Budgeting for Baby

[Alexis83]

Hi everyone! I'm new here. I think I made an introductory post last night, but I'm not sure it went through. Either that, or it just didn't get any replies! =P

Anywho, to give a bit of background about myself and my situation: I'm 28, married to a great guy and recently left the 9-5 job that I hated to pursue my small photography business. As I've only just started out, business is pretty slow, and the whole thing is just very unpredictable. I love what I do, but at the moment it doesn't bring in a solid salary. My husband is in a career he loves (he's a software engineer consultant) and has a pretty good salary. But Sydney's a really expensive place to live, and regardless of his situation, we're not exactly millionaires... or anywhere close to being such!

I recently told him that I want to have a baby. I've been wanting to for a couple of years, now, but I haven't said anything because I know he hasn't been ready. But now I feel like I can't really hold back much longer. Babies are all I really think about: names, what they'd look/be like, what schools we'd send them to etc etc, and I seem to get so emotional when I see other people and their babies/kids.

He's said he's OK with having a family: he'd like to be a father. But both of us are worried about money. Neither of us really has any idea of where to start budgeting for a baby, and we're not even sure whether a baby would fit in our house (which we don't own). We have SOME savings, but not enough to live off forever.

I have considered the idea of not having a family at all, considering my very unstable "career" at the moment, but that thought just makes me feel so horrible inside (I'm sure many women here could sympathise. I hope!) and makes me very sad.

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?

Any advice and insights would be much appreciated as we begin this "journey" (which I'm also rather afraid of, I should add. I'm not good with money!). Would love to hear from anyone who's willing. :-) Thank you in advance. This forum seems really great. :-)

[Amy_jellybean]

Hi love,

No real advice as I dont have any little bubbas yet but im intertested to see the replies.

xxx

[Alexis83]

HA, thanks. Hopefully I'll receive some replies. :-)

[Yas]

Hi Alexis and welcome to BB

The only thing i can say is no-one ever (that i've spoken to!) feels like they are in a perfect position financially to have a baby. We rent our house, we have some savings, but not a massive amount.
I have found for us personally that budgeting is not much different to before we had kids. We pay all our bills and save what we can. We also don't really go out as often as we used to, but we make sure we go to the movies together once a month.
I haven't really helped that much lol, all i can say is we have always made it work financially, i wouldn't give up my family for the world

Good luck xxxxxxxxxx

[Alexis83]

Hi Alexis and welcome to BB

The only thing i can say is no-one ever (that i've spoken to!) feels like they are in a perfect position financially to have a baby. We rent our house, we have some savings, but not a massive amount.
I have found for us personally that budgeting is not much different to before we had kids. We pay all our bills and save what we can. We also don't really go out as often as we used to, but we make sure we go to the movies together once a month.
I haven't really helped that much lol, all i can say is we have always made it work financially, i wouldn't give up my family for the world

Good luck xxxxxxxxxx

Thanks so much Yas. Yeah, that's something I've said to my husband: that I'm sure there are many other people who aren't in "perfect" positions when they have babies, yet somehow they make it work. We rent our place, too, and I think if we have a baby, we'll probably be renting for much longer!

If you don't mind me asking, what were some major things that you felt you needed to have money for when your family came along? Things like health insurance, a new car (?), prams and strollers etc...? Did you find that these things took a big chunk out of the bank?

Sorry if these questions are kinda personal. Please don't feel like you have to answer them!

And thank you for the welcome. :-)

[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

[BeautifulMadness]

wish someone would help me budget lol never any money left. and im silly enough to have a 3rd bubbs lol

[PumpkinZulu]

We never made a budget for a baby. We budgeted our day to day expenses, sure, but we never thought 'hmm, can we afford this?' Not because we're irresponsible or unprepared (two years ttc, we were plenty prepared) but because we both truly believe what others have said; babies will only cost as much as you want them to I can't agree with the previous posters enough...a baby doesn't care about the fancy pram or the change table...they like warm clothes, snuggles, clean bums and milk We got a lot of great clothes from friends handed down, an I agree with what someone said about saving money! Even though we're now on one income rather than two, with less going out, takeaway etc we save more money than before.

[Jennifer13]

Hi Alexis and welcome to BB!

Our DD1 was a surprise, so there was hardly any time to plan. Like you, I work for myself (in fact, so does DP, so that put an added pressure on us). I had been doing it for a few years before DD came along, but the drop in my income while I couldn't work much was a big stress on us, financially and otherwise. I would have much preferred to be able to plan a bit better, but it wasn't the baby that was the issue, ITMS. It was not being able to work much on my side. This time around, because I have been doing this for much longer I have good working plans in place for the period post-baby. Plus, the maternity leave payment is now available, which will be an added bonus.

You can get so much on loan or given to you for your first baby that it doesn't have to be an expensive time from that point of view. MadB is right that as they get older it starts to cost more! But by then, you've had time to sort out how you manage and it's not really something you can plan for before being pg anyway. So much can change.

Ironically, the big things, like a new car, etc, we seemed to still manage, just sticking within pretty much the same budget as we'd always had. It was just my work that we needed to learn to manage, as well as caring for a baby, toddler, preschooler, etc.

[Aimz]

Alexis, I will PM you via your FB link if you like? I think you need a certain number of posts on BB before you can PM.

[Alexis83]

Aimz: Yeah, feel free to message me on FB! My profile is: http://facebook.com/lex.bartlett

Jennifer: Thanks for the welcome! ^_^ Wow, yeah, I wouldn't know what we'd do if DH was working for himself as well! I think it's been "nice" to hear that you end up managing. I know it would be nice for everything to be "perfect", but I'm thinking that you just need to work with what you've got. I hope I can convince DH that this is possible!