Frugal Mama- the cost of motherhood

My first few months home with baby Benjamin have flown by. He will be three months old next week and is doing great! At his 2 month check up he weighed 15 pounds even and was 25 inches long putting him in the 95% for weight and 99% for height. He's such a big little person! He's so strong too, he can already stand on his feet with someone holding his hands and can sit up with a little support.

Having him has made me think a lot about raising Maddie and Will as babies. My circumstances were a lot different when they were babies but ultimately raising a baby has been the same for me now being more settled in life as it was when I was 18 and pretty poor. I often hear people complain that raising a baby is so expensive; I don't know what they are talking about. There's a lot of gadgets out there for babies that you simply don't need and a lot of other things that can be purchased used or borrowed from friends. 

Diapers can be expensive, but if you shop around for sales you can find great deals. Before Benny was born Target had their diapers on sale in the store. There was also a cartwheel coupon for an extra 10% off and if you bought 2 big packs you got a $10 target gift card. I did the math, and I spent about 10 cents a diaper. I also got so many that I haven't had to buy diapers once since Benny's been alive. It boggles my mind when I see people buying tiny packs of Huggies for $10 for 20 diapers. Fifty cents a diaper?! That's ridiculous. Benny wears 6-8 diapers a day so thats .60-.80 cents. Paying 50 cents a diaper puts you in at 3-4 dollars. That's a huge difference that adds up a lot over time. 

Another expensive thing is baby clothes. If you go into the average baby store and pay full price for an outfit it's going to cost you about $20. That same exact outfit is probably sitting in a giant bag of baby clothes that a friend, family member, or acquaintance's baby wore once and outgrew. Babies grow so fast that it would be silly and completely ecologically irresponsible to buy an entire new wardrobe for every baby in the world. Most of Benny's clothes were hand me downs from friends who have little boys. He's such a big boy that he never fit into newborn clothes (except the one outfit that I bought for him to wear home from the hospital that I squeezed him into). He outgrow his 0-3 month clothes at 6 weeks old, and some of his 3-6 month stuff is already getting a little snug. I'm so thankful that I didn't spend hundreds of dollars on clothes that he never would have worn, or only worn once. The stuff he's outgrow is neatly boxed up and waiting for the next friend or family member who has a little boy. 

There's a million gadgets made for babies these days. Some are useful and amazing, some are crap. Some are fine purchased used, some I'd rather get new. Things I bought new for Benny are a travel system, pack n play, and high chair. Things I found used and in good condition are a swing, bouncy seat, and bumbo seat. Most swings and bouncy seats have covers that can come off and be washed and are like new. Babies only use these for a few months anyway. Car seats should be bought new because you never know if it's been in an accident or something. And I preferred to get a new highchair and pack n play because Benny's gonna use them for years. Ultimately it's a personal decision how much you wanna spend on a baby, but it can definitely be done cheaply and not wastefully. Every time me and Benny go somewhere I go over the check list in my head to make sure we have everything we need. But then I think, "Eh, I got my boobs to feed him, everything else is just extra"