Baby Budget

Updated last on 3/24/08

Here’s an updated list of month by month expenses. The massive link below includes expenses ranging from June 1st, 2006 to May 31st, 2007. Keep in mind that the “misc” category, among several others should vary widely from family to family.

BABY BUDGET

 

LIST OF ACTUAL

 

EXPENSES

 

I will try to give an accurate detail of how much I spend month to month with my little one. Don’t worry I will explain these costs in the paragraph below. I also apologize that I can only do one month at a time. I want to be completely accurate, so I will show you month to month what I spend exactly.

 

 

Budget Help: Third Month of Baby’s Life

WHAT I SPENT IN MONTH THREE

• Diapers – $0
• Formula – $20 (should have been $134 but I have WIC)
• Clothes – $35
• Misc – $20
• Toys – $13
• Medicine – $25
• Child Care – $300 ($75 per week for 25 hrs of care)

 

Budget Help: Second Month of Baby’s Life

WHAT I SPENT IN MONTH TWO

• Diapers – $16
• Formula – $20 (should have been $134 but I have WIC)
• Clothes – $0
• Misc – $0
• Toys – $57
• Medicine – $0
• Child Care – $517 ($135 per week plus deposit for part-time care)

The biggest upset obviously was Child Care costs. It basically made me cry (just kidding). We chose a place this month that was very very expensive ($135 per month for part time which is up to 35 hrs plus a deposit of $135) and we were denied child care assistance from the State of South Dakota

JUST A WARNING: The Child Care assistance plans are not great at all. Your co-pay if you make $1500 (or $18000 per year which is considered below the federal poverty level) a month with your spouse or significant other included … would be $140 per week.

But if you don’t make as much money… say $1000 per month (or $12000 per year which is drastically below the federal poverty level) with your spouse or significant other then your co-pay is drastically decreased. This makes no sense to me yet… but whatever.

Also in order for you and your spouse/significant other to qualify both of you each must be working and or going to school a total of 80 hours per month. This tells me that they encourage mothers to be away from their children and frowns upon mothers working part-time jobs to help out with expenses. I am disgusted with these requirements even though I do meet them.

We were 1 can short of having enough formula that WIC paid for so we had to buy 2 just to be sure. We still had coupons from the major manufacturers like enfamil and good start and similac so we started using some of those up.

We’ve decided to stick with enfamil mainly because it seemed like he had more gas when he was on good start. I recommend not switching formulas too much, as it tends to upset baby (in our case it did)

For diapers, we still had some left over from the baby shower but it wasn’t enough for this month so we had to buy 2 packs of huggies which we had coupons for so it was $16.

We spent $57 on toys because we bought Noah a swing because we had gotten one from a relative but it seemed to be really cheap and it made him sit up too much. We bought the aquarium swing from Wal-mart (I hate wal-mart but we had a gift card) and Noah loves it! Highly highly recommend it.

There was still no need to buy clothes this month because he still fits into 0-3 month clothes. Also people are still buying him clothes left and right for when he is 3-6 months and also 6-9 months so that will cut our spending in the future.

Budget Help: First Month of Baby’s Life

 

WHAT I SPENT IN MONTH ONE

• Diapers – $0
• Formula – $20
• Clothes – $29
• Misc – $9 (For a baby laundry hamper)
• Medicine – $18 (Children’s Tylenol, Baby sunscreen)
• Hospital Bill – $0 (Medicaid) …. (Should have been $4,000)
• Child Care – $0 (Mom still has maternity leave)

If you had or are going to have a baby shower, then you are already going to have mostly everything you need for baby’s first month of life. At our baby shower we had plenty of diapers to last at least 2 months. We also got enough clothes for him to wear for the first 3 months of his life. On top of that, we received enough wipes to last about a month and a half. At your baby shower, you will probably get lots of lotions and oils that will keep baby clean for at least a couple of months.

Basically, what I’m trying to say, is that the first month is very cheap. You can live off the things that other people bought you without having to buy much at all.

Now let me explain a few of the numbers listed above. As far as formula goes, Rachel was planning on Nursing Noah for the summer, and she tried very hard at it, but it just didn’t work. So we had to buy a little emergency formula for him after we were having troubles with the nursing (try to keep at it if you are nursing). Soon after though, we got on WIC in which they paid for 4 cans of formula for the first month, 5 cans of formula for the second month if you are nursing. If you aren’t nursing, I believe they give you 9 cans of formula each month for the first 6 months. This should pay for almost all of the formula you will need for baby.

If you don’t have WIC, formula is roughly $12 per can of powder and it should last you 3 days per can. So it will cost you an estimated $120 per month for formula (depending on how much your baby likes to eat.

As far as clothes go, Rachel picked up some clothes for when Noah was a little older that were on clearance. It’s a good idea to buy a few clothes here and there even in their first months that will fit them later on (just make sure you’re getting a good price).

Misc expenses for you will vary. It may be a very random item, like a bottle brush or something. These misc expenses are usually very inexpensive, however.

Medicine shouldn’t be a huge concern in the first couple of months. Baby is usually healthy, and generally won’t need any kind of medicine at all. The first night we brought baby home, we were terrified because Noah screamed from 10:30 PM til 6:30 AM and we had no idea what to do. So we called Ask a Nurse and said “Hey our baby won’t stop crying”. The nurse recommended we buy children’s Tylenol (don’t do that by the way) and give it to our 3 day old son. Yeah, it didn’t work. DO NOT GIVE A BABY UNDER ONE MONTH ANY SORT OF TYLENOL ACETOMINAPHINE UNLESS YOU TALK TO YOUR DR FIRST! THEY GENERALLY DON’T NEED IT. JUST HANG IN THERE. And the sunscreen we bought for him hasn’t been used because you’re supposed to keep baby out of the sun as much as possible.

Rachel already had primary insurance under her mom’s name, so most of the huge hospital bill was paid for by that. But if you have Medicaid, they pay for all prenatal checkups, all of the labor fees in the hospital, all of baby’s checkups for the first year (then you get re-evaluated), and they pay for mom’s doctor visits for the first two months after labor. So if you cannot afford a $4000 hospital bill, and you qualify for medicaid, I would contact them and have it completed long before your due date. If you don’t qualify for medicaid then I would check with your insurance company to see how much of it they would cover.

As far as the child care piece goes, you will have a very hard time finding someone who would take care of your baby until they are at least 6 weeks old. For one, most state regulations say that you can’t, and for two, that would just encourage moms going back to work prematurely. For this reason, your cost of child care for the first month should be $0.

So that’s basically it. The first month of baby’s life is surprisingly very cheap, as I expected it to be a pretty expensive month.

2/02/06

A General Household Budget

I have nearly completed my budget last night, and I realized the first budget I made was very, very unrealistic. I’ve figured out that you must be completely honest with yourself when you’re making a budget. If you don’t figure in worst case scenarios, you might end up hung out to dry.

I have decided to give a list of costs per month of certain items, for those of you looking to create a budget and need some help.

The costs of living per month with a baby – Nondiscretionary Spending

• Rent – $515
• Utilities – $110 (Gas + Electric)
• Formula – $120 (Remove if breastfeeding)
• Diapers – $65 (10 diapers per day, 70 Diapers per week, or 303 per month @ $0.21 per diaper)
• Groceries – $400 (Including cleaning supplies, toothpaste, toilet paper, shampoo once every 2 months, soap, and all food)
• Auto Fuel – $125 for 2 cars, $62.50 for 1 car
• Telephone – $37 for 1 cell phone, $74 for 2 cell phones, $25 per landline telephone
• Car Insurance – $65 – $150 ($65 if you’ve had no accidents with average car, $150 if you’ve had 2 accidents with an average car @ http://www.Geico.com)

Total Non discretionary Spending: $1361 – $1627

The costs of living per month with a baby – Discretionary Spending

• Clothing – $90 for 3 persons, $60 for 2 persons
• Eating out once – $37.50
• Fast food twice per week – $35
• Medicines – $15 (Advil, Tylenol, Cold Medicine)
• Going to movies once – $19.80
• Satellite TV – $23 (Dish Network)
• Cable Internet – $38 (Includes tax)

Total Discretionary Spending: $228 – $258

Special Expenses that are not regular

• Child care – $30 for low income families, $300 per month or $75 per week for normal income families for part-time care, $110 per week or $440 per month for full-time care.
• School books – $150 per full time student
• Gifts for birthdays – $20
• Christmas – $300 (I know it doesn’t seem like much)
• Birth Control! – $45 every 3 months

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11/30/05Today… I figured out we’re screwed (almost). We forgot to figure in car insurance. Wow… car insurance. Son of a @#$!@$.The first thing I decided to do once I found out my girlfriend was pregnant was to create a budget.If you are reading this for advice… when you create a budget, make sure you include: diapers, formula (if not breast feeding), health insurance (can be free for baby if you’re eligible for Medicare), rent, groceries, utilities (gas, electricity, cable, phone), gasoline, entertainment, clothing, and childcare. Depending on where you live, the cost of these things may vary.I have figured in the cost of diapers as being $65 per month. I have figured that the cost of formula is roughly $80 per month.If you decide to breastfeed your child (which can be time consuming but well worth it cost-wise) you will save roughly $120 per month in that area instead of buying formula.Also, you may want to check for the availability of WIC. WIC is a government organization which provides food coupons to low-income families for healthy foods for pregnant mothers and children up to the age of 5. You will want to check with your state’s WIC director for more information. Information can be found here.If you don’t have a very high income (like myself) the government should be able to help you out with more than just food. One of the things that you can receive if you are 130% or below the poverty level (CLICK HERE FOR POVERTY LEVEL INFO), is Medicaid.

MedicAid is a government sponsored program in which medical premiums and deductibles may be paid using federal and state tax dollars. Something you should also take a look at is child care costs. The average, middle-income family will spend $440 per month on child care. The government may be able to help you in one of two ways with child care. First, they can offer you subsidy rates at approved child care locations. For example, in South Dakota, a subsidy rate would be 2.50 per hour. Next, they can also offer you tax credit. I’m not exactly sure how this works right now until I meet with a child care director. I am not sure right now if we will be able to afford child care, but I know that our parents will help us out in any way they can. Right now, we both live at home with our parents (separately) and both have fairly stable jobs. We decided it would be best to move out together in order for the child to be raised in a non-hostile environment.I used to quicken to organize our spending and our income and found it to be relatively useful. Below I have posted an image of the budget report.

As you can see from the report, we’re going to have approximately only $32 dollars left in the budget. That’s very tight! Most of you are probably thinking, “They’re never going to make it, poor things”? but you are mistaken. By the time our baby is born, we will have $5000 dollars in savings to cover any mishaps. We also have very loving parents who will assuredly help us out in any time of need.

For those of you out there with children… I feel your pain. This is just a pie chart to show everyone how much money I spent on childcare as opposed to other things like food and electricity … you know things we need to survive. It’s painful to see this kind of ridiculous spending for childcare but hopefully next month we won’t have to worry about that because we will be getting childcare assistance (hopefully). Well… that’s all for now..