tin of formula a week, that's what DS used to get through when he was on 5 feeds a day.

A newborn might get through more though. If you FF on demand, I can imagine you'd probably end up throwing quite a lot away.

Have you thought about reusable wipes, even if you don't fancy the nappies? Old flannels or cut up towels would do just as well as the posher ones you can buy and will save you a fortune.

[MrsBadger]

um, no you can't

cows' milk isn't suitable as a main drink till 12m

[MrsBadger]

nappies, wipes and other things you'll just add to the supermarket shop pale into insignificance compared to childcare costs

start saving now

One thing you WILL need from Makro is an industrial box of washing powder - even if you do paper nappies the amount of laundry a baby can generate is immense.

(NB am also a bfing, cloth-using hippy and I made a colossal spreadsheet for DH showing how much money resuable nappies could save us - results here)

[sorky]

I'm guessing it's your first

They are as expensive as you want them to be.

I second the "move your entire budget to 'baby' " comment.

I applaud your organisation, make the most of it!
You're never going to have this much time to plan anything ever again

[suwoo]

I use Morrisons own disposables which are £1.64 for 28. I use nowhere near 10 per day though

[ErikaMaye]

Cash and carry is supposed to be great too, if you've got the space!!

As for clothes, I've been given a lot of mine second hand as people know I'm short of money, but the ones I have bought are from George - you can get seven baby grows for £5