How much does a baby really cost?

[lanyac]

My hormones are telling me it's time to have a kid, but I'm wondering how feasible it is. How much does it cost to have a baby, and what were some money-saving tips you found?

[Willis Jackson]

One million dollars.

What do you mean? How much is the delivery? Day-to-day expenses? Daycare?

[karinothing]

Honestly, babies don't cost all that much until it comes to daycare. I would start by researching the cost of daycare in your area (if you are going to need it) and go from there. We pay $1820 a month in a HCOL area for a center.

[lanyac]

I guess I mean per month. Delivery I hadn't even thought about. I know there's a large one time expense (furniture, etc) but I'm just curious about how much it costs for food, clothing, etc.

[lanyac]

Daycare at my work is $750/month, but that's the only one I've looked into.

[mollybrown]

Honestly, as much as you want it to. If you have good health insurance, family to take care of the baby for free (or if you SAH), get hand me downs, and are able to breast feed it can cost close to $0. That obviously isn't reality for most people.

[lanyac]

I definitely would do second hand. Unfortunately, the youngest person in my immediate family is 20, so no hand-me-downs, lol.

[anna7602]

Aug 4, 2012 12:20:25 GMT -5 mollybrown said:

Honestly, as much as you want it to. If you have good health insurance, family to take care of the baby for free (or if you SAH), get hand me downs, and are able to breast feed it can cost close to $0. That obviously isn't reality for most people.

Breastfeeding cost me a $350 investment in a good pump and I spent some more on related supplies- storage bags, bottles, etc. I guess if I didn't work outside the home or plan on pumping much, I could have gotten a lower-priced pump, but there's still some money you have to spend even if breast milk itself is "free." If you end up needing a lactation consultant, that's a whole other expense.

And SAH is not "free." Without wanting to start a big debate here, there's a cost to losing 401K benefits and the opportunity cost of falling behind in your career if you do plan to return one day, even if you run the numbers and think most of your take-home pay will go to funding childcare.

But yes, overall, I agree with the statement "as much as you want it to." At minimum, you will need to diaper the baby in some fashion (cloth or disposable), feed him/her and transport him/her (via car seat, stroller, baby carrier/wrap, or maybe even all three).

[Deleted]

the biggest costs that terrify me when I think about having children in the future are:

1) the cost of private school - public schools here suck 2) cost of college 3) needing to pay for an additional bedroom in a big city where these come at a premium 4) potentially having a sick or special needs child who would need life long care

daycare and diapers suck, sure, but they are relatively short term costs.

[hulley]

Babies don't cost all that much. Most of what you are told you "need" isn't necessary. You can breastfeed (usually) and cloth diaper or buy in bulk to save money. Clothes can be bought secondhand since they aren't worn for long. I had a shower and very generous family/friends and much of the clothing I received was sold to a consignment store with tags still on because my DD grew before she could wear them.

Daycare is very expensive. I was a SAHM until DD was 4, then she went to preschool which cost $10,000 per year almost 10 years ago.

I maintain that they cost more in opportunity cost than other things. The years I chose to SAH hurt my career, the diverted funds to pay for college could be making money in the stock market. We've always had to buy/rent in a better neighborhood and in a larger home than we'd have needed if it were just DH and I. We sold our house and are renting at a HCOL price even though we live in a MCOL area, because of the school district. This wouldn't be a concern without kids. We could easily pay half of our current rent ($1800) if we didn't have to worry about these things. When we find another house to buy, it will cost more money for the same reason.

[EmilieMadison]

It can cost tens of thousands of dollars a year, or much less. It depends.
Food and clothing is minimal unless you WANT to spend tons of money on itty bitty outfits they'll outgrow in 2 months and poop/vomit all over. Formula can cost a lot for the Rx stuff ($200-ish?maybe?) but BF is pretty inexpensive overall, especially if you can get a pump through insurance.

Daycare is going to be the biggest monthly expense. That could range from $600/month to $2K/month (or more) depending on where you live and the type of care.

[schrodinger]

Aug 4, 2012 12:20:23 GMT -5 lanyac said:

Daycare at my work is $750/month, but that's the only one I've looked into.

Did you ask if there's a waiting list? A lot of places have waiting lists for infants.

Since you're thinking about it now, look into supplemental insurance that will give you an extended maternity leave. Check your HR policy on leave and what you're entitled to.

Daycare in our area runs about $900/mo. We plan to cloth diaper, so the initial cost is high, but we should have minimal monthly costs. Don't forget to add in babysitting expenses if you want to keep dating.

I'm always surprised by how much we spend on the little stuff. I have two stepdaughters that are growing like weeds and it seems like every few months require us getting new shoes, coats, seasonal clothing, bikes, etc.

[madringal]

For each of my kids monthly:

DD1 - 4 years old
Full day preK 5 days a week - 267.00
Gymnastics lessons - 75.00
529 - 100.00
Clothes & Shoes - 50.00

DD2 - 7 months
Part time nanny - 500.00
529-100.00
Diapers - 47.00
Wipes - 18.00
Formula - 120.00
Clothes - <25.00 (gets all her sisters old stuff)

Having kids increased our medical insurance about $60 a month.
I spend about $250 a year for DD1's Christmas presents, I'll do the same for DD2 when she gets a little older.
Birthday parties always cost about $400 no matter how hard I try.
DD gets invited to at least 1 birthday party a month for her friends or cousins so about $30 in gifts for that.
My girls are pretty healthy so we probably spend <$50 a year in prescriptions.
Dental visits - $100


Money savings tips - When going out to eat we rarley order DD her own kids meal. They are usually pricey for what you get and the options are crap anyways. DD eats off my plate. I order all my diapers and wipes on Amazon and do the Subscribe and Save. I love it. DD gets a lot of hand me downs from her cousin and then I save them all for DD2. I try to take good care of her laundry to make it last longer. I only buy 1 swimsuit a year, no matter how adorable they are. I buy the basics in terms of shoes. Kohls has great shoes and always has coupons. When they are little, they only know "whats cool" if you tell them. Don't fall for all the cutesy stuff at stores and they won't either. And I ALWAYS put away about half of the toys that she gets at Christmas and birthdays. They never remember what they got. So each month I can pull out a "suprise" for being good. Or something fun to do on a rainy day. Prevents me from being talked into buying random toys at Target. If she gets duplicates of toys or clothes, we exchage them for instore credit. I keep all instore credit and gift cards to use for stuff she needs throughout the year. I can get away with that since she is still young. I am sure that won't work in a few years.

[Deleted]

This is an almost impossible question to answer without knowing anything about your financial situation. Kids can be really cheap or they can be really expensive. I would assume that most fall somewhere in between.

It does seem that the majority of moms on this board spend gobs of money on their kids.

[anna7602]

Aug 4, 2012 13:31:10 GMT -5 @lcap said:

It does seem that the majority of moms on this board spend gobs of money on their kids.

I'm not speaking for everyone else on MM, but I know that in my case, all the years of obsessing about savings and retirement investments made me rebel a little once I actually had a child. I feel more justified in spending money on DD than on other stuff. Aren't the ballet classes at the ritzy school what I spent all those years eating a sandwich brought from home at my desk for?

[lanyac]

I make about $1800/month, DH gets about $1000/month from the GI bill. He'll be getting a job soon.
We own our house - $639 PITI. Health insurance is $293. We usually spend about $400 on groceries. Our utilities are fairly low (<$200 for everything) and soon we'll be joining my family's phone plan, so it will only cost us $40/month for our cell phones. We have $12,000 saved for retirement, and $13,000 in savings, e-fund, car funds, etc.

[Deleted]

Aug 4, 2012 13:40:25 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

Aug 4, 2012 13:31:10 GMT -5 @lcap said:

It does seem that the majority of moms on this board spend gobs of money on their kids.

I'm not speaking for everyone else on MM, but I know that in my case, all the years of obsessing about savings and retirement investments made me rebel a little once I actually had a child. I feel more justified in spending money on DD than on other stuff. Aren't the ballet classes at the ritzy school what I spent all those years eating a sandwich brought from home at my desk for?

I'm not saying it's a bad thing or a wrong thing (or that I'm somehow immune - I'm most definitely not ). Just that this is what I've observed from people's posts on this subject, which comes up fairly frequently.

[niq]

If you Google "usda expenditures by families on children" you'll get the most recent report from the government. It's pretty thorough. It's about $9000 per year for low income households, $15000 to $20000 for high income households, in the middle is ... in the middle. A big chunk of that is "housing" so if you don't think you are going to move you can ignore that piece. another big chunk is "education and child care" so if you are going to rely on relatives and public schools you can ignore most of that piece as well. The report gives the percent of spending on each category so you can think about which categories you might spend more or less on.

ETA: link to USDA report (pdf)

Via mobile doohickey

[Deleted]

For us it cost a little more because we had to add in wear and tear on the car and weekly visits to the local Children's hospital for the first 4 months. Plus special feeding supplies that our insurance didn't cover. But it was about $75 on formula, $35 on diapers/wipes, $25 on clothes (I only bought when I found something I loved since we received a lot as gifts), Insurance went up $10 a week for both of us.

We don't have childcare because I work days and my husband works nights. To put E in daycare it would have cost us almost twice our rent and I would have had to train the staff how to feed him since he couldn't suck on his own and had a special bottle. I wasn't feasible for us to do that so we just adjusted our schedules to make sure that one of us was always with him.

Had we not qualified for assistance through the hospital we would be about $75k in debt right now with his medical bills (his needed orthodontics, 2 surgeries and the subsequent hospital stays).

[lanyac]

I checked that usda website, and it says it would be around $600/month for us, for the first year. I think that seems realistic when compared to what you all are spending. Thanks for all the info!

[thatgirl2478]

Aug 4, 2012 14:26:48 GMT -5 lanyac said:

I checked that usda website, and it says it would be around $600/month for us, for the first year. I think that seems realistic when compared to what you all are spending. Thanks for all the info!

For us - that's high. However, we don't have to pay for daycare.

General month to month costs - without daycare & without an increase in healthcare (DH is a federal employee so it's either 'self' or 'self + family' and 'family' = spouse + kids) for us are:

$45 - diapers
$5 - wipes (a box of wipes at Sams is $15 and lasts about 3 mo)
$60 - formula (at the height of her formula usage we'd go through 3 of the large walmart brand cans of formula a month)
$20 - bottle liners
$10 - miscellaneous bottle replacement
$40 - clothes (generally we spend about $120 for each size group - we got a lot of gifts in the 3-6 and 6-9 sizes and a few in the larger sizes)


Now that she's older and no longer taking the bottles, we spend approximately an extra $100 / mo in additional groceries - so that cost doesn't REALLY go away.

Toys - she's got plenty - but since her birthday is in Feb, we stock up in the pre / post Christmas sales and then set them aside for her for later. I'd say we spend about $20 a month on toys - besides she's usually happier with tissues and boxes anyway!

As far as initial setup it's easy to get inexpensive items - there are consignment stores & mom sales (like a consignment store, but usually only for a few days to a week - prices are a little better IMO but quality can be meh). You'll need:

carseat - you can buy a stroller frame that fits the infant seat for not much $ and that will last a few months.
crib, mattress, sheets (3 is a good number)
swaddling blankets (we used the aden and anis brand ones for a long time b/c they are larger than other brands)
clothes - a weeks worth of onsies, pants, sleepers
bottles
bibs/burp clothes (we used the gerber diapers from Target)
someway to safely bath the baby - even if it's just a soft sponge that you put in the bottom of the kitchen sink

What you NEED is subjective - I would go to the Babies R Us website
to get a better idea of how much set up costs will be.

[Deleted]

The only expenses that we really notice/feel are daycare and health insurance. At one point, health insurance alone for just DS was $600 a month, and health insurance and daycare combined are still more than our mortgage. Everything else feels pretty nominal.

Even the initial expenses weren't bad, but I also didn't go all nuts with getting all new things and the nicest of everything like most people seem to do. I bought an Ikea crib, used a dresser and antique rocking chair we already had, and got his bedding and most nursery decor on Craigslist.

He's two, and up until the spring/summer, most of his clothes came from ebay and consignment stores. For the spring/summer, I got his entire wardrobe at Crazy 8 and spent $200, so $400 a year for clothes is entirely doable. We barely spend anything on toys since he gets more than enough for birthdays and Christmas. For his second birthday, the only thing we got him was $40 playfood to go with the kitchen set that my parents got him (for $30 on CL), and family got him quite a few things.

We did once have two ER visits in the same month at $200 a pop, but that's obviously unusual. We used Target brand formula and diapers, which are 50% the cost of name brand and just as good. We're in an excellent public school system, so we most likely won't do private school.

Other than childcare and health insurance, a child really doesn't cost much unless you make the conscious decision to spend more money than necessary - which most people seem to do.

[chessie]

This comes up a lot on this board. From what I tabulated for future budget around 1500-2000k a month between daycare, insurance costs, food, diapers, formula, etc this is just 1 kid. More then half the people said you need at least 2-5k for baby setup, since showers are not guaranteed. Another reason keeping us back, kids are really that expensive as people say though and this board has really put things in perspective.

[mollybrown]

Aug 4, 2012 12:40:23 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

Aug 4, 2012 12:20:25 GMT -5 mollybrown said:

Honestly, as much as you want it to. If you have good health insurance, family to take care of the baby for free (or if you SAH), get hand me downs, and are able to breast feed it can cost close to $0. That obviously isn't reality for most people.

Breastfeeding cost me a $350 investment in a good pump and I spent some more on related supplies- storage bags, bottles, etc. I guess if I didn't work outside the home or plan on pumping much, I could have gotten a lower-priced pump, but there's still some money you have to spend even if breast milk itself is "free." If you end up needing a lactation consultant, that's a whole other expense.

And SAH is not "free." Without wanting to start a big debate here, there's a cost to losing 401K benefits and the opportunity cost of falling behind in your career if you do plan to return one day, even if you run the numbers and think most of your take-home pay will go to funding childcare.

But yes, overall, I agree with the statement "as much as you want it to." At minimum, you will need to diaper the baby in some fashion (cloth or disposable), feed him/her and transport him/her (via car seat, stroller, baby carrier/wrap, or maybe even all three).

My response wasn't meant to be taken *that* literally.

Re: breastfeeding, you don't have to buy a pump, cover, storage bags, or anything else. It can literally be free, unless you need to return to work and pump. You can buy a manual pump for less than $20. I myself spent far more than that, mainly because I returned to work.

Not everyone's job offers a 401k in the first place. We don't even know if the OP currently works, or plans to. I think it's safe to assume she's talking about tangible costs, not opportunity costs. That's a whole different conversation.

[StJess80]

Well, I just spent $154 at Target on school supplies and shoes for a soon to be 3rd grader. So, let's go with... a lot!

[backinpgh]

Honestly the baby doesn't cost that much...it's as they get older that they get more expensive...preschool/school supplies, activities, lessons, tutors, school trips, class photos....that's when it gets pricey!

Agree with PPs, daycare costs are definitely something to consider. I WFH most of her first year because daycare costs where I live made it not worth it to work, and thankfully now my mom watches her practically for free.

[ashbridemd]

It's really not as bad as I expected it. The biggest expense thus far was honestly her labor and delivery. To cut down on cost, we buy a lot of her clothes at good will. I know a lot of people look down on this and think it's gross. But they grow so stinking fast. Why would I spend 20 bucks on an outfit she will wear for 2 weeks at Target when it's only 2 bucks at Good Will?

She has a milk allergy so her formula is super expensive. However, our insurance considers it "medically necessary for good quality of life" so they cover it completely.

She has toys, but really- She would rather play with the remote then with her toys. I find safe stuff around the house to give her all the time.

Start saving for college right away. Even if it's just 20 bucks from your paycheck each week. It adds up. We also take in scrap metal. Just from doing that, we have about 3000$ in her college fund already.

Before she arrived, the biggest expense was getting her nursery ready but even that wasn't bad. We bought a convertible crib that she can use for the rest of her life. We took an old dresser we had, painted and fixed it up, bought a changing pad, and use it as a dresser/change table. We bought a cute little bookshelf from Walmart for her books, pictures, and toys. And then we have a little bedside table next to her crib, and a glider in the corner.

I know it seems overwhelming at first- But once your LO is here and in yours arms, money will be the last thing on your mind!

[marchmom06]

Infant care near me is very expensive (when I had two kids in infant care, it was close to $4K/month). I now pay about $2K for things like - full day kindergarten, before & after school care, & summer child care. I also pay about $150/month/child for: swimming lessons & whatever sport they are currently enrolled in, plus another $100/child for new shoes, clothes that they outgrow, & sports uniforms/gear. My boys are 5 & 6, & add have about doubled our previous grocery bill (although, to be fair, we eat a lot less now, which offsets a lot of that).

I would say we spend an average of $3K/month on the boys. Obviously, your mileage will totally vary based on your need for childcare, healthcare expenses, & the age of your kids.

[Deleted]

DS was pretty much free the first year. I was incredibly lucky and had a fully paid maternity leave. I made more money staying home than I do now back at work.

The second year he costs us in daycare. We do spend a bit of money on clothes and treats, but overall he's still pretty cheap.

The moral of the story being that it's a really contingent on where you live and how much you make. It really seems like a case of mo' money, mo' problems.

[h]

Our kids probably cost about $1500/month for the first couple years. Most of that was day care and health insurance. Then breastfeeding supplies, food, diapers, wipes, clothes, medicine, etc. We paid $2500 for each delivery.