Comments on: The Road to Financial Armageddon #7: Here Comes Baby

By: Megan

Megan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:23:43 +0000

Reading this series is, quite frankly, shocking to me. My parents made good money but some poor decisions (nowhere near your level, though) and taught me very little about financial planning–though my mom was always warning me against credit cards, and began at times to share with me the level of stress that came with carrying consumer debt when I became a young adult. I also bought a slightly used car with my OCD father when I was sixteen and the deal was that I would pay $200 a month on this car for the next 5 years–which I think is too heavy a burden on a teenager. I guess the outcome of all this early training was that debt feels BAD. To this day, knowing I’m in debt to someone else, no matter how little the amount, is a horrible feeling. Now I am married with two children and our only debt is the remainder of my student loans, which should be paid off within the next six months. Like I said, it pains me to read your story and I hope my morbid curiosity concerning just how much debt you built up will be satisfied in the next installments…

By: Florida Girl

Florida Girl — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 01:49:42 +0000

My daughte is now 2 1/2 and the lessons I learned are priceless. She is my first and only child. We started out the same way,..the best and by the time she turned 1 the house was full of useless, expensive stuff. A crib was a waste of money altogether. We hade a nice bassinette and then she spend about 2 month in an expensice crib and I moved her to a mattress on the floor. This way she is able to come out of her room on her own, she will anyways, only without climbing and falling. Hand me downs are the ticket. For the first few years kids grow so fast we hand down the hand me downs :) they usually still look like new. Now she’s out of diapers and boy does that make my pocketbook happy. It get cheaper and easier as we go on. I don’t buy any Expensive toys. I hate the ones that suck up multiple batteries only to make some sounds nobody wants to hear incl my daughter. We made bocci balls out of aluminum foil and had a blast the other day. She still has the paper crown her daycare lady made when she turned 1. Check out the dollar stores. $5.00 will buy crafts supplies for weeks and I don’t sweat it when she is being a careless 2 year old handling them.

By: boardmadd

boardmadd — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:59:39 +0000

Oh yes, we remember very well how much we spent on kid #1, slightly less for kid #2, and kid #3 pretty much got the bottom of the barrel treatment (LOL!). Not that kid #3 didn’t get love an attention, but it took us until that time to wise up and say “c’mon, they don’t *need* this stuff”.

One of the coolest discoveries we made with our first child was that we had a box of cast off costume beads and other little things that were just sitting around. All of our kids combed through and played with tose “bead boxes” for hours at a time. It was such a hit qwith our kids that we started making these bead boxes to give to other parents, i.e a very inexpensive item that provides lots and lots of entertainment.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 22:10:29 +0000

I am a SAHM and we therefore have one income. We have a 5 year old, 4 year old and 19 month old. We incurred a lot of debt that first baby year. We went from making over $100K to $30K and added a baby and health insurance. Yet I wouldn’t change it for the world. Breastfeeding is great. Garage sales/hand me downs are the best. People who have kids ALWAYS have stuff to get rid of. Buy the bouncy seat etc. for $10 from a friend/sale and put the other $40 to buy 2 weeks worth of diapers. Have grandma/best friends buy you clothes and diapers in 12 month+ sizes. You will have tons of newborn stuff, but the freebies stop soon enough. By baby number three you realize that you don’t even use half the stuff you think you might. Wait until the baby comes to figure out what you need. The first few weeks all you need are breastmilk/formula, burp clothes, wipes, pj’s, crib, car seat and diapers. lots and lots of diapers.

By: Cameron Schaefer

Cameron Schaefer — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:57:41 +0000

I can definitely relate. My wife and I are expecting our first child in January and the temptation is huge to buy the most expensive products for you baby…some sort of badge of honor that somehow you love your kid more than the person who didn’t spend $800 on a stroller. Its really quite ridiculous when you think about it. Stories like yours have helped me shy away from this behavior and realize that babies aren’t nearly as concerned with brand names as we are!

By: Rani

Rani — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 10:58:38 +0000

what i discovered to be the best way to save costs of having baby is to breastfeed as long as possible. It saves me a lot, and buys me time and convenience. I don’t need to buy formula, don’t need to buy bottles, I don’t spend my time washing and sterilizing the bottles, I don’t spend my energy lugging backpack containing formula equipment. I get more rest, particularly when I breastfeed while lying down.

By: BigBuddha

BigBuddha — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 03:22:51 +0000

I .. perhaps luckily .. do not have kids yet .. my wife and I have been talking about it for sometime … but we plan to do more investing and saving so that the passive income will pay for our childs needs education and all …