Here’s How Much Baby’s First Year Cost

Do a Google search for “cost of baby’s first year” and you’ll see estimates anywhere from $8,000-$13,000.  Well, we’re here to dispel this myth that babies HAVE to blow your bank. Can little babes cost this much during their first year?  Absolutely.  Do they have to?  Absolutely not.  We’ve already highlighted the practical items to have during a baby’s first few months and now we’re here to outline exactly how much we spent during our baby’s first year of existence.

Some caveats:

• We live in Canada where healthcare costs for childbirth for residents are $0 thanks to our healthcare system.  This includes all prenatal costs with our primary doctor and maternity clinic, hospital visit to deliver the baby, post-delivery hospital care (including extended time in the NICU, if needed), follow up doctor visits, shots/vaccines, etc.
• We live in Canada which offers 12-18 months of parental leave.  Nic took the full 18 months to never to return to work again so we do not have childcare / day-home costs to account for. During this 18 month leave, she received ~$21,000 from the government.
• Our daughter took to breastfeeding and we never had to purchase or use any formula.  She is also is a weirdo and never took to bottles.  Or cows milk.  Or soy milk.  Or oat milk.  Like ever…
• This does not include the costs incurred for us to start our little family (vitamins/medicine, donor samples, shipping/storage of donor samples, fertility clinic visits, IUI attempt) which cost us ~$3,200 as most people reading this will not encounter these additional costs (although fertility treatment is becoming more and more common).  This was the cost we spent to conceive our daughter, and not related to what we spent during her first year.

The Breakdown:

• Diapers & Wipes: $412
  • 128 New Born
  • 300 Size 1
  • 882 Size 2
  • 826 Size 3
  • We found Pampers Swaddlers worked the best for our little one and her skin sensitivities.  On average, we spent $0.18 per diaper during this first year.
  • We prefer Costco Kirkland baby wipes.  We were somewhere on box two of 900 wipes by the time she turned 1.  We also made our own water wipes using half of a paper towel dipped into water while she was very little as she had sensitive skin and the standard wipes irritated her. 
  • So we spent a bit more on diapers going with the Swaddlers but spent a bit less on wipes by making our own for a good part of her first year.  
  • Major kudos to the parents out there who go the reusable diapers route!  We had full intentions to go reuseable and then never ended up using the ones we bought.  We were exhausted newbie parents and I think the thought of adding on daily / every other day laundry got the best of our weakened sleep-deprived state.  Diapers were definitely our most expensive line item during her first year so if you’re able to go reusable, you’re looking at shaving a couple hundred dollars off right there.  And if you’re looking to have multiple kiddos, it’s the gift the keeps on giving and will reward you with even more savings down the road.
• Nursery: $215
  • Crib and mattress ($50, second hand), dresser ($25, second hand), new knobs for the dresser ($25, new), pictures/frames/decor ($80, new), crib sheets ($15, new), lamp/laundry hamper/bins ($20, new), rocking chair (free, second hand), end table (free, built ourselves), shoe rack (free, second hand)
  • Looking back, we could have gotten crib sheets for free or a fraction of the price second hand, we could have decorated at half the price, and we haven’t used her laundry hamper and instead put her dirty items in our laundry hamper so we didn’t need that (although I assume we will at some point in the future).
• Medicines/hygiene: $203 (all new)
  • Vitamin D, Bio Gaia (probiotics for colic), nasal saline, Nose Frieda (lifesaver snot sucker), Camilia (homeopathic teething relief), non-alcoholic gripe water (hardly used), oval drops, reflux prescription (omeprazole, huge help!), lotion, baby Tylenol & ibuprofen, baby shampoo, forehead thermometer (found on sale for $26), humidifier.  We also had $100 in Amazon gift cards we used for this category so without this the total above would be $303
  • Not much you can do about these costs and the various medicines and hygiene products will obviously vary on the kid.  Ibuprofen has been a lifesaver as she was definitely one of those kids who were impacted by teething.
• Random things: $202
  • oball ($2, second hand), blocks ($2, second hand), car seat cover ($5, second hand, likely did not need), hiking carrier pack ($20, second hand, use on hikes), nipple shield, ($8, new), lacti-cups ($30, new, looking back we did not need this), munch mitt ($5, second hand, likely did not need), passport photo ($30, new… that would be weird if it was second hand!), car seat (received one as a gift, returned for $200 and purchased a Graco 4ever 4-in-1 for $260 on Black Friday (goes for $400 in Canada) – for a net of $60, new), reusable baby food pouches ($15, new, still using these today but likely only needed 1 or 2, not the entire pack), ezpz silicon plate ($5, second hand, helpful invention!), portable high chair ($20, second hand)Most of these items have been very handy but as you can see not all of them were needed.
• Clothes: $180
  • Purchased from Target, Ali Express, Walmart, and various second-hand lots & items from Varage Sale = $270
    • Looking back, we did not need to buy any clothes brand new as we found so many great lots for free or for a very low cost.  When we say “lots” we mean bins of 20-100 various items from other parents out there for $0-20 (Carters, Gap, Pekkle, Gerber, Joe Fresh, etc).  Most of the brand new clothing purchases were when we first found out Nic was pregnant and we were super excited and didn’t yet know about the idea of buying clothing lots from other parents.  These store-bought purchases were mainly from the clearance rack for off-season items.  So many of the second-hand clothes (either free or at  low cost) still had the tags on them.  It’s crazy how many parents are FLOODED with baby clothes and are unable to dress their baby in all of them before outgrowing to the next size.
  • Sold items we did not use/didn’t want to keep for hopeful babes 2 = $90
  • We also gave over 200 items to friends who were having babies after us.  So much excess baby clothes out there!
  • Morale of the story, you can go overboard on baby clothes but there’s really no need to do so!
• Books: $29
  • We ended up with a lot of great Dr Seuss books through this sweet deal with Early Moments. Nic and I tag-teamed every few months and ended up with 20 Dr. Seuss books for $32, win!  We sold one of the books for $8 after reading it once and not particularly enjoying it. They also have offers for Disney (which we got 4 books for $5), Elmo’s Learning Adventure, as well as Baby Einstein Playful Discoveries.  Check it out if you’re interested but remember to cancel your membership once you receive your order or else you’ll get dinged with a much higher bill in the future!  These are offered to both Americans and Canadians so you may need to Google “Early Moments Canada/America Disney offer” to see what’s available in your country.  While most of these are not geared for a baby under 1, we made these purchases upfront and Finn is loving these books now.  If you’re looking to purchase books, Early Moments offers some great deals.
  • All other books have been either gifts, or from the free little libraries around town, or borrowed from our library.  We have over 100 books in our home and rotate about 30 downstairs at a time.  We keep about 20 in the guest room for her to pick out 2-3 to read before her nap. She also has about 20 bedtime books in her room which she gets 3 read to her each night.
  • Morale of the story – utilize your library!  Books can be expensive and can take up a lot of space.  Rotate from your library to keep things fresh and age-appropriate.  And donate to your free little library if you have some around town 🙂
• Things we received for free as gifts or for free from random other moms in our community on Varage Sale: $0
  • Gifts from family & friends:
    • Baby sleeping nest (handmade by Nic’s sister – definitely useful), shelves (handmade by Nic & grandpa), fancy Dyson tower fan since we don’t have A/C in our house (thank you grandma and grandpa for this very generous gift!), breast pump (unused by my cousin – handy if you are going to be away from your baby i.e. day care but we personally did not really need this), exercise ball (to bounce on when she was very colicky – came in handy), burp cloths (handmade by Nic’s cousin – definitely handy unless you want to be washing your clothes constantly), wash cloths (handmade by Nic’s cousin), diaper genie (hardly used as we use a small waste pail and bring our garbage outside to the larger bin as necessary so garbage smells never really linger in our house), play mat (definitely well used during her first year), monitor (again another useful item), flash cards (still a current hit), squeeze and stack blocks, sorting cubes, collapsible tent, ball pit, and tent (received for her 1st birthday and this is still one of her favorite toys).  These last few items were nice to have but not necessities.
  • Free items from others in our community:
    • Baby box (aka her free bassinet we used for the first few months in our room, thank you Alberta for providing these), rocking chair (oh YES), lanolin cream (yepp), breast milk storage bags (hardly used), nursing pillow (useful but only for a short time), baby swing (hardly used, after Finn not enjoying this one we borrowed a few types from friends and Finn didn’t enjoy any of them, even a mamaroo – she was not a chill baby…), breast feeding cover (honestly, if you have an apron in your kitchen this would do just fine but most new moms would think this is weird), baby bib bandannas (never used as Finn didn’t drool), baby towel (not needed), clothes, books, stroller arch toy (never used), baby gates (definitely useful, we preferred this style with a swinging gate), jogger stroller x2 (we tried out a few free strollers and the 3 wheeled jogger style has definitely been our favorite), high chair / booster seat, many other toys, teething rings/tooth brush/floss (from our dentist, the rings were useful but not as helpful as we thought they would be for teething), random kitchen items (cups, plates, bibs, cutlery, sippy cups, snack containers – all useful), baby walker (useful and super cute watching her learn to walk… aw I want to go back to that stage!), exersaucer (useful but not necessary), booster seat/high chair (definitely useful).
  • Note that the majority of these no-cost items came from moms in our community that we did not know.  Cannot rave about Varage Sale enough for the community we live in (similar to FB marketplace elsewhere)!  Please ask around from other moms in your area what platform is commonly used by you.  There are TONS of free baby-related items out there once you know where to look.
• Things we purchased and sold for a net $0 cost: $0
  • Ergo baby carrier ($40, second hand, thanks to a lovely random grocery store shopping mom we passed by in an aisle who gave us her Ergo360 for free which we absolutely loved using! – we resold the regular Ergo for $40 and kept the Ergo360 for hopeful babes 2), tub/bouncer/change pad ($10, purchased second hand, resold as to not take up space and will re-buy for hopeful babes 2), diaper bag ($25, purchased new and we never used – any old backpack will do), jolly jumper ($20, purchased second hand and used for a few months), pack and play ($20, purchased second hand then received another as a gift), bottles ($10, never used…. our daughter never ever ever took to a bottle).

How Much Did We Spend?

Drum roll pleaseeeeeee

We spent a total of $1,241 during our little lady’s first year.  That comes out to $103 per month. You can easily spend that much on a stroller alone.

Not as bad as what a Google search will show you eh?  Of course, this is just our personal experience but again we’re here to dispel that babies HAVE to be expensive.

We also contributed $2,500 towards her RESP education fund to get the full 20% match ($500) from the government so a total of $3,000 was invested into her future education.  If that $3,000 grows at an average annual rate of 7% for 18 years, she will have $10,537 to put towards her education just from this one annual contribution alone.  We plan to keep this up for 18 years and assuming an average annual growth of 7% she will have just over $100,000 in her RESP to account for her post-secondary education.  In Canada, this should be more than enough.  If she decides to go another route, this money is earmarked for her to use – be it to travel around the world, take some online courses/certificates, go into the trades, go into the military, start her own business, etc.

We also started to introduce foods around 5.5 months old.  We haven’t separated how much we spent on her food compared to our overall food spending but during these first few feeding months it was likely around $25/month.  Her favorite food during her first few months was definitely blueberries and was a bulk of this monthly expense.  She also loved rotisserie chicken (no other kind of chicken would do), broccoli, carrots, corn, green beans, and avocado.  And she’s always been into tangy and tart foods like sauerkraut, pickles, olives (legit her favorite food as of today), artichokes, fancy aged cheese, mustard, salsa, etc.  Yep, she’s our little weirdo.

So if we also include the $2,500 RESP contribution and ~$25/month on food for 6 months (25*6=$150) we’re looking at a total of $3,891 out of our pocket cots in her first year.  Of course, the RESP is elective and we recognize our privilege of being able to contribute this $2,500 towards her education each year.

There you have it!

Those with parents, are you as crazy as us and keep track of your baby-related expenses?  Would you say you spent more or less than $1,236 on baby-related expenses (excluding education and food) during their first year?  What was your largest baby-related purchase?  How have your child-related costs changed compared to their first few years?

Those without kids yet but considering it in the future, if you’re reading this blog you likely are not part of the herd mentality and hopefully you too can stay well under the average of $8,000-$13,000.  Any questions for us?  Happy to help!

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We believe in stacking up life hacks to keep your enjoyment levels to the max without depleting your bank account.  Here are some ways to further educate yourself and save thousands of dollars over your lifetime by making some simple adjustments:

• Investing Newbies: Check out our free Investing 101 Series.
• How much are you paying for your phone plan?  Canadians, learn more about Public Mobile, and see how we are paying $3/mo for our cell phone plan.
• How much are you paying for internet?  Canadians, learn more about the various Independent Service Providers out there to see who services your area so you can lower your monthly bills.
• How much are you paying for home insurance?  We were able to reduce our rates by 25% by switching over to Square One Insurance.  If you live in BC, AB, SK, MB, and ON, check out Square One for your home insurance, landlord insurance, and/or tenant insurance.  Use this link to receive an extra $15 off your quote.  (Note that you must use this link to start the process to get the $15 off even if you prefer to pay over the phone.)
• How much are you paying for your monthly utility bills?  See how you can likely save on this monthly expense.

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