I’m 28 years old, my wife is 26 and we just found out we are having our first child. I’m a little scared it’s going to be more than we can afford financially. We both work full-time and have student loans and car loans and are barely getting by. I’m trying to get a realistic approach to the projected monthly cost of having a baby. Assuming normal purchases of diapers, formula, food, and average doctor visits, what is a realistic monthly cost?”
Some good news: starting in 2014 in the U.S., all insurance plans are required by the Affordable Care Act to cover well-baby visits with no co-pay. So assuming you don’t have any other extraordinary medical expenses you can at least cross the price of doctor visits off of your list.
As for everything else, and your results may vary, according to our calculations a new formula-fed baby will cost about $250 a month, not counting daycare or the cost of non-essentials. Here’s our breakdown of expenses plus some ways to save:
- Formula costs. Babies go through about 580 ounces of formula in a month. According to our calculations and current prices and assuming your baby doesn’t need expensive hypoallergenic formula, formula feeding costs on average about $170 a month. Breastfeeding is an obvious way to save some money, though if your wife is going back to work and needs to pump, breastfeeding won’t be free: you may have to account for a breast pump (typical $50-250), nursing bras (about $30 each) and storage bottles (about $20 for a four-pack). Even taking those purchases into account, though, breastfeeding is still much cheaper than formula, the total cost to formula-feed a baby will be about $2,000, much more than what breastfeeding supplies will be even if you buy the most expensive pump, bras and bottles available.
- Diapers. You can expect to use about 8-10 diapers a day for the first four months or so. Babies are typically in newborn size for less than a month and the hospital will probably send you home with some, so don’t bother buying newborn diapers and go right to buying size 1 diapers in bulk as soon as you find a brand that works for you. Most babies gain a little under a half a pound a week for the first six months and size 1 diapers typically fit babies from 8 to 14 pounds. Amazon.com currently lists a box of 234 (or about a month’s worth) of size 1 diapers for $45.55, and big box stores like Sam’s Club will have similar or even cheaper prices, plus no shipping costs. You can save by cloth diapering, but if you’re both working and baby will be in daycare cloth may not be practical for you.
- Clothes. A new five-pack of onesies (baby t-shirts that snap at the crotch) costs about $13. Add in a few pairs of pants (typically less than $10) and outwear if the weather is cold ($20-30), and you may be able to get away with outfitting your baby for about $50 a month. Shop used clothing stores or find a friend who has a baby a little bit older than yours who will send hand-me-downs your way and you may be able to outfit your baby for even less than that.
- After the first six months, make your own baby food. There’s no reason to buy pre-made baby food in a jar, and at first your baby will only eat about a tablespoon of food at a time. Making it fresh is simple (cook a food, mush it up, cool it down) and much, much cheaper.
Other expenses:
You’ll need a car seat for each car that you have. The cheapest newborn car seats are typically about $40. Fortunately, in the U.S. and Europe all car seats have to conform to certain basic safety standards, what you pay for with more expensive models is nicer fabric and extra padding that may or may not actually make the seat safer.
Health insurance. Call your insurance company and ask how much it will be to add baby to your plan.
A high chair. Some might consider this an optional expense, after all you can always just put baby on a blanket or the floor if you need your hands free, but babies much prefer to be at eye level. You can get a simple model with a reclining position for newborns for about $80 new, or less if you can find one used.
A crib, crib mattress and sheet. Because of recalls, it’s really better to get a new crib that to shop used or consignment. Here’s a link to crib-shopping tips.
Daycare. If you and your wife are both going to go back to work and you don’t have a relative stepping up and offering childcare for free, this will be your biggest expense by far. The cost of licensed full-time care for an infant can vary a lot depending on where you live and what hours you’ll be using the center. Your best bet for estimating this expense is to simply call around to centers in your area and ask. Also the best centers fill up fast, so even though it might sound crazy it’s not a bad idea to get your baby registered or on a wait-list now if you’re sure you’ll both be back to work by a certain date. Many parents decide it makes more financial sense for one of them to stay home for a time, but if you go that route you have to cross one of your incomes off of the family balance sheet.
Good luck!
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