Dec

28

Becoming A Single Mother? What will You Need?

Posted by singlemom

December 28, 2008 |

I was visiting BabyCenter.com today and noticed that they had a calculator for figuring out how much it will cost to raise a child. I was flabbergasted, to say the least. I can tell you from experience that it does not really cost as much as what the total came to, but here is the breakdown:

Expense Start Age End Age Annual Cost
Housing
Food
Transportation
Clothing
Healthcare
Childcare/Education
Miscellaneous
College

Cost for first year (excluding college) is $7,568

Total cost is $187,408

Hmmm…This is all very interesting. Keep on mind the few factors that I entered:

  • I live in the North East (Maine).
  • I am single.
  • My income is less than $38,000.00 a year.
  • Also, my daughter will actually go to college for 10 years because of her career choice.
  • *Another also, this is based on 2006 costs, and my daughter was born in 1992.
  • *I do not pay for health-care for her.

What I would like to concentrate on, for the purpose of this article, is the first year costs of raising a child. I assume two things while looking over the totals above:

  • The total for the first year, $7,568.00, must reflect items purchased new.
  • The total must reflect items that are not completely necessary to raising the baby in the first year.

I will start with housing. I would not be upgrading to a new home just because I had a baby, or plan to have two, three or even four more children in the future.  So there would be no additional cost for the housing aspect itself. I live in a three bedroom manufactured home.

The other housing costs - utilities and such - would not go up significantly in that first year, either. Just a little extra water and electricity would be used for bathing and feeding, as well as laundry.

As for food, I would breast feed as long as I could, and I would likely choose to make my own baby foods using organic food items. This could be a little costly, but babies don’t eat that much in the first year. I would also have to add the cost of baby cereal. Feeding would still likely be the single most expensive expense the first year, if laundry costs were not.

Clothing costs would be minimal because, as soon as I knew that I was expecting, I would be yardsaling, checking out my local freecycle chapter and shopping clearance sales. I would also accept any hand-me-downs offered. Thrift shops would be my best friends.

Cloth diapers and the accessories needed may be the only things that I would have to pay full price for. And, if laundry is kept up on, I should only need a few packages of the diapers. The cost of washing them would add to the water and electric bills slightly.

Okay, now that all of that is out of the way, you can plainly see that I know where to save money, and how to do it well. I will now move on to what your baby really needs in that first year of life:

  • Love
  • Warmth
  • Food: Breast milk will help you save tons of money. And you may wish to check out the WIC program.
  • Crib: 2 sheets, 2 summer blankets, 2 winter blankets
  • Dresser
  • Infant car seat
  • Toddler car seat
  • Stroller: For me, because I love to walk. Some do not, so could save here.
  • A baby gate or two
  • A playpen
  • A high chair
  • Bottles, if necessary, and/or a breast pump
  • Diapers and accessories
  • Baby bag
  • Warm weather sleepers
  • Cold weather sleepers
  • Jacket
  • Coat/snowsuit
  • Mittens
  • Hat
  • Onesies
  • Nail Clippers
  • De-snotter
  • Teething gel
  • Diaper rash ointment
  • Q-tips
  • Homemade baby wipes
  • Baby bath, shampoo, powder and lotion
  • Baby spoons
  • Sippy cups
  • A couple of age appropriate toys to keep them entertained.
  • A thermometer.

Well, there you go. My necessities list. Can any of you think of any other necessities (not wants) for the first year? Please post them in the comments.

As you can see, most of the items in the list above can be aquired second hand. I would take advantage of that.

Shannon


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