Are you worried about the cost of becoming a parent? Then you are not alone. A UK study by Philips Avent shows that three quarters of new parents worry about how they will cope financially after their baby is born.
According to the report, parents of newborn babies can expect to spend around €4,500 on their first baby before they even reach their first birthday. Kitting out a nursery, coupled with the added cost of clothes, nappies, bedding, toys and food leaves millions of parents with a substantial hole in their pocket if they are not among the 21 per cent of families who had the foresight to save in advance.
The study also found one in three parents admit they 'got carried away' and overspent hugely in preparation for their new arrival, with 52% of these purchases made during the first half of pregnancy as excitement kicked-in.
The research, undertaken in April 2010, found parents can expect to hand over around €4,500, with 6% on the baby's nursery, a substantial 18% on clothes and a whopping 16% just on toys. Yet only around 9% of the money was spend on more essential apparatus like feeding and sterilizing equipment, car seats and pushchairs. The largest single cost was on on the baby's food in the first year, accounting for almost 22% of the total.
Unsurprisingly, the study also found that more than a third of new parents thought they spent too much money on toys while around a quarter said they bought far more clothes than they needed and wished they'd spent some of that money on more essential items.
Parents who have more than one child claimed that they learnt their lessons from the first time round, 73% saying they were more cautious spenders when their second child arrived, and 40% saying they simply had a better idea about what they needed to buy and avoiding making poor purchases.
Predictably, when asked how bringing a baby into the world had affected their life on a daily basis, in addition to the financial impact, 40% admitted it was a struggle to get anything done!