baby costs Archives - Mrs. Money Hacker https://mrsmoneyhacker.com/tag/baby-costs/ Helping people view money differently while chronicling my own path to financial independence in Ireland and Canada Sun, 08 Nov 2020 21:45:57 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://mrsmoneyhacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/88e9bc51-35da-49e1-a9b6-e76f28575f3f-fe2917f9-cf90-43ba-ac05-019242f563f4-v1-150x150.png baby costs Archives - Mrs. Money Hacker https://mrsmoneyhacker.com/tag/baby-costs/ 32 32 158984944 Year 1 baby costs and how staying home for 12 months compared to the cost of childcare https://mrsmoneyhacker.com/year-1-baby-costs/ https://mrsmoneyhacker.com/year-1-baby-costs/#respond Thu, 05 Sep 2019 23:01:54 +0000 https://mrsmoneyhacker.com/?p=447 Having a baby doesn't need to be expensive. See how much Meagan spent on her baby in the first year.]]>

Year 1 expense comparison

As our baby’s first birthday approaches (boo hoo, look how big he is), I thought it would be interesting to look back at what we spent compared to the estimated average costs I saw on an Irish mummy pages website.

Here is a breakdown of the costs quoted along with some notes explaining why our costs differ. For the items listed below we spent only 33% of the other website’s estimates.

ItemMummy pages estimateMrsmoneyhacker actualsNote
Maternity clothes  1501502 pairs of maternity pants, bathing suit, 7 nursing tops
Pregnancy toiletries 6030I only bought Pregnacare vitamins
Changing table 150100We got a chest of drawers that can be reused as baby grows
Cot 15090We used a second hand co-sleeper
Bedding 1200Our bedding came with the cot
Pram 3000Borrowed
Car seat 160190Our price includes a second hand newborn seat and a group 2 seat that suits 0-7 years old
Baby carrier 3033
Changing mat 1256Probably spent more on this than I should have
Baby bath 203Cheap one in Aldi
Baby monitor 8950We use an IP camera with baby monitoring features and we can use it after as a pet cam or security camera when we are away
Baby skincare products 14010We still only wash with water and are still using the same tube of nappy cream
Baby wipes 28040We use reusable wipes
Steriliser 430Not necessary for breastfeeding
Formula milk (average 58 per month) 7000I’m doing extended breastfeeding
Bottles 2527
Baby food 4200Baby eats what we eat and our food costs have actually gone down since I’m home to cook and meal plan
Highchair 12040We got an ingenuity seat that straps onto chairs, grows with baby to toddler, low profile and portable
Clothes (first year total) 325139Got most second hand or hand me downs
Disposable nappies (first year total) 580297We use cloth nappies, this cost includes nappy sprayer, nappy bags and pail and all cloth nappy supplies including initial cloth nappy rental
Safety gates 40103We splurged and got fancy retractable ones
Toys/accessories 20010We got most toys gifted to us and a few second hand
Baby bouncer  6025We got ours second hand
4,1741,39333%

The mummy pages site did not include a large number of other things which we spent money on like:

  • private antenatal classes
  • pregnancy and parenting books
  • birthing/post natal supplies
  • breast feeding supplies (breast pads, breast pumps)
  • soothers
  • thermometer
  • diffuser
  • nasal aspirator
  • wipe warmer
  • teething supplies (calpol/granules/gel)
  • vitamin D drops
  • potty training/elimination communication supplies
  • weaning supplies (bowls, spoons, sippy cups, bibs)
  • blackout blinds
  • heating pad
  • other baby safety supplies (door/drawer locks etc)

On the remaining items we spent an additional 977€ bringing our total to 2,370€ (over 21 months) which is still only 57% of the other quoted costs.

Income

Add onto that the income we brought in from state maternity/paternity pay, and family allowance to date (8,260€) and tax credits for home carer and spousal shared credits (2,324€ so far), that brings our current income from having a kid to 10,584€.

That means that for the first year we have 8,214€ or 684€/month against the cost of me being off for 12 months (I was contracting when I got pregnant and did not qualify for maternity pay through the company).

My own expenses for the last year average around 1,377€/month (or 16,524€/year) so our savings and/or my husband’s salary only needed to cover an additional 693€/month (or 8,316€ for the 12 months).

Cost vs childcare

Take into account that childcare would probably cost us 900€/month once baby was 6 months old and maternity pay ran out, that would bring us to 5,400€ for the 6 months.

So it cost us 8,316€ to cover my expenses for 12 months (with state maternity pay and tax credits covering the rest) compared to us both working and paying 5,400€ for the last 6 months, meaning that for 2,916€ (or 243€/month) more than paying childcare, I got to stay home for the full 12 months, we were sick much less, there was no rushing for collections or drop offs and my hubby got a clean house and hot meals to boot.

This was more a curiosity exercise for myself but thought I’d share to demonstrate that even if you don’t qualify for maternity leave in your job, if you could put away a few hundred a month leading up to your maternity you may be in a position to stay off longer than you think (if that’s something you want to do).

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