Here’s How Much Our Son’s First Year Cost

Similar to what we’ve been doing annually for our daughter, we are recreating for our son now that he’s finished up his first rotation around the sun!

For those new here, you can see all our parenting related posts here.

Pull up any article on Google about the costs of raising a kid and they will tell you to get read to spend anywhere from $10,000-$15,000 per year.  We’re here to dispel this myth that kids MUST be expensive.  Really, kids can be as expensive as you choose.

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.
  • Parker was breeched and Nic had an ECV performed to try and flip him to avoid a c-section.  Thankfully it worked (in less than a minute!).  This too was covered and came at no cost to us.
• We live in Canada which offers 12-18 months of parental leave.  With Finn, Nic took the full 18 months to never to return to work again.  This time around with Parker, it was my turn to take the full parental leave (as I was the only spouse working).  Since I was not the birth parent I could not take the max 18 months leave, but I was able to take 61 weeks off where I was receiving $357/week (total of $21,777).
• Thankfully our son took to breastfeeding and we never had to purchase or use any formula.  Like his sister, he is also is a weirdo and never took to bottles.  Or cows milk.  Or soy milk.  Or oat milk.  Like ever…
• As a same sex family, we have a cost to pay to create our family.  This post does not include the costs incurred for us to add another little human to our family (vitamins/medicine, sperm storage, donor samples, shipping/storage of donor samples, fertility clinic visits, IUI attempts) which cost us ~$5,300 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 son, and not related to what we spent during his first year. For those curious, Nic was successfully pregnant with Finn with IUI attempt #1 and Parker was IUI attempt #3.

The Breakdown:

• Diapers & Wipes: $352
  • 24 New Born (he was a big boy and in these for only a few days!)
  • 315 Size 1
  • 304 Size 2
  • 82 Size 3
  • 762 Size 4
  • Total: 1,487
  • It’s interesting to me to see how few NB and size 3 diapers we used with Parker and how quickly he jumped to size 4 compared to Finn.
  • We found Pampers Swaddlers worked the best for our both of our little ones. On average, we spent just under $0.19 per diaper during this first year.
  • We prefer Costco Kirkland baby wipes.  We were somewhere on box three of 900 wipes by the time he turned 1.
  • Major kudos to the parents out there who go the reusable diapers route!  I still cannot believe that we used nearly 1,500 diapers in a single year!  Diapers were our most expensive line item during his first year so if you’re able to go reusable, you’re looking at shaving a couple hundred dollars off right there (although I’m always curious how much your water bill increases by with the extra loads of laundry).  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: $91 (all new)
  • Rug ($40), curtain rod & black out curtains ($39), furniture anchors ($12),
  • Many of the other items we had already from when we set up the nursery for Finn.  So no need to get the bigger items like a crib, dresser, decor, lamp, crib sheets, rocking chair, end table, etc.
• Medicines/hygiene: $116 (all new)
  • Bio Gaia (probiotics), oval gas drops, reflux prescription (omeprazole), baby advil
  • Some items we still had from his sister – so used but did not have to purchase:
    • Vitamin D,  nasal saline, Nose Frieda (lifesaver snot sucker), Camilia (homeopathic teething relief), lotion, baby Tylenol, baby shampoo, forehead thermometer, humidifier.
  • Not much you can do about these costs and the various medicines and hygiene products will obviously vary on the kid.
• Circumcision: $315
  • A circumcision is considered an elective/cosmetic surgery in Canada so this was not covered through our universal health plan.  The circumcision itself cost $300 and then we spent another $15 on cream and vaseline for afterwards.
• Random things: $208
  • Bob stroller ($25, second hand – best $25 we’ve spent!), Finn’s big sister baby blanket gift ($4, new), WeeRide bike carrier ($30, second hand, another awesome purchase), baby memory book ($13, new), car window shades ($22, new), Bento box ($8, new – haven’t used yet), pretend power tools ($10, new – haven’t given to him yet), MEC kids down sleeping bag ($40, second hand – haven’t used yet), wooden toy cars ($5, second hand), soothers ($15, new), 1/2 cost of 100 piece Picasso tiles ($30, new – we love these!), musical shaker ($6, new),
• Activities: $175
  • 1/2 sports centre pass November – February (granted if we only had a 6 month old and not a 4 year old in the house as well we likely would not have gotten the pass this year)
• Clothes: $33
  • 0-3 month arm up swaddle ($10, second hand), size 7 rain boots ($3, second hand), grow with me hoodie ($32, new – to support a family member’s business), size 7 native shoes ($4, second hand), size 8 native shoes ($10, second hand), 2T splash suit ($9, new), 4T sweater ($5, new).
  • Clearly, we had many hand me downs from Finn.  We purposely wanted gender neutral clothes for our first kid so that we could use for baby 2 if they were the opposite sex.  Even after downsizing after Finn, we still had wayyyy too many baby clothes in our house.
  • We sold many of our clothes that were NB – 2T, of which we tucked into Finn’s numbers not Parker’s since these were clothes we originally had for kiddo 1.  We somehow ended up with even more clothes that we were able to sell $40 worth for Parker.
• Things we received for free as gifts or for free from random other parents in our community: $0
  • We didn’t really receive many gifts from friends and family (thank goodness!) as this seems to be something you give for someone’s first kiddo not second.  We didn’t want any sort of baby shower so I suppose if you were having something like this for your second kid you’d likely receive some items.  We received a handful of clothes and books from some friends and family and a stuffed bunny which Parker sleeps with at night.
  • One of our FIRE friends in town gave us a big box of her Montessori toys that she held onto once her daughter out grew them for us to borrow.  Hands down, Parker’s favourite toy was this pop up people toy.  It was the first thing he went for every morning.  Thank you Marii!
  • Free items from others in our community:
    • We still had all the essentials from when Finn was a baby but some items we gifted on our buy nothing group as we didn’t want to hold on to them for 2-3 years and I figured we can always pick up again for free down the road.  I didn’t keep track of everything, but some items included are: exersaucer, jolly jumper, baby bath tub, baby swing, and a push car.
    • Our biggest win of the year by far, was scoring a FREE Bob double stroller! These bad boys cost over $1,000 new – what?!? Someone posted an older model on our buy nothing group and thankfully I saw it and pounced on it.  She even delivered it to our house for us!? We loveeee Bob strollers and highly recommend searching for used ones.
  • Note that the majority of the no-cost items came from parents in our community that we did not know.  Please ask around from other parents in your area what platform is commonly used by you (Facebook Marketplace, Varage Sale, etc).  There are TONS of free baby-related items out there once you know where to look.
• Things we sold: -$70
  • travel bassinet ($10), puzzle ($15), talking monkey toy ($25), booster seat ($20),

How Much Did We Spend?

Drum roll pleaseeeeeee

We spent a total of $1,220 during our little guy’s first year.  That comes out to $102 per month. You can easily spend that much on a stroller alone. Wow, it’s pretty eerie how similar we were with both kiddos.  During our daughter’s first year, we spent $1,241 – so only $21 different!

The big outliers this year that we spent on Parker but didn’t during Finn’s first year are his circumcision and the sports centre pass, which make up nearly 1/2 the cost for his first year.  Taking those two items out, we spent $730 on everything else which lines up with what I was expecting.

Again, 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 the myth that babies HAVE to be expensive.

RESP Contributions

We also contributed $2,500 towards his RESP education fund to get the full 20% match ($500) from the government so a total of $3,000 was invested into his future education.  If that $3,000 grows at an average annual rate of 7% for 18 years, he will have $10,537 to put towards his education just from this one annual contribution alone.  We plan to keep this up for 15 years to get the max lifetime grant of $7,200 from the government.  Assuming we stop contributing into their RESPs after age 15, at an average annual growth of 7% he will have ~$100,000 in his RESP by the time he’s 18 to account for his post-secondary education.  In Canada, this should be more than enough.  And if not, I see nothing wrong with him taking out student loans for the remainder (my student loans were what kick started me on my interest in personal finance).  If he decides to go another route, this money is earmarked for him to use for whatever – be it to travel around the world, take some online courses/certificates, go into the trades, go into the military, start his own business, use as a downpayment for a house, etc.

Food Costs

We also started to introduce foods around 5 months old.  We haven’t separated how much we spent on his food compared to our overall food spending but during these first few feeding months it was likely around $20/month.  His favorite foods during his first few months were avocados, peppers, cottage cheese, yogurt, berries, crackers, and cheerios.

Adding It All Up

So if we also include the $2,500 RESP contribution and ~$20/month on food for 7 months (20*7=$140) we’re looking at a total of $3,860 total out of pocket for his first year.  Of course, the RESP is elective and we recognize our privilege of being able to contribute this $2,500 towards his 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 $1,220 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 $10,000-$15,000.  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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