Budgeting for Baby

[onthefly]

We haven't done anything differently either. We earn a certain amount, so we spend a little bit less than that. That's as complicated as our budgeting gets.
Babies can be dirt cheap or incredibly expensive depending on what you want. It's enirely possible to be comfortable on a low income, or struggle on a high income, you know?
As they get older they tend to cost more as you have all the extra 'activities' - some like swimming are almost a necessity, others less so, but it depends on you - and then school fees if you want to go private and so on. But this is all you can plan for years in advance.

First time round I had to go back to work very early on as DH did not have a stable income. This time he is working so I don't have to for a while. Much better.

[Yas]

We haven't done anything differently either. We earn a certain amount, so we spend a little bit less than that. That's as complicated as our budgeting gets.
Babies can be dirt cheap or incredibly expensive depending on what you want. It's enirely possible to be comfortable on a low income, or struggle on a high income, you know?
As they get older they tend to cost more as you have all the extra 'activities' - some like swimming are almost a necessity, others less so, but it depends on you - and then school fees if you want to go private and so on. But this is all you can plan for years in advance.

I 100% agree.

[Cranky Kitten]

When I fell pregnant with DD, I was 20, renting and not in an especially good job. It was a bit of a struggle, but we managed. Like MadB said, babies can be dirt cheap especially when they're little. Remember that very few of those expenses that financial planners like to scare you with have to be paid all at once upfront, other than a few initial items like somewhere for bub to sleep, car seat, pram etc. And even those things can be found relatively cheaply second hand if you're so inclined, or can vary incredibly in price for brand new. Very few of the things baby shops try to tell you are "essential" are really all that necessary once you're past the basics.

One thing I did find helpful this time around was to do a trial run of living on one income for a set period to see how the finances would look. My income was used to pay off a few debts and to buy the initial outlay type stuff for the baby then build up some savings. If you're partner is on a decent wage, maybe try this for a while to see how well it'd work then decide if you're ready to take the plunge?

[starangelk]

Hi and welcome to Belly Belly

I recently had this exact conversation with my sister and after weighing up her expectations of time off, standard of living and standard of baby stuff she wanted we ended up with a figure of $10,000. This meant if she saved this amount before falling pregnant, she could continue with her same standard of living, not work for her desired time and have her baby in the private system under her preferred Ob's care without changing anything. HOWEVER - this is a massive figure and you can so totally do it cheaper than that - it's just about the choices you want to make. In my opinion, babies cost as much as you want them to cost. If you want to go with a private Ob, in a private hospital and don't have private health insurance - it's going to cost a bomb. If you want the most expensive pram and baby bedroom setting, it's going to cost even more. But if you are happy to make some compromises, buy some stuff second hand and continue working for as long as possible, it's going to be a totally different cost.

My advice is to first work out your and your DH's expectations. What do you want for your pregnancy, birth and the life of the baby? Then use that to calculate costs and budget if that's what you want to do. OR just go for the ttc and make it work. Lots of people do the latter and are very very happy Personlaly, I'm a budgeter so before each child made sure we could afford it including DH's time off work for X long. But we are probably in the minority compared to many of our friends and we've all got healthy happy kids.

[luna moth]

When we decided to start thinking about a baby, we were living in a one bedroom rented flat. Hubby worked in a similar role to yours, I worked in a pretty low income job, but full time. We lived on his wage, and stashed mine away into savings. We moved into a two bedroom duplex unit with a yard, still renting, and intending to still rent when baby came along. Because it took longer than expected from the day we started trying to baby being born, our high interest savings account got pretty hefty, and we've ended up really comfortable.
Our costs of setting up for baby pre-birth topped out at about $2000, including a good stash of cloth nappies - we got second hand cot, hired baby capsule, second hand pram, baby carrier, a few other bits and pieces. Anything we needed post-birth was covered by the Baby Bonus, like car seat, high chair, clothes (although we got a lot of handmedowns)

So it is do-able. Just focus on what you want the most and work towards that.

[FabFiona]

You might want to have a look at the Family Assistance Office website. There are a few Government payments that you might be eligible for, including either the Baby Bonus or Paid Parental Leave, Family Tax Benefit A and / or B. Factoring those into your budget might make it all a little less scary.

[Miss.September]

We didn't work on a budget as such for after baby. We bought everything we needed while I was still working, so that when we were reduced to one income, we wouldn't have any of the big things to buy. Then, as often as I could, I'd buy a gift voucher for Target or Kmart and put it away. So once baby was born, we'd have some fall back vouchers for clothes and things for her. Worked really well for us. We made sure we didn't buy any until we were along in the pregnancy, so the vouchers wouldn't expire before they were needed.

All the best!

[*LittleMissSummer*]

We didn't have any troubles at all, the baby bonus/paid parental leave covers the main costs of raising a baby. Laybys are great when you are pregnant in getting the essentials, second hand items are great too. Ebay is also good for clothing.

My DP was worried we would never be able to cope financially having a baby but we are better off, our DD gets everything she could possibly need. If we are having a tight week due to extra bills coming in we just put off a bill and make sure DD gets what she needs. Buying in bulk with nappies, wipes and food is a huge money saver. For the first time in years we are living very comfortably and are even saving some money

[emc2]

So I guess my question is around budgeting and money: where were you when you decided you wanted to have a family? How did you go about budgeting? What sort of budget do you suggest? What other things need to be considered that you may not have thought of when you decided you wanted to be a parent?

Bubs was a "surprise". I was planning on going to Uni for the first time at the age of 36.

I would be considered to be pretty broke or poor, but I am fortunate as I was already living in government housing.

I would suggest as frugal a budget as you can, because to be honest, most things are used for a relatively short period of time. If you can use cloth nappies, even better.

How I did it was I would buy a couple of items every fortnight, in the seven months I was pregnant. I didn't get a huge amount from my baby shower, but somehow between that and the gifts I got after his birth, I got most things we need. I bought a lot on eBay and I even started buying bulk lots of larger sized clothes. I type in "baby" and have a look at any auctions that are about to end.

I estimate I think I have spent $4000, and my baby is 3 months old now. I spent about $2000 during the pregnancy, sorry that includes larger clothes, and a few of my expenses in the $4000.

[Alexis83]

Thanks so much everyone! Your responses have been pretty helpful. :-)

I said something similar to my husband: that I'm sure we'd manage, and that you can get baby stuff pretty cheap. But he is definitely a budgeter and I think he's more worried about what to do when the baby gets older and starts to need more expensive stuff.

Did anyone feel, however, that you needed to make a few "majorish" changes like get a new car or even move? At the moment, we only have a 2-door car, of which we're not sure would be very functional for having a family with. We're also currently renting a 2-bedroom townhouse, which we love, but our second bedroom already has a double bed and a heap of books and other stuff in it... God knows what we'd do with all the stuff in there. I'm hoping we wouldn't have to move, but at the moment I'm not too sure what else we'd do.

Thanks for giving me some numbers. It's nice to hear some definite numbers as to what you guys have spent or budgeted. :-)

[emc2]

My ex felt we had to move but I always wanted to stay put initially when baby came. TBH living in a small place is convenient initially with a baby as I have found - I live in a one bedroom unit.

Budgeting well there's been a baby boom so again I wouldn't worry there's just oodles and oodles of STUFF everywhere and often on sale.

This is just imho.

[Cranky Kitten]

Before trying for this one, yes - we moved house and not long ago bought a new car. The advantage of renting is that it's a LOT easier to decide to move, come up with the bond and moving costs and actually move in than it is to have to worry about selling one house, buying another etc. We traded DH's sporty little Lancer on a bigger family car (not brand new, but less than 12 months old ex-fleet) and kept our little every day runabout (Mazda 3).

I think if you sit and decide what's important to both of you, then how you think that can be achieved you'll be able to find that middle ground between having a definite plan for the budget and taking that leap of faith