Is raising a child as expensive as everyone keeps telling me?

Question

I am due to have a baby is December. Everyone keeps going on how we are not going to have a life anymore. How having a baby is really expensive. And especially as my son is due 21st December it is going to be financially difficult at this time of the year.

In my view we are able to afford this child. We have lots of things bought already.

Are people just scare mongering.

Answer 1

It is expensive, but just HOW expensive depends on your budget and your choices.  Babies (and children) tend to cost as much as you are willing/able to spend.

You can buy all new, designer clothes and furnishings, formula feed, buy jarred babyfood, buy every gadget available, and sign your child up for every activity known to man.

Or you can shop garage sales, breastfeed, make your own babyfood, and buy only the necessities. (Basic clothing, diapers, etc.)

Or anything in between.

Answer 2

it is expensive but u will be ok if you have got most of the stuff already. a good thing to do is put a bit of money in a savings account each week just in case you need it. (my mom put £10 a week away)

hope this helps good luck.

Answer 3

the money question can be overcome ie part time work etc it is the mental torture, the gradual wearing down day in day out drip, drip, drip. brain cells dying minute by minute, that is without the meeting of someone Else's pride and joy that your offspring has now met, whose goal is too find infinite methods of mayhem. hitting your thumb repeatedly with a claw hammer is somewhat of a release!

    all in all though, who gives a monkeys nuts the cost! you have better things to do than arithmetic's ( home-work starts early enough thank you! )  

Answer 4

Look kids do cost money and they cost more and more the older they get. The fact is other people have them so what is the problem ! my daughter was born just after xmas so with my 3 girls it's like having 4 lots of christmas presents to buy for.  The fact is you are having a child and it is due at christmas. maybe your friends should be more supportive. If we waited until we could have afforded our children we would not have any. I would not want anymore though ! you are in a luck position dont listen to others just enjoy it    

Answer 5

Yes, kids are expensive.  From babies until they are on their own, they are.. you have to put them first when it comes to needs.. clothes, health care, food, education.. it all adds up.. Good luck with your little one.

Answer 6

People like to tell you the bad parts about having kids - how you will never get sleep again, how expensive they are, how your life will be over, your body will never be the same again, etc. etc blah blah blah.

Yes people are scare mongering.  I hated it when I was pregnant and that's all people would tell me.  There were only one or two people who would tell me how wonderful children are.

Yes, children cost money.  But like anything else, you do what you have to do and make it work.  

To be honest, once you give birth to that beautiful baby, you will want to do everything in your power to take care of it and give it every opportunity you can -whether that means getting up at 3am or spending $500 on horse camp.  

My daughter is 17 months old, and yes, getting up in the night with a sick baby sucks, and waking up at 7am even on week-ends sucks, but to be completely honest, I enjoy getting up and spending time with her.  I like going to her in the night and cuddling her and taking care of her when she needs me.  That's what parents are for.

and I especially love spending money on her!  Whether it's Kindermusik or more cute clothes that she does not need, it's all fun.  

Answer 7

in short, yes!

Answer 8

raising a child can be as expensive as you make it.. the first year is the most expensive the the diapers, formula and daycare . also the constant growing out of clothing.. BUT if you budget yourself and trade in the clothing you can manage just fine.. When my son was a baby every time he would grow I would pack up the outgrown stuff and trade it in at a resale shop and if I couldn't find anything I liked there I would take the cash.. I also bought his clothes off the clearance rack way in advance.. like in the winter stock up on some universal pieces like t shirts, jammies.. stuff like that.  Coupons will be your best friend for diapers and wipes !

You can go overboard with expenses but keep control and you will be fine.. I was 19 and working part time and was able to raise my son just fine without govt assistance.. it isn't that bad but if you are someone that goes out often to clubs and such.. that may be cut out or at least cut down becuase baby comes first.

BTW  Congrats :)

Answer 9

Maybe some over exaggerate, but yes they are not cheap. Their is formula, diapers, food and such while they are little. Schooling as they get older, not to mention clothes and shoes as they grow out of them so quick. I know some parent's on a small income, and they make it work. Children do not have to wear designer clothes, have the latest trend in toys, so I guess its up to what the parents do. Necessities though, are not cheap, and then there are medical bills on top of that.

But you will find you will make it work :) You adjust, follow a budget, and everything should be ok

Answer 10

If you breast feed for about 9months, that cuts out any food worries.

If you have a baby shower that should cut out clothes cost for a couple of months... then ask Nanny to nit him a jumper every christmas

If you use cloth nappies, they you just stick them in the washing machine and you cut the cost of collecting pooh.

Should get expensive by the time they start nursery/school.

Answer 11

yes it is expensive all accords if you want to spoil it rotten and treat it like treat it normal i bought my daughter up at start all i bought was basics like cot etc she really needed good luck with baby dont treat it like trophy  

Answer 12

Yes it is

Answer 13

Well if people can bring up children on state benefits(uk) it can't be that bad unless the benefits are to generous?  remember though the best way to bring children up is to give them love and protection. All the best.

Answer 14

Where it gets expensive is insurance, diapers, formula if used, child care if needed.  Having lots of things  is a good start, but not where a lot of the real cost is.  Im a little nervous for you, and budgeting, by the vague terms you use.  I'd sit down and try to pull together a real budget and get real numbers on costs.

Answer 15

I think it really depends on many factors-

Do you have good health insurance for you and your baby?

Will you breastfeed?  Formula is at least 15 to 20 dollars a can.  So breastfeeding even for a few months (longer is better if you can) can save you hundreds of dollars

What is your child care situation?  Are you going to take care of the baby or perhaps relative etc.  Day care especially for an infant can be very expensive

Clothing?  Do you have friends that will give you hand me downs or do you mind going to resale shops for clothes.  This can really lower your costs since some babies out grow their clothes in just a month or so.

The price of raising a child is like everything else.  It can really vary depending on your situation and how you handle your money.  If you are already in financial trouble or have hard time being responsible with money then it will be very difficult.  However, if you are responsible with money and are in good financial situation already then it won't be difficult.

Answer 16

No, not really. Kids are horribly expensive - my daughter is almost 20 and still costs me money in many ways!!  Having said that, you adjust - the kids always come first and if anyone is going to miss out, Mom does.

Answer 17

They get more expensive over the years believe me.

Especially going on holidays and shopping for their uniforms.

When having a baby if you have a baby shower you tend to get everything you need for the next few months.

Nappies can be expensive though.

Good luck with everything and i hope you have a healthy baby:)

Answer 18

It is very difficult and expensive but you will be ok... I left work to look after my baby for a year when i tried to gte back into part time work I was sent waya lots of times. people would not hire me because the agencys were sending about 4 people to each job interview (they would pick the people with no commitments) the I eventually found a part time job I am o better off !!! I get paid £625. per month P/T and my nursey fees are £565. ( for p/t alos) Then their is clother u go thorough soo many plus nappies If you want to save money breast feed!! I promise you it will save you hundreds plus its fantastic I breast fed for 7 months and then she went straight on to baby rice!!

You wil be fine every1's experience is different

good luck with your baba!

Answer 19

Yes it is very expensive to bring up children in this day and age!

Answer 20

yes & no. You see, a baby is in fact a LOT more expensive than not having a baby. However you read these statistics about it costing 24,000 a year or some astronomical number & I don't even make that much & I'm raising a baby he'll be a year this December. So anyways, it doesn't have to be as expensive as some say. You will need to buy diapers and wipes of some type ( even if you go the cloth diaper way I STILL recommend using disposable wet-ones). You will still have a life, it'll just be different. For the most part it should be, or seem, more worthwhile. Good luck and hang in there.

Answer 21

Bless you ! you will have a great life it will just be different. I have 3 kids my youngest was born on 18th december and we allways seem to manage ok and the kids r happy with what they have. best of all don't try to keep up with other people because then you will b broke all the time and you don't want your children growing up thinking they can have what they want when they want it that's where most parents go wrong and then end up with troublesome kids very good luck 2 your family x

Answer 22

You don't say where you live.  I live in Ireland, I work part time and I earn some benefits.  I have a six month old daughter.  When you're pregnant people do try and frighten you I think.  All any one ever said to me was that I'd not have a good nights sleep for a very long time.

When it comes to money, once you get the big stuff out of the way it's not too bad.  The travel system, the cot and if you opt for one, the changing unit (which are fantastic by the way, well worth the money) are expensive, but they are one off purchases.  

Once the baby comes along it's ok, if you're formula feeding the food is pretty reasonable, I recommend Milupa Aptimil by the way.  If you live near an Aldi or a Lidl they are fantastic, nappies from them are a third of the price of say Pampers or Huggies.  The wipes from Aldi are fine, I've found them to be much better than some others.  Even their washing powder is good at a fraction of the cost.

The creams and stuff that you need, Sudocrem, if you are going to use it, is expensive and no one ever seems to have deals on it.  If you have any kind of discount stores near you for lotions and so on, try and always shop there.  If you don't, shop around for buy one get one free offers.  Those are always great and if you buy two you don't run out at a critical moment.

Don't buy expensive clothes for the baby, they grow so quickly.  I know I've sorted out clothes that are too small for her and they still have the tags on them.  Try Primark if you're buying yourself, the clothes are fairly good quality and they wash well, which is important, let friends and family splash out.

For me I haven't got to the expensive stage yet, I could get by on maybe sixty euro a week between both of us, including petrol, which I think isn't too bad.  It really is about pinching your pennies I'm afraid.  It'll be sending them off to school that is the next very expensive thing.

Best of luck with everything, don't let people worry you too much.  All of the dire threats I received about not having any sleep for the next few years turned out to be nothing more than nonsense, she's been sleeping through the night since she was seven weeks.  Just take each day as it comes and don't devote too much time to worrying about the cost of it all.  You will manage.  

Answer 23

I would say that you have to buy new things for children as they are growing but i hate it when people say they can`t afford to have more children, they ar enot that expensive in my opinion ,i am pregnant with my 7th due any time now adn yes they grow out of clothes but you live to your finaces, if money if tight then you budget and buy items in the sale or plan ahead.. if eveyone had the opinion that children are too dear to have then what would become of us? yes no one would have children silly really that people say things about them being too dear.. i buy new clothes and shoes and uniforms for my children  often but thats my decision ,i am not rich but i buy wisely...  you can get good quality clothes much chaeper nowadsy if you look in the right store and in the sales... i got  anewborn t-shirt inmarks adn spencer normal price not sale for£1.50 andt-shirts innewborn from tesco for £1.. they are good quality too..

Answer 24

it is quite expensive to have a baby especially if the baby is bottle fed. to start with you use a lot of nappies as baby needs to be changed after every feed but this doesn't last forever (thank god). we use around 5 nappies a day at the moment and baby is 14 months. the first year though you go through about 8 nappies a day.

i find you can save a lot of money if you want to. a lot of the toys are made of plastic and you can get them second hand for very little and just clean them good and you can even sterilise some of them. you save a lot of money that way. same goes for clothes.

another thing to think about is child care. it's very expensive and unless you'll stay at home until baby goes to school well then yes it's very expensive. saying that though, i'm a student and my husband is the only one working (structural engineer) and we're fine, even with the childcare costs.

as for the life part - your life turns upside down when you have a baby. you're not able to go out when you feel like it and you have to learn to be content to stay at home. it's tough to start with but you soon learn how to deal with it and find new activities to do where your baby is also a part of it. you can go to "baby cinema" during the day instead of normal evening cinema, go to baby groups, baby swimming... that sort of things. but soon after baby is born you can't even imagine a life without your little bundle of love so life with a baby is just a different life that takes some getting used to.

Answer 25

There are a lot of factors. For me a single mom, NB-daycare was $780 a month, I breastfed and pumped my milk, so food was free, until she weaned me and formula cost me about $56 a month (I bought the store brand). Diapers were about $20 a week (I bought a combination of store (for school) and name brand (for home). @ 18 months Her daycare is $740 a month, she's on table foods so eats what I eat and diapers are about $20 every 2 weeks give or take. Clothing and shoes about $50 a month (I only shop second hand, except for shoes). They grow so fast its hard, just when you think you've bought something that fits but with enough room to grow they sprout and are grown out of it.

Answer 26

You just have to budget and you will be fine!

Answer 27

People are probably making out it's worse than it actually is, but truth is babies are very expensive. I was shocked at how much it cost in nappies, milk, clothes and those little extra's mums just need to buy

Answer 28

Yes they cost more as they get older but we seem to get through it one way or another and do so because we love them.

Answer 29

Having things purchased already is great but they are only babies for a small time so that crib and other infant stuff won't do you much good in 2 years..you have to support them for at least 18 years.   If you were to write every dime down that you spend on a child (this includes clothing, food, gas in the car to drive them places, extra activities, all the school supplies you ever buy, medical,  etc. etc., it's several thousand dollars a year.

As far as not having a life, well..that's up to you.  There is no reason a baby has to change your life that much.

Answer 30

Having a child is expensive, and it doesn't mean you wont have a life.

People who say that don't know what they are talking about, people choose to not have lives after having kids but like to blame it on their child.

Answer 31

It really will cost more; But, you are right that you will find ways to do things, if both of you make decent money then you can have nice things.

It will cost $$$ when the baby gets sick, needs medicine, and once they get older for gifts and such. It would also cost if you want to go on a date and need a baby sitter, but as for now, it will be food and pampers.