Question

Waiting on one more w-2 (our biggest one) which I'm hoping to get at least as much as I got from mine that was half the amount of income. Also January is a 3 paycheck month  Paying off credit cards Finishing our savings needed for our anniversary/honeymoon next week ⛱️ Finally will have our $1000 emergency fund Then I need some advice with the remainder of the month: We are trying to get pregnant and want to plan on having a baby by the end of the year. - How much savings (outside of medical) should we have for baby stuff? 2k? Of course having baby showers (first baby) - remainder of money we get from tax return, hopefully at least 1500, will either go to our reserve (3-6 months living expenses) or should we throw it at debt since we have the $1k emergency fund? Thanks! :)

Answer 1

Besides medical I would think about replacement income for both of you. Your job will only cover a little bit (if any) and only half. You can look online how much it costs for diapers and all that but I believe non medical is 3, 000-5, 000.  

Comments

@spermato46355 we are doing cloth diapers, and I will get 2/3 I come through short term disability and my husband gets full pay!  

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@assiniboine63 still need to save for clothes. Breastfeeding AND formula (you never know). Baby food (which ever way you choose to do that). I’m saving 5, 000 and withdrawing a certain allowance for the baby. $10, 000 for leave because our jobs suck and I didn’t have enough time with my first, so will pay ourselves a salary from that fund as well. I went over though since I still have stuff from my first baby and I will get stuff from baby showers. But extra never hurts.  

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@spermato46355 yes thank you so much!  

Answer 2

●Our diapers are $45-50/mth, Wipes $20-32/mth & Formula $86/mth (breastfed until mth3 due to 2 surgeries in our first 7mths after Csection- nursing was personally just as expensive for us with a few nursing tops, extra parts, Hakaa, extra bras & washable pads, sterilz/cleaning everything, bags, extra nutrition). So I would personally sock away at least $150-170x12mths for a ballpark 1st year. [2nd year just account for diapers & wipes, groceries & preschool ($$) if you start at 2-3] Then there's the $20-30 here & there at different developmental stages for random things people don't gift- new socks every 4mths, switching up nipples on bottles, bandana bibs for drool & wipables eating, dishes/spoons/teethers, infant tylenol/teething tabs/motrin, aquaphor & nipple cream you run out of, switching up to convertible carseat, muslin canopies for summer/heavy winter, shopping cart seat cover, the occasional new developmental stage toy as they progress. Oh! And def register for extra quilted sheets & a Nose Freida/bulb syringes & spray saline for winter

Comments

*Our medical out of pocket after insurance was $7. 6K by 5 months old, with a C-section. We have Blue Cross, 80/20 PPO with low deductibles.  

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Then ENT for tongue clipping & random DR visits were another $350- emergency fund funded!  

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@frescobaldi ya I wish we had switched from HSA but we didn't because we weren't originally planning on getting pregnant till the following year. But my entire pregnancy should be max 5k, so we are saving 5k for medical, but might be as low as 2800 if we can get a gap exception approved

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Yes just save/plan for unexpected. Our dedutibles are $1200ea. I was told our pregnancy & birth wouldn't exceed $3700 after insurance. Things happen. Failed ultrasound at 33wks=hosp stay, C-section at 39wks, rupture 2 days after birth then a pregnancy related hernia surgery at 5mths pp! Babies & pregnancy & births are so spontaneous, but worth it.  

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That sounds crazy expensive for baby expenses! This is our third baby, he's almost 5 months old, and these are our monthly costs: $25 for diapers, $13 for wipes (our Costco box is $25 and last 2 months), $7 for diaper genie refill bags ($35 on Amazon that will last about 5 months), $60 formula (Costco formula currently lasts us 10 days, and are $20 each- baby is fully formula-fed), $10 to build up for bottle nipples and pacifiers (as he grows into bigger sizes- this does not count the initial cost of the bottles at purchase), $10 misc to build.  

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We use Pampers from Amazon or Huggies from Costco $43-49. Wipes from Costco $19 but we must supplement with a $12 box to make it a month. Formula is $85 for 4 containers online in bulk, also via Costco.  

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We had a $500 pump supplied by BCBS insur. It was free. We had lots of spare parts & nursing items we purchased.  

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We also traveled to & from a hospital 1hr20m away with kids, so had to have extra supplies on board if hospital or wound care admitted me. We are rural & order everything online via Costco [1hr20m] & Amazon. ! 3rd child!  

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Agreed target cloud island diapers/wipes are the best bang for your buck! I’ve done the math  

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My daughter leaked through Target diapers at 3mths:-( They were decent if I changed her immediately, within minutes. However her & her older brother were super soakers lol! I did love the price of the 1 box we attempted.  

Answer 3

I just spent $300 on 1500 diapers and maybe 1000 wipes and that’s probably going to last 4 months (I still need more wipes). Car seat and stroller will be $400 range. It honestly depends if you’re the bare minimum type or you want to buy more baby gadgets. For example I purchased an owelet )monitors O2 saturation because SIDS terrifies me) and it was like $400 with the baby monitor . I will resell it after but still.  

Comments

@streak yes that’s what I did! Amazon and target had that deal so I bought $300 worth. I still have a couple more months until I’m due so I’ll be on the lookout for the next deal !  

Answer 4

Honestly, I’d count on your refund going down. Every year that I’ve put my info in while waiting on my husbands w2 the refund showed high. as soon as I put his info in from his w2 it dropped drastically because it now eliminates the breaks it thought I was getting with just my income that I no longer qualify for once his is inputted into the program. So I would prepare for the refund to go down, not up.  

Answer 5

The best advice I can give is don’t overbuy for your first. Coming from a first time mom, I don’t use half the stuff that was given to me or that I purchased myself. Buy the bare minimum and worst case scenario husband can run to the store or use amazon prime! Find a baby resale shop near you. We have Once Upon a Child and it’s AMAZING on onesie sales and there’s a huge consignment sale twice a year in the next city over.  

Comments

@hotfoot71140 Yes! It’s easy to get sucked into buying all the things—let’s face it, baby stuff is adorable—especially with your first when you are so anxious/excited, but you don’t really know what you’ll need until baby arrives.  

Answer 6

Honestly, we were so so broke the end of pregnancy and at our daughters birth and everything was more than fine! Definitely be prepared as you can be, and as military I can’t relate about the medical expenses, but you’ll be blown away by the things you get as gifts/showers or things you can get on the clearance racks. Babies do not need a crazy amount. Also be mentally prepared for cloth diapering to maybe not work out! I was very determined too. It sounds like you’ll be going back to work so also something to think about with cloth. But yeah we had nothing saved, and just budget in diapers and wipes, food, into our monthly budget. So round about way of saying I’d focus on debt and savings first. Wishing you the best!  

Answer 7

We did baby led weaning so never bought baby food and it saved a ton of money!  

Comments

@izard YES! We saved soooo much with baby#3. She barely had ANY purees- eats real food like a champ!  

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@izard I actually felt the opposite. When I made my own baby food I spent $20 total and had more than enough in the freezer to last 6 months or more. When we did baby led weaning I felt like we were constantly wasting the food he didn’t/couldn’t finish but had slobbered all over lol