Well THAT was a fast year! And now because I’m a dad I’m allowed to say things like “they grow up so fast, don’t they?” And “Stop playing with your penis!” Haha… Man, what a ride so far :)
It’s crazy to think that in only 12 months a human can go from a cute little blob in the belly, to a cute chubby speed demon trying to gobble everything in sight. Both food and money, for that matter. I can tell he’s gonna be a little troublemaker when he grows up too, just like his daddy!
But hot damn do I love that child… We call him the king in our household since he’s the last of our bloodline to carry on my last name at the moment, seeing how my sister changed hers during marriage and my brother is yet to settle down. Though it’s quite possible he does have some illegitimate kiddos roaming around the country for all we know ;) (You reading this, brother?)
Anywho, we don’t plan on throwing him too much of an outrageous birthday party today cuz we don’t have $32,000 laying around (that, and our boy won’t remember a darn thing anyways), but we ARE gonna have lots of fun and spend quality time with our family and friends. Along with tasty cakes and beers, of course. I hear there’s some tradition of smushing the cake in your kid’s face when he turns 1? We’ll see how that goes ;)
In other related news, babies are mad expensive. Remember that Baby Costs Tracker I enacted over 12 months ago? Well, it keeps on tickin’! I should throw a party for myself too for staying on top of it for so long! One year is no joke! It takes forever, haha…
So if you will, please indulge me in impressing you with the results (not so much for the numbers contained in them, but just for the fact of *having* results to show off ;)):
- Total amount pre-birth: $2,781.73
- Total amount after 2 months born: $3,651.15 (up $869.42)
- Total amount after 5 months: $5,241.83 (up $1,590.68)
- Total amount after 8 months: $10,447.98 (up $4,834.25*)
- New grand total after 21 months: $15,252.37 (up $4,804.39)
- *Amount of that invested in his 529 college acct: $3,350.00
Yeah. Money guzzlers like no other. If you take out the pre-birth amounts and all the college savings, it looks like we’re averaging a good $750 a month in expenses. Which includes both day care and crazy high insurance premiums. Luckily the latter will be cut to a third now going forward (more on that later), but unfortunately day care will only be going UP now that we have him in full-time. D’oh…
But I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it over and over again: that’s why God made them so cute :) To help make up for all the troubles they bring! Haha… And they really do bring you all the love and joy in the world like everyone says too. Not that I fully understood it until the wee one came out…
So hooray for making it out our first year alive! And not going into debt! I’ll continue tracking the expenses for as long as I can take it, but probably best not to hold your breath… Oddly enough the spreadsheets aren’t as important anymore as the subject behind them :)
Hope your family adventures are going well too!
——-
PS: You can see the entire breakdown of these numbers in detail here: J’s Baby Costs Tracker. It’s not pretty, but it sure is real… Give or take a few hundred :)
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They are definitely worth the cost. Although you have to remind me the steep cost as we near the birth of our third child. Our child care expenses will be eliminated soon, but so will my wife’s salary as she will be staying at home. I guess you can’t win on the financial end with children no matter which way you look at it. Enjoy that little king!
haha yup – they sure are special though :) congrats on your 3rd! we hope to have a couple more too.
It is crazy how fast time flies! Wish the little guy happy birthday for me! Hopefully child care in your new area is cheaper, but it could be more expensive too! Are lower insurance costs a hint of maybe an employee/employer job in the future? Had to ask :)
Haha no – but that would be another reason to go back to a 9-5 one day ;)
Yay! Congrats!!! Being a parent is awesome, right? Also, I’m very impressed that you have so much in his 529 already. That is great, and he will appreciate that when he is older. If he doesn’t, he should ;)
Oh, I will make sure he appreciates it don’t you worry!
People spend too much on babies. Not you but the people I work with. They buy every gadget and gizmo that the fancy baby shops stock. Dozens of outfits have been purchased when it is just easier to keep the little ones in a one piece sleeper when at home and have a few nice outfits for going out.
We got lucky and got TONS of hand me downs which always helps too. They only wear clothes like twice or three times if we’re lucky! :) Grow so fast…
My baby is 1 today also!
Time to start for #3!
CONGRATS!!! Baby twins – yay!
Happy birthday to Baby J! They’re crazy expensive, but so well worth it. Our last ( and hopefully final) one is nearly 18 months and I think we’ve just stopped keeping track, Lol! I just want to know what we’ll be doing with all our freaking diaper money once we have to stop putting multiples in them.
I think on his 18th birthday, you should give him a bill since you’ve got all this added up. Tell him that you’ll give him a good interest rate since he’s family ;-).
Now that’s a GREAT idea!!
Hah! If he doesn’t kill me first for blogging about him his entire life! :)
I don’t even know what it would look like if I tracked the expenses on those little ones and I couldn’t agree more – that’s why God made ’em cute!
I do my best to cut expenses as much as possible now, because with three girls and my desire not to completely clothe them in Goodwill (100% now, plan on tapering down to 50% by high school if possible and they don’t have jobs or businesses already) I’m going to need to have a separate savings account for clothes and books.
100% off Goodwill = Awesome! Haha… though usually kids (esp that age) don’t agree unfortunately :(
Happy Birthday!
As the dad of twins headed to college in a few months, I’ll 2nd the sentiment: it goes fast….and also tell you that even at 17 you’re still saying “stop playing with your penis.” …actually, it’s more like, “Dude, don’t grab your crotch in public.”
haahahahha… greaaaaaat.
Happy Birthday, Baby Money!! I think probably day care (and formula if you need it) are the two biggest costs for the first year. Was that true based on your spread sheets? Full-time day care runs around $1000/month, no matter how you cut it. (At least, on LI.) I mean, you can pay a little more or a little less, but that’s the average, whether you do in-home, a nursery school, whatever. It’s why so many women with more than one choose to stay home. It’s ridiculous. but congrats on reaching a year… and tracking it all! :D
Oh yeah – daycare is no joke. It would have been almost $2,000 a mo if we had him in full-time back in the DC area but luckily we didn’t. And hardly any formula too as mom breast fed most of the time… Now however we’re using more formula and switching to full-time day care so the next few updates won’t be as pretty ;)
Happt Birthday, Baby Money!!
Happy Birthday to your little one!
Happy Birthday! :)
Too cute! Happy Birthday Baby money
For a second I read that “happy birthday baby MONKEY!” – and it would also be true :) he climbs and gets into everything!
Happy birthday to he little dude! It really is a good thing he’s cute because man is that expensive! Looking forward to how you’ll be lowering those crazy high insurance premiums!
Congratulations on the birthday. Now just wait to see how he thrives when you start traveling with him.
We’re at the beach right now actually and he’s loving it :) Def. plan on traveling a lot with him.
Aside from the birth of my children…the two HAPPIEST times of my life were when our babies were no longer on baby formula (Similac) and no longer required disposable diapers. It was like hitting the lottery!! That stuff was expensive and our kids consumed these things like there was no tommorrow,,,,
Happy Birthday to your adorable little one!
Happy birthday, he’s an adorable kid!
Ours just got born a week ago and yes, we have already started to feel the fire burning into our pockets. But, in the end, that’s why we’re here on this earth: to make sure our kids get all the things they deserve. And beer, but that’s another story :))
Haha… a story that would make for much jucier blogging later on too ;) Congrats on your new little human!
This is one of the many reasons that I stick to pets. The other being that I would probably make a lousy parent.
It feels like just yesterday that he was born. We just got a nice $900 emergency room bill for our daughter. Our total cost is rising quickly.
Ouch! Those hurt twice – one for the little one getting hurt, and the other in the wallet :(
Why do you have to depress me by showing me numbers like that J? I’m sure our little princess is in the same ballpark and the crazy thing is we are thinking about adding another. ;) We must be crazy!
We’re right there with you! Those little things grow on you ;)
Woah babies are expensive!
Baby Money is adorable! I’m sure its all well worth all the money you have to spend! You are scaring me off parenthood though…
Nice work on tracking all of that! As someone with no kids yet, I find this stuff pretty interesting. It’s amazing how fast all of the expenses add up. $15,000 is not a small amount for under 2 years.
I know. Imagine it at 5 and then 10 and 18??? I don’t know if I’ll be able to continue stomaching it all ;)
Happy Birthday Baby Money!!! :D
That is one handsome little guy you have there!
And don’t worry too much about this year going by quickly. The next years will go by MUCH faster! Mine’s eight and she grows up noticeably about every week or so these days.
8??? I could have sworn she was like 4 or 5 the last time I remember :)
My kids are all grown up. I can easily say “They grow fast.”
Happy birthday, Baby $!!!! He is such a cute. :-)
Man, this post makes me sooo glad to have government employee health insurance and retired parents, because those insurance costs and daycare bills are a killer. We’ve managed to keep our monthly baby-related costs to an average of about $200, and it’ll probably actually go down a bit soon since that number included hospital co-pays/deductibles and well as some cloth diaper start-up costs. ;-)
wowwww VERY cool! it’s true we get killed with insurance over here, but oh well… not gonna NOT have a baby cuz of it, eh?
He is so adorable. Being a parent, we only want what’s best for our kid no matter how much we have to spend.
I have 3 kids and they have cost me almost nothing!! I have tracked it all as well. $500 for startup equiptment and tracking right around and average of $200/month each for food/clothing/diapers/gifts etc. . .
So so far I have spent around
Kid 1 (5) = $300 (birth costs) + $500 + $200*12*5 = $12800
Kid 2 (3) = $2000 (birth costs) + $200*12*3 = $9200
Kid 3 (1) = $10 (birth costs) + $200*12*1 = $2410
Total Spent = $24410
So my main difference on spending is lack of day care which is a huge cost man!!
But you forgot taxes!!! Each kid saves me $1000 in taxes (child tax credit) a year, plus $3600 personal exemption ($3600*.25 marginl rate = $900) . So each kid has saved me
Kid 1 (5) – $5000 + $3600 = $8600
Kid 2 (3) – $3000 + $2700 = $5700
Kid 3 (1) – $1000 + $900 = $1900
Total Saved = $16200
Total bottom line = $8210 for 9 kid years or $912 a year per kid. Yes some of these will go up with more activities later on in life, diapers and formula will go down, savings for college isnt tracked here, and it is difficult to quantify the added cost of a slightly larger home to accomodate my family (which is definitly the biggest actuall cost). But on a recurring cost basis they are pretty cheap :-)
Heck yeah man, you guys are killin’ it over there! And you’re totally right – I forgot about taxes!! I gotta go back next time and incorporate that in – good catch. Maybe it’ll wipe away my $50/mo padding I’ve added in for when I forget to track stuff, haha…
Keep up the $200!
I have a much younger sister(now 5) and I never got her a bday present since I knew she wouldn’t remember it haha. I’ve been getting her presents lately though because I think she’s old enough to remember them.
Hah! Those are the best too – random presents. I’d much prefer those than ones on my birthday :)