Babies aren’t cheap, people, and when you throw two in the mix, it’s definitely a hit to the ol’ family budget.  Mr. Blue is 100% our “nerd” in the family when it comes to finances.  He checks our accounts multiple times per day.  He runs the budget frequently.  I’m more of the “free spirit,” but I still work to be responsible and live within my budget.  Before we decided to TTC, we sat down and talked about what cost increases we would have; we added things like daycare, diapers, and some miscellaneous expenses for some clothes here and there and random baby items.  We obviously wouldn’t need to calculate in formula because I was absolutely going to breastfeed and it was going to be swimmingly successful and life was going to be picture perfect . . . ahh, naive little girl was I!

When we found out we were having twins, we had a little bit of a budget panic.  We had been responsible and made sure we knew we could afford to add a baby to our home, but we knew that adding TWO BABIES was going to really stretch us thin.  I’ll explain some of the changes in cost we’ve had at the end, but for now here is a peek at what we spent on our boys at 3-months and 5-months old.  These costs focus on baby necessities and do not include any long-term use items, increased utilities, laundry supplies, etc.  For example, we had to buy additional bottles when they were 3 months because they started drinking more than 4 oz., and we didn’t have enough bigger bottles to get through an entire day; that cost would not be included here.

Three-Months Old

Daycare: $1300 ($650 x 2)

Formula: $390.76  (6 cans of Similac Neosure per week for 4 weeks – $5 coupon per month)

Baby Food: $0

Diapers: $188.76 (Approx. 14 diapers per day x 2 babies x 30 days = 840 size 2 Pampers Swaddlers from Target)

Wipes: $23.29 (Pampers Sensitive Wipes – 744 count from Target)

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Misc. (diaper rash cream, saline spray, Baby Tylenol, Diaper Genie refills, etc.)  $29.39

Clothes: $28.50

Prescriptions & Doctor Visit Co-pays: $44.90 (Prevacid – $40 co-pay, Zantac – $4.90 co-pay)

Total:  $2,005.60

Five-Months Old

Daycare: $1134  ($580 x 2 = $1160 – discount for paying with auto draft)

Formula: $335.81

Baby Food: $62.55 (1.5 containers of Gerber baby food per day x 2 babies, buying during sales)

Diapers: $140 (10 diapers per day x 2 x 30 days = 600 diapers, so 4 boxes of Pampers Swaddler size 3 – 20% discount for using Subscribe & Save and Amazon Mom/Prime membership)

Wipes: $17.56 (1 box of wipes – Amazon discounts listed above)

Misc. (diaper rash cream, saline spray, Baby Tylenol, etc.): $52

Clothes: $125 (see below)

Prescriptions & Doctor Visit Co-pays – $230.80

  •  Co-pays – $150 (E – 4 sick visits x $25; F – 2 sick visits x $25)
  • Prescriptions –  Prevacid – $40; Zantac $4.90; 3 rounds of antibiotics for E – $25.80; 1 round of antibiotics for F – $5.10; antibiotic eye drops for E’s eye infection – $5)
  • We clearly had a rough month health wise.  Blech.

TOTAL – $2097.72

Despite what the numbers look like, the boys are actually getting less expensive to provide for, and I’m shopping smarter.  Our terrible health month between 5-6 months and needing to buy some winter clothes made that month’s total much higher than it would have been otherwise.  Here’s some details on a few areas and what changed between these months.

Daycare – We live in a small city with very affordable daycare, though it is also in line with significantly lower salaries here.  It’s about half of what I would spend in our former city, but I make half the pay, too.  Our first daycare was slightly more expensive and we were not happy at all there, so when we had the chance to get into our first choice when the boys were 4 1/2 months old, we happily made the jump and save about $70 a month for each boy’s tuition.

Formula – Despite all my efforts and working for three months to be successful, the most I was ever able to produce was about half of their intake.  By 3 months, they were exclusively on formula.  We had to use Neosure, a formula for preemies, which only comes in the smaller cans so you can’t use any of the regular Similac coupons for it.  Similac does send a $5 coupon for Neosure once a month.  At 4 months, our pediatrician gave us the go ahead to switch Elliot to a regular formula.  We initially went to the regular Similac.  A few weeks ago, we decided to try the Target brand and have had great success with it, much to our bank account’s joy!  Just last week, Finn joined the ranks of “regular” formula eaters, too, so our costs next month will be significantly lower!

Diapers – We’ve tried several kinds of diapers, but Pampers has led to the least blowouts so we pretty much exclusively use them, though we occasionally use Luvs.   Originally, I just bought our diapers at Target in the biggest box available.  At 3 months, our old daycare changed their diapers every hour so we went through a TON of diapers.  For month 6, I began buying our Pampers through Amazon using Subscribe & Save and Amazon Mom/Prime. The better price combined with our new daycare not changing diapers quite as frequently made for some savings in month six.

Clothes –  We LOVE hand me downs and accept them happily, and we had a lot of clothes in the smaller sizes gifted to us.  We don’t have many clothes or hand me downs for the larger size, so I had to spend more in month 6 on clothes to get ready for the next size and winter weather.  I try to look at the children’s consignment shop and Carter’s clearance sections first.

What does/did your little one cost per month?