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I have some really exciting news in the Mustard Seed Money household. Mrs. MSM and I are expecting our second child in October. I casually mentioned it in the last post, but I’m not sure everyone caught it. We are over the moon and can’t wait to meet our newest addition. Our son and the new baby will be almost exactly two years apart, which hopefully means they will be good buddies.
I have to admit that I’m a little worried. It’s hard taking care of an 18-month-old now, let alone taking care of a future 2-year-old and a newborn. Thankfully our little guy has slept through the night since 6 months. But of course, I’m not looking forward to the loss of sleep again. Plus just thinking about their probably differing day/night schedules makes me nervous.
FinCon
With that said, I am disappointed that I will not be able to attend FinCon, which I was really looking forward to. Given the circumstances though, I think I’m going to enjoy being at home. Even though I’ll miss this year’s FinCon, I will be buying the early early bird tickets for 2018, wherever that may be. I’m secretly hoping it will be on the East Coast in 2018, since it was on the West Coast in 2016 and the Mid West in 2017, and preferably within driving distance from the DC area 🙂 One can hope!
The Cost of Raising a Child
According to the latest figures from the USDA, the cost of raising a child is now $233,610 over a 17-year period. That figure doesn’t even consider the cost of college tuition, though. This seems awfully high to me. It breaks down to $13,705 a year, or around $1150 a month on a child. I can definitely tell you that my son has not added $1150 to our monthly bill thus far (thankfully).
If you’re curious, read more here about how we have saved money with our son.
A Second Child
Now that we’re getting ready to have a second child, I’m really curious about the impact on our budget. I figured a lot of the beginner items that we have will still be in good shape. We already have cloth diapers, my wife intends to breastfeed, and we have some unisex clothes (and of course a lot of boy clothes). We also have a ton of toys and other “stuff” that we can reuse for baby #2, hopefully defraying some of those preliminary costs in the future.
I then started to run through the list of things that the USDA found were the biggest expenses for a child. My mind was blown.
Housing
The biggest cost, according to the USDA, is housing for children. While we currently reside in a three bedroom townhouse, we figure we could easily handle more kids if they share bedrooms. Although it would definitely be tight quarters. So if we decided that space was at a premium, we would think about heading west, so we could get a bigger bang for our buck on a larger home.
Not only would we be looking for a bigger house, but also a bit more land. We want our kids to be able to run around freely. Our current townhouse has a postage stamp for a yard. While we’re close to a playground, it’s not as convenient as having the kids right behind the house and being able to monitor them from inside.
Food
Initially this cost should be minimal as long as the baby is nursing. However, if this baby is anything like my son, he/she will be a voracious eater, which is good and bad. My son has developed very expensive taste (thanks to his mama) as he loves to eat salmon, berries, and nuts. Having two such eaters in the house, I can only imagine that we will be making more trips to the grocery store to always have fresh food on hand. Hopefully Aldi continues to provide great deals for us.
Child Care
Since my wife stays at home, we don’t pay for child care costs at this point. We know we are not the norm in our area and that many couples struggle with the costs of child care.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, Washington DC leads the nation in childcare cost. For a family of two in the city, child care costs roughly $2,600 per month, or almost $32,000 per year.
With numbers like that, I can understand why many mothers feel forced to give up their job since it can become cost-prohibitive.
Education
My wife and I are diligently contributing to my son’s 529 plan. We plan to also have one for the new baby, so this will definitely be an added expense. We figure while we have the money available that it makes sense to contribute. Then hopefully compounding interest will do its thing.
Thankfully the school district that we live in is top-notch. So at this point, we are not considering the additional cost of private school tuition.
Transportation
I have a friends that just had their second set of twin girls. Needless to say, their Honda Civic got the boot. A brand new Kia Minivan with 3rd row seating took its place. They jumped from a $12,000 car to a $25,000 one, which is over double what they previously paid.
While the sedans that my wife and I drive will be a little bit tight, especially since the car seat doesn’t give the passenger seat much leg room, we don’t have any current plans to upgrade our vehicles at this point. Although, it will be a bit tricky if we ever have a 5th passenger in the car. Maybe we should reconsider…
Quite a few years from now, I do consider car insurance rising when my children turn 16. Hopefully by that time, Google or Elon Musk will have perfected driverless car technology and insurance will hopefully be cheaper.
Miscellaneous
This is where I figure we’ll have a mix between upgrading items for my son and getting new things for the baby. We’ll need to move my son into a big boy bed at some point, as I’m not interested in having two cribs. I figure I will do some research to find a good deal.
Once my son and the baby get older, I figure this is where costs will really add up. From sports activities to camps and travel plans in the future, I know all of those things don’t come cheap, or even with a promo code. I can’t help but think about the costs of going to Disneyland, a cruise, or purchasing more than two airplane seat tickets. These will all be costs that will be multiplied depending on the number of children that we have.
Congratulations on your new kid!!! I’m eager to hear how the cost equation turns out for you. And what about medical care? That seems a huge cost, especially for early retirement, no? Medical seems like one big thing you may want to comment upon.
I’d also be curious about the costs of kid #1 for that matter… That’s an area where we could use some help in thinking things through. My friends with kids all just say “they’re expensive” without much detail, and most aren’t living frugally anyhow, so I don’t know what to make of it.
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We have really great health insurance. The total cost out of pocket for our first child was less than $300 total. So it didn’t really factor in for us for cost.
Congrats! And you’re right on- children 2,3,4,5 are way cheaper than 1. Also, you’ll be surprised how quick your first kid transitions from being an only child- even at only 2 years apart. I’ve got two that are 18 mo apart and it was incredible to see the 18 mo old transition to ‘big sister’ even at that age.
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Thanks for sharing Daniel!!! My son is really easy going to we’re hoping the transition isn’t too bad. Although he is in a clingy mommy stage right now that we’re hoping doesn’t last too much longer 🙂
Congrats on #2!
The cost sounds like a lot, but now that you highlighted that $65K out of the $233K is due to housing, I’m feeling good b/c we don’t have to move!
Sam
Hahaha!!! I have a feeling if you had to move you’d find another amazing deal in SF like you always do 🙂 Or better yet move out to the Heartland where you’re investing and take advantage of some of the cheap real estate 🙂
Once again, congrats on the addition to your family. Having two kids myself, I definitely think that trading my Mazda 3 sedan to Honda oddessy is a great move. It makes traveling with the kids a lot more easier, especially grocery shopping. With a baby stroller, groceries and baby items, having a minivan makes live a lot easier. It also makes transportation the kids out of the vehicle a lot easier and saves you some back pain.
Leo T. Ly @ isaved5k.com recently posted…How I Saved An Extra $200,000 By Increasing My Debt
Having grown up with a Mom driving a minivan I never wanted one. Now that I’m getting older with kiddos of my own I am seeing the benefits 🙂
Congrats Rob – very exciting news 🙂
My sister and I are two years apart and we had some good fun when we were growing up.
Erik @ The Mastermind Within recently posted…How Living a Healthy Life Will Improve Your Investment Performance
Thanks for stopping by Erik!!! That’s awesome to hear that you and your sister were close being two years apart. I don’t feel like you always hear that 🙂
Congrats MSM! we also have two that are about 2 years apart. It has worked out great as they love to play together.
Don’t sweat the additional cost. Its not as bad as its made out to be. Especially not for someone who is as financially aware as you are.
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Thanks for stopping by!!! That’s awesome that they love playing together. I am definitely looking forward to them playing with each other. Hopefully they get along great 🙂
Congratulations! You will get more than doubled happiness when you have two kids. Moreover, kids can learn how to communicate and share among themselves.
I am definitely looking forward to the two kiddos interacting as they get older. My son loves to have someone playing with him now. So hopefully when the new kiddo is older than can have a blast playing together 🙂
Congrats on the great news! Now imagine our surprise when we found out we were having our first and second child at the same time. Twins! I remember being in sticker shock over the cost of newborn needs like formula, diapers, wipes, etc. We found a way to make it work, and just a couple years later had our third child. All about making sure everyone is healthy and happy.
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Thanks for sharing Brian!!! I have a friend that had two sets of twins, so four girls under 4. To say they were shocked is an understatement. I can’t imagine having twins. Taking care of one is hard let alone trying to take are of two at the same time. You must have some great stories 🙂
The day our twins were born, a another family had their second set of twin girls. The dad’s expression was a bit of excitement and fear. I learn to play a lot of zone defense when they started walking. 🙂
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Hahaha…I feel like I have my hands full with one. I can’t even imagine starting off with two 🙂
Congrats on having a second kid! I will say while money is not the only reason we have considered not having a second one this moment it has crossed out minds.
The housing part is not really a big concern as we already have a decent house and our area is very reasonably priced.
Our current almost 2 year old eats with expensive tastes in mind at well! And eats a ton of food!
They will enjoy being 2 years apart though! My sister and I were 3 years apart and that still worked great!
Thanks for sharing!!! Sounds like your 2 year old eats like my kiddo. Lots of expensive food. My wife has to buy some items like berries in bulk. He crushes food and eats more than my wife and I at times 🙂
Congrats Rob! Those 1/4Million numbers are advertised are easy to reduced by not keeping up with the Jones, or their kids, so I’m sure you’ll be well under that. Early on, there isn’t much that is hard to predict. As the kids get older, everything just gets more expensive and it’s not that you’re missing something specific in your calc, but the daily administration of the houshold becomes more expensive as they get older. Just don’t worry about buying and using used stuff.
Thanks for sharing Mike!!! I am definitely worried about the costs as they get older. Although hopefully by then some of the transportation costs will be different with self driving cars 🙂
Congratulations to you both! Try and remember that with the additional costs and sleepless nights come unlimited joy and love, hopefully, that will ease any dollar pains. The sound of children’s laughter is priceless. 🙂
Thanks for the awesome reminder Amy!!! My son is super fun to play with and I can’t wait to watch him interact as a brother 🙂 Should be fun times!!!
Rob, congratulations to you and the wife!
My brothers and I are each 2.5 years apart, so that was fun growing up. Anna and I are talking about having a second child. The thought of increased monthly expenses definitely is worrisome, but that’s why we have side hustles. Oh and we love Aldi’s as well!
Thanks for sharing!
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Thanks for sharing Dave!!! My sister and I were four years apart so we were never in school together. She’s also way smarter than me so she went to the gift and talented school so we probably never would have been in school together for that matter 😉
Congratulations, MSM!
The news loves making budgets and expenses newsworthy. I have a pair of kids myself, and the second is significantly less expensive. I shamelessly have them both share a room. I share a room with mommy, so why shouldn’t they?
Also, don’t worry about the smaller car. I have a sedan with a solid trunk and have never had a problem taking the crew anywhere (but a third child is ABSOLUTELY a tipping point for transportation).
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Hahaha…I will definitely have to use that line in the future if they bunk up. I’d love to see their reaction to that 🙂
Hi Jack,
I love your point about ‘I share a room with Mommy’. I’m going to use it next time someone tells us we need a bigger house if we want a second child! Thanks 🙂
Congratulations! I think the cost is a bit overblown especially for the 2nd kid. I’m pretty sure you can make it work in a 3 bedroom place.
We only have one kid, but money wasn’t the issue. Mrs. RB40 doesn’t want another kid. 🙁
Thanks for sharing Joe!!! I definitely agree that we should be able to handle a 3 bedroom no problem with a 2nd kid. Now if this 2nd birth goes well and my wife wants more kids…then it might start getting tight 🙂
Congrats. We have 2 children, 2 and 5. One of the benefits of being so close together is you just hand me down everything from one kid to another. Beyond that you’ve seen my series on day care so I won’t belabor that point. For cars, our 4 person family fits nicely in a mazda 3. Certainly if we can do it, so can you. The passenger seat sits slightly forward, but not uncomfortably so. We generally rarely find we actually need a seat for a fifth person. Most visitors come in pairs with their own propulsion. Finally I already had the decent size house in the rural woods with the decent size land. I can’t blame that one on the kids.
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Thanks for sharing Full Time Finance!!! I think we’re going to dodge the daycare expenses at the moment which is a huge relief. I think if we had to worry about daycare that we would have definitely had to take that into consideration.
Our biggest concern with a fifth person is that we take care of my wife’s special need sister, who rides with us just about everywhere.
Otherwise, our sedans would be perfect like you said!!!
First of all congratulations to the little one! No matter how much they cost, kids are true blessing!
I believe it’s really great that your wife can take care of the kids. So far for us, far the biggest expense is the kindergarten. It’s around EUR 1,200 after tax deduction. It’s quite crazy, more than an apartment rental. Then after she’s over 2, travel expenses will be another extra. We fly quite often to our families and flight cost can really add up. With 2 kids that would be double. Nevertheless all these expenses cannot be compared to all the happiness you receive as a parent. Congrats again!
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Thanks for sharing Roadrunner!!! I am definitely not looking forward to the potential travel expenses that the kiddos will incur. But I definitely want them to have that experience. I didn’t travel until later in life and I want the to see some of the fun things we’ve seen over the years 🙂
Congrats to you and your family! We have a 3 1/2 year old and a 9 month old. Two boys so baby#2 wears the same clothes that big brother did. Didn’t have to buy new toys either! I think a 3 bedroom is fine for your family especially when they’re young. We have a 1 bedroom which we converted to a 2 bedroom (the second room is small though). The apartment is only about 800 square feet so I think it’ll be tight when they get a little older, but for now the baby is in a crib in our room and when he gets a little older, we can get bunk beds. At some point, I’d want a bigger place though.
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Thanks for sharing Andrew!!! I had bunk beds as a kid and it was awesome. Your kids are going to love it. Although I don’t miss having bunk beds when I was in the dorm in rooms in college.
First of all congratulations to the great news! Kids are awesome.
Having two kids (and hoping for the third one) I can tell you that kids are not expensive, the most expensive part has been a daycare and an after-school programs. And since we don’t have anyone in the States we don’t have any choice but to pay for this.
But we don’t buy brand new cloths for our daughters, they are young enough and fast enough to wear “second hand” we buy from Savers
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Thanks for sharing Friendly Russian!!! I figure we can go on the cheap early on 🙂 But over time I’m a little worried about the after school activities. Those I’m sure are going to add up over time!!!
Hey, congratulations! I’m sad I won’t see you at FinCon, but this is way better than some stuffy convention. 😉 I don’t have kids yet, but people say the second baby is easier/cheaper than the first. You’ll both do marvelously. 🙂
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I’ll definitely be disappointed not to meet up with everyone this year at FinCon!!! I’ve heard only amazing things but I am looking forward to seeing number #2 🙂
Congratulations, MSM! That’s awesome news. Every child is unique and that is what makes them special.
I have two kiddos, the older one was very obedient and didn’t break a thing. People used to wonder how we kept fragile stuff around and everything seemed to be intact.
Then came my second daughter. She knows no fear, and she doesn’t take “NO” seriously. She is a wonderful child. However, she broke a lot of things and made up for her big sister.
As parents, we can plan only to a certain extent. I say enjoy the child and go with the flow.
Lastly, when you travel, don’t be surprised – every time you book air travel, you will be booking 4 tickets. Vacations become very expensive.
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Thanks for sharing Michael!!! I am looking forward to seeing the new child’s personality. My son has no fear and pushes boundaries. But he’s still pretty obedient. We’ll see how the next one comes out 🙂
Congratulations on baby #2! I’m sure you’ll work out the logistics of bedrooms, houses, cars, etc. Love and family is the important stuff.
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Thanks for stopping by Mrs. Groovy!!! There is a lot of wisdom in your words. Love and family is the important stuff 🙂
Congrats on the great news! I’m happy for your and your wife! Mr. FAF and I have been thinking about having a second baby too! I hear you on the lack of sleep. That’s the one thing I’m definitely not looking forward to.
I didn’t know you live in DC. I live in the area too and also hope FinCon will be in DC next year *fingers crossed*.
Ms. Frugal Asian Finance recently posted…Why I Told Mr. FAF To Stop Buying Me Flowers
Thanks for sharing, Neighbor 🙂 There seems like there are a lot of us in the DC area. Seems like we are all trying to reach FIRE as quickly as possible in this area!!!
Woot woot congrats guys! Smart move having them close. We were like you and said it would be too much work at the time and to wait a bit. We have been trying for a yr and a half aND if she got pregnant now our 2 kids would have a 5 yr difference. Funny how you say your kid loves berries my son you to just destroy them. Basically a pack a day. I don’t think kids cost much, daycare is the big one for us. Trips are a clear added cost, but hey kids get you on the plane faster! Congrats again.( Btw your total cost currently says per yr) enjoy the game tonight, I told ya the caps would come hard tonight! Go Leafs!
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Hahaha…the Caps held on. Toronto came storming back and I thought for sure the Caps were going to blow it!!!
Congratulations! And don’t worry about the cars. I have three boys, including a teenager, and they all fit fine in our Ford Focus and Honda Accord backseats. Although the teenager does sometimes complain about his leg room in the Focus 🙂
Having three kids now I can definitely say that it’s easier having the second than having the first. Especially with them so close together in age, they can share clothes/toys/etc. Best of luck!
Liz@ChiefMomOfficer recently posted…Breadwinning Moms – Hannah Rounds
Thanks for stopping by Liz and thanks for the advice on the car. My biggest worry is those car seats. Those things are huge with good reason 🙂 As they get older hopefully there’s not too much fighting in the backseat 🙂
Congrats….busy times ahead for sure.
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Thanks for the well wishes Reaching the Crest!!!
Congratulations again!! My brother and I are 22 months apart and are very close. My husband and I are hoping for a 2 year age gap when we have a second child. It’s a great age difference for good friendships.
The cost seems high, but since a very large chunk of it is housing and it’s spread out over several years it isn’t as bad. Plus, the second has to be cheaper than the first! For food, we started a vegetable garden a few years ago and now late spring through fall grow much of our own produce. Doesn’t take much work or space, and saves us a ton of money!
That’s an awesome idea to start a vegetable garden Mamafishsaves!!! Definitely something to consider for the future. Anything to lower food costs 🙂
Congratulations on the new addition we have three little ones ourselves! I agree with food being the biggest cost, and plane flights! For me, most of the statistics the USDA use must be based on the average over consumer. I have found children not to be all that expensive with some work. I walk my kids to school, we would be fine in a 2 bedroom apartment, my kids are not going to get a free car or have me pay their insurance, and I’m not going to pay for their college. I don’t think people value things unless they earn it. 🙂
Thanks for sharing Jessica!!! I definitely agree that the average person is probably not actively in the PF community 🙂 I definitely think there is a bit of fluff in the estimate for raising a child 🙂
Congrats man! I think I’ll put off having kids until I’m at least 40. Right now I just want to focus on my business and enjoying life. It wouldn’t be fair to the kid if I was working all the time, and I wouldn’t be able to take care of one if I’m always on the go.
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Thanks for sharing Troy!!! We waited to have kids for a while. We definitely enjoyed traveling the world while we were single 🙂 Now I’m looking forward to traveling with them and letting them see things for the first time 🙂
Congrats!! I have 3 little rugrats myself and they are not cheap. If you’re able to take advantages of some hand me downs that will help for sure. When they start doing sports and activities the cost really skyrockets, but some programs offer a small discount for additional children. Best of luck man!
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Thanks for sharing Mike!!! We are definitely trying to take advantage of the hand me downs that are available 🙂 Why spend more money than you have to!!!
Congratulations! There is lots of cost-saving on the second child, as you already have the basics and also you know exactly what you need (the first time you think you need to buy all the doo-dads, or at least I did!). I’ve always been intrigued by those numbers and wish I could come up with my own amount for what I’ve really spent on my kids so far. I don’t think it’s even close, even though I’m not super frugal. I DO know though, that having kids have pushed us to build better lives for ourselves to be able to give them the best lives possible and that has meant increasing our income to do so. Kids provide a lot of perspective!
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Thanks for sharing Kathryn!!! There are a lot of times that I think, “Oh I’m sure this is how the Lord is viewing me when I have a meltdown/tantrum.” Definitely provides a really interesting perspective when you have kiddos 🙂
A hearty congrats MSM! But wait, I thought the cost is “priceless” :-). The biggest things I’d save for would be the college savings plan.
When my friends had a second child, they used as much in terms of clothes, toys, books, stroller, etc. from the first child. some of the costs are incremental as you have some stuff from before. Also we have a big family so many people give their child’s old clothing which is in good condition (especially when kids are very young and outgrowing stuff rapidly)
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Thanks for sharing SMM!!! I definitely want to use as much 2nd hand clothing, toys, books, strollers as possible 🙂 My son definitely didn’t care that he was wearing used clothes so I’m not sure the next one will either 🙂
Congrats MSM, that’s great news! While we don’t have any kids yet we talked about having them in the near future. It really is crazy how much supporting children costs, but I agree with the other posts above. You will likely be able to reuse some of the stuff from your first child which will help save money and If you really wanted to I’m sure you could make it work in a 3 bedroom house. Saving for college is probably the most important thing you could do, even though at the time it may not seem like it. I read an article today that said student loan debt is now up to $1.4 trillion dollars! The more you save for their college educations the better off they will be when they graduate. Helping your children graduate with the lowest amount of debt possible is a great long term goal.
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I definitely plan to help our kiddos with college. That has been one of the biggest blessings that both me and my wife received and we are incredibly grateful. It’s allowed us to accomplish some financial goals that we wouldn’t have otherwise reached!!!
Congrats!!! Kids definitely change the budget quite a bit, but you’ll find you’ll cut expenses in certain areas (like going out to expensive dinners) and you’ll make it work in the end. We’ve taken the approach that we don’t want to let finances be the main determinant for whether we can have more children. If we have the mental and physical capacity to have more and are blessed with them, we’ll make the finances work. At the end of it all, I don’t think anyone will complain when they’re getting older and they’re surrounded by a large, loving, and caring family.
My wife definitely wouldn’t mind a big family. Although I’m not sure we are looking to have a Duggar size family 🙂 But I definitely agree that children are a huge blessing that we are looking to enjoying in the future 🙂
Huge congrats!!!!!!! Someone told us once that “while you may regret not having another child, you’ll never regret having one” and that was always the statement we kept in mind while deciding when to have more babies. We never took finances into account. This might have been a bad idea, but I’m still thrilled we had our four babies, no matter how much they cost. 🙂 That being said, we are super frugal with them now so they really don’t cost that much.
Thanks for sharing your perspective Laurie!!! I had a friend reach out to me recently who said you’re not having fun until you have four 🙂 Sounds like you all are in the same camp!!!
I would agree completely with that statement. 🙂
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Congrats man on the future addition! I think those “cost of raising a child” figures are way off. Just like I feel that a person doesn’t need 3 or 4 million dollars to retire. Don’t worry about the finances, you will be just fine. Children are a blessing as you know. Everything else will sort itself out. 🙂
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Thanks for stopping by and sharing Mr. Defined Sight!!! We definitely agree that they are incredible blessings. We are beyond thrilled and can’t wait to meet the little one 🙂
Congratulations! 2nd kid was definitely easier with less incremental expense, but overall it did definitely expose our defense – 1:1 is way different from double coverage!
Good luck with everything – exciting times
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Hahaha…two on one is definitely nice right now. I am a little scared of one on one at this point but hopefully we hit a groove early on 🙂
Well, I am now experienced in this matter! We just had our second child on March 19th! I now have a 20 month old and a 1 month old.
We moved the family vehicle to a 2007 Honda Odyssey (137,500 miles)- Cost $4600 + $200 in parts/pieces to spiff it up.
Diapers are rather cheap (the wife is a master diaper bargain shopper), but the diaper bin gets filled up more often. Not too much of a dollar cost, just a cost to my nose! lol
Clothes are easy for at least the first 6 months as we bought unisex for our first. We have been buying ‘boys’ clothes in sizes larger than that for cheap. We can get them for $1.29 a pound at the goodwill outlet and there are always people selling bags of children’s clothes for next to nothing.
The first years of life are pretty cheap, the wife was already staying at home so no child care costs.
Will see what they run as they get older, but I am currently pretty confident that they won’t cost me too much more. At least until they are teenagers and start eating everything in the fridge!
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Wow that’s amazing that you can get goodwill clothes for $1.29 a pound. My wife definitely shops there as well but normally gets clothes for $0.75 an outfit which we thought was good. But clearly we need to shop at your goodwill 😉
Congratulations on your upcoming new addition! Depending on the sex of the baby, you probably can hand down a lot of your first child’s stuff.
Thanks for stopping by Wall Street Physician!!! My wife picked up enough unisex outfits that we should be ok for the first year or so. Although it would be nice if it was a boy so we wouldn’t have to pick up any items 🙂
Congratulations! That’s awesome news. For the most part, the marginal cost of another kid is actually pretty small. Health insurance costs the same for use, regardless of the number of kids. Kids don’t really eat that much. But: We live in a city where space is very expensive. Most of our neighbors don’t even one kid. Lots of couples without children but cats or dogs instead.
But who knows, next year in retirement and living in a cheaper place we might work on a little brother for little Mrs. ERN. Kids are such a blessing, but I’m sure you know that already. Best of luck!
earlyretirementnow recently posted…Five Unfortunate Facts about Student Debt in America
Thanks for sharing ERN!!! I would hate for the location that we live to limit the number of children that we can have. I definitely agree that they are huge blessings and we’d love to have as many as the Lord will allow us 🙂
We had 5 children including a set of twins but that was more than a few years ago. Children can be expensive or inexpensive but there is no doubt there is some cost. I would compare it to travelling; if you find it meaningful then it is a financial priority for you. It seems to be an American thing to pay for children’s university education. We never did that. I guess I’ve heard too many ‘party central’ stories about 1st year student bankrolled by parents. We had some frugal years for sure.
Thanks for stopping by!!! Wow five children with a set of twins. That’s awesome.
Thanks for sharing your perspective on raising children. I definitely can see how you can raise them expensively or frugally. It’s definitely whatever your priorities are!!!
Congrats! The numbers seem right to me. I’ve spent $30K per year for 5 years of child care for my twins, and if you and camps and activities and all the rest, I’ve easily hit $200K since they were born. It should slow down once they start public school.
We’re a dual income household so we can swing it. I actually think if both parents want to work, they should err on that side at least financially. Yes, one paycheck might go to child care, but longer term the financial benefits of staying in a career field, building experience, and modest retirement savings should outweigh the short term pain. That’s just a financial consideration though — if a parent wants to stay home and be a full time parent, there are other benefits to be had. Good luck!
Rich @ pennyandrich.com recently posted…Penny’s Financial Origin Story: Debt Does Not Equal Regret
Thanks for sharing Rich!!! You make a great point about building your experience and income if both spouses work. Sometimes I feel like couples look at the immediate costs and not the long term benefits from continuing to work.
This article makes me so happy! Congrats! #Celebratelifedaily
Our little boy just turned 3….I think he’s getting cheaper. We were going to buy him a bed/bedroom set, and honestly – we opted to toss him our old queen mattress that were were using for an extra guest room. It was free (originally came as a gift from our parents!) and it’ll get him through many years. Plus – there’s too many nights you end up having to crawl in there and read until you both fall asleep, so it may as well be comfy to sleep two! His main interests are rocks, dirt and….breaking things. Soooo – no need for new toys! Hit up the city wide rummage sales when you can for bigger clothes. Oh – and when Walmart has $1 clearance on any items, stock up for next season!
Congratulations MSM, lovely news! The way I see it, a second child is a great investment. You’ve already got all the gear and hard won parenting skills, so it makes sense to reuse them 😉
Eliza recently posted…5 Ways We Save $2,000+ A Year Without Giving Anything Up
Hahhaa…thanks for the great perspective Eliza!!! We might as well use as this used stuff laying around the house 🙂
Congratulations!! A two year age gap is perfect, that’s what I would like the gap to be for my son’s future sibling, will have to see what happens 🙂
I won’t be postponing the second child due to extra costs. I know kids are expensive but I’m just prepared to go with the flow. We are lucky in that way I suppose to be secure enough to be able to do that. I guess I just have the mindset that people on lesser incomes have managed just fine (my parents for example, especially in the early years), so I think I should be ok too as long we don’t live beyond our means.
Life we learn recently posted…7 Most Useful Products I Bought for My Baby – 4 Month Mark
Thanks for stopping by Life we learn!!! We are beyond blessed that they will be two years apart. We definitely hope that they are friendly towards each other 🙂
Ms. Blue Ribbon and i are expecting in mid-June. I have 2 spreadsheets with details on how much money we will have and need during our parental leave! I also estimated how much money well will be pulling in until the end of 2018 to figure out if we will be ok while baby 2 is in the infant room at the daycare. (for those that don’t know the infant room in inFANTy more expensive than the other rooms) Needless to say….i have concerns too 😉
Thanks for sharing Budget on a stick!!! We are really fortunate that we don’t have daycare costs. It seems super expensive but I guess that’s the going rate these days 🙁
A debt of gratitude is in order for sharing ERN!!! I would despise for the area that we live to confine the quantity of youngsters that we can have. I unquestionably concur that they are enormous favors and we’d love to have the same number of as the Lord will permit us
Thanks for sharing Daniyal!!! Children are definitely a blessing and a joy much more than I could have ever imagined!!!