The Cost of Having a Baby

[redheart]

As stated in a previous thread we are due to have our first child in early February and delighted I am at the impending arrival of our son.

 

However, I am shocked at the cost. I earn a very good salary and can afford it but even so it pisses me off

 

 

Pram (sorry travel system), Bugaboo Cameleon 3 Class Navy £850

Car seat, adapator and base unit £230

Nursery furntiture (Cot bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers) £1400

Snuzpod and bedding £260

Moses basket £250

 

That's almost £3000 quid without all the usual stuff.

 

Absolute rip off.

[Teasmaid]

If you think babies are expensive, wait till they're a teenager. You might as well present yourself at the workhouse now and be done.

 

Regarding baby paraphernalia, most of it is a waste of money. Why spend hundreds of pounds on a Moses basket they'll only be in for 6 weeks? Just get a cheap one. You need a cot, a car seat, bedding, and a pram, bottles, steriliser, plus some clothes. Anything else is peripheral. For every baby that loved a sling, or bumbo seat or whatever, another 3 will have hated them. Don't waste money on them. You'll always find people giving them away.

[Trumo]

My next door neighbour's missus wanted to buy a baby changing table off eBay. She did the deal and as the seller was fairly local, she arranged for her husband to pick it up as he has a van. The thing was second hand, cost them about £800, had a couple of drawers in it and was made of oak. It weighed a bloody tonne and couldn't be dismantled and he had to ask me for help in getting the thing into the house and up the stairs to their newly decorated kid's bedroom. I don't think she was due for another 3-4 months at that point. What the hell is wrong with putting a mat on the floor? They probably cost less than a tenner, are easier to stow away and if your baby rolls around (as they tend to do after a while), at least it's not a couple of feet off the floor.

[RJ Fan club]

I sympathise entirely. We both earn a decent wage, but decided that we could get some stuff 2nd hand and what not.

 

Quite a few friends have had kids in recent years, so we've benefited from quite a bit of stuff been given to us. But we did want a bit of stuff new.

 

So we got

Uppababy Cruz Travel System with travel adapters, rain cover, changing bag, other add ons etc - £500 (end of line, carrycot was 1 month old ex display) so saved about a ton

Mama & papas Cot off a friend - £50 need new mattress

Redecorated little room (£400) - getting done next week

Moses basket and frame - free, just need new mattress

Got furniture eg, chest of drawers, free from relatives

Lighting - £30

Getting given a bouncer

Sling - £50

Blinds & Curtains - blinds £50, blackout curtains from a mate £30

Got a loan of a load of stuff, bath, sterilizer etc

Main one to get it car seat, my mates boy is about to grow out of his so depending on how we feel may lend that or get our own. But staring down at £200 if not

 

 

Fuck, posting this on NE eve, where my life went wrong right there

[Fowlers God]

I know it's your first and your wife will mist probably want everything brand new but if you shop around properly on ebay and NCT sales etc you will be.laughing! We paid around £50 for a cit for example 7 years ago from.eBay that was half decent and lasted.for all three etc. Having kids is as expensive as you.make it

 

My wife paid 99p Inc packaging for a pair of brand new wrangler jeans for.me.from.eBay, she paid 55p Inc.poutage for. A pair of baby.converse blah blah blah kids are cheap until they start wanting their.own stuff

[Fowlers God]

The only thing we bought new was a steriliser each time

[Trumo]

You named your babies after Pokemon though, so the true cost is yet to be realised!

[Fowlers God]

You named your babies after Pokemon though, so the true cost is yet to be realised!

My kids are great! (and so am I)

[ZonkoVille77]

People can be too snobby and precious at times. Buy 2nd hand items that the baby will grow out of if you've any sense. Fuck sentiment, if money is tight do the sensible thing.

[General Dryness]

We did the second hand thing too. In fact we were lucky to have friends who still had a lot of stuff that their kids no longer needed e.g. cot, steriliser and were willing to lend rather than sell to us. We bought a nice moses basket second hand, then sold it on for around a ten dollar loss. Capsule was hired from a baby shop.

 

There are things you might prefer to buy brand new, my missus insisted on a new breast pump. We've now lent that on to one of the friends who lent us stuff.

 

Baby showers are a pain in the ass, but we got shitloads of good stuff out of ours.

 

Got to do your homework redheart, they grow out of so many things so quickly that it's throwing money away to spend big on them.

[DJLJ]

One other thing to remember is that when you get number 2 you have almost all of the stuff, so it gets cheaper to have, however we also got most of it second hand. Fuck paying top dollar for all this, almost all of it isn’t worth it.

[Rico1304]

When it comes to a high chair get one from IKEA for £15, saves you £200 and they are perfect.

[manwiththestick]

I remember a girl in our work that was pregnant, talking about prams; she said she was getting two, a cheap one for usual daily outings and this stupidly expensive thing for when she went visiting people. I honestly think she paid near two grand for a pram to show off. Mental.

[Elite]

One other thing to remember is that when you get number 2 you have almost all of the stuff, so it gets cheaper to have, however we also got most of it second hand. Fuck paying top dollar for all this, almost all of it isn’t worth it.

We are about to try for another but as my daughter is 4, all the stuff is gone. Gutted!

[Bruce Spanner]

£350K To raise a child up until the age of eighteen.

 

£3.50 For a packet of Durex.

 

Do the maths, kids are fucking stupid and cost the Earth!

[Clem H Fandango]

why spend 3k on something thats going to puked on?

 

there is no fucking need for an ipod baby travel system.

 

Put the little cunt in seconds, he/she wont know the fucking difference.

 

Your missus needs a big slap seeing as she is not the one paying for it and will sit on her arse for the next 7 years doing fuck all.

 

There are a ton of rich idiots out there with second hand baby stuff for sale, this is your mecca.

[Sweeney287]

Wait until you have to start paying fit childcare!

[redheart]

I can afford it so its not a struggle but I hate being ripped off.

 

And it is not Mrs Redheart who is demanding this stuff. I suspect its me feeling the pressure to give my son the best

[Fowlers God]

I can afford it so its not a struggle but I hate being ripped off.

 

And it is not Mrs Redheart who is demanding this stuff. I suspect its me feeling the pressure to give my son the best

A cliché, i know, but your son gets the best through the way he is brought up not by what you buy him!

[General Dryness]

A cliché, i know, but your son gets the best through the way he is brought up not by what you buy him!

 

Amen to that. Give him a couple of years before you expose him to the want want want culture.

 

Couple whose kid was in the same daycare as ours, for the kids first birthday they bought him an electric ride-on humvee, and spent 500 dollars on a cake. 500 dollars. On. A. Fucking. Cake. We didn't go because we had no intention of going to the same expense for our boy, for something the child is not going to remember.

 

RH, its not a matter of "Oh, I can afford it". Thats the attitude thats part of whats wrong with humanity.

[Josef Svejk]

I love my little son. Little motherfucker. Born this past year. Thereby making 2014 the best year of my life.

[A Red]

I wish i'd got second hand kids

[Paulie Dangerously]

You were robbed on the travel system mate. I got a hauk Apollo one for just over 250 and its boss. You're paying for the name with that bugaboo bollocks

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B004911BAO/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/275-9055318-0119138

 

We got a bumbo from a charity shop for 2 quid as well. Bargain of the century.

[Scott_M]

My wife wants that Bugaboo. Luckily I've convinced my parents to buy it. £850 is fucking ridiculous, I could get a shitty car for that amount.

[Lario]

What a lot of people do over here on the Emerald Isle (allegedly) is buy their baby gear through a shop that also sells bikes. They get the shop to put it through on the Cycle to Work Scheme, and get the tax off it.

 

Again, allegedly!