Baby Planning

[simply1]

Closing on a new house this fall, and since we're getting all settled in, what can I expect for costs on a new baby? Just trying to get finances as set up as possible and look out for unexpected costs I know I can't plan for.
Per Month:
1) Diapers $20 -$100 depending on cloth versus disposable
2) Food at 9 months or so, $60-$80?
3) Insurance costs of course
4) Toys

Anything else, outside of the initial purchase for all of the baby stuff as far as on-going expenses for the first few years?

Some tax benefits as well eh?

 

[CyVeteran]

Have your wife breast feed as long as possible(if able) and get a breast pump. That will save you a lot of money and it is better for the baby. Formula is really expensive.

 

[tec71]

Have your wife breast feed as long as possible(if able) and get a breast pump. That will save you a lot of money and it is better for the baby. Formula is really expensive.

This. We have #3 coming in November. Formula and baby food is expensive so are diapers. And you'll go through a ton of diapers with the newborn. It's a bit late this year but I would suggest that you garage sale in the spring. we've bought a ton of toys and baby stuff that way for next to nothing. Our basement looks like a daycare. But invest in good stuff if you are going to have others because some of hte cheap stuff falls apart quickly. resist the urge to buy a pink matching high chair, pack in play, crib etc. Buy nuetral colors and accent them with the pink/blue of your choice. We bought a solid crib, changing table and dresser almost 6 years ago with our oldest, all white. 6 years later, and two moves it all looks as good as ever and is ready for baby #3.

 

[jumbopackage]

Yeah, well, I dont' think you can really plan it all out. There are so many variables.

Medical expenses for checkups and immunizations.

Biggest suggestion I have is to buy clothes used or get hand-me-downs. Garage sales. Salvation army. Anywhere. Baby clothes are freaking expensive and are rarely worn more than a few times.

I love the zip up onesies. They are way quicker than the snap or button ones.

We use Costco formula, which is literally 1/4 as much as the name brand stuff, and the pediatrician said it's just as good. Breast feeding is better, of course, but if it doesn't work out for whatever reason, formula can run you 80-100 dollars a month pretty easily.

If there's no problem with milk supply, a deep freezer is awful nice to store breast milk in.

 

[hawkknight90]

sounds like one of you are stay at home - so daycare isn't needed. just fyi that can run from $100-$250 a week(for infants), gets a little cheaper as they get older.
try to get a car seat that handles as many phases as possible.

and like others said - do breast milk, garage sale for toys/clothes - they grow out of them so fast.


try to resist the urge to ever go to the ER except for emergencies - our daughter got hand-mouth disease - she had a temp of 103 and my wife was dead set on taking her to the doc, but it was sunday at 8 pm, so basically we spent $300 some odd dollars to get a tylenol sepository.

 

[isuno1fan]

Best way to budget for a newborn is not to have one.

 

[MNclone]

I would take the toys off the list. That is what Grandparents are for. We have a 3 year old and now a 6 week old, and enough toys to open an FAO Schwartz.
I echo the sentiment about picking up as much as you can at garage sales, especially for when they are really small. They grow out of clothes so fast, so there us usually very little wear.

 

[jumbopackage]

sounds like one of you are stay at home - so daycare isn't needed. just fyi that can run from $100-$250 a week(for infants), gets a little cheaper as they get older.
try to get a car seat that handles as many phases as possible.

and like others said - do breast milk, garage sale for toys/clothes - they grow out of them so fast.


try to resist the urge to ever go to the ER except for emergencies - our daughter got hand-mouth disease - she had a temp of 103 and my wife was dead set on taking her to the doc, but it was sunday at 8 pm, so basically we spent $300 some odd dollars to get a tylenol sepository.

I'll sort of counter the "resist the urge to go to the ER".

If you feel that you need to go to the ER, do it. Eventually you'll figure out that not every bump and bruise requires immediate medical attention, but it's well worth the peace of mind knowing that you did what you felt was right and not second guessing yourself. Think about how awful you would feel if something serious went wrong and you didn't seek treatment for it.

Depending on your insurance, it might not be all that expensive. Our last ER trip cost 30 bucks out of our pocket.

At any rate, take advice from your pediatrician as well. Often they can get you in to see them without having to go to the ER.

 

[wartknight]

Don't by any "new" clothes the first 2 years. They grow too fast and they will wear only a couple times before it gets put away. Garage sales, Me and Mommy to be, and other second hand stores are good.
I have a 3.5 and a 1 year old right now. Probably go through 6 diapers a day early on, maybe more. Now probably 4.
1 year old eats like a horse even though she is tiny. Probably spend around $2.50/meal on her when she eats baby food, so make your own in bulk and freeze it when you can. Never had to use formula with our first, but have for the last2 months with the youngest and it adds another $20/week
Use grandparents to babysit any chance you get, they love to do it and will even travel to do so, saves $20-40 a night that you want to go out.
Oh, and the best investment you can make for sleep for your wife and happiness for you is a baby monitor with a motion sensor. You guys with kids know what I'm talking about when your wife is up 10 times/night to check and make sure baby is still breathing. Didn't have one with our first, got one for our second and highly recommend it to everyone because my wife slept so much better through the night, and that made my life a lot better.

 

[wartknight]

I'm not sure of the health ramifications of it, but try to wait until you need the shots/medications to get them all at once if it is healthy to do so. For us each time we head in its $20. Save some money by getting things done in one trip.

 

[wartknight]

Oh, and you'll want an extra base for your carseat rather than buying another seat. That way child can ride in either vehicle. Find a friend who had the same base and "borrow."

 

[Aclone]

I have to add in that if calculating costs, girls traditionally cost twice as much to raise as boys. Fair warning.

 

[Cyclonepride]

Agree on the clothes thing. You can buy new, but there's a tendency to want to outfit them in the coolest duds, and it's not worth it.

Other than that, develop your budget and expect the unexpected. My little dude has had tubes in his ears three times, adnoids out, tonsils out, two eye surgeries and a broken arm. You figure out how to pay for it, because you have to. Oh, and it's worth every dime. There's nothing like having a child to get you focused and motivated to get up every morning and bring home the bacon.

 

[besserheimerphat]

My wife gets lots of clothes from ebay (we live out in the boonies and don't get to many garage sales unless we drive a long way). She's gotten several lots of clothes, say 25 outfits for $30 or similar, for each of our three girls who range from 3 years to 4 months.

She also regsitered with different formula companies online and reported that she was going to breastfeed. The companies started sending her manufacturer coupons that she was able to sell on ebay. She was typically able to sell a coupon for 50-70% of the face value.

 

[twojman]

Use hand me downs for everything (as many others have mentioned), you will have a huge wardrobe at very little cost. Formula can ger real expensive. Our son was ok as far as allergies go and we were able to use wal-mart brand formula. The cost was about half of Similac and you got almost double the product. My daughter on the other hand cried all day because of the formula. (we did not know the reason why at first) There was a couple of days where she literally cried for 13 hours from about 1 PM until 2 AM, that was not fun. We started buying her allimentum (sp) from Similac. This was very expensive but she stopped crying within an hour. (my wife had issues with breast feeding, do that if you can!)

We also use Wal-Mart diapers instead of name brand. No leaks and is much cheaper than name brands. (are you sensing a theme? name brand does not necessarily mean much better quality!)

Get them to table food asap, we used very little baby food for our kids. If you are going to buy anything, books are a great investment. This is educational and the kids love the colors and pictures. You will be able to teach your child so much just by sitting with them and reading the books to them and with them. On top of that it is a great time to bond with your kids. Oh and you can go to half-price books and save a ton of money.

 

[CyGal]

Some tax benefits as well eh?

You get an exemption for each kid on your tax return. My mind is blank at the moment but I want to say around $3k. I could be wrong there. If you're not bringing in much money, there are tax credits available. If you have huge medical bills (hopefully not) you can take anything in excess of 7.5% of your AGI as an itemized deduction.


If you do feel the need to buy name brand clothing, shop the sale racks. My mom recently bought a ton of clothing for my nephew, all off the sales racks, and the prices were decent. WalMart or a garage sale, eBay or Craig's list probably would have been cheaper, but some grandparents believe it is their duty to buy your kids stuff, whether you want it or not.

 

[Wx4Cy]

If you go the formula route you can plan on a $100 or so a month. Don't under estimate the cost of diapers, especially in the first year. For clothes, hit some of the consignment shops. They have quality stuff and don't forget, especially in the first few months you will be lucky if there wear some things more than once since they will out grow it so fast.

 

[AIT]

Lots of good advice here. The best one is to go to garage sales.

Using breast milk is better and cheaper, but it's still expensive if you pump. A good breast pump (and you don't want a cheap one) will cost a couple hundred dollars. The storage bags are cheap, but that's another cost. As others have said, generic formula is just as good as long as the kid doesn't have allergies.

Baby food is easy to make and a lot cheaper than the jars. For vegetables, cook them until they're soft, put them in a blender, add water to thin them, blend them until they're smooth, pour the mix into ice cube trays, freeze, and you've got baby-sized servings. For meat, slow cook it until it's soft, put it in a food processor, mince, and spoon into ice cube trays.

If you use disposable diapers, look into a Sam's Club/Costco membership. Thier generic diapers are great and a lot cheaper. If you use cloth diapers, good for you, but washing and drying those things every day will take a lot of time and money.

Toys are pretty worthless to an infant. Others will buy the kid all the toys you'll need for the first year or two. And never, ever buy a stuffed animal. You'll get so many stuffed animals as gifts you won't know what to do with all of them.

 

[jsb]

You will get a lot of newborn clothes as gifts. A lot they'll never have time to wear. Don't be afraid to take the clothes back to Target and exchange for something else---unless the person would be offended.

 

[jumbopackage]

Use hand me downs for everything (as many others have mentioned), you will have a huge wardrobe at very little cost. Formula can ger real expensive. Our son was ok as far as allergies go and we were able to use wal-mart brand formula. The cost was about half of Similac and you got almost double the product. My daughter on the other hand cried all day because of the formula. (we did not know the reason why at first) There was a couple of days where she literally cried for 13 hours from about 1 PM until 2 AM, that was not fun. We started buying her allimentum (sp) from Similac. This was very expensive but she stopped crying within an hour. (my wife had issues with breast feeding, do that if you can!)

We also use Wal-Mart diapers instead of name brand. No leaks and is much cheaper than name brands. (are you sensing a theme? name brand does not necessarily mean much better quality!)

Get them to table food asap, we used very little baby food for our kids. If you are going to buy anything, books are a great investment. This is educational and the kids love the colors and pictures. You will be able to teach your child so much just by sitting with them and reading the books to them and with them. On top of that it is a great time to bond with your kids. Oh and you can go to half-price books and save a ton of money.

I'll echo the sentiment of name brand diapers. The main qualification a diaper has is that it can't leak. There's no point in spending twice as much for a product the kid is going to literally crap on and then you'll throw away (at least for disposable ones).

Name brand anything almost always costs more and almost always is not significantly better than generic. Mylicon, for instance, costs like 4-5 times what the generic counterpart costs for the exact same thing.

Lots of good advice here. The best one is to go to garage sales.

Using breast milk is better and cheaper, but it's still expensive if you pump. A good breast pump (and you don't want a cheap one) will cost a couple hundred dollars. The storage bags are cheap, but that's another cost. As others have said, generic formula is just as good as long as the kid doesn't have allergies.

Baby food is easy to make and a lot cheaper than the jars. For vegetables, cook them until they're soft, put them in a blender, add water to thin them, blend them until they're smooth, pour the mix into ice cube trays, freeze, and you've got baby-sized servings. For meat, slow cook it until it's soft, put it in a food processor, mince, and spoon into ice cube trays.

If you use disposable diapers, look into a Sam's Club/Costco membership. Thier generic diapers are great and a lot cheaper. If you use cloth diapers, good for you, but washing and drying those things every day will take a lot of time and money.

Toys are pretty worthless to an infant. Others will buy the kid all the toys you'll need for the first year or two. And never, ever buy a stuffed animal. You'll get so many stuffed animals as gifts you won't know what to do with all of them.

AIT is dead on.

We make baby food very inexpensively with a food processor. Our little man actually prefers the homemade stuff to the stuff in a jar (ok I know most of it doesn't come in jars anymore. Call me sentimental). Plus you know exactly what's going into it. For instance, one mango results in about 3-4 servings and costs maybe .50-1.00.

I'd definitely look into a Costco membership if it's relatively nearby. Even if you decide to go the Similac or Infamil route, they have it there cheaper than you can get it just about anywhere else, and they take the same coupons you would use anywhere else. Their diapers are great quality (basically the same as Huggies supreme), come in massive quantities (which is a good thing), and are pretty cheap. The wipes come in huge packages as well, and work great. We also use the Kirkland formula, which costs literally 1/4 as much as Similac/Infamil.