My Baby Budget 0-6 Months

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When I had my baby, I knew there would be a change in my monthly budget.  I would now need to account for things like diapers, wipes, etc. and likely spend less on eating out and Uber rides.  So to help offset my upcoming costs, I stocked up on diapers, wipes, toiletries, and more months in advance.  I was planning on breastfeeding so there was no need to stock up on formula and I already had all the clothes I needed.

Spoiler alert, nothing went as planned.  I had to switch to formula feeding by 6 weeks. I drastically underestimated the number of diapers I would need.  And there were lots of other little things like Vaseline and baby socks, that I never even thought to buy. 

Soon I was spending money here, there, and everywhere without really knowing what it was all going to. I felt like I was hemorrhaging money.  It was time to sit down and budget out everything before I ended up with more days at the end of my month than money. 

Food

Turns out baby starts eating you out of house and home well before the teenage years.    

Breastfeeding/Pumping

My initial goal was to breastfeed baby and supplement with pumping.  I mean free milk is better than buying expensive formula, right.  While my breastfeeding adventure ended up being an epic failure, in those six weeks during which we tried, I found out breastmilk was in fact not free. 

As long as I was breastfeeding, I needed to keep taking my prenatal.  Because my milk production was on the lower side, I also threw in some supplements to try to help.  1 bottle of prenatal vitamins costs $15 and roughly $30 for breastfeeding supplement bars and drink mix.  FYI, the chocolate brownies tasted horrible. 

Luckily I had pre-purchased nipple pads, lanolin, and milk storage bags.  If I had been able to keep breastfeeding, repurchasing these items would have added to my monthly baby budget.  

Formula

Initially, I was able to use some freebie samples when I switched to formula feeding, but these eventually ran out.  The first time that I actually had to go to the store and buy a tub of formula I nearly had a heart attack. 

Sticker price for a tub of the name-brand stuff starts at $28 and it goes up from there.  I did my best to find coupons, shop the sales, even experimented with store brands. Turns out baby did the best on the formula with added rice starch, so yeah one of the more expensive kinds.  At my best, each tub of formula was costing me between $15 and $25, so an average of $20.

When baby was two months old, that one tub would easily last 1.5 weeks, so about $50 a month.  By the time baby hit six months old, that same tub might last 3 days.  That took me from spending close to $50 a month in formula, to $200 a month!

Solids

I was a bit shocked when the doctor gave us the go-ahead to start solids at 4 months, but he already had his first tooth and often tried to steal my spoon when I ate.  So off to the store I went to buy baby food. That first little taster pack of six 2 ounce portions of puree cost me close to $5.  Soon my cute-little bottomless pit was scarfing up 4 ounces of puree in a sitting and still demanding his bottle for dessert. 

With prices for a tub of oatmeal at $3.50 and a single 4oz puree ranging from 50 cents apiece to $1, once we hit 2+ feedings a day, this amounted to roughly $25 a month spent on baby food. 

Food totals for the first 6 months

First two months (breastfeeding): $45. Months 3 & 4: $150. Months 5 & 6: $450. Average spent per month $107.50. 

Diapers & Wipes

All the food that goes in must come out, hence the need for diapers. While I was gifted some cloth diaper inserts, I had decided well before I got pregnant that I would being going disposable. Although those cloth diapers came in handy as extra absorbent burp cloths. 

I took home all the newborn diapers that they offered me at the hospital, along with other goodies like wipes, pads, nasal aspirators, etc. I had purposely not stocked up on newborn diapers because I knew the hospital would offer us some, and up until the day I gave birth, I had no idea how big/small baby would be.  So I pre-purchased just 1 pack of newborn diapers.  We ended up in newborn till 3 weeks.  At nearly 12 diapers a day, I ended up having to purchase an extra 2 packs of size newborn at $8 each. 

Once we made it to size 1 we stayed there until 4 months.  This allowed me to buy bigger packs which meant a lower per diaper price.  Baby started sleeping longer and eating less frequently which meant fewer diaper changes, so my box of diapers lasted even longer. 

We made it to 6 months at size 2 and by this time we were only going through 7-8 diapers a day. By shopping sales and using coupons, I managed to get my diaper spend to around $50 a month.  And to save money on baby wipes, I purchased a refillable container and would buy a huge box of fragrance-free wipes roughly once every two months at $15 each. 

There were also a few costs associated with the disposal of dirty diapers.  I purchased dog poop bags to secure the poopy diapers.  Cost me $20 for 1000 bags and I am not even halfway through them yet.  And the refills for my diaper pail cost me $12 for a box of 2 refills.  The refills last a while, so I’ve only needed to purchase 2 boxes in the first six months.   

Diapering totals for the first 6 months

Diapers: $50/month.  Wipes: $7.50/month.  Disposal: $5.33/month. Average monthly spend: $62.83.

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Toiletries & Other Necessities

From about week 2 through 5+ months, baby suffered from reflux and the worst case of spit-up ever.  Seriously, he’d spit up as often as 8 times a bottle.  We tried a slew of different formulas and other products to try to help.  This included probiotics (which helped for about 2 months) and gripe water (when he was intolerably fussy).  While gripe water is relatively inexpensive at $8 a bottle, probiotics are a bit pricier at $25 a bottle.  We also briefly tried gas drops, but these didn’t work at all. 

At six months old, the doctor diagnosed his dry, flaky, broke-out skin as eczema.  So off to the store I went to stock up on baby Vaseline ($4 each) and eczema friendly body wash ($10). 

Toiletry totals for the first 6 months

Gripe water x 3 = $24.  Probiotics x 4 = $75.  Vaseline $4.  Body Wash $10. Total monthly $113. Average spent per month $18.83.

Clothes & Gear

I got very lucky on the clothes front.  My sister-in-law had a toddler and was looking to clear out his clothes and I gladly took them.  Besides the generosity of my sister-in-law, many of my relatives bought baby clothes when they found out I was expecting.  After I washed, sorted, and put away all of these baby clothes, I was positive that I had enough. 

So you probably already know this, but babies go through multiple outfits a day.  Something I didn’t grasp well at first. While I had enough onesies for baby to wear, I quickly ran out of socks.  I had only gotten a few pairs because I hadn’t accounted for the fact that baby would stick them in his mouth or kick a poopy diaper. 

So I went out and bought more socks.  $6 for a pack of 6 pair.  I bought two packs

Baby also refused swaddling, so that meant more sets of warm PJs ($10 for a set of 2).  And during his horrible spit-up phase, I invested in more cloth diapers, aka burp cloths ($10 for a pack of 5). 

I was also spending $20 a month on misc. items like baby spoons, teethers, bedsheets, bottle nipples, etc.

Clothing & gear totals for the first 6 months

$12 for socks, $10 for burp cloths, $40 for PJs, and $20/month misc. Average spent per month $30.33.

Dr. Visits & Medicine

Babies visit the doctor a lot, even when they are perfectly healthy.  In the first six months, baby got to visit the doctor 6 times.  And each visit costs money.  Even with insurance coverage, we were charged around $100 for each visit.  And this doesn’t include the cost of tests, procedures, medications, etc.  In baby’s first 6 months, he had to endure x-rays, reflux medication, eczema medication, and more. 

Now, for the most part, these expenses were paid by hubby’s Health Savings Account (HAS).  The funds for this account as well as the insurance premiums come out pre-tax and we never actually see that month.  Since I write up my budget based on post-tax spending, I am going to leave this particular set of monthly expenses off my calculations.

Total medical costs

N/A

Childcare

Thanks to an unfortunate pandemic, hubby and I were both able to work from home during the first six months and beyond.  This allowed us to tag-team care of the little one throughout the day. Because of this, we didn’t have to tackle the “daycare or not” debate.  Childcare in our area in particular is expensive and would eat up a good portion of our income. 

Since we didn’t need routine childcare, we ended up hiring a babysitter just twice.  Once for our anniversary and once for hubby’s birthday.  It was $60 both times. 

Total childcare costs for the first 6 months

$60 x 2 babysitting sessions = 120.  Average spent per month $20. 

hundred dollar bills
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How Do I Compare to the National Averages?

The biggest expense when it comes to baby, according to the national averages, is the cost of childcare.  For the average family the weekly rates for childcare range between $200 to over $500 according to Care.com.  This means for a full month, childcare costs start at $800.  As I live in a major metropolitan area, the price I would pay for full daycare would be double that! If I hadn’t been able to work from home, childcare for the first 6 months would have cost me nearly $10K.  Yikes! I’m glad I only spent $60. 

Next up would be the cost of feeding baby.  The cost of purchasing formula every month is estimated to be as high as $150.  Month 5 and 6 where we were going through 2+ tubs or formula a week, I exceeded that value. So I likely need to explore better ways of saving on formula.  On the solids side, the average spent is $60 a month.  In comparison, the $25 a month I am spending is great. 

Following food would the amount spent on diapers and wipes.  The National Diaper Bank cites several studies that put the average monthly spend on just diapers at $72 a month.  Add in wipes for another $20 a month.  My total of just over $62 a month for all of my diapering needs is $30 cheaper than the national estimate of $92 a month.  Either everyone else is using many more diapers & wipes a month than I am, or I am doing an excellent job of using coupons and finding deals. 

Clothing is another significant expense, with an article by Investopedia estimating the average monthly spend at $60.  I already knew my spending in this category was going to be lower since I received plenty of second-hand clothes.  I am more than happy with my monthly spend being half of the national average.

Last up is toiletries.  Compared to the national average here, I am right on target.  The average spend in this category is $21 a month, and my spending thus far has averaged out to be $18.83 a month. 

Even though I removed medical expenses from my calculations, I do want to touch on this for a minute. If you are paying out of pocket or paying copays, the frequency of baby visiting the doctor will likely make a big impact on your baby budget.  In the first 6 months, my son got to visit the doctor 6 times.  All but one of those appointments was a routine appointment.  I can’t imagine how much more it would have been if baby had been born preemie, or had gotten sick. 

Overall, my spending compared to the national averages is much lower. Woohoo!  But that doesn’t mean there isn’t still room for improvement in my spending habits. 

My SpendNtl. AveragesSavings
Food$107.50$210$102.50
Diapering$62.83$92$29.17
Toiletries$18.83$21$2.17
Clothes$30.33$60$29.67
Childcare$20.00$800+$780
Totals$239.49$1183$943.51
My monthly spend versus the national averages and how much I saved

Establishing Your Own Baby Budget

The difference between my totals and the national averages clearly illustrates that not everybody spends money the same way when it comes to baby.  An average is just that, some people are spending more, some people are spending less.  The averages are a great way to help you establish and evaluate your own baby budget. 

If you are trying to be thrifty like I am, then you can use the national averages as a maximum.  Then experiment and see how much lower you can get your spending.  Perhaps even pick one category at a time to focus on.  If you saved just $10 in each category every month, your savings over the course of the first six months would amount to $300. 

Allergies, your geographical area, and even your job can all have an impact on your baby budget.  Even if your monthly spend on baby far exceeds the national averages and your income can more than accommodate it, taking the time to write down how much you are spending and on what is a worthwhile practice.  And if your situation changes, what you have written down could prove to be an invaluable resource. 

Just remember, not all babies cost the same.  Meeting your baby’s needs is the biggest priority, regardless of cost.  But there is certainly nothing wrong with establishing a baby budget and trying to save money.

Author: Amanda Garland

I am a Mom to one beautiful baby boy and a self-professed master of savings.