New here! Also, concerns about having my baby and having very little income. Very much in need of opinions and ideas.

Financially we make a bit less than you guys, SO makes 26/year and I make, well, I'm only causal I made 8k in 2014. So that'd put us at 34 combined. Though I think I've made less this year..

Yeah, with his car payment, and me having so little income - what I do get varies because my work is based on other employees being sick or taking vacations, we can't afford a place together. we're in my moms basement with discounted rent. It's an actual small one bedroom apartment, so it's not just her gross basement at least. We're lucky to have her. We've applied for low income housing, the waiting list is a year though so it could be a while. But I mean, baby is fine in a small one bedroom for the first year. Better to room share the first six months anyways, reduces risk of SIDS! Definitely look into low income housing.

We've gotten a lot of hand me downs. One of my mom's friends grandson has just started outgrowing everything, and they've given us all of it. Bouncer, crib, playpen, high chair, stroller, carseat, etc. It's been so helpful and saved us so much money. Take any hand me down you can!

Definitely keep an eye out on craigslist. Looking at the stuff we got free, we could've managed to get it a bit at a time, maybe one thing a paycheck, it's not too expensive used, but she definitely saved us at least 1000 or 2, more if we actually were to buy new. Plus this stuff is way better quality than I'd have gone for if I did buy used, and I probably wouldn't have bought half of it myself either, I'd have gone bare minimum.

I don't know many people or have many friends but my mom got her friends over for my baby shower, it was mainly a party for her anyways honestly haha. There were only 15 people, which isn't a lot compared to most but was a lot more than I expected! Got a bunch of clothes, but that was mainly it, plus some blankets and bath stuff plus a few toys. But that's all I really needed thanks to my mom's friend, but apparently baby clothes are par for the course for baby showers so really wouldn't expect much more than that if you do have one and friends.

And I recommend cloth diapering to save money, if you have an in apartment washer/dryer I guess. If you use a coin laundromat or something it might work out to the same as disposables anyways or not be worth it. But there are foundations that will lend diapers to low income families since it's more expensive upfront than disposables. Here is a post I made about foundations that do that, there's a link near the bottom that links to a map so you can find a local foundation if none of those are near you.

Diapers can be expensive every month! I've bought some used cloth diapers, 60 bucks for 40 prefolds and 12 covers, don't be afraid of used ones these are just as clean as if I'd buy them new I swear! And I've been approved for a loan for the cloth diaper foundation here! But we have an inhouse washer/dryer, we don't pay water/electric, plus we have a limit on our garbage that we already tend to exceed, don't need to add disposables to that. My plan is to use the loaner diapers while buying a few diapers here and there to build up my own stash.

So far for what I've spent on baby stuff, maybe 100 bucks? The cloth diapers, plus I've bought some clothes and a few accessories.. But we still have another baby shower on SO's side, and I've given them a list of stuff we need/want, we really just need a few small odds and ends and more clothes though.

There's a few more things I want that I'm going to end up buying myself for certain. I want a specific shelf for baby clothes, it's 50 bucks at walmart. I want a wrap, but from google it's easy enough to make my own DIY Moby wrap, 40 bucks for enough fabric to do TWO instead of paying more than that for one! Both I plan to get with my GST next month. With those, plus a few other odds and ends I don't expect people to buy (breastfeeding accessories mainly) I'll probably spend another 200 or so myself.

So cause I'm planning to cloth diaper, there goes the monthly diaper expenses. My laundry will go up, but we don't pay water/electric, our rent won't change just my effort into laundry. So other than needing better detergent (I admit I buy the cheapest stuff right now) there's not much cost difference there. I'm going to breastfeed (hopefully), for the first year probably, so no formula expenses. Probably baby shampoo/soap we'll need to buy regularly.

Then food comes into play after 6 months, maybe longer if they're not interested. Mom says I wasn't interested in food til about a year, but that she started my brother on pablum when he was THREE WEEKS, and has joked I will need to - SO's mom made the same joke, he started it at two months. Just cause that was cool in the 80s doesn't mean it's the same or what I'll do now..

So I mean, if you go used and stuff, babies don't have to be THAT expensive to start up, and for the first little while they're not that expensive to upkeep either it seems. Clothes, I will always shop at thrift stores, until they're old enough to give a shit and even then hopefully I'll have raised thrifty shoppers! Why spend 20 on an outfit they'll outgrow in a few months when I could buy a bunch of outfits for that at the thrift store??

People make it seem like it costs a lot more than it does. I'm more concerned for when he starts school and we have those expenses, and activities. Plus if he's anything like my brother and SO, he'll shoot up to 6 feet by the time he's 12, so that's so much clothes and shoes to worry about. AND teenage boys are bottomless pits, feeding him will be expensive! but that's lots of time for me to find a better job, and maybe for SO to or to get a raise, yknow?

This is LONG holy shit. Hopefully it's helped a bit? I dunno. I've no advice or info regarding insurance though, I'm Canadian sooo that's not a big deal for us.

Congratulations, and good luck figure it out!

/r/BabyBumps Thread