how much do your children cost you?

Wowww, that's a lot!

We're using cloth nappies except for at night, so maybe spend $6 a week on nappies (Homebrand!). Maybe that much as well on solids (she only eats half a jar at a time, plus fruit or veg sticks). And probably $3 or $4 or so on wipes? Haven't really thought about it before, but it looks like I spend $15 or less a week!

I'm lucky though, I have been given loads of clothes and toys for Chloe so I don't need to buy much from week to week.

Apart from a pack of nappies each week and I always look out for specials I spend $10 on DD.
I spend more on myself meeting for coffees, but probably no more than I spent on lunches when I was working.

Clothes I only buy on sale and at this rate we don't need clothes until she is 1 as we've been given so many from friends who have finished with babies or as presents.

We belong to the toy library and the normal library and utilise them for any toys we don't have and books to read to her.

The two most expensive items were her cot and the buggy they will both do her at least 2 years if not longer.

I only use wipes when she does #2's I use cotton wool and water for #1's.

Got her carseat for $30 via plunket next big purchase will be a highchair which we will easily get for under $100.

I'm not convinced cloth is entirely cheaper for the cost of one cloth nappy I can get 3-4 packs of sposies.

When DD goes onto solids she'll be eating mostly what we eat and a tablespoon of pear or apple, be lucky if we get thru one piece of fruit in the first week.

We also dont spend much at all.

The main costs are nappies for night time. Up to $10 a week, wipes.

Also things like swimming every other week, playcentre once a term. But these arent major costs.

Clothing is the only thing i find expensive. I normally try buy for the year in advance. I just got $40 worth of summer gear for dd next year which was down from $130. If i dont do this thats where the cost comes in. Over winter dd will need pants & jackets because i didnt get many last year so these will now be full price.

caliandjack wrote: My daughter has cost me my hips, back, knees, boobs and belly. My body will never be the same again I have grey hairs since I gave birth and don't know when I'll get a full 8 hour stretch of sleep ever again.

Where's the like button???

We use cloth nappies and they have now been used for 2 kids- I have only bought a few new ones for Aiden. Bf is free! We have done blw so they eat what we do most of the time, never buy any jars of baby food, but do buy kiddy snacks.
Have used the same 1 buggy for both kids and we were given that anyway. Borrowed a carrier for DS, but have just spent $230 on a new one which we will be able to also use for the next baby.
MIL buys almost all their clothes which is awesome, then I sell some of them and buy the kids more stuff with the $.
We spend about $25 a week on their activites-ballet, swimming, music group, playgroup, playcentre and HIPPY. Kindy is free.
We have started saving money into Isla's account for her school costs for when she starts in Oct this year. Her uniform will be almost $200, and with fees, stationary, trips and fundraisers we are budgeting $1000 a year for that- eekk!

I'm guessing alot of our $$ spent on her is clothes, shoes etc .. We were never handed down anything and since we didn't know what we ere having we only brought stuff until 6months! We spend about $10 a weeks on purees, $5 on wipes, $14 (huggies averaged out dpending if on sale or not), i also use MCN but not fulltime and $10 on formula (we used 1 tin every 3 weeks bf the rest of it) so theres $40, $20 into her bank account and so about $60 a week for anything else which will include her swiming lessons etc.
love the comment Cali about the body .. man i wish before i had a baby i enjoyed my body more i sure wasn't any stick thin supermodel .. but it looked alot better then it now does haha

Nappies: $100 every 3 months
Wet wipes: $12 every fortnight
Extra food: Not really buying any baby related foods. Do buy soymilk for him and me due to no milk.

All in all a saving as I do all our own baking now due to his egg and dairy allergy. But fruit went up hectically. My kids go through a lot of fruit. (trust me that you wont believe how much. good thing we are planning to plant our own dwarf fruit trees)

Then no extras for shampoos and that as he uses the stuff we use as well.

Dr fees is a bit high with the specialist. $105 per visit but that went up too due to funding cut. Dont know what it is yet. Currently only seeing every 3 months. But was quite often in the beginning.

Toys: Birthdays about $150 and Christmas about $50 to $100. Parties: That is random amounts.

Other toys: Dont really buy as such. It is here and there. Wont be more than another $100 through the year for just him.

Playcentre $35 per term. Other activities: Not yet. McKayla's swimming is quite a bit. We pay for the term and then holiday classes as well. School donation is $60 for her.

I have 3 kids,all at different stages and I have nooooo idea how much they each cost.
Id be willing to say my 8 year old costs the most with her activity fees for school, uniforms etc blah blah blah

We don't spend much on our DD either. She's just had Xmas and birthday so got given heaps more clothes so we hardly need to buy her clothes. We've always used cloth nappies, so haven't had to buy disposables, and now she's toilet trained during the day we still use cloth nappies at night. Spent probably about $40 on knickers for her though (over $10 for a 5pack of teeny undies, crazy!!). She eats what we eat now, so don't spend any extra on groceries for special things for her. Maybe we buy more fruit but we all eat that so hard to say how much of that is DD's portion...
When she was younger we did buy jars for her as she went thru a phase of not eating our meals lol, but aside from that she's pretty cheap really
Oh and $3 on swimming a week, that's pretty good for all three of us! (DH and I are both free at our local pool when we go with DD)

Hmmm Mine is kinda more monthly... Nappies about $30 a month (give or take $10) - disposables. I buy all mine in bulk. I don't bother wasting my money on the 'popular' brands Huggies, Treasures... I just buy Homebrand - cheap, but does the same job, if not better, that the other brands do.

Wipes I spend about $25 a month too, again buy it in bulk but that's for a pack in her room, a pack in my room, pack in bathroom and pack in the nappy bag oh and a pack in the lounge.

Food, we don't spend anything as she eats what we eat and has done from the start, I have used jar/tinned stuff on occasion but not enough for it to be an expense really. But I haven't noticed a difference in our food bill as we always make more than enough for left overs too. Although we probably spend a bit more on Banana's as she's a bit of a junky lol!

Clothes, I tend to buy bulk each season and normally only sales... We just spent $100 about 2 weeks ago on some PJs, trackies, hoodies, long sleeve tops for Winter. Also about $200 before Xmas on some clothes for Summer/Autumn which *should* also fit in Winter - mainly bodysuits, singlets, tshirts, tights.

Toys - she got all her toys in the first year through gifts, 2nd hand or on sale. I never pay full price. We were signed up for the toy library but it wasn't really appropriate for her age at the time and now she is moving more etc then we will probably sign up again but as it is - she's easily amused by things around the house, tubes, containers, tennis balls...

We spend a lot on books but we go to the Library once a fortnight.

Our biggest weekly expense is transport tbh - going to and from playgroup (1 bus ride is about $2) and going to the library in town $4 or next suburb $2 one way.

Our big expenses were tbh just the P&T pram $1100 with accessories, it's been well worth it with the amount of walking I do so it gets used regularly.
We got a 2nd hand cot (Touchwood) for $170 - can't even tell it is 2nd hand.
Another big expense we are going to face is buying some cloth nappies, had a look online and looks like it's going to cost about $400 which will last the next 2 years + any future babies.