Hellobee Boards

Wow! I'm surprised to see that >20k is in the lead!!

Was that savings specifically for baby, or was that pre-existing?

We had less than 1k, ok we had nothing! So many problems came up and depleted our savings account. We are now working on getting it back up, which we are so excited about. We have been able to meet our babies needs (above and beyond actually), and pay all bills...but being a SAHM is a little hard on the bank account. We live as frugally as we can. We make it work

I voted based on my and DH's combined savings that we've both been saving forever - not a specific baby fund. His is about double mine so combining them made it sound huge.

Edit: between buying all the baby gear and our babymoon, my savings will probably be lower when LO arrives than it was when I got my BFP ah well.

We have >$20k, but that was all pre-baby planning and had nothing to do with the baby. Really, we're dummies, because we should've been putting that money towards our mortgage or something instead of just holding onto it!

I actually voted $5k - $10k though because I think that's how much I would have liked in savings before having a baby.

We have a lot in savings right now, but we are considering buying a condo, and the down payment would obviously take a huge bite out of our savings. We've just been saving since we started working over 10 years ago, and haven't had any major expenses, so it's built up to what seems like a lot, until we start looking at the condos we can afford! We don't have anything specifically earmarked to baby savings vs house fund vs emergency fund.

I'll be a SAHM and the biggest difference will be that we won't add to our savings as quickly, but we will still put a little away.

@MsLipGloss: 20k would about let me sit home for the year unemployed and not miss a bill. Perspective indeed.

I'm aiming more towards being debt-free, rather than rolling in savings before we have a baby. It's laughable to think we will ever have 20k in savings, so I think we would be okay with having 1-2k.

@Mrs. Pen: I think there are different definitions of 'financially prepared'-- if you can't make ends meet, and don't know how you will feed and shelter your baby, then yeah, I think having a baby then would be pretty irresponsible. If you can't buy a house right away and have to buy used baby gear and not put much into savings... that's an entirely different situation.

For us, we wanted to be stable enough that I could stay home without putting us into debt, so that was the bar we set for ourselves, but it's really personal.

@Bao: hey same as us!! haha I'm 23 and DH is going to be 28 in a month. Everyone told me the same thing: all the older generations, if you wait until you're "financially secure" you'll never have a baby. haha! This coming from people who did it and got through it and had happy lives with healthy, happy children I'd take their advice over someone without kids telling me I'm not financially ready for a child, any day!

Same... I so wish we could make more but we are young and there are many years for raises, new degrees, promotions and new jobs! We'll get there eventually. Sure we would have been "stable" if we waited 10-15 years but we didn't want to!

I expect our savings to be less when we have a LO than they are now because we'll be using a good chunk of it of infertility treatments.

We have quite a bit in our savings account right now, but it's not dedicated to baby. It's enough to cover our expenses for about six-eight months if both of us lost our jobs.

@Foodnerd81: Yep! I'm 35 and DH is 38! We probably should have more saved up than we do But the fact that we have no cc debt, no student loans, own a home and have a decent cushion makes me feel like we're doing okay. We'll need to move to a more expensive place in a couple of years though so it's going to get tougher to save once we have to start paying for daycare!

@JoJoGirl: This is true, I always forget you all are so old jk! We had a pretty awesome savings piled up before we bought our house, renovation is a lot more expensive than we budgeted for, so that depleted us pretty quickly.

DH just got a pretty nice raise, so we're taking every dollar extra a month he earns and paying off CC debt, once we're clear there, all of that money will go into savings. So we have a plan, we just suck at executing it!

It's nice to hear age does have a lot to do with it!

we had about $7K just for a baby fund and then about 6 months of my salary saved. it wasn't a necessity, but something we were already working toward when i got pregnant.

@runnerd: yeah being 23 I think we are on the right track, considering age.

Yeah, i kind of have to disagree with the age thing. We were 24 when C was born and we had $10k in savings, enough for 3-4 months of bills and expenses. We also have a large nest egg from DHs inheritance to fall back on if we get into a really tight spot.

I think its all in where and how you live. Hes military, Im a SAHM and we live in a very expensive area and we manage to save every month. BUT, we have no credit cards, no car payments, we dont have cable TV or expensive cell phone plans. We live simply and save where we can. It does help that the military benefits give us things like free health insurance though, for sure.

@zippylef: We don't have cable or anything fancy either. No Netflix or the like, we don't go out to eat or go on trips. DH has to pay for healthcare through his work and that is $400 a month alone We buy everything we can used (within reason)...I guess we could have more if I were not a SAHM but daycare is just too much too. I think in some instances, it can be an age thing because DH just got a job in his field (very difficult filed to get into), so we are just now getting on our feet