Budgeting for a New Baby
photo credit: mahalie
When you’re about to add a child to your family, the excitement and anxieties that surround the birth and the preparations for life with a new baby often outweigh the practical need of adjusting your budget. But a good example of keeping everything in perspective can be seen at a No Credit Needed post on the financial impact of a new baby.
As a case study, it’s something we could all learn from. NCN predicted how he would need to alter the family budget before the new arrival and looking back, he was mostly correct. If you’re about to expand your family, look at these budget areas for increases or decreases:
- Increase in the grocery bill - including diapers and having less time for shopping or checking for good deals
- Increase in the electricity bill - due to extra washing, more lights on in the middle of the night, and perhaps the mother being home more often instead of being at work
- Increase in medical expenses - but hopefully these are mostly just one-off expenses related to the birth
- Increase in clothing expenses - not just for the new baby but for the mother’s new after-the-birth figure
- Decrease in entertainment expenses - at least for a while, you’ll probably be spending a lot more time at home and less going out to eat or to see a movie
This entry was posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 4:57 am and is filed under Kids and Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
