People are always talking about how much babies costs.  Honestly I haven’t found it to be so yet.  We’ve gotten a lot of free and used stuff from friends.  We’ve also been waiting to buy thing and seeing what we really need.  Our biggest expenses have been birthing and lactation classes.  That and me eating more in general.  I admit to eating A LOT more.  But overall, I’ve been tracking our spending with stockpiling diapers/wipers on sale, gifts, etc and I think we’ve spent $300 for our baby.

But I know that the big baby costs will be coming. I noticed that going from a couple to a family insurance plan will go up by about 50%.  It’s not a huge amount, but it’s noticeable.  I think going from one kid to two kids, maybe it’s easier to save money.

But I think that first kid is always really expensive. You may not know people to get free used stuff from.  Or even buying used at garage sales, there are some things many parents won’t compromise on.  Like a new car seat, new breast pump, crib, etc.  Mostly things with safety issues.  These you can reuse with later kids, like adding more kids to the family’s insurance plan, but that first investment is the largest.

Don’t forget perhaps buying life insurance or writing a will.  The first draft or purchase is again the major expense, afterwards you can just add more life insurance and redraft the will.  It’s not redoing the whole thing again.

I also have to add that all the extra co-pays for the baby, eating out while pregnant, or eating more are surprise costs!

I don’t know what our final costs will be, but I’m sure our biggest costs will be having this first baby….What do you think are the biggests costs associated with having a baby?  Or what did you spend?