Baby Costs - !!!!!

[Sheepshanks]

blueg33 said:

Don't assume she was non-professional. She had a reasonably senior job in one of the UK's largest companies. The company still exists.

By "professional" I meant something that, with a bit of updating, you can get back into at a decent salary such as doctor etc.

I did see the company name. Who knows? I'm sure many, many people have come and gone - she might have done well, she might have been eased out.

[BoRED S2upid]

MrJuice said:

We are kind of similar. We have a 7m old, we live with my mum, I'm a maturw student, wife a full time mum. I also run a business which means we can, within reason, have whatever we need/want

Buying buggy and all other kid stuff was a fair amount of money. Probably £5000 spent on 'fixed kids assets' to date. If we have more kids, they'll ve used again. If not they'll be worth almost nothing

My advice is to budget. Look at big outgoings and small outgoings. Thibk carefully about what you need and cut out what you don't need. Example. st Starbucks coffee is expensive. Buy quality coffee from say Monmouth and your coffer is now enjoyable and costs 30p a cup. Blah blah. Just budget.

Edited by MrJuice on Sunday 29th March 23:25

£5000!!! On a buggy, car seat, high chair and bedroom stuff?

I'm doing this all wrong not spending nearly enough.

[blueg33]

Sheepshanks said:

blueg33 said:

Don't assume she was non-professional. She had a reasonably senior job in one of the UK's largest companies. The company still exists.

By "professional" I meant something that, with a bit of updating, you can get back into at a decent salary such as doctor etc.

I did see the company name. Who knows? I'm sure many, many people have come and gone - she might have done well, she might have been eased out.

She may have been, but they didn't want her to leave. The issue she has is that the career break has left her at a significant disadvantage.

My point was that the financial risk of giving up work, may be bigger than one expects and this should be considered when weighing up staying at home against childcare costs.

There are other factors that come into play later on, if my wife had been working, we could have provided better space for my sons band to practice in, we could have shown them more of the world etc.

I am not saying these things are priority over being at home with kids, merely suggesting that the picture is bigger and more complex than it may first appear.

[MiniMan64]

MrJuice said:

Buying buggy and all other kid stuff was a fair amount of money. Probably £5000 spent on 'fixed kids assets' to date. If we have more kids, they'll ve used again. If not they'll be worth almost nothing

Edited by MrJuice on Sunday 29th March 23:25

£5k on baby stuff? What on earth have been buying? £500 more like.

[Dunclane]

I really do think we have almost the perfect setup:-

I'm on 45k working 40 hrs a week Monday to Friday.
Wife 31k (Band 6 Sister in NHS) does 2 long days 7:30 to 7:30 Tuesdays and Wednesday's and 1 night shift giving her full time hours.

We only need nursery for the 2 days which costs us £352 per month and we get childcare vouchers which saves us £75 per month.

We think this is the best of both worlds, he gets to socialise with other children and the wife gets to spend quality time with him 5 days a week.

We are very fortunate to be able to do this and I do feel for other couples who both have 9-5 jobs, basically they have to lose one salary or pay it out in nursery fees.

[S10GTA]

kapiteinlangzaam said:

Hi

MiniMan64 said:

£5k on baby stuff? What on earth have been buying? £500 more like.

WTF.

Baby room cost us £1k+ and the pram the same.

Car seat and isofix is another £400-500.

A decent buggy is £200

clothes.... £300?

Other baby crap and gadgets..... £500

That's up around the £4k mark without breaking a sweat.

£500? only if you buy 10 year old stuff from the local recycling centre

A fool and his money are easily parted.

Us:

Cot - £100
Pram - £200
Pushchair - Free
Car seat number 1 - Free
Car seat number 2 - £80
Extra Car seat base - £15
Clothes - £100? Maybe a few hundred but we've purchased most second hand and then sold on
Baby monitor - £20


I reckon we spent no more than £500-600 on the initial start up costs, and we really didn't need the £200 pram. We sold it pretty quickly, the 3 wheeled off road one is all we've needed, and it was free!

[BoRED S2upid]

kapiteinlangzaam said:

WTF.

Baby room cost us £1k+ and the pram the same.

Car seat and isofix is another £400-500.

A decent buggy is £200

clothes.... £300?

Other baby crap and gadgets..... £500

That's up around the £4k mark without breaking a sweat.

£500? only if you buy 10 year old stuff from the local recycling centre

A thousand pound for a pram??? Holy cow! I'm with Miniman thank god. That's a ridiculous amount to be spending.

Half of our stuff was free we had to put a stop to the amount if crap people were buying us and told them to donate to the high dependency unit at the hospital instead.

[MiniMan64]

kapiteinlangzaam said:

WTF.

Baby room cost us £1k+ and the pram the same.

Car seat and isofix is another £400-500.

A decent buggy is £200

clothes.... £300?

Other baby crap and gadgets..... £500

That's up around the £4k mark without breaking a sweat.

£500? only if you buy 10 year old stuff from the local recycling centre

£1k on furniture? Another £1k on a buggie? Whosars!

Can we rename this thread the more money than sense thread?

[walm]

S10GTA said:

Got free stuff and compares to others who had to buy things.

Funnily enough if you don't get free stuff - it costs money.

Our major expense was prams.
We have had:
2x bugaboos
1x Phil and Ted
2x McLarens (not F1)
1x out n about

Other than the mclarens each was c.£500 so it can add up.
The trick was to buy on eBay/scumtree and reBay them later on.
In the end they cost almost nothing other than my time to do a little maintenance on them.

[Sheepshanks]

walm said:

The trick was to buy on eBay/scumtree

Won't it be all germy?

A "posh" friend of ours is proud of the pram she pulled out a skip in London that someone had tossed out while moving. So obviously some people down South do have more money than sense.

[walm]

Sheepshanks said:

A "posh" friend of ours is proud of the pram she pulled out a skip in London that someone had tossed out while moving. So obviously some people down South do have more money than sense.

The thing is - we're on PH.
Unless we all drive mpg-maximising euroboxes then to a certain extent we do have more money than sense.
It's a question of priorities.

And ensconcing my firstborn into a buggy that cost more than most people earn in a month is the only way I can prove my self-worth to the neighbours these days.

[blueg33]

I wouldn't use free car seats, you do know how they have been treated and whether their integrity/strength has been compromised by a previous accident or misuse.

£1000 on a pram is laughable, I only just spent that much on junior's first car

[S10GTA]

blueg33 said:

I wouldn't use free car seats, you do know how they have been treated and whether their integrity/strength has been compromised by a previous accident or misuse.

Depends how much you trust the friend it comes from I suppose

[MrJuice]

The fixed asset spend on subsequent sprogs will be less. I guess we could have bought on eBay or Gumtree but that stuff is used. The time spent cleaning, collecting and searching was not worth it for us.

The other big part of our spend has been on Montessori stuff. M'lady is a Montessori teacher and all that stuff came mainly from the US, at reassuringly great expense.

[walm]

S10GTA said:

blueg33 said:

I wouldn't use free car seats, you do know how they have been treated and whether their integrity/strength has been compromised by a previous accident or misuse.

Depends how much you trust the friend it comes from I suppose

Just take the covers off and check the polystyrene and that the straps aren't frayed and work properly.
They aren't particularly high tech!

[blueg33]

I meant its laughable that the makers can get away with those prices, how much people pay is their choice.

With both of ours, after the first 8 months the thing that was used most was a basic buggy, the equivalent of which is £30 from mothercare

[Pole84]

very scary thread for those yet to venture down the sprog route!

[PugwasHDJ80]

We bought a Jane Slalom reverse with a cot, seat, raincover etc. It was in perfect knick, but second hand

£120 against a list of £1200.

We took the covers off and put them in a washing machine.

The cot came from a friend- £80 plus a brand new coil sprung mattress (another £80)

Most of the clothes were secondhand because our freiends had tonnes of them (why would i buy new)

The car seats were expensive- but we bought ones we could swap between the cars so have spent a total of £400 of car seats in the last two years

Buying brand new stuff is, mostly, unnecessary and is usually an emotional response not a clear headed logical one.

Your baby doesn't care what he/she sits in as long as they are warm, safe, clean and loved. you don't need to spend £5k to achieve this (although you can, and that's fine, just don't complain about the cost)

[PugwasHDJ80]

walm said:

S10GTA said:

Got free stuff and compares to others who had to buy things.

Funnily enough if you don't get free stuff - it costs money.

Our major expense was prams.
We have had:
2x bugaboos
1x Phil and Ted
2x McLarens (not F1)
1x out n about

Other than the mclarens each was c.£500 so it can add up.
The trick was to buy on eBay/scumtree and reBay them later on.
In the end they cost almost nothing other than my time to do a little maintenance on them.

Serious question- why do you have so many prams?

[MYOB]

I think the issue here is not to do with the salary people earn. It's the adaptation required when all of a sudden you have gone from a care free existence to that of a paying for a family. It's a shock to the system regardless of how much you earn.