Monthly cost of kids

[crystal1588]

Bad title..but I didn't know what else to call it..

Some background..I am about 8 weeks pregnant, due on valentines day with our first baby. We are 23 and 25, married a little over a year. We make about 100k, contribute 15% into 401(k)s (have about 40k combined in our IRA's and 401ks), have a comfortable savings built up..

When the baby is born I will be going down to 4 days/week at work, and the bean will be in daycare those 4 days. We've already done the math of doing a flex card and paying the balance of daycare.

What i'm curious about is the day to day expenses.

What did you find you were spending, on average, on diapers, clothes etc..?? Any other expenses you didn't really think about? We have maternity leave $$ saved up and my DH actually gets "paternity leave" through our company, so we also have saved up for that..

I'm just trying to think of other stuff...

[Sharon]

My DD is almost 18 so I am out of date on the day to day costs of an infant. You will get those figured out easily. It is the never ending I wasn't planning on that that gets you.

Put them down for a nap and they wake up with a fever/ear ache- co-pay to the doctor. The shoes that you bought last week that they outgrew this week. The shoes/clothes that mysteriously disappear at daycare. You get the idea.

[Deleted]

It depends on the baby and the parents but I would say around $100-150 a month for diapers, formula, medical copays, clothing and oddities (creams, blankets, rattles, dvd's). I was shocked that DS was managing to go through 10+ diapers a day when he was an infant. Even breastfeeding can be expensive (bottles, pump, storage bags).

I would put aside some money for post-baby clothing. Even if you reach your earlier weight sometimes your dimensions change and you'll need new clothing, especially with bf'ing boobs.

[cronewitch]

Kid cost what you can afford. They don't need much to be healthy and happy.

One thing I would buy the little bundle of joy is life insurance on both parents. Get a term policy on each parent of enough to raise them if they lost a parent. Not just for the wages lost but for the services of the missing parent.

You will have start up cost like baby monitors and things and food isn't free. Doctor copays or added health care premiums to get a family plan. You can make food for the baby but might need a breast pump or blender. Jar food is expensive and day care will demand wipes and disposable diapers. Babies need creams, lotions and powders too, maybe a dresser or changing table.

[sbcalimom]

I would agree with anne that about $100-150 per month would work as a starting point. We set aside $100/mo for DD who is now 2 to cover activities, clothes, toys, etc. Some months we don't use it all so it rolls over to cover more expensive months when we have to get new clothes or shoes or such. When she was on formula, we were probably spending between $40-$60/month on that at the peak but I mainly used generic Costco formula. We did cloth diapers so while we had slightly higher startup costs for those we ended up only having to spend about $20/mo on disposables. If you're so inclined, you could also set aside some extra babysitting money for date nights or parent only activities. Depending on where you live, the cost per hour really varies but we live in NorCal and pay $10/hr for a sitter.

[midjd]

Some background..I am about 8 weeks pregnant, due on valentines day [image] with our first baby.

Congrats! My mom has 2 February babies and 1 March baby... she says that's the best time since you're not dying in the heat, but it's nearer to the end of winter so not quite as many sick people. And still gives you a little time to prep for swimsuit season

I don't have kids so I have no clue what they cost. Do you know approximate daycare costs? Seems like that is the biggest chunk of it. I know my SIL doesn't spend more than a couple of hundred per month on her 1 and 4 year olds, other than daycare.

One thing I know my SIL has benefited from is hand-me-downs. Babies grow so fast that buying new clothes can be expensive - and you can almost always find gently-used or even new clothing for half the price. SIL got so many outfits for DN1 she ended up donating some to Goodwill that hadn't even been worn.

[happyscooter]

Day cares change diapers every 2-3 hours so babies aren't sitting in a soaking wet diaper all day. I would only use name brand for nighttime and use Target or Walmart brand for the daytime.

[telephus44]

My son is 4-1/2. Outside of daycare, I spent about $10 a week on diapers/wipes (I did a lot of couponing/sales) and $20 on formula every 10 days. Our son was the first grandchild and was spoiled with tons of cloths, toys, all that stuff, but I would estimate if I had to buy those things, probably another $50 a month. Once he started solids, the cheapest thing I found was to buy the huge tubs of yogurt and huge jars of applesauce. Way easier and cheaper than buying all those little jars.

Daycare varies greatly on location, but at your income, you will come out ahead using a daycare FSA rather than taking the daycare credit (at your income and with only 1 kid, you won't be in the "overlap" area where you can take both).

[aricia]

Her first year of life I spent an average of $55/month on what I deemed “baby consumables” which was mostly diapers, wipes, baby food and medicines. Included an occasional tub of formula but I mostly breastfed. Included a $10/month Rx copay. Did not include if I bought “real” food, like the applesauce or yogurt previously mentioned, primarily for her. I watched for sales and used coupons.
Her second year of life this dropped to $32/month.
Her second year of life I spent an average of $40/month on toys, bedding, sippy cups, potties, toy chest, etc .
We also received generous gifts, especially clothing. I don’t think I bought more than 3 outfits and a rare toy for her the first year. We still receive some gifted clothing but I now spend an average of $20/month on clothing and shoes for her.
Not something to consider with a newborn, but now that my daughter is 2, I didn’t think about the costs of toddler classes, like dance or music. They’re obviously optional but they cost more than I expected. She’s also in therapy once to twice a week. I tend to look at the toddler classes as cheap therapy too! Obviously, (again), it’s impossible to predict what or how much medical or therapy costs will be.

[JustLurkin]

I got most clothes for my son from community yard sales--so now (summertime) is a good time to stock up, nothing like an outfit that cost a quarter! I also bought in "lots" on eBay. But, as has been said, I don't think I bought much the first year...and didn't have too many "newborn" outfits or diapers, he wasn't really "newborn" size. Congratulations to your family!

[muttleynfelix]

Find out how much health insurance on your LO will be. That is by far our biggest expense since DH stays home with our 17 month old and I BF and we cloth diaper.

Clothes - 45% of DS's clothes were given to us as gifts, 45% have been given to us as hand me downs or bought second hand, 10% bought new. Not a monthly line item in our budget. THe most expensive part is shoes and my parents have been buying him shoes. Also, you really don't know how your kid will grow. Some babies never wear newborn size, some are in newborn size for 3 months. DS skipped the 3 to 6 month size! He was in 9 month size clothes by 4 months... and then completely slowed down and is only in 18 month size clothes now.

Food - We never bought baby food ... made some purees for a few months, but he was on adult food by 9 months. But our grocery bill is still higher since by himself he goes through a gallon of milk a week.

Anyway, we've kept things on the cheaper side of things. I think.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Gosh, is it bad I don't really know how much DD costs me a month beyond the $630 I pay for daycare?

We bought a giant box of wipes from Sam's last month which cost us $14.95 and I am just now down to the last pack (I divvied it up between family and daycare, otherwise I wouldn't be even close to the last pack).

Diapers last month I guess cost us around $30 since I bought extra? I usually buy a case and divvy it up between myself and daycare. She can wear Target brand diapers and those cost $14.99 for a case of 96 diapers.

I breastfeed so I have no costs for formula. I did use breastmilk bags for storage and daycare for a long time that ran about $20 a week. Now since I only pump twice a day I send my storage bottles.

Upfront costs to breastfeeding was $85 for the pump and it came with the package of parts since the person I bought it from never used them. I got mine used on Ebay. If you are not comfortable doing that a quality breastpump (a MUST if you plan on pumping while working) can run you up to $300 new.

You can rent them, all you'd ned to do is buy parts and the kits run from $20-$30 depending on the unit. Some insurance companies will cover the costs of rental or purchase of a pump but you need to ask, it isn't advertised.

For food I'd say it ran us about $20 a month, we bought Plum Organic packets when she started eating solids and she didn't eat a lot so they lasted awhile. Now she eats whatever we are eating, I throw extras like Gerber puffs into our grocery cart so I'd say maybe an extra $10 or so to our grocery budget?

Clothing I do not purchase monthly. I got a lot of clothes at my shower and was able to use most of them. I try to stick to shopping at the Salavation Army or Sears for her clothes since I can get them cheap.

Last time I bought clothes I spent $150 and that was for 6-9 month, 9 month and some 12 month clothing. My MIL found a consignment store and shops there constantly so we rarely buy her clothes anymore. I recently spent about $40 or so between the Salvation Army, Goodwill to get her some summer clothing. Should last her till fall unless she has a major growth spurt in-between.

[Urban Chicago]

I bought next to nothing in the way of clothes, toys or "baby gear" like stroller, tub, crib, etc... my aunts threw me an awesome shower and people were really generous.

I think we spend about $125/month on diapers/wipes/food. No daycare. One thing I didn't expect was added utility costs. If it's just us, we deal with the house being a little hot or cold, but when the babies came we felt the house had to be at 73 degrees all year round.

[muttleynfelix]

Jul 1, 2011 12:01:34 GMT -5 Urban Chicago said:

II think we spend about $125/month on diapers/wipes/food. No daycare. One thing I didn't expect was added utility costs. If it's just us, we deal with the house being a little hot or cold, but when the babies came we felt the house had to be at 73 degrees all year round.

That is a good point about utility costs. We are pretty flexible on temps at our house but DS's room is crazy. Even with the AC set on 75, his room is up over 80 and in the winter with the heat at 68, his room will drop to 64. We had to turn the AC on well before we were planning on it because his room would get too hot for him to sleep in and this year we actually had to flip back and forth between AC and heat. It sucked.

[Clever Username]

This message has been deleted.

[Clever Username]

Pre and post kid budgets are like explaining to a fish what it's like to breathe air.

Yeah, sure it's transferring oxygen into your bloodstream.
But even if you find some common ground in the process, you're taking to a fish!

[giramomma]

We budget $100/month per kid for day-to-day needs.

That $100 included formula, some disposable diapers, all clothes, toys, and mommy and me classes.

However, we cloth diaper and have healthy children (one child has never gotten an ear infection). We also don't buy much in the way of toys and new clothing.

The thing that was a budget shocker was baptism. We had baptismal outfits made, which was much cheaper than buying them in the store. We also had a reception after each baptism, which cost money I forgot to budget with #1.

I would suggest, also, that you don't use up all of your leave on maternity leave. You have got a ton of well baby visits the first year. And, well, you should expect your child to get sick in daycare.

[hockeygrl]

Drama - I am the same way. I have no idea how much my boy costs per month. He just turned 6 months today! I guess I should know but....

Anyway, to try to be somewhat helpful: I buy online in bulk from Sam's Club for diapers, wipes, formula and water. I find that I can buy a Sam's size box of diapers and wipes that will last about 6 weeks, I go through about a gallon of water every 4 days for formula, and about a tub of formula every 3 days (now that he's starting solids, I expect that to wane a bit). As a newborn, a tub would last about a week.

We have tons of clothes and toys because my nephew is about a year older than my son, so we use a lot of hand me downs. As for toys, I can't resist plopping something in the cart for him any time I am at the store.

I'm an overeducated dork, so I foist educational stuff on my poor boy all the time. He already has a library of books, and I haven't even started yet! I found discountschoolsupply (dot) com that has great stuff that they will ship for free.

I'm sorry if I rambled, but hopefully you found something useful in all of that.

CONGRATULATIONS AND ENJOY EVERY MINUTE YOU CAN HUG YOUR BEAN!!

Edited to add:

Good point about not using all of your maternity leave for the birth. I used 10 weeks and saved 2 for "just in case". Luckily, the boy has only had to go to the Dr. once for a cold with fever and the rest have been well baby visits. At six months old, I have still used up another week in days off for baby stuff with a nice and healthy child. Where I work, FMLA resets once on the calendar year. Maybe check with your employer to see how they calculate FMLA, you may be able to manipulate the calendar to get extra time off.

Also, don't buy breast feeding/formula feeding supplies ahead of time, except for maybe a tub of formula and a couple of bottles, unless you are sure you want to formula feed from day one. Which, by the way, is perfectly healthy and totally up to mom - don't let the BF nazis shame you into something you don't want to do!

I dearly wanted to breast feed, but it didn't work out for us, so I'm glad I couldn't decide what type of pump I wanted so never bought one before the boy arrived. Next time I know to wait and see what works out - sometimes BF just isn't in the cards.

Oh yeah, and be prepared for EVERYONE (including me, just now!) to give you unsolicited advice.

[kgb18]

First of all, congratulations!!

Kid cost what you can afford. They don't need much to be healthy and happy.

I hate when people say that. I absolutely agree that kids can be as expensive as you want them to be, but there are some basics that can be very expensive that you don't have control over. And some people can't afford it. OP, I don't think that sounds like your situation.

I was unable to breastfeed and DD had acid reflux, so we had to have a specific kind of formula. That cost us anywhere between $100 to $150 a month (It went up as she got older and ate more.)

My DD is 20-months. At the peak of her food intake on formula (along with diapers and other essentials) we were at about $200 a month.

[soon2bmomof3]

Congrats on the bean!

If you haven't already (and you shouldn't until closer to the due date), sign up for Amazon Mom on Amazon.com. It is free and you get free Amazon Prime shipping. I have found for name brand diapers and wipes (Huggies and Pampers), they are cheaper on Amazon than at Costco or Sams. If you sign up with their subscribe and save program WITH the AmazonMom, you save 30%. As long as you spend $25/month on baby stuff (diapers, wipes, formula, bottles, pacis, etc), you are eligible for another month of Amazon Mom.

Right now I am signed up for one box of the Size 4s Huggies (140 count) each month. They are $37.99 before discounts, $26.59 after AmazonMom discount (15%) and Subscribe and Save discount (15%). I can change the size, frequency or delivery date whenever I need to.

Also, don't stock up too much on the small diapers (newborns, size 1's) or clothing. Both my babies were 8 lbs +, and the newborn diapers lasted about two weeks.

[cubefarmer]

I had planned to breast feed, but it didn't work. I spent $95/month on formula (cheapest from Walmart) through year 1. My son didn't start solids until 12 months.
I also spent $85/month for name brand diapers (which were not cheapest at Walmart).
I made diaper wipes from viva paper towels and water. $1.00/roll.
Not too much on clothes or shoes.
Bathtub ring, swing, bouncy chair, stroller, car seat, crib, toys, bottles, baby oil (for cradle cap).
We didn't start daycare until 22 months. It was $550/month, plus deposit and annual supply fees. Later I paid extra for on-site gymnastics. Also, I gave the teachers $50 every Christmas. (lead teacher and 1 asst each year)
Medical co-pays, ear tubes, a couple of other surgeries. More illness issues with daycares. Some friends used the sick kid daycare, but I never did.
Extra babysitting (I used the same daycare ladies). $10/hr.
Birthday gifts for the millions of birthday parties you will be invited to for children you don't know (but your child goes to daycare with) $10/each.

[Deleted]

I have a 3 year old and twins that are about 4 months old.

I guess it depends on how tight things are for you going in, but it sounds like you have solid financial footing. If that's the case, I wouldn't worry too much.

For our twins, here's what we spend. All purchased through Amazon Mom's with Subscribe/Save (when available). I'm sure you can extreme coupon your way to free stuff here, but this is just easy/cheap.

Baby Formula---$110/month or so.
Diapers---$35/month
Wipes---$18/month

I'll assume you'll get most of the one-time essentials from Baby Showers so nothing really to worry about there. So the variable expenses are things like Daycare and Toys/Clothes/Misc. For us, we had a lady watching our oldest son and it cost $30/day. But I think that was really cheap. Still though, I've heard anywhere from $30-$50 and that was in the suburbs of chicago.

There's no doubt that kids cost a lot of money over the long run, but I think people make too big of a deal about it. For us, expenses like Diapers/Wipes/Clothes/Formula were easily offset by not going out as much as we used to. There are so many things you end up not doing because you have kids so I think a lot of it kinda washes out. And we ddin't even ask and people were letting us borrow clothes and toys.