Read this article on MSNBC a few days ago about a California family giving birth to 8 babies last month. A number of things stood out and astounded me about the article but the first and main thing that struck me was the money talk. I read with jaw gaping every time I see an article about how much children supposedly cost. I just don't understand it. I don't understand why people feel like they have to spend outrageous amounts of money on babies who could care less. I feel the same way about people going overboard on weddings, funerals, parties in general, etc. Look at some of these figures:Delivery: $9,000 - $25,000 per child X 8= $72,000 - 200,000!
Neo-natal ICU (they were 9 weeks premature): $1000/day per baby for 6 weeks - 6 months!
That's an estimated $800,000 or so. We're already at ONE MILLION DOLLARS!
I can imagine that the delivery of 8 babies born prematurely at once would be expensive for the hospital - so I can understand those figures even though I think they are ridiculous. Except, do you really think they need to charge the full delivery fee per infant when they are all being pulled out in succession from the same woman??? That seems silly to me.
Here's the part that really gets me. The USDA estimates that "a middle-class family living in the western United States can expect to spend at least $9,171 on year's worth of housing, food, transportation, clothing, health, education and other expenses for a single child under the age of 1."
WHAT?!?!
I fall into that category if you add "mid" before west. :) We are blessed, blessed, blessed - so I will try to adjust our figures for someone who doesn't have our resources. Here's a break-down of what we have spent on Aidan, who will be 1 in a week:
Housing: (we pay $100/month b/c we work where we live and only pay utilities.) Divide that by 3 and Aidan's share is $33 X 12 months = $396/year say a family our size pays $600/month - that's $200 X 12 months = $2400/year.
Food: We nursed exclusively for the first 6 months, then he started trying our food after that, but still nurses full time even now. I've probably spent $25 on snacks just for him, including the sippy cup I bought him for $5.00. I don't think that's unfathomable for someone who chooses to live the same lifestyle. If you count the extra food I've eaten to support my needs while pregnant and breastfeeding, you'd see an increase in food, but not much in price since I've also cut out a lot of expensive, pre-processed foods for the same reason.
Transportation: What? For an infant? They go where you go - can that count? Let's throw $100 in there for posterity, a car seat, and a stroller.
Clothing: We have spent a grand total of $117 because I broke down at a thrift store once and bought an outfit and then again at Target for a $1 hat that didn't end up fitting, and I bought a $4 skein of yarn that I'm going to count as clothing since it will eventually be a hat. The rest is what we've spent on cloth diapers. I spent $10 on a bag of 5 diaper covers at a consignment sale while we were pregnant and then we registered for cloth diapers and took advantage of freebies on craigslist and received enough newborn/small sizes to last me until he was about 7 months and needed to move up a size. The next size up cost us about $100 even. If we hadn't received so many diapers for free, I'd say that the cloth diapers we own would have cost us about $200. Clothing is difficult to estimate and I assume it's the most expensive part of having a baby for a lot of people (if you include disposable diapers). Taking advantage of consignment and yard sales knocks it down a ton, and then craigslist and freecycle always have bags upon bags of freebies even if you don't know anyone willing to give you their hand-me-downs. I'll be generous and say that if you take advantage of every deal possible and have no one giving you gifts, you might spend $300 more dollars on clothing after diapers. So lets say $500 for the first year of clothing for the average family who uses cloth.
Health: Aidan has seen the doctor 4 times since he was born. Each copay was $20, so there's $80 for doctor visits. Rob's insurance at work is amazing so we pay about $150/month. Aidan's portion of that would be $50/month X 12 months = $600 for the first year.
Education: For a 1 year old?!! Maybe they are thinking entertainment/learning toys? I bought him a fun dvd and before I was even pregnant I snagged some awesome books for $5. The rest of his toys have been gifts or hand-me-downs or sheets of paper from junk mail, etc. :) We don't go places unless they are free (play groups, parks, church). So let's say $20. What would you say? $100 if you are starting from scratch with no family/friend gifts?
Other expenses: I might be able to squeeze the money a mom loses from quitting her job in here, but they weren't implying that there was a stay-at-home mom in the equation and besides that, we are earning way more now b/c of Rob's new job and saving a ton more b/c we were able to get rid of one car and take this position at Hillcrest. Let's throw in an extra $100 cover any random expenses that might come up.
So, Aidan has cost us a grand total of $1338 this year if you include all of the non-tangible things that I included (like insurance that we'd have anyway, utilities that we'd pay anyway, etc.)
I calculated that a family living our lifestyle without our resources would spend $3905 per year.
That's a $7833 difference (from the $9171 they estimate) for us and a $5266 difference for a family without our resources!!! Where are they getting these number? Even if we add another $1000 for disposable diapers/year we're not getting close. If we add another $1000/year for formula, we're getting closer, but still almost $2000 shy of their estimate.
*NOTE*** I do understand that it's easy to spend that much money on a baby. I could buy cute things (handmade toys and clothes, learning tools and art implements for later) all day long online if I let myself (ok, if my husband let me). And I don't think that spending that money is a waste if you have it to spend and spending it won't affect your child's future negatively (you've invested enough and have enough debt-free assets that there's a lot of wiggle room). But look at our economy and the number of people struggling financially. Do you think many of us really have 10k to throw out there when a new member of the family comes along?
Moral of the story: babies are worth infinitely more than they cost, and they don't even have to cost that much. :D
Check out the great articles here and here for more ideas on how to save money with a new child in the home.
Health: Aidan has seen the doctor 4 times since he was born. Each copay was $20, so there's $80 for doctor visits. Rob's insurance at work is amazing so we pay about $150/month. Aidan's portion of that would be $50/month X 12 months = $600 for the first year.
Education: For a 1 year old?!! Maybe they are thinking entertainment/learning toys? I bought him a fun dvd and before I was even pregnant I snagged some awesome books for $5. The rest of his toys have been gifts or hand-me-downs or sheets of paper from junk mail, etc. :) We don't go places unless they are free (play groups, parks, church). So let's say $20. What would you say? $100 if you are starting from scratch with no family/friend gifts?
Other expenses: I might be able to squeeze the money a mom loses from quitting her job in here, but they weren't implying that there was a stay-at-home mom in the equation and besides that, we are earning way more now b/c of Rob's new job and saving a ton more b/c we were able to get rid of one car and take this position at Hillcrest. Let's throw in an extra $100 cover any random expenses that might come up.
So, Aidan has cost us a grand total of $1338 this year if you include all of the non-tangible things that I included (like insurance that we'd have anyway, utilities that we'd pay anyway, etc.)
I calculated that a family living our lifestyle without our resources would spend $3905 per year.
That's a $7833 difference (from the $9171 they estimate) for us and a $5266 difference for a family without our resources!!! Where are they getting these number? Even if we add another $1000 for disposable diapers/year we're not getting close. If we add another $1000/year for formula, we're getting closer, but still almost $2000 shy of their estimate.
*NOTE*** I do understand that it's easy to spend that much money on a baby. I could buy cute things (handmade toys and clothes, learning tools and art implements for later) all day long online if I let myself (ok, if my husband let me). And I don't think that spending that money is a waste if you have it to spend and spending it won't affect your child's future negatively (you've invested enough and have enough debt-free assets that there's a lot of wiggle room). But look at our economy and the number of people struggling financially. Do you think many of us really have 10k to throw out there when a new member of the family comes along?
Moral of the story: babies are worth infinitely more than they cost, and they don't even have to cost that much. :D
Check out the great articles here and here for more ideas on how to save money with a new child in the home.
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2 comments:
All I can say is WOW! You are good! That is so great that you guys have figured out (and made the choice) to live so frugally! After reading this post I am kinda ashamed of our spending. I grew up in a family, though, that was NOT good at saving and being thrifty so none of us know how to live simply. While we haven't gone overboard buying baby things, we definitely bought more than we need and not always on sale.
If people really want to get serious about saving money then they should add Bathroom Bidet Sprayers to all their bathrooms. Available at www.bathroomsprayers.com with these you won't even need toilet paper any more, just a towel to dry off! It's cheap and can be installed without a plumber; and runs off the same water line to your toilet. You'll probably pay for it in a few months of toilet paper savings. And after using one of these you won't know how you lasted all those years with wadded up handfuls of toilet paper, nasty. Now we're talking green and helping the environment without any pain.
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