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Budgeting for a Baby

Posted July 9, 2012 by Stazstaz to Frugality 0 0
This post was written by a EasyFinance.com Community member. The views expressed below may not reflect the views of EasyFinance.com.


While bring a new life in this world is an indescribably joyous feeling, it can also be financial overwhelming, especially if this is your first child. The delight and eagerness of being prepared may lead to a lot of complicated, unnecessary expenses. A small soul can bring major changes in your life and ultimately huge expenses. You will have to alter your lifestyle if your household already runs on a budget and if not managed properly, many first time parents find themselves in a financial crisis. Though, this should not scare you off into not having kids at all. With the proper planning, you can overcome this barrier and bring your child into a comfortable and adequate budgeted financial environment.

The most crucial complication that any first timed parents may face is to know how much money they should expect to spend during the child’s first year, especially since the mother would have to take a maternity leave which doesn’t always result in a paid leave. Or even after the baby is born, both, or one of the parent may have to stay home to take care of the baby. Parents wish to equip their child with complete happiness and success and make sure they are provided everything. This usually results in excessive spending. For instance, eager parents may paint their kids’ room pink anticipating a daughter and end up re painting the walls when they are blessed with a son instead, resulting in unnecessary spending.

The first step is being aware of the stuff that would be needed and make an estimate of the periodic and one-time expenses that would occur, and start saving accordingly. You may have to cut down your initial expenses to accommodate for the savings. The one-time expenses would include medical bills, furnishing the baby’s room, nursing and feeding supplies, toys, clothes and other miscellaneous expenses. Long term expenses include saving for your child's post-secondary education, paying for their food, buying larger and larger clothing etc. Categorizing the savings for certain particular foreseen and unforeseen expenses may be a good way to go. Once the baby arrives, there will be the ongoing expenses. These can be managed by setting aside a specific amount of your current income for miscellaneous or particular expenses, such as first birthday, tuition fees etc. Planning ahead never hurts. One major factor to note is that, if you and your spouse, both plan to work after the baby has settled, another major cost would be child care. Hiring a baby sitter may be important.

However, the amount that you will have to set aside for your baby may depend on the age of the baby, where you live, whether you have any close relative nearby (to look after the baby while you work) etc.Thus, if you have a well thought budget, you can provide your child with the perfect future any parent would want for their children.

 

About Stazstaz: Staz Johnson is the admin for EssentialFinances.com. She has been passionately blogging about personal finance, tips on frugality, investing and analyzing the current economy to help people get going in the right direction. 

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