BR: Anyone read this blog?

brij2006 · April 2014

It was posted on Money Matters, and thought I would share it here. This dad is tracking all BR expenses from day of conception to 18. It's crazy and is making me thankful we're doing Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover.

http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/2012/06/ultimate-baby-child-costs-tracker/

lfk2013 · April 2014

I'll have to forward that link to DH. Thanks for sharing!

Flamingo86 · April 2014

I read that blog regularly and have seen this post before. Crazy stuff! I do think there are a lot of ways to cut back on baby costs though.

sparklingdiamond · April 2014

Wow that is cool! And kinda scary! :-p

brij2006 · April 2014

Flamingo86 said:

I read that blog regularly and have seen this post before. Crazy stuff! I do think there are a lot of ways to cut back on baby costs though.

That's exactly what I said to H when he read it last night. There are so many ways that costs can be cut, but it's still crazy how quickly it all can add up.

Aimothy · April 2014

One time I started adding up what we've spent just trying to conceive a baby....then I got super depressed and ate a bunch of ice cream.

This is not anything that I need to know. Babies/Children are expensive. But you can also budget and make non-extravagant choices too. Babies don't need bouncers, ya know?

BruinsBabe33 · April 2014

Beyond the necessities, babies are as expensive as you make them. My mum had four and we were broke. We never had much more than we needed. I think this blog is kind of fucked up. Way to make your kid feel like crap.

brij2006 · April 2014

@aimothy We started with $10k in our "baby fund." Between testing, meds, monitoring, loss, and all of the u/s's not covered. We ended with $3k in said fund, with no baby. I told H that we're paying for it out of our checking as we go next time. Then I won't have any clue how much it actually cost us.

brij2006 · April 2014

BruinsBabe33 said:

Beyond the necessities, babies are as expensive as you make them. My mum had four and we were broke. We never had much more than we needed. I think this blog is kind of fucked up. Way to make your kid feel like crap.

I 100% agree with this. If my parents had done this, I would've felt like a burden to their life. Not a blessing.

LuckyAngel07 · April 2014

This can vary pretty widely from person to person just based on insurance coverages, too. God knows I don't pay for any sort of blood work with my insurance, and I don't have regular prenatal checkup copays (thus requiring that payment plan he lists).

KonaCoffeeBean · April 2014

Very interesting. Makes me feel good about TTA while H is still in school.

GoodWolf · April 2014

There are so many ways to cut costs, I know my parents certainly didn't have this kind of cash flow raising us 4 kids but we survived just fine. Also, if you add any significant costs up by category over the years it's pretty staggering. I didn't even think about it at first but Bruins is right - totally makes kids look like a burden by counting every penny (publicly!)

Apollo11235 · April 2014

I read this and noticed that:

a) the blog only made it to 20 months, then they quit;

b) the prenatal/initial baby needs were about what we're planning for; and

c) holy crap, they spent a lot of money in the last year or so. People who barely make more than that have healthy, happy children. Clearly a lot of that was unnecessary.

poppies717 · April 2014

brij2006 said:

BruinsBabe33 said:

Beyond the necessities, babies are as expensive as you make them. My mum had four and we were broke. We never had much more than we needed. I think this blog is kind of fucked up. Way to make your kid feel like crap.

I 100% agree with this. If my parents had done this, I would've felt like a burden to their life. Not a blessing.

Yup. Sure, the cost of adoption makes me choke on my wine, but I could never complain about it in that way on the internet. After everything we've been through, the idea of hinting at a kid being a burden rubs me the wrong way.

BruinsBabe33 · April 2014

^ as it should anyone. I wouldn't want any child to know how much they cost. Can you imagine having your parents tell you how much they put in to you? Would you feel like you were a good investment?

Xan921 · April 2014

I laugh when people do things like this. Think of all of the time they spent budgeting/keeping track of every penny spent when they could have been spending time with their child.

Dh and I don't have a baby fund and we don't really even have that much in savings. We've always lived somewhat paycheck to paycheck although we're more comfortable now than we've ever been. I have no intention of having some big stash of money put away for a child because I know my parents were broke when they had us, they were/are amazing parents and all of us turned out pretty darn good if I do say so myself so I have all of the confidence in the world that Dh and I will manage and be awesome parents even without a big bank account

Flamingo86 · April 2014

I might add that my normal non-prenatal whole-foodsy vitamins cost just as much as their prenatals.

brij2006 · April 2014

I completely agree with a lot of things you said @xan921. We were both brought up in families that did not have much money, and H is adimant that he doesn't want to raise our children that same way.

My family no longer struggled when I was in late middle school, but his got worse after his parent's divorce in 7th grade. All he remembers is being told he couldn't go out for a sport because it cost too much money. He loves basketball and is now in a competitive league. He also paid for himself to be in golf his junior and senior year, and his parents told him that they would never watch him come play because it cost gas money. He watched money rule their parenting.

I'm probably on the side of the spectrum with you where I know we will make it work no matter our financial state. Our parents did, and they raised great adults. But my H is still on the side of caution. Which is also why he doesn't want to move to an RE until we're debt free. He's afraid that we don't have enough in our monthly budget to be able to give our children the life that we did not have (vacations, sports, a finished house, museums, zoo's, etc). We both had also agreed that we would have $10k in a baby fund mostly because we knew our medical expense for birth would be $5k alone and I do not have paid maternity leave. So we would need to go without my income for 6 weeks, and I'm the breadwinner.

I think everyone has their own comfort levels.

Xan921 · April 2014

I completely understand what you're saying @brij2006. Trust me, if our incomes allowed us to have a baby fund or a large savings we definitely would, but it doesn't so it isn't even something I worry about. Having money put away for any type of a life event is never a bad idea.

BR: Anyone read this blog?

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