How much do babies and kids cost, average monthly or yearly?

Question

I didn't know how to word this question...
But I've heard "if you wait to have kids until you can afford it, you'll never have them" (at least us middle class people)... so I'm really wondering about how much money will we have to have for a baby and as they grow if anyone has an idea. Because we aren't sure when to start a family (I'm 25, he's 26). I always wanted to be a young mom, but it will take five years until he's making really good money... I just want to be able to provide for my children, and I want several.... but I know you need money for that. We haven't had a year yet at his job, but I'm gonna guess our yearly combined income will be about $65,000... and we have some debt, and a truck payment, a mortgage... you know. Life. Thanks for any suggestions or advice.

Answer 1

Day Care- $400.00 mo.
Food- $400.00 mo.
Clothes- $100.00 mo.
Misc.-$100.00 mo.
Your looking at about $1,000.00 mo. or $12,000.00 a yr.

Answer 2

You sound like you would be good parents :-) Good luck! You can't expect a baby shower to cover a lot of the costs, as even though I had 30 people attend mine, I didn't get anything big, and only one gift had diapers. It was a lot of little things that weren't needed, although I did get a lot that were. Lots of clothes, etc...But start up cost for me was $1,500. Also, you can't just assume someone is going to throw you a shower. If you breastfeed, you will need to buy a pump (mine is fine and its around $40 at Wal Mart and Target.) Nursing pads are around $7 every two weeks or so. And Wal Mart has my favorite nursing bra for $10. Formula on the other hand, is going to be more expensive. I breastfeed so I don't know how much full time feeding would be but I use about one can a month for her rice cereal and oatmeal and you can range from getting the generics at around $15 to expensive stuff around $30 a can. Baby food is also expensive. You spend a couple dollars a day on that. You use about a pack of diapers a week, which they are $10 a pack, making that $40 a week. My daughter's insurance pays for just about everything, maybe some prescriptions are less than $10.

Answer 3

Listen, if you can afford to put your children first over designer jeans, and the favorite purfume....you will be fine! There are ways to make it, and you are certainly not poor! My husband and I make about the same, and we are pregnant with our second. Formula is about 40-100 dollars, depending on brand, coupons that months and how much your baby is taking. Diapers about the same, and depending on brand. Umm, wipes would be about $20. I suggest buying in bulk! Get a Sam's Club membership...it pays for itself in two months on the HUGE boxes of diapers and the wipes too. The starting cost for us with no baby showers was about $3,000, but you have nine months to do it slowly and again, we bought mainly name brand stuff (Graco, fisher price, etc) and it was everything from crib to onesies. SAVE EVERYTHING! We didn't think we would have another and here we are 13 weeks along and buying all new again. Also, check with your programs. I know the Wisconsin levels for WIC which pays for formula is very high, (I think you would make it for at least the first three months) we used it when we could for the first three months, and it was great! Just remember they don't need Nike shoes, and Babies R Us socks....Wal mart, target, shopko, those places make your money stretch a lot farther. We always get comments on our daughter's wardrobe and how cute we dress her and 70% of it is from Wal Mart! Start a family now! Oh and work out a budget now, and if you can cut $100 out of every month in your clothes or entertainment....then you can certainly afford a baby! Good Luck! Oh, and I am a young mom (actually only 21 and my husband is 26) and we both love the ages we are for this. Nothing is greater in life! Email me if you want to chat!

Answer 4

That depends...will you put your kids in day care, or take care of them yourself? Will you breastfeed for a long time, or start the baby on formula when it is first born? Do you have insurance? It depends on a lot of things. I have found that it's not that bad...after buying all the things you need (crib, stroller, etc.) the cost is not too bad. And sometimes you can get family and friends to buy the good stuff for your baby shower! Lol.

My boyfriend and I make good money, but it's not that bad...apart from diapers and food, you don't have a lot of DAILY expenses for the baby...I think as kids age they get more expensive though. So in 5 years, when you're more financially stable, and you have a 5 year old, I think it will all work out.

Answer 5

How Much Do Kids Cost

Answer 6

How Much Do Babies Cost

Answer 7

When I reported to my first Navy destroyer 10 years ago, one of the other guys who shared a stateroom with me asked me if I had any kids yet. I said, "No. My wife wants them, but I'm not sure we have the time and money."

I remembered what he did next forever: He grabbed me by the collar, shoved me up against the bulkhead, and said, "You will NEVER wake up one morning and say, 'I have the time, I have the money, so I'm ready to have kids now.' So, do what your wife wants."

Two kids later, I'm glad I listened to him. We went (read: still go) through periods where we couldn't take the trips we wanted, or buy the cars we wanted, but you don't miss any of that when you have two happy, healthy, well-adjusted kids who stay awake at night because they're so excited to show you off at their school function the next day!

The monthly costs of raising a child can be all over the map. If welfare crack whores can do it, anyone can. Suffice it to say that your costs always end up fitting what you can afford at the time. When the parents are properly motivated, they'll tend to seek jobs that will pay them enough to provide at the level they want.

As an attorney dispensing free and unsolicited legal advice, I recommend getting married first to protect all of you. Let me know if I need to expand on that.

Answer 8

Dont be so conservative with the idea of being able to afford to have kids. Who can say whether or not any middle class family can afford kids. Its all about your priorities. If both of you have to drive new cars or buy the best clothes then you probably wont be able to. But if you can sacrifice some luxuries then I'd say go for it. You can tell your kids about how rough mom and dad had it when they were born but then smile knowing you made it just fine. My mom and dad got by on alot less than 65k a year and raised 2 sons.

Answer 9

For a One year old
I pay 700/month on daycare
$25/week on pampers
40/week on formula when she was 11 months & younger
100 or more on clothes per month
100 or more on toys per month
100/month on snacks for daycare and lunch, juices & 2% milk
$50 for bottles, liners and sippy cups a month
Then when you want to go out to the movies you have babysitting charges I get charged $10/hour

Babies are expensive I have 2 children with another on the way but are sooooo worth it in the end, you find ways to make ends meet. Both my husband and i work. We also have 2 dogs so we have quite a busy household. With all the stuff you buy for your first child my recommendation is to SAVE everything!! Car seats, clothes, and whatever else you could reuse. I have two daughters and my little one is now using the clothes we saved from her big sister. I gave a lot of my first child's clothes to people that needed them but i wish i saved them now......

Answer 10

It depends on how you raise them. Babies are very inexpensive if you cloth diaper and breastfeed. Also buy their stuff at yard sales and consignment stores. When my daughter was six months old we had spent a combined total of $300 on all of her stuff, and she weighed 21 lb at the time so she had gone through several wardrobe changes.

Kids are very inexpensive if you don't give into their desires for all kinds of fancy "kid foods" like fruit snacks and lunchables and stuff, and if you buy their stuff at yard sales.

We spend maybe $75 a month feeding my daughter and I think that estimate is high. She's 2. We can clothe her for less than a hundred dollars a year (yard sales). We don't buy her tons of toys but we spend time with her and play with her. We don't send her to daycare- I stay home with her. She doesn't go to fancy activities or gymnastics class or anything- we play at the park and go to friends' houses and stuff. She's still plenty smart and has plenty of fun things to do. She's one of the happiest kids I know and I don't think she's missing out on anything.

The government gives you $1000 per child off your taxes- that's not a tax deduction- that's $1000 in actual money and you can even get cash back if you don't owe that much in taxes. Also you get to deduct each child and have $3200 per year of your income that doesn't get taxed. And if you're low income but do earn money (less than $35000/year) they give you some more cash per kid. It's called earned income credit.

All in all for the first two years the government gave us more money for our daughter than we spent on her. Now we spend a bit more on her because she is eating more but I still think we only spend our tax deduction on her- so the government gives us as much money for having her (and that's not welfare or foodstamps or anything- just tax breaks. We don't even qualify for earned income credit anymore).

Kids are cheap, cheap, cheap as long as you know how to say "no" and can distinguish between wants and needs. If you let them walk all over you, they'll start costing you a lot of money (but not for the first few years). It's the advertisers who want us to believe we need all kinds of baby "stuff" and that it has to be new and that our kids need brand new clothing and stuff- they'll rip you off if you let them. Shop used and you'll save so much.

My husband makes 45K. We have one child and one on the way and we put $1000 per month in savings. Our one on the way will hardly add anything to our monthly expenses. You can definitely afford to have kids (unless you live in L.A. There you can still do it but it will be harder)