How much does it cost to have a baby?

Having a kid can be costly – how do you keep expenses down?

your life!

6 Likes

Get a cat instead. :cat2:

9 Likes

Buy everything second hand. Apart from buying someone’s baby of course.

7 Likes

You don’t need a cot. You can go straight from a crib to a bed without legs.

You should factor in the cost of additional clothes washes and potentially heating over winter - you may well be at home more.

Slings and back carriers can be expensive, but secondhand is good for these.

Barnados is great for vests and so on.

Biggest money saver - stuff from friends, followed by grandparents.

Biggest potential frustration - nursing bras… Someone please work out how to make them fit! :slight_smile:

Bottles and pumps can get pretty expensive too!

1 Like

Yes children full stop are expensive- you can spend as much as you want. Really though all it boils down to is spending time with them which in reality costs nothing.
Breast feeding is cheaper. Both my children were bottle fed.
Clothes hand me downs are cheaper. I prefer next clothes as they are good for repeated washing.
Babies in reality are cheap (even factor the cot, crib or toddler bed) especially at 0-12 months. Anyone who says otherwise clearly does not have a child 5-16.

2 Likes

Spending time with ours costs me a small fortune :joy:

Time really doesn’t cost a lot - unless it build a bear, game shop or Lego shop.
Can’t beat playing games - no need for iPads!
My 2 love their iPads but also love playing cards.

Tell that to Angelina.

I recently paid out £1,800 on my cat in a single day in December!

2 Likes

Having a baby costs very little, you even get to save money on not buying protection (though the initial romance may cost a bit). it’s when the little buggers are out and they start demanding food, and clothes, and attention and love - that’s when you notice your cash/looks/energy/time/life goes down the drain.

Then they get to 6 and casually ask if they can have the new Pokemon game for the ninendo switch and you realise they don’t have a Nintendo switch and so you check out the price and realise your child has just asked for a £300 birthday present at 6! Then they play with it for 5 minutes and go back to their £2.50 blocks!!!

1 Like

With my little girl my wife did a lot of e-bay 2nd hand clothes shopping. Both me and my wife are very tall and Moo (nickname) grows at a quick pace. At the age of 5 she’s wearing 7-8 yr old clothes so buying first hand expensive stuff is a no-no.

Whilst my wife was pregnant, we bought a tonne of nappies of all sizes whenever we saw them on offer.

For toys, we’re quite lucky that she has loads of family as they spoil her rotten so we get minimal at Christmas and birthdays knowing full well that she’ll get loads.

Also children have no concept of money. My mum wanted to spend £20 on Moo and I told her to get her a crayon set and pencil case and she would be happy and save about £15.

We have found that childcare and after school clubs are the biggest expense. That has been eased by me taking the full whack of childcare voucher scheme from work but still, I was missing out on about £200 a month.

2 Likes

My cat literally mugs me on a weekly basis

This!! @LifeofRiley

New parents this is THE most important piece of advice

CHILDREN HAVE NO CONCEPT OF MONEY!

You buy them expensive stuff because you want to be seen buying expensive stuff, because you think you’re supposed to buy your little darling expensive stuff - and we don’t want other parents judging us after all? Little children don’t care, save your money, buy crayons from Tesco.

3 Likes

Even when you buy crayons, they’ll probably find the box more interesting!

If you buy PlayDoh, get cheap stuff. It’s all going to get left out or get mixed up and end up browny-grey anyway.

2 Likes

It can do if you’re looking at it from an angle of “time spent with baby is time spent not working”, and so you’re seeing it in terms of loss of earnings.

Not directly baby-related, but if you work out how much you earn in an hour, it can help you prioritise what to do in your free time. For example, when clearing old stuff out of the house, you can figure if it’s worth your time to put effort into selling it, or whether money earned compared to time invested would be so low that you should just send it to charity instead.

1 Like

forget procreation, help the environment, spend your money on the life you’ve got, easy

1 Like