Is my baby budget realistic?

strickland8052 · February 2014

Hi! First time poster here (on this board at least)! I really shouldn't even be on this board, because I have crazy baby fever, but H doesn't want to TTC for like another two years (which I respect). ANYWAY, I do want to prepare financially the best we can in these next two years, and I want to know if my ideas are realistic. I'm working towards a $15 baby budget (in addition to our 10 month emergency fund). I've calculated that $4k will account for lost income, $6k for medical bills after insurance (this is our max out of pocket), and another $5k for miscellaneous baby expenses. As for once the baby is born, I'm thinking $1k a month for all baby expenses. This would include a $100 increase in health insurance and 2 or 3 days of day care. We wouldn't need full time day care because of my husband's work schedule, but we do live in a major city so it will probably be pricey regardless. From looking around, I think the part time daycare would be about $600 or $700, so that leaves us $200 to $300 for everything else. Is that reasonable? I'm pretty thrifty about clothes and supplies... I love some yard sales and thrift stores. I want a baby so badly, but I am completely horrified by the price tag that comes with it! How do people do it?!?

brij2006 · February 2014

This board is mostly full of people who are trying to get pregnant. So you may not get answers from experience on how they do it.

But your budget looks reasonable and makes sense to me. The only thing I would take into consideration is if daycares in your area do not offer part-time care. Some places require you to pay for a full-time spot even though you may only be using it 2-3 days per week.

Also, are the daycare numbers based on what you assume they will be, or have you done some research? When we put together our budget pre-TTC, I called the place we knew would be our preference and asked them how much it cost for a newborn.

carcrashheart · February 2014

i agree with PP.

when we looked at daycares the ones that did PT were dwindling. some that said they did PT when i spoke to them in the spring had since ditched the program by the end of summer when we were touring. others would let you send the child PT but you still had to pay FT. ultimately, i ended up SAH with my LO, so it didn't matter. but that wasn't what we thought would be the plan until i was out on leave.

as for the rest of the budget, i'd say it's more than fine. we recently began budgeting and for the last few months have only put $45 towards the budget for LO. and honestly, most of the purchases are fun purchases. though there are realistic ones, like the toilet locks i bought to stop him from playing in the toilet. we cloth diaper, so that saved us a ton. recently, we had to switch to disposables for overnight. i just bought a box of pampers 84 ct diapers at aldi's for $25, so that should last us at least 2 months. which means that our march budget for LO won't need to be dinged with diapers. he was a formula baby, so we had to shell out for that. it varied from $23/week to $23/two weeks, as his intake and frequency changed. i made his baby food, so that was little expense. we also did baby led weaning, so he ate regular table food, which meant i didn't need to go through as much of the baby food i had made. now that he has switched to whole milk, we spend about $8/wk on that. but he eats whatever we are having for dinner, or something we have on hand. i pick up pouches to keep in my bag for while we are out from time to time, but that's a minimal expense as well. i buy his clothes second hand at consignment shops or resell pages on FB. some months i was spending more than others but now i stay within his budget, or sometimes i split it between his budget and our overall clothing/etc budget. the only clothes that he has that are brand new were given as gifts or something i picked up on major clearance and put away for when it would fit him. LO is 16 months and i've been stocking up on 18-24 mos/24 mos/2T sizes since january. anything i buy is almost always in a bigger size to be put away. rarely do i buy anything that is his current size. he grows so quickly.

i remember that the first couple of months with a newborn cost a lot more though. there were always things we seemed to need that we hadn't thought of. gauze and vaseline to care for his circ once what the hospital gave us ran out. more blankets. more pj's. an exersaucer because i hadn't thought to register for one. mostly a lot of little things that came up.

Apollo11235 · February 2014

I don't have kids, but your savings goal seems reasonable enough. The only thing I would add is to recheck OOP max on your insurance: it may be on a per-person basis, so if your max is $6k and baby's is $6, you may really need $12k.

sgautschi · February 2014

My monthly baby budget, with a 5 month old, is $100-150 a month between clothes and diapers. It could easily be as little as $50 a month though. We have an HSA for medical bills. Honestly, babies aren't that expensive, IMO.

Having said that, it never hurts to have a really nice cushion so you never have to worry about unexpected expenses. I've been lucky to have a healthy baby, but I know some who weren't as lucky and are struggling with medical expenses.

Is my baby budget realistic?

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