Thank you, my experience has been similar (in the comparable aspects) to Julia’s and Bernadette’s.
My daughter is 4,5 years old by now, so I don’t really remember how much exactly I spent during the first year, but I can give general information:
Food, diapers and clothing can be acquired pretty cheaply if done right and doesn’t pose the main cost. Health insurance outside of the US is not much of a problem.
I spent a lot less on gear/nursery. (I didn’t feel like I really needed anything besides a baby wrap.)
Housing costs might increase in the first years already if you lived in a not-so-nice area before and want to move or if your previous housing situation was already very crowded. I personally don’t consider it necessary for children to have their own room or something like that before they hit schooling age.
The cost is more to be found in daycare/private schooling and opportunity costs career-wise. One part of the latter is lost wages directly due to working fewer hours, others are less obvious. (Foregoing promotions, less time for additional qualifications, etc.)
What you should take into account is that children get a lot more expensive as they age. A baby is pretty cheap. After a while, it’s not that easy anymore to find second-hand-clothing, they eat a lot more, you might want to spend a lot on educational expenses (mainly that).
Since I don’t earn a wage (and get scholarships for my degree which are a lot higher because I have a child), I didn’t lose any money there. Or any money at all, for that matter, since I wouldn’t have had the additional money if it hadn’t been for my child.
For me, the costs of a child have mainly been opportunity costs. I can’t easily put a number on those, though. This stems mostly from the unusual situation that I had my child very young (<20 years).
I spent a lot less on gear/nursery. (I didn’t feel like I really needed anything besides a baby wrap.)
Looking over our gear/nursery category, here are some sample expenses:
blackout curtains and velcro
baby bottle, nipples, sleeves
outlet covers, childproof cabinet fasteners
I personally don’t consider it necessary for children to have their own room or something like that before they hit schooling age.
We’re currently all in the same room, which mostly works. The main problem is that when she’s napping in her crib we pretty much can’t get at anything in our room without waking her, so anything we might need we need to store outside our bedroom.
you might want to spend a lot on educational expenses
This one seems really variable. Daycare around here and private school are similarly expensive, while homeschooling is something we could do pretty much on our current shifted schedule. If we’re happy with the public school, however, then this is comparable to free daycare.
Since I don’t earn a wage (and get scholarships for my degree which are a lot higher because I have a child), I didn’t lose any money there.
What have you been doing for childcare? Can you look after your kid while you’re in school or doing schoolwork, or has that been someone else?
Hi Jeff, yeah, I didn’t have those expenses in the nursery/gear category. We either had the things you mentioned already or didn’t use them.
My daughter never napped in the bed when she was a baby or slept alone at all in the bed, for that matter. When she was sleeping and I wasn’t going to bed yet, I always had her in the baby wrap for sleeping. Glad those times are over!
The advantage of that was that she didn’t awake from me moving, though. Have you tried playing background noise when she falls asleep, so she gets used to it not being silent?
Yeah, the daycare/private schooling thing is really different in Germany. Daycare here is very cheap, private schools are a bit more expensive, but still very cheap by UK and US standards. I want to keep the homeschooling option open too, that’s why I intend to move away from Germany soon-ish (homeschooling is illegal here).
For almost the first 2,5 years I stayed home with my daughter and homeschooled myself until I was done with schooling. That was pretty exhausting and I don’t particularly recommend it. After that, I started my degree and first had my daughter in daycare until the afternoon, it was a group setting for about eight children aged 1-3 and three child-care workers. She stayed there for a year and now she is in what we call kindergarden for children aged 3-6 with about 15 children in one group and again 3 child-care workers.
Both solutions were private institutions and expensive in comparison, especially where she went to first, but I got reduced fees.
We either had the things you mentioned already or didn’t use them.
A minor example: you don’t need outlet covers in europe because the outlets are designed in a safer way.
When she was sleeping and I wasn’t going to bed yet, I always had her in the baby wrap for sleeping.
We did that for the first maybe three months, but as she got older and less good at sleeping through everything we found that crib naps worked better. We’ll still do that occasionally when she needs a nap and we’re out.
Have you tried playing background noise when she falls asleep, so she gets used to it not being silent?
We do that, and it helps. Noise outside of our room (piano, bagpipes, etc) doesn’t wake her up, but noise inside does. I’m not sure how that works for her, but I guess she can tell there’s someone there.
Thank you, my experience has been similar (in the comparable aspects) to Julia’s and Bernadette’s. My daughter is 4,5 years old by now, so I don’t really remember how much exactly I spent during the first year, but I can give general information: Food, diapers and clothing can be acquired pretty cheaply if done right and doesn’t pose the main cost. Health insurance outside of the US is not much of a problem. I spent a lot less on gear/nursery. (I didn’t feel like I really needed anything besides a baby wrap.)
Housing costs might increase in the first years already if you lived in a not-so-nice area before and want to move or if your previous housing situation was already very crowded. I personally don’t consider it necessary for children to have their own room or something like that before they hit schooling age.
The cost is more to be found in daycare/private schooling and opportunity costs career-wise. One part of the latter is lost wages directly due to working fewer hours, others are less obvious. (Foregoing promotions, less time for additional qualifications, etc.)
What you should take into account is that children get a lot more expensive as they age. A baby is pretty cheap. After a while, it’s not that easy anymore to find second-hand-clothing, they eat a lot more, you might want to spend a lot on educational expenses (mainly that).
Since I don’t earn a wage (and get scholarships for my degree which are a lot higher because I have a child), I didn’t lose any money there. Or any money at all, for that matter, since I wouldn’t have had the additional money if it hadn’t been for my child.
For me, the costs of a child have mainly been opportunity costs. I can’t easily put a number on those, though. This stems mostly from the unusual situation that I had my child very young (<20 years).
Looking over our gear/nursery category, here are some sample expenses:
blackout curtains and velcro
baby bottle, nipples, sleeves
outlet covers, childproof cabinet fasteners
We’re currently all in the same room, which mostly works. The main problem is that when she’s napping in her crib we pretty much can’t get at anything in our room without waking her, so anything we might need we need to store outside our bedroom.
This one seems really variable. Daycare around here and private school are similarly expensive, while homeschooling is something we could do pretty much on our current shifted schedule. If we’re happy with the public school, however, then this is comparable to free daycare.
What have you been doing for childcare? Can you look after your kid while you’re in school or doing schoolwork, or has that been someone else?
Hi Jeff, yeah, I didn’t have those expenses in the nursery/gear category. We either had the things you mentioned already or didn’t use them.
My daughter never napped in the bed when she was a baby or slept alone at all in the bed, for that matter. When she was sleeping and I wasn’t going to bed yet, I always had her in the baby wrap for sleeping. Glad those times are over! The advantage of that was that she didn’t awake from me moving, though. Have you tried playing background noise when she falls asleep, so she gets used to it not being silent?
Yeah, the daycare/private schooling thing is really different in Germany. Daycare here is very cheap, private schools are a bit more expensive, but still very cheap by UK and US standards. I want to keep the homeschooling option open too, that’s why I intend to move away from Germany soon-ish (homeschooling is illegal here).
For almost the first 2,5 years I stayed home with my daughter and homeschooled myself until I was done with schooling. That was pretty exhausting and I don’t particularly recommend it. After that, I started my degree and first had my daughter in daycare until the afternoon, it was a group setting for about eight children aged 1-3 and three child-care workers. She stayed there for a year and now she is in what we call kindergarden for children aged 3-6 with about 15 children in one group and again 3 child-care workers. Both solutions were private institutions and expensive in comparison, especially where she went to first, but I got reduced fees.
A minor example: you don’t need outlet covers in europe because the outlets are designed in a safer way.
We did that for the first maybe three months, but as she got older and less good at sleeping through everything we found that crib naps worked better. We’ll still do that occasionally when she needs a nap and we’re out.
We do that, and it helps. Noise outside of our room (piano, bagpipes, etc) doesn’t wake her up, but noise inside does. I’m not sure how that works for her, but I guess she can tell there’s someone there.