Reply to Want a baby but not in the best place financially..

Forum Index » Trying to Conceive (TTC)

Reply to "Want a baby but not in the best place financially.."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]If you are living paycheck to paycheck now, you absolutely cannot afford to bring a baby into the world, unless you have an outside source of either income or resources to draw on.  Babies are expensive.  If you need to formula feed (say you have problems breastfeeding), it adds up.  Diapers are expensive whether you go cloth (big initial outlay, then higher cost for either doing laundry frequently or laundry service) or disposable  A typical baby can go through 10-15 diapers a day in the first few months.  Even the inexpensive Walmart People's Choice brand is $24 for 200.  That can add up.  Then you need a lot of baby supplies to care for a child, from basics like clothing, a place to sleep, a way to transport the baby.  We bought most of what we needed on consignment and it still cost a couple of hundred dollars of initial outlay.

What I suggest that you do, is you need to start setting aside some amount, say $50-100/week and put it away as the "baby fund".  Think of it as money you would have to be spending on the baby if you already had it.  Yes, I do mean up to $100/week.  Because although this is a bit more than you would need to be spending, you are saving up a nest egg for when you do have a child.  This money will help you buy those initial things that you'll need and you'll be in the mode of saving for the baby and having emergency money for the baby.  If you can't afford that, then you really need to rethink how you are budgeting your money because you can't expect a baby to cost you nothing.  It costs a lot.  Many parents get by even ones living paycheck-to-paycheck before the baby.  But that means that you'll have to make compromises on things you do for yourself.  It may mean that you get your hair cut less often or you have to buy some generic brands of food, or carpool to work or cut back on the data plan on your phone or one of many other little things that will save you a few dollars here and there to add up to the added costs that having a baby will add to your family budget.

Good luck.   [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics