Starting a family, as we all know, takes a lot of planning. And that planning doesn’t just begin and end with getting pregnant and making your way through the trials and tribulations of a woman being pregnant for the first time. In fact, while crucial, the planning involved in going through a pregnancy is just the beginning of your new journey. Planning is also important during the raising of your children. As always, though, there will be some initial concerns associated with the extra finances needed to raise a child. Some of these concerns are covered and in this article, which provides some useful budgeting tips for planning a family.
Financial concerns aren’t something that should scare you away from starting a family. More than anything, it is supposed to invigorate you! To make you excited for the prospect of being able to go on a journey together with your family. Excited in a way that helps you enjoy life by starting a family and creating close bonds with them from the beginning. And without having to worry so much about the monetary value of that time you’ll want to spend with them.
Making bucks BANG with the family budget
As a newly considering couple or a potential family already in the process, it’s important that you start budgeting and saving. It is also important to remember certain aspects of your life together and apart up to now that could create future conflicts in raising your child.
So, to start off with, discuss with your partner what things you want, or maybe didn’t have, growing up that you’d like to try to let your new bundle of joy try for themselves before the age of five.
In turn, listen to what things your partner wants for the baby as well. Try to find a common ground – do you both want your child to be part of a community group activity? List out an option or two based on where you currently live or plan to move to that can be split into either social-active or social-creative pursuits. Then find out about costs, enrollment times, and transportation.
Speaking of which, housing is a whole other ballpark from hobbies…
The flattest of flats and housing
Adjusting your budget to cope with buying or renting a property with new or additional children is an important aspect of a successful family life.
It is tempting to keep your baby as close as possible. For a while, that can be pretty hard to fight as an instinct. Let yourself feel and act on those instincts within reason. But it is also important to ensure your child will have a space of their own within the next year or two that will allow them a little privacy, too!
It also helps to create “structured areas” in your home, such as an eating space separate from a play space. While sleeping will occur pretty much anywhere at first, it’s also important for your child to wake up in the same common areas after those first few months.
Here are a few options for housing to help you decide what’s best for your new little family:
- Refinancing – if you aren’t lucky enough to own your own home yet, and you have any pending debts on it that make you sweat a little when you look at them, it can’t hurt at all to look into refinancing your loan for housing!
- A modest condo or apartment – if you are looking to move, it might be best to get rid of some of those maintenance pitfalls of separate houses and just get yourself a suburban condo! While it might feel cramped at first, it makes a cozy case for homemakers while also being able to let you connect to city water, sewer, and shorten your commute around town. This is fantastic for those days where you run late or have the jitters because the baby needs to see a doctor.
- Close to friends and family – if you’ve been planning on starting a family for a while, you’ll find that good friends and family members of yours catch a little “baby fever” themselves, which can make for a great way to create a team of researchers and supporters. Whether it’s for babysitting or just letting yourselves and your new bundle of joy experience as much love as possible, living near city-dwelling family and friends can be a real help with some of the emotional turmoil that comes with starting a family of your own and feeling disconnected from others because of it at times.
Workplace, families and insurance
Last but not least, it’s time to consider work-life balance in family budgeting. As much as you want to plan for everything here, it’s actually best to go for flexibility for everything except hours.
Give yourself (and your boss) the time to discuss a reduction in hours or you taking advantage of your saved paid time off, and if there is a reduction in hours discuss how long; give yourself about a year after a reduction to be expected to get back into the full-time groove you had prior in your workplace.
Take this same time to discuss and begin implementing any changes to your work insurance, if you have it. Go ahead and add your child close to a month before their birth, even if you need to change their name later so that you can be “set” on post-birth visits with a new insurance identification for the child. This can help offset costs for checkups and initial testing for things like allergies and birth-hereditary illnesses that come to light in the first several months.
Savings and spending accounts
See what your family can do about things like a flex savings/spending account. This can pay for things from the pharmacy like baby (or adult) convenience bathing tools, child-friendly over-the-counter medications, and minor supplements as you wean the child off of a liquid diet or even absorb the cost of prescriptions themselves if you have things like a co-pay to worry about!
The flex spending account can also help you do a one-stop-shop for small things you run out of just a little too quickly like diapers or baby wipes – you will consider that flexible account a Godsend when your baby destroys a bottle of baby powder by accident in the middle of a cold-fueled tantrum.
Planning for life insurance and college are important as well, but can certainly be saved for after that first crucial year or two where your child is developing into a person of their own. Treasure this time knowing people are on your side, and look forward to the future with the brightness of a smile even when your family budget isn’t quite going as planned; it’ll all work out if you remember that your child, your family, are looking out for each other and the world will follow.
More resources on budgeting tips for planning a family
The following books provide more detailed information on the topics covered in this article. Feel free to browse through this list and support the site by making a purchase at one of our affiliate partners. Please read our affiliate links disclosure for more information. Note: The links below will open in a new browser tab or window.
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- Money Management 101 for Couples: A Practical Guide to Manage Money as a Family by Marie Reign Link*
- The Wall Street Journal. Financial Guidebook for New Parents by Stacey L. Bradford Link*
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