How much did/does your second baby cost?

[Calluna]

DF informed me least night that he is "ready" for us to have another baby. I thought he was ready ages ago, but anyway...


I don't think we can afford to. At the beginning we'd be ok, but later on - with school fees, more in groceries, etc - I think it will push us over the edge. And we won't mention that we are still living with MIL at the moment and aren't sure when we'll be able to move. Although, the house is being renovated to be dual living and wil hopefully be ready in the next month () MIL doesn't want another baby in the house.

We still have the cot, change table, baby bath, heaps of baby clothes, enough toys to open a day care centre, etc. It'd really just be the cot mattress, the odd cute outfit (a little more if it was a girl), more cloth nappies, food, and other ongoing costs.

So, how much does/did your second child cost per week/fortnight/etc?

ETA - if a moderator could take the "ty" off the title I'd be most grateful, not quite sure how that happened. :/

[PumpkinZulu]

Interested to know as well, #2 is in the early baking stages now. Being so close to DD, we still have everything we need for another baby, DD will still be in nappies so that's a bigger expense I guess. I'd be interested to hear what people say, as we aren't going to have many immediate costs to having a new baby, just the added expenses day to day.

[Charlotte91]

I'm interested, too.
There's going to be 19mos between DD and Bub and we haven't spent any money yet. Although, we haven't bought anything yet.

[RockingBaker]

Honestly it's as cheap or as expensive as you make it. I know I paid less setting up for 3 babies then when some of my friends did for their kids. I op shopped, ebayed and looked on fb pages for bargains. We are looking at moving to the other side of town to cheaper housing and near better public school options for DS so we can afford a second car and DS' therapy sessions.

[Tinks]

I think you just make do with what money you have.

[RockingBaker]

I will add the great thing with having 2 means you don't have to upgrade the car or stress to much about fitting into most houses. At the minute we make do with 3 kids in one room and DS still in with us but I would loveto have the extra space. Could you potentially move into an apartment or a duplex if MIL is against a second baby?

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

For us the only real 'extra' expense at the start was nappies, DD2 slept in the bassinette DD1 had had and then when we moved she went into the cot (with the same mattress) when DD1 went into a bed.
Food wise i think we became BETTER with our eatuing & spending - i started buying a lot more fresh fruit & veg from cheaper places, we started making our own fresh meals instead of things from a packet etc.
DD2 had a dairy allergy so we stopped buying quite a few non essential things.

I find now both girls do swimming it can be expensive for some of the '' extras' but you just seem to find it and manage.
We over estimate by quite a bit on our CL stuff so when we do our tax we can get a little bit back, thats when we buy our x-mas presents and DD1's b'day stuff but it means we are a little more careful with the CL money we do get IYKWIM.

[Jellyfish]

The biggest initial expense for us was a car seat, we bought a new one for DD1 (as she was turning 3) and put DD2 into her old one.

With regards to cooking I think it is actually going to be easier with 4 than 3 as most things seem to be centred around 4 serves lol.

Can't help with schooling and such as we are obviously not there yet but I think you just make it work.

[PumpkinZulu]

That's good to know. I have found having one child at this age to be very inexpensive. I know this will change as she gets older, but honestly DH and I are just not the type of people to worry about things like setting up a nursery (DD coslept from birth, Piney will too). We bought a cheapish Ikea cot with a good mattress, we got a lot of her clothes second hand or free from friends, which we still have. Even when we buy her new clothes, it's budgeted in so that she has more than enough clothes (I usually buy her one item a week). We'll cloth from birth with Piney, DD hates cloth Breastfeeding and BLS are easy and free/cheap. We don't drive, but do have a carseat for DD. we may or may not get another carseat, or we might just not go anywhere in a car. The only thing that isn't super manageable is that DH and I planned on DD being an only child for about 4 years, so we splashed out and bought our Stokke. Obviously that can't be adapted for a toddler, so we're planning on baby wearing Piney for the first few months exclusively, like we did with DD. aside from that, I can't see the expenses getting to us until school, by which stage we'll be well equipped to handle that

[melsa31]

We kept everything that DS1 used and so didn't need to buy anything really! I 'shop around' to buy consumable stuff like wipes when they are on special. We did need another carseat for DS1 but would have had to buy that regardless of whether we had another baby or not as he is now 3 and a half. I have two boys so we've reused most of the toys and clothes and have only had to get a few new items for DS2 so far. I know once he's older and doing swimming etc too we'll have those expenses to consider but like others have said, you live to your means. The biggest unexpected thing for us is that DS2 has had a few health issues that have required regular medication, specialist visits etc. Nothing major but still things that cost us money with him that we never had to pay for with DS1. So it might be worth considering that if your next bub had any special needs like that, would you be able to afford to meet them?

[Rowellen]

The only extra's we've spent money on with no 2 as a newbie is girl stuff. We probably could have got away with dressing her in boys clothes too but I refused because baby clothes are so cheap anyway. I got most of DD's clothes from kmart or big w, cotton on kids & target when they have specials or ebay. I bought her some girly nappies just for fun. We use MCN's for DS so we didn't really need them but I wanted them. I'm not too worried about school. We intend to send them to the local public school and I'm hoping by that time, our financial situation will improve. The main extra cost now is that she's in daycare but it's not as bad as I expected.

[AwesomeFoursome]

I think it is as expensive as you make it. Some people have to have everything new, some people will use hand downs. Some people use private schools and some use public schools. I don't think one more cost much more, well it hasn't for us anyway. My kids will all go to a catholic school, do sport, yes they have hand downs but they don't miss out on anything and we are on a low income ATM, I'm a sahm and DH is doing factory work.

[LuluHB]

DD2 didn't cost too much to begin with. Having two the same gender saved us a fortune in clothing (the initial huge costs were my fault though given my inability to stop buying cute baby stuff!). Small expenses in topping up the nappy stash etc but otherwise pretty good.

When it did get expensive is around the 2.5 yr old stage. Two kids doing swimming lessons, or gym classes, or dancing classes or whatever is a big price increase. They stop being able to share/hand down clothes so that increases. Now that both are at private school (again, our choice so its not necessarily an expense you HAVE to have) there's another big chunk out of our budget.

We had the same thoughts you're having when we were discussing the pros and cons of a #3. We probably can't afford it but we'll make it work.

[Calluna]

So really it's just living with MIL that is the issue?

A FB friend said for them it's an extra 40- 60 a week (with formula which I won't be using). Does that sound about right? We could manage that.

[Ambersky]

I agree with the others, its what ever you let it be.. We made the decision before we had any kids that we would not do private school as we wanted at least 3 kids, so we looked at schools when we chose where to live. I buy a few extra bits of clothes to top up DD2s wardrobe as the girls have been different seasons. I Op Shop where i can, use Gumtree and local pages for bigger stuff. We upgraded DD1s car seat so DD2 could have the babyseat. This time round we will be getting a second (larger) car, but that was always in the plan so we have been saving so we will have the cash for it. My cloth nappy stash will be on to the 3rd baby with just a few binned and replaced along the way, I reckon i have spend $800 on a pretty big stash.. but thats nothing to the cost of 3+ kids in sposies.
I have a budget of about $200 for the bits i need for belly babe, a new change mat, a few new towels, and I'll get a few clothes bits if bubs a boy (not a whole new batch by any means).

[LuluHB]

I think the estimate would depend on age. If you've still got your cot, car seat, cloth nappies, you're breastfeeding and you've got more self control than me with baby clothing then for the first six months or so there's really nothing to buy. After that you've got start of solids which let's face it, they still eat nothing. I would think until you're talking 2yr + that's probably a generous estimate.

[Calluna]

Hmm will have to have a proper talk with DF then, about what we will need to buy and our spending. At the momenT we go out for dinner one a week, but if we stopped that we could easily afford the extra a week. What to do about MIL...

EEEK!

[LuluHB]

What to do about MIL...

EEEK!

If you work that one out can you let me know please