Finances!?!?!
The one thing we really should think of more often especially when we get ready to have children. Lets face it most of us don't. I hate thinking of finances and debt. I know we have our share of debt that we pay on little by little every month.
Monthly costs of Kairi
Diapers - $40-$50
Wipes - $15
Formula - $13 a can
Formula we get on WIC (thankfully). So we get 9 cans a month. So 9 X $13 = $117! Thats quite a bit on formula if we had to buy it ourselves. Over her first year thats $117 X 12 = $1404 if not more depending on if you have to but more than 9 cans a month.
We buy diapers every 2 weeks most times. So a jumbo pack of Huggies or Pampers is $20-$25. So thats $40-$50 a month. And wipes we get the jumbo packs also so thats agian roughly $15 but we buy them every 2 months.
Now over a year that would be:
Diapers
$50 a month
X 12 months
--------------
$600 a year
Wipes
$15 every 2 months
X 6 months
--------------------
$90 a year
Formula
$117 a month
X 12 months
---------------
$1404 a year
Now buying baby clothes. Yes its fun to go pick out those cute outfits at like Wal-mart, Baby Gap, Gymborre, ECT. I fount out with my last child that buying brand spanking new clothes just ain't worth it. They out grow them way to fast the first 2 years. So I buy gentely used or buy from people who are wanting to get rid of them cheap. Most people like to sell the baby clothes their kids have out grown. You can get basically brand new clothes at 50% to 75% cheaper than brand new. Check out yard sales or yard sale sites. And gifts from family is always good :)
I don't know how much that this helps anyone but thanks for reading our blog and feel free to pass us on to other friends!
Sarah's story
One of the things that worry most new expecting parents is being able to afford this beautiful baby. Between all of the things that you need to have before the baby comes, and everything that the baby will need after like clothes, diapers, food, etc., it can seem daunting. However, it IS possible to get everything and not lose your sanity.
To understand how we prepared for our son, you first need to know how we manage our finances on a daily basis. My husband has always be in charge of our finances, seeing is how he is the one who makes the money, and he knows what bills need to be paid and when . Also, he is one of the most responsible men I know when it comes to handling money. Even before we got together he had a set budget that he stuck to, tracking and making sure all his bills are paid. He knows exactly how much he spends on bills, gas, personal shopping, etc for every month. He was an E4 when we first got together, but now he is an E5, so we make about $600 more per month than we first did. And when we first got together we had a LOT of bills, I believe about $24,000 in debt. And we have always made it our top priority to pay all them off as soon as possible. Always paying above the minimum, if not paying double what was due. And when we found out I was pregnant, we decided to get all of our bills paid off even sooner. So we cut our spending in half and cut our recreational spending (dates, movies, dining out, etc) in half as well, and put all of our extra money on the bill with the highest interest rate. And after that bill was paid off, we put all the money that was going towards that bill and rolled that over to the next bill with the highest interest rate and so on. So after less than a year of money crunching and super budgeting, we have cut our debt from $24,000+ to less than $10,000. All we have left to pay off is my wedding ring (which will be paid off in less than 5 months) and our car bill (which will be paid off in about 10 or so months, probably less depending on our taxes lol).
So with our crazy budgeting to get ready for our son, we now had to find out how much we would be spending each month on him, and how much it would take to get everything we would need for him. After doing some research about what was really needed and what was not, it took about a little under $2,000 to get everything we needed for him. Keep in mind that we bought most of his things organic so they were more expensive (for example, we spent about $400 on an organic mattress. Here is a link with some reasons why we chose an organic mattress http://hubpages.com/hub/Dangers-Of-Not-Using-Organic-Crib-Mattress-For-Your-Baby ). Since we knew we were going to breastfeed and use cloth diapers, we really wouldn't need much money for him on a monthly basis. All we really had to worry about was clothing, toys, and wipes (even though we use cloth wipes sometimes, too). We knew we wanted to also start a savings for him so we could give him money as a graduation present. So my husband did a little money managing (consulting me about what I REALLY needed to buy lol) and we decided that $60 every two weeks, so $120 a month would go towards baby stuff. So far, so good. I never really have to spend more than that. And if I do (which is really never) I will just take it out of my personal spending money so we don't mess with our budget plan. We are also putting about $30 a month (about a dollar a day) in the bank for his savings. It's not the biggest gift of money, but it's enough. We don't want our kids to be spoiled with money and things like that, so for us the gift of about $6,500 at graduation sounds good lol. We also don't plan on buying our children a car when they are 16, or paying their way through college. I know that sounds pretty harsh to some people, but we want our kids to know how it feels to earn things, and not get them for free. Of course, if they really need help, we will be there for them; we would never let them truly struggle to the point of being miserable and wanting to give up, but we also feel as though they need to learn to appreciate things and not take them for granted.
But to give you little insight to what I am talking about, here is what our budget looks like at the moment. This is what we spend every two weeks;
Total Paycheck --$2,600
Rent $800
Car loan $112.50
Wedding Ring $350.00
Phone/Ins $85.00
Personal bill $50
Joint Savings $100
Vacation Savings $25.00
Alexander Savings $15
Alexander Spending $60
Car repair/oil change $50.00 (Blake drives a lot for work so we average an oil change a month)
Gas $200
Sarah personal $90 (I only have $90 cause I take $10 of my personal to put towards Alexander's monthly expenses)
Groceries $350
Recreational $100
Blake Personal $50
Sarah phone bill $20
Sometimes we don't need an oil change so we save it for next time, and we just leave our rent money in the bank until it's taken out, rather than just taking it all out of one paycheck. With this budget we usually have around $50-$100 extra just in case we over spend in one area, or if we use our credit card for something and we need to pay it off (we don't put anything on our credit cards that we cannot pay off in less than 2-3 paychecks)
And I don't see the allocated amount of $60 a paycheck ($120 a month) for the baby changing much until he gets a few years older, like once he starts school and needs school supplies. We don't buy expensive clothes cause they really are a waste since they out grow them so quick and he does't need a million toys. And once he gets old enough to eat solids, we are making his baby food from organic fruits and veggies. Not only cause we want to know exactly what he is eating, but because we want his food to be fresh, not jarred for who knows how long with nothing but preservatives keeping them "good" lol
But every parent not only has a different approach to what they buy for their children, but also a different income. I may take a little sacrificing and patience, create a budget and stick to it, but the point is that it is possible. Your baby isn't going to love you any less if you buy him or her cheap clothing or even if they don't have a million outfits (I think we have like maybe 10 outfits for Alexander). And they don't even need a lot of toys. To this day Alexander's favorite form of entertainment is me. And he is 3 1/2 months old. As long as they are fed, clothed, loved, entertained and have a clean diaper and a happy home, what else could they ask for? You would be shocked at how easy they are to please =)
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