Cost of bringing baby on this earth.. Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone. And thanks for not reminding me that I am 4 days late. :)
Well, I wouldn't have been 4 days late if Manshu from OneMint would have posted his article 4 days earlier which prompted me to write a comment which, I thought, can be used as a post on my blog as well.

His one of the reader wanted to know about baby related costs.
No I am not going to write about future planning etc. because that is something I am still figuring out. Rather, I am going to talk about costs of bringing baby on this earth. And by cost I mean financial cost. :)

So here is the response I left on Manshu's article, reproduced verbatim, only with spelling corrections done. I hope Manshu will not mind. :)

....

Well this is something I was thinking to write on my own neglected blog from some time. But I guess writing to you here is a much better option (can’t I go to Jupiter for some time. It has 72 hrs. a day)

Well I think I will list following things as necessary:

1) Have your EF in place, pregnancy can have lots of unexpected complications which will lead to lots of tests, implication lots of money spend. Hardly any medical insurance covers costs of these tests. In my case, this cost was approx. 10K every month.

2) Increased grocery bills. You will be eating and definitely wanting to eat better food. More fruits, less junk etc. Approx. cost, 5-10 K every month.

3) All the medical insurances, almost, cover maternity hospital charges up to 50 K. Have another 50-60 K ready in your EF as your bill might go over 50 K if you are going for private hospital. Sometimes, your chosen facility may not be cashless in your insurance. In that case you have to first pay hospital which will then get reimbursed.

4) If a girl is working, she will get approx. 3 months of paid maternity, in India. After that if you wish to take more time to spend with your blessing, you have to take loss of pay. So, do consider that in your financial planning.

5) Your baby vaccinations will cost you around 7K in first 4 months. Rest I will let you know once I incur. Also there will be other Dr visits and I am not aware of any medical insurance which covers all this.

6) If one has premature delivery then babies may need to be put in Nursery, consider its cost as well. I don't have exact idea as fortunately I didn't need it, but I estimated it to close to 1L at my time.

7) If you are living in a single family, then once you want to join back after having baby, you have to consider cost of making arrangements for your baby care. It can be day care or some aaya, again cost have to be considered.

8) Your small one will need clothes, nappies (or diapers if your choose that), cosmetics etc. Here I will suggest not buying lots of stuff as babies grow FAST. And keep in mind baby stuff is EXPENSIVE. There will be other baby stuff required depending on choices you will make, like baby cot etc.

9) Once baby will be close to 5M, you might need other gears, like stroller, walker etc.

10) And if you still are left with some money, you can plan to buy more than basic things for you. I mean more than required maternity clothes. Well I couldn't :(

And then yes, Hemant's article is good for planning baby's future. But you also have to consider cost of bringing baby on this earth.

My one last piece of advice:

Babies are adorable and so is their stuff. You will want to buy anything and everything on this earth for your baby once you step in those baby shops. So be very very rational and ask yourself lots of time if you will actually need it. And don't try to buy everything in one go. Initially only buy what’s most important and as your baby will grow you will automatically know what is needed.