Are you financially prepared for a baby?

 So you found out your pregnant or your trying to become pregnant. You think you have an idea of how much it's going to cost. Do you really know? I want you to be prepared for a shocker. Coming from a mother of a toddler and young baby, I spend about $150 to $300 every two weeks on my children. I have included items at the bottom that I have used and some are very money efficient, so please check those out. I recommend each product.

Diapers/wipes-

It's best to buy in bulk if you use disposable diapers. Cloth diapers are much cheaper but require more work since you will have to wash them. So let's just talk about disposable diapers. An average newborn will need 8 to 15 diaper changes a day. That's a ton of diapers. It's best to wipe your baby even if it isn't poop. So at least one wipe each diaper change. My husband and I would call out how many wipes we thought each poo diaper would take. We would say things like '4 sheeter'. Some diapers are very sticky, others are a complete mess and you wonder how they got poo in places that it's at. I've had to use about 9 wipes on a single diaper change before. So you will go through wipes quite quickly. Wipes tend to be used to clean up the baby as well. An infant tends to spit up, especially at times your not expecting. So expect lots of diapers and lots of wipes. The best thing to do is find a sale, which diapers.com or babiesrus.com will have where you buy 4 boxes and get the 5th free or similar ones. It's ok to buy bigger sizes although I wouldn't go above size 4 as my son is now in size 4 and about to potty train. We did one of those deals and bought a box of each size. Bigger packs of diapers range from $30 to $50 a box. Big containers of wipes are about $10 to $25. You'll also want to get some diaper rash cream which isn't all that expensive. So you'll probably pay about $50 to $70 a month on diapers and wipes.

Formula-

So your probably saying, 'well I'm going to breast feed'. I bet a lot of mothers are probably sitting there looking at you like, well be prepared. Not all moms can breast feed. You may not be able to produce enough so then you will have to supplement with formula. Or you could have my situation where my babies rejected my milk and had to go to formula. Formula is costly. I use similac advance and it's about $45 dollars a box which has 6 bottles in it. My daughter, drinking 4.5 to 5 oz goes through a bottle a day. So I go through a box a week a least. That's about 5 boxes a month, about $225.

Items you'll need to get-

Bottles- your looking at $10 to $30 dollars a pack and your going to want quite a few. My husband and I bought about 40 bottles total and we are now down to 12.

Blankets- You'll need a lot of receiving blankets. Those range from $10 to $25 for a pack of 3. I went through about 4 blankets a day when Bellanova was a newborn.

Outfits- anywhere from $5 to $25 and you don't need too many as babies grow fast. You'll want to be prepared for possibly changing them at least once a day. You can also get some outfits from another parent somewhere. Don't be afraid to ask people if they have any baby clothes that their children don't fit in if they have a toddler or baby.

Baby bath- Big baths are scary for infants. Smaller infant baths are great for that reason. $15 to $50. I put the one that I love in the product list below.

Breast pump- Your going to need one as you can't always be there to feed your baby, especially if your going back to work. $20 to $300. Oh yeah, they cost that much. This is also the type of product that you pay for what you get. I went through 3 different $30 pumps before I forked out the money to get another one that worked great. That is added in the product list below.

Crib- Your going to need this obviously. $150 to $400, sometimes more but it's up to you.

Bassinet- I found a great one at walmart for $30. I added that to my product list down below. However it might be best to get the 3 in 1 type which is a play yard, changing table and bassinet as the play yard will become essential later on.

Stroller- This is another 3 in 1 type of item that I got, car seat, stroller, carrier. That is also added to my product list below. However, a stroller by itself is $5 to $1500. Yup they can be expensive to, however, the more expensive ones ten to be the double to quad stroller. You don't want the lightweight cheap ones until the baby can support itself while sitting up. For the stroller I recommend other than the 3 in 1, click here, single or double.

Car seat- About $50 to $1,000. You'll probably end up buying two, an infant car seat until they are about 4 to 6 months and then a bigger and I would recommend convertible car seat.

Diaper bag- around $50, there could be cheaper ones, although they can go considerably more expensive for designers but I don't understand why anyone would want a designer diaper bag.

Carriers/slings/wraps- The ones that are cloth, not the car seat infant carriers. $40 to $200. Who knew cloth could cost so much? I added my favorite in the products below.

Rocking chair- You'll need this unless your willing to deal with nasty back pains from manually rocking your baby that many mothers complain about. $125 to $600.

Toys- I wouldn't spend all too much on toys. A few rattles and maybe some light up toys. However, my son's favorite toys are socks, a plastic coffee can and a box. All the toys we bought for him pretty much tucked in a corner. I do recommend getting a stationary jumper or one of those all in one toys that a baby can turn around in and it has many different toy options which is in the product list. Those can be a bit pricey, about $80.

Bouncer- If your infant is like mine, once they start kicking their legs, this will be a great way to keep them busy. They are about $30 to $50. I also added the bouncer I use to the product list below. We got that one after we used it at my brother's house. We originally had a $70 one that my son hated. When I went to buy this one that was so much better, I was shocked to see it was under $30.

Don't forget about burp cloths, bath towels and rags. Those don't cost much.

Don't listen to people when they say to buy a big changing table that costs a ton. In just about every diaper bag, there is a portable mat that works just as good.

So by my calculations, you will probably start out paying around $2000, not including formula. It could possibly be more. Just remember, you will have to pay for other things each month as well which this total does not include.

I added links below to the products I have tried and tested and completely approve of!