How much do babies cost during the 1st year?

I've heard people say that they don't want to have kids because it costs too much, and at first I kind of laughed at that. We had a GIGANTIC baby shower for Katara and only had to spend a few hundred on supplies, most of which went to unneeded things like paint and decorations. And then for the first few months she didn't need anything except diapers... she wore hand-me-downs and nursed exclusively, and it was really nice.

Now it's a different story, since she's started on formula and baby food. I thought it might be helpful for some expecting parents to know how much an average couple spends on a baby for the first year.

To get set up with everything you need for the first year, assuming you pay for everything at low-end retail value and don't have a shower, would be about $2,000 dollars. This could be cut down by shopping at thrift stores or going without some things on this list:

Travel:

• Baby carrier and/or sling $30


• Diaper bag $50


• Pack 'n Play $70


• A rear-facing infant car seat with base. $80


• Stroller $120

Changing:

• Diaper pail $20


• Plastic Bags $20


• Diapers $30


• Disposable wipes. $20


• Diaper rash cream $10


• Changing pad $20

Sleeping:

• Baby monitor $40


• Crib mattress $50


• waterproof mattress pad $30


• 2-3 fitted crib sheets $30

Feeding:

• 6 bottles $20


• High chair $50


• Bowls $20


• Spoons $10


• Sippy cups $20

First Aid/Grooming:

• Thermometer $40


• First Aid kit $30


• Sunscreen $10


• Infant medications, like infant Tylenol or ear drops $50

Bathing

• Baby bath set (shampoo, lotion, oil, ect) $20


• Hooded towel $25


• Washcloths $10


• Baby Bather $30

Clothes

• Everything - $100 (at the most... babies get lots of clothes as gifts!)

Other

• Burp cloths $20


• 1 or 2 pacifiers $15


• 4 to 6 receiving blankets $50


• Teething rings  $10


• Dye and fragrance free laundry detergent $35


• Books, toys and rattles $50

Nursery

• Vibrating bouncy chair $50


• Crib $200


• Changing table/Dresser $80


• Swing $60

Nursing

• Breast pump $300


• Nursing pads $30


• Nipple cream ointment $10


• Nursing bras $45


• Nursing cover $20

After the initial set-up, babies need these things every month:

• Clothes - $40


• Diapers - $50


• Wipes - $5


• Incidentals - $30


• Food - $250 (only for the last 6 months)

Here's a breakdown of how I reached those numbers:

Clothes - Assuming you buy at thrift stores or use hand-me-downs for the most part, this cost should be fairly low. For me, it has been virtually non-existent until now. We are starting to buy her some things, but we still try to keep it to about $100 for each stage. That's about $40 per month.

Diapers - My baby has always used about 7 diapers a day. You can find diapers for about $0.22 each, 7 diapers a day X 31 days in a month = 217 diapers per month. Add in the occasional unexpected blow out and you'll need about 230 diapers a month. That comes out to almost exactly $50 a month.

Wipes - A Costco box of wipes costs $20 and lasts me 4 months. So that's $5 a month.

Incidentals - This covers everything from the emergency pacifier purchase to new toys. We try to keep this to a minimum, around $30 a month if possible.

Food - This one varies the most. If you're nursing, you will save a LOT on formula. If you make your own baby food, you'd probably save a lot on that too. So I'll take a middle-of-the-road approach and let's say you switch to formula at 6 months of age, at which time you also start baby food three times a day. Formula costs about $1.25 per 6-ounce bottle, which your child will probably be drinking 4-5 times a day. That equals just under $200 a month. Baby food is $0.50 a jar (if I'm remembering right), so that adds up to just under $50 a month. Babies also eat rice cereal, crackers or cheerios, but those things are cheap and can be easily absorbed in the family budget.

So the average monthly cost of babies for the first year is $125 for the first six months, and $375 for the last six months. In total, that's exactly 6,000 dollars for the first year.

GRAND TOTAL (Set up + First year): $8,000

However, I feel that this is a very worst-case-scenario number. This doesn't factor in gifts, sales, coupons, or do-it-yourself projects. It also includes a lot of extemporaneous things you could do without - such as a breast pump and BOTH a swing and bouncy chair. I'm pretty sure the resourceful parent could do it all for $5,000 or even less.

EDIT: This also doesn't include prenatal care and hospital bills, which depends so much on your insurance it's almost impossible to make an estimate. If you have AWESOME top of the line insurance, you might not have to pay more than $400 for all of that... the next step down is estimated at $2,500 and if you have poor insurance or no insurance at all you could be looking at $10,000 or more, especially if you have a c-section or a premature baby. (Source: experience and some online reading.) We decided to budget for the middle ground number and if the worst case scenario happened, we would treat that as a family emergency rather than a baby expense budget-wise. For us, not being totally prepared for an emergency was not a good enough reason to not have a baby- we knew emergencies could happen at any time to any member of the family and God would provide as needed.

So if you were to budget $2,500 for the hospital bills and prenatal care, your total worst-case-scenario cost for the first year would be $10,500.