I was wondering what a child’s first year really costs. A lot of friends have had children recently and I’ve seen quite a discrepancy between what parents are speding. Part of it is due to the generosity of their parents. Some friends spent $0, because their parents gave so generously that they didn’t buy a thing. They received 3 months live in nanny, bedding, clothing, etc. And the cost everything probably well over $10k (I’m guessing).

While others paid for everything out of pocket.  So they tried to keep things on the absolute cheap.  But there was this really great calculator on BabyCenter to figure out what your first year will cost. 

According to the calculator I’ll spend $18,419 in my baby’s first year.  The majority of it will be $1200/month for 9 months Daycare.  Actually in our area new baby daycare is closer to $2k/month.  So I’m guessing that’s an underestimated cost.   So outside of daycare I should spend around $7619.

I think this number seems realistic, with savings for college $2k/year, diapers, medical bills, etc.  I wonder though what do parents really spend on their first year?  And this I know varies for each successive child, because you already have things like a crib, rocking chair, breast pump, etc.  But for the first child? 

Do people go crazy and buy way more than they really need? Or is it correlated to how much money you have?