Having a baby requires a lot of preparation and planning that goes beyond shopping for tiny, cute clothes, and hanging beautiful heartwarming ultrasound pictures. Especially when it’s the first time. New parents have to deal with the pressure of preparing and planning for a lot of immediate expenses that are needed once they are blessed with their newborn.
There are a lot of obvious costs such as hospital bills, new clothes, diapers, food, and all the new baby room essentials. However, there are many more unexpected expenses to tend to immediately after your baby is born that you need to calculate before the big day. To help you manage these financial tasks, here are some immediate expenses that you need to consider.
Births Don’t Go as Planned
Some parents have made a lot of effort into planning a home birth with a midwife to save hospital expenses and cut their bills short. However, you need to take into account that births nearly never go as planned. Even if you have planned a home birth or you have picked a reliable non-hospital birth center, it’s essential to calculate other possibilities when you are putting a financial plan in case you need to be transferred to a hospital.
Less Carrying and More Pushing
After your birth, you will be advised by your doctor to take walks to keep your body healthy for nursing. Walks are great for regulating blood circulation and losing baby fats without having to compromise with your diet. A reliable stroller is a must for new moms to be able to take morning walks with their babies. This will also help your baby to explore the outside world and get some fresh air. Experts from Little Baby Gear recommend finding a stroller that is also suitable for your car to kill two birds with one stone. A reliable stroller will not only help you to do more pushing and less carrying, but it will come to great use when you have to go for a quick drive and you can’t leave your baby home alone.
Add Your Baby to Your Health Insurance
Many parents get so busy with birth and many preparations that follow and completely forget about adding their newborns to their health insurance policy. It’s logical to expect that your health insurance provider will automatically add your baby or give you a call, but this isn’t always the case. There is a certain time window that usually varies from 30 to 60 days post-delivery to add your baby to your health plan. Make sure to not miss this time frame.
Unusually High Utility Bills
One of the last things a lot of new parents may have in mind when they are planning for the finances of having a baby is utility bills. At first glance, nothing about a new baby directly indicates that you’ll be paying more in utility bills than usual, but you’ll realize why after probably a couple of months.
You’ll notice that your electricity consumption has suddenly spiked, which is caused by having to maintain the baby’s room at a much warmer temperature than the one that you’ve been using for the rest of the house for years. Whether a nanny or parent would take care of the baby during the first months, it can mean an increase in utility bills because the house or apartment would be occupied at almost all times.
Takeaways
You’ll notice an unusual leakage of your money that you can’t quite get your hand on at first, only to realize that takeaways are actually becoming your sworn financial enemy. Unless you’ve had a personal chef this whole time, you’ll find yourself unable to cook except once every full moon. The good news is that you’ll gradually regain this ability back as your baby gets older, but a newborn will make it very hard to enjoy cooking or even do it right in most cases. Parents can develop an arrangement that allows them to cook a few times per week if they manage their time right. If you were always used to cook your own food, don’t feel bad for ordering food and just budget for it ahead of time.
Having a baby is not an easy process like it’s used to be. You need to make sure that you are financially ready for all the new responsibilities and necessities you will need. It’s essential that you start planning before your delivery day. Sit down and write all the expected and unexpected financial responsibilities to ensure that you are ready to take care of everything.