Congratulations on your fantastic news and when the excitement of finding out you are pregnant has worn off, you will need to budget for your new baby.  A new baby brings financial changes and budgeting challenges.  Planning for your little one will involve putting together a list of costs.

This list can be split into sections, outlay on one- time expenses and the on- going monthly expenses.  One- time expenditure includes medical bills (if any) incurred during your pregnancy, car seat, pram, cot, etc.  Most of these can be either bought second hand or perhaps your friends or family will either gift them to you or if they have had children themselves, you may be able to borrow them.

I found a helpful budget tool on nca.ie called “baby budget planner” which lists off most of the equipment required and if you use the internet to price the items you need to purchase, you will soon have a better idea on what the initial outlay will be for your new baby.   You should also factor in the loss of earnings whilst you are out, how much will you get paid during your maternity leave?

The on-going expenses will need to be factored into your household budget also.  Childcare costs will be a sizeable addition to your budget.  Your electricity and gas bills will inevitably increase as will your shopping bills due to additional purchases of nappies, formula milk, baby food and clothes etc.

Keep track of your income and expenditure on BillsManager.com; include the on-going additional expenditure brought to bear when the little one arrives.  But in the meantime, you have the best part of 9 months to plan for the one off buys and as most of these are not required immediately, you can add a “baby fund” into your BillsManager budget so that you can start saving now towards these purchases.  Plan your baby costs and spend less time worrying about how you will pay the bills and more time enjoying your little one.