First-Year Cost of Raising a Baby

A lot of people seems to believe that raising a baby can cost a ton of money. But how much does it cost exactly during the first year?

As a first-time mom, I really didn’t know what to expect when it comes to raising a baby. I was just overloaded with joy seeing my newborn for the first time.

But since Papa Bear and I have a goal of achieving financial independence, we naturally thought about our finances.

Still, I couldn’t shake the hypothesis that it doesn’t have to cost a lot to raise a baby if we can just control our spending. That’s because most baby expenses are discretionary except for healthcare, food, diapers, and some essentials like a crib and a changing pad.

So in order to find out how much it cost to raise a baby, I tracked the entire full year expenses. Find out in this article how much we spent in our first year of raising a baby as well as Baby Bear’s 12th month development.

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Assumptions & Unique Family Situation

Before we dive into the details of how much we spent for the first year of raising our baby, I should note that each household’s expenditure will be different based on various factors like location, income and family situation.

For comparison purposes, I used the statistics provided by the United States Department of Agriculture based on its latest data gathered on children expenditure. Here’s their conclusion:

“The 2015 estimate for child-rearing expenses for raising a child from birth through age 17 in a two child, middle-income, married-couple family is $233,610. However, expenses vary considerably by household income level, region, and composition, emphasizing that a single estimate may not be applicable to all families. The direct and indirect costs of raising children are considerable, absorbing a major share of the household budget.”

For simplicity reason, I’ll take the total figure of $233,610 and divide that by 17 to get an annual average cost of $13,742.

I also added in several assumptions based on our unique situtaions:

• We live in Switzerland and the currency we use here is Swiss Franc (CHF). For simplicity reason, I assumed 1:1 CHF/USD because the exchange rate has been hovering around the parity mark for the past five years. For this study, I use USD.
• I did not account for grocery cost in the expense tracking, but I will assume an additional $1,800 or $300 per month after the sixth month (when the baby started eating solid food). It’s hard to account for how much the baby eats since we buy in bulk and it’s even harder to account for the additional household items she used like paper towels. Therefore, I think $150 per month is a fair assumption based on our total grocery bills.
• Our housing situation did not change since having a baby. We live in a 2 bed, 2 bath apartment and we just converted our office into a nursery. Therefore, we did not assume additional housing cost for the baby.
• We used cloth diapers and disposable diapers interchangeably. I’ll assume that we used them 50/50 of the time during the first year.

So with these assumptions in mind, how much did we spent during the first year of raising our baby?

Total Cost of Raising a Baby for 12 months: $4,017

I aggregated the first six month’s baby spending since it was the toughest period where I did not have time to track spending month-by-month. This was exasperated by the difficulty of breastfeeding as an inexperienced mom.

Once the baby reached the 7th month mark, everything became more manageable so I had time to analyze and concretely detail all of the spending by month.

The following is a table of all of the spending we made thus far.

Table of Costs by Category:

You can also read more details of the previous months here:

• First six months: $2,267 (average $378/month)
• 7th month: $308
• 8th month: $277
• 9th month: $187
• 10th month: $242
• 11th month: $482
• 12th month: $254
• Total 1st Year Spending: $4,017 (excluding grocery)*

*When adjusted with the additional cost of grocery (+$1,800), the total comes out to be $5,817.

12th Month Baby Cost: $254

This month the baby expense is once again lower than the average spending of $378/month. This could be attributed to the fact that the baby has everything she needs and any cost associated with this month was related to maintenance care.

It is worth mentioning that I do not have a budget, however, because I do not want to limit spending for the baby. (As a new parent, you could never know what might happen.)

Rather, I strive to make conscious decisions and consult with my inventory list every time I make a purchase. This proves to be quite effective in maintaining a mindful spending habit.

Healthcare: $152

The biggest expense, unsurprisingly, continues to be the monthly health insurance at $120/month.

We also have another $32 out-of-pocket costs for an emergency visit when the baby had high fever few months back.

Food: $88

My breast milk supply continues to decline as the baby is eating more food and is taking in more formula.

In addition to the $44 spent on infant formula and oatmeal, we also spent $14 on baby food.

Finally, because Baby Bear turned one year old (yay!), we bought a delicious chocolate truffle cake to celebrate this important milestone (it cost $30).

(Note: This consists of baby food in a jar, infant formula or gears that assist with feeding. Her normal food cost is absorbed in our grocery bill, as it’s hard to itemize how much carrot, potato or rice she eats since we buy in bulk.)

Disposable Items: $10

We stocked up on baby wipes that cost $10 for four packs.

Other: $4

We bought a birthday candle for $3 and spent $1 on drying some bedsheets where Baby Bear did a massive diaper explosion. Oh yeah, it was bad!

Other than that, we also got some gifts (mainly clothes and toys) for Baby Bear’s first birthday from her grandparents and our friends!

After one year, our apartment is now taken over by toys, baby clothes, and other baby gears and furnitures. These things just slowly accumulate despite how much we tried to control it. It’s amazing how a little baby can have so much stuff.

12th Month Itemized Spending

The total expenditure for the 12^th month came out to be $254 making the total 12-month spending at $4,017.

If we add the additional $1,800 for cost of grocery and household items (like paper towels, bottled water and shared home appliances), we get a full year cost of $5,817. This does not include childcare nor additional housing cost.

So it looks like we spent $7,925 lower than the national average of $13,742/year (or a total of $233,610 from birth to 17 years old according to the USDA).

However, if we had paid for childcare, our total would blow the national average out of the water because our nursery cost* would have been $2,000 – $3,000 PER MONTH here in Switzerland.

*Nursery cost is based on family household income and location.

Itemized expense report:

Baby’s 12th Month Development

Happy birthday to our sweet Baby Bear!

She is now officially a toddler and we are just so amazed by how much she has developed and grown.

We had a small celebration with family at home. Baby Bear was so happy to see her grandparents who came all the way from France to celebrate with her.

This month, Baby Bear finally got her appetite back and she’s eating about 500g of solid food and about 600ml of formula plus 2-3 short sessions of breastfeeding per day.

I’m trying to wean her from breastfeeding. Baby Bear seems to still want the comfort from the feed and I’m trying to avoid engorgement by ensuring that I let some milk out. It’s really not an easy or straightforward process!

On the development front, Baby Bear can now stand with support. She’s not walking yet, but she’s getting ready to.

Final Thoughts

One year flew by SO quickly. I still remember those days of sleepless nights and puzzling routines. I now look back with nostalgia and amusement.

After tracking the first-year cost of raising a baby, my final thought is that it doesn’t have to cost all that much if you can manage your spending.

Sure, there’ll be times when you may feel compelled to buy the latest and shiniest things. But if you can control those urges, you’ll find that your baby will outgrow these things at a rapid speed.

And sure, we can’t avoid expenses such as healthcare or childcare (if you’re a working mom). But for many other frivolous stuff, it is possible to minimize spending and maximize savings.

But of course, every mom’s taste and preferences are different. What works for me may not work for you and vice versa.

However, if there’s a few key points that I can takeaway after tracking a full year’s expense is the following:

• Most costs are manageable if you pay attention to them.
• Tracking expenses can help you reduce frivolous spending.
• All a baby needs are love and care. They don’t need the latest and most expensive stroller or those branded onesies.

I hope you find the information provided here useful in your parenting journey. Please take it only as a reference, if not a grain of salt, as all of our situations are different.

Nevertheless, this tracking demonstrates that you don’t have to spend a ton to raise a baby in order to be a good parent. If you want to provide an optimal care for your baby without overspending, I highly suggest that you start tracking your expenses.

Do you track your expenditure for your baby’s first year of age? If so, how much did you spend in total? How did you celebrate your baby’s first birthday?

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