How much does a baby cost?

The cost of having a child up to the age of 18 years is reported to be over £183,000 or £10,166 per year on average! But how much does a baby cost in the first year….

If you’re expecting a baby or doing some advanced planning you may be wondering how much does a baby cost. Well, we’ve done some research for you and we’ll share our findings with you in this article. We’ll also give you some ideas on how you can reduce the cost too. This article covers the average cost of having a baby over the first 12 months.

Like anything, you could easily spend a small fortune on your little one. Buying the ‘best’ things and even buying ‘extra’ things for your baby that they may not even use can easily rack up the cost. The figures stated in this article are based on a national average.

The first 12 months

For the first figure, we’ve excluded the big one-off costs from this, such as a car seat, cot and pram or pushchair (you may want to read our article choosing and buying the right pushchair). The figure does include nappies, food, books, clothes and toys. It also includes childcare which is the biggest expense.

The total cost for a baby’s first year works out at around £8,523.
With all the one off purchases included it can work out at £9,113

Although this is a national average, you can significantly reduce this if you want or need to, more on that later. You can also claim child benefit which is £20.70 per week a total of £1,076 per year for your first child.
The break down of this is;

• Nappies = £260.00
• Food = £1,043.00
• Books = £240.00
• Clothes = £480.00
• Toys = 540.00
• Childcare = £5,960.00

The one off big purchases are;

• Baby car seat and pushchair etc = £300
• Furniture such as changing table & cot = £290

How much does a baby cost per month?

If you remove all the things you need to buy for a baby before they are born the outlay is around £709.71 per month. This is leaving out equipment like pushchairs, car seats, Moses baskets and cots.

Things not taken into account

There are of course somethings not taken into account when looking at how much a baby can take out of your pocket. For example, we had to move from our flat when we had our son. There’s the extra travelling you do. You also start going to groups and classes and days out with the kids. Oh, and lets not forget the extra washing!

How to reduce the cost of having a baby

If you want to reduce your outlay buying baby stuff second hand can help you dramatically. Buying baby clothes, baby toys and other items second hand can save you 75% or more on the new retail price. As babies grow so fast in their first year, you can also recoup some of your spend by selling your baby items after they’ve outgrown them. Read our article The best place to sell baby items for advice on doing that.

main source: Child Poverty Action Group