Uber organized Jessica, a Choice Mom in every way, will deliver her first child in a few months. While she was in the Thinking process -- preceding a long Trying phase -- she developed a worksheet that calculated how much she would need to spend trying to conceive, for prenatal care, for newborn items, and for post-delivery childcare expenses for a year. Here are the numbers she came up with.
Posted April 28, 2010 at 7:00 AM
Can you afford to do this?
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Please add your own numbers using the Comments field below. And I'll ask Jessica -- now that she's midway through her actual expenses -- to comment on how her estimates have compared with reality.
Reader Comments
Posted May 2, 2010 at 12:49 PM
Thanks for sharing your planning spreadsheet Jessica...yet more proof that we are a powerful community of women who make our decisions with considerate planning.
I am a former type A, giving up the dream of having and raising a child by powerpoint slides and project plans. LOL-ing at my former self:) I have gone from brilliant planning documentation to gut feel in my journey and this spreadsheet might just bring me right back into balance. It should slip in nicely with my home study documentation.
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Posted June 23, 2010 at 8:43 PM by LeslieC
I think it's great to have an idea of costs pre and post baby, but all the things she listed - crib, bouncers, etc. can all be gotten much, much cheaper by shopping on craigslist.com or by doing what I did - getting everything for free on freecycle. I have a crib, mattress, high chair, changing table, car seat, bathtub, bouncy seat, exersaucer, pack n play, strollers, clothes, receiving blankets, a bottle warmer, toys and more for free. And I still have two showers ahead of me!