How do you know if you can afford a Baby when you have a mortgage?

My husband and I have decided to start a family, and will probably start trying within the year - but we have a mortgage, which takes up 3/4 of my pay, and we use his pay to eat, pay bills etc. I don't think we can afford to have either of us stop work to raise the baby, and Child care is SO expensive. What do we do?How do you know if you can afford a Baby when you have a mortgage?
you can always give a baby to someone else not a mortageHow do you know if you can afford a Baby when you have a mortgage?
I wasn't planning on having my daughter and didn't think I could really afford to have a child.......but now that she is here I found that she really doesn't cost that much
You can go over your budget and see if there is anywhere you can cut some costs. Eat out less, pay off a credit card and cut it up, etc... see if you can find some ways to economize.
Begin to prepare for a baby. Figure which of everything you will buy, plus insurance copays, and begin saving for those as much as you can. Also begin to figure monthly costs. For me, I buy 4-5 cans of formula a month (the big ones) two of the large packs of diapers, one large refill pack of wipes usually lasts a month and a half to two months, depending how many I use to clean his face and how many get left out to dry. Costs for things like soap and shampoo are minimal right now because baby is so small he wont use much. You can find lists with all the things you need, just go and pick the one you want and figure prices.


You said you want to start within the year, use the time before to 'practice' saving both for pregnancy, one time costs, and monthlies. You will accumulate enough for most of the one time costs by the time you know for sure if you can do it and have had the baby. Also pick an amount to put into a savings, be it ten dollars or $100, for emergencies if necessary, and babies collage fund or whatever if not,


Meanwhile get everything else ready-it helps the waiting. Get physically ready and have a gyno check and tell them you want to start trying, read up, prepare what you can.


Good luck, and I'm sure you will find a way to make things work!
babies don't cost as much as people say. i am on assistance for disabilities and only get $436 a month cash to support rent, utilities, clothes, hygeine items, etc. and we do good. breastfeeding will cut your costs significantly. breastfed children get sick less, and formula costs around $12-$20 a can and you go thru a can a week.





check out garage sales, thrift stores, and know that babies bring more into your life than living without them could possibly give.
If this is something you would both really want right now, start figuring out a way to set aside what you think it would cost to add another household member and stick that into a higher interest money market account. That would include diapers, health insurance, clothes, and child care in the beginning. If you find a way to manage that, chances are you'll be okay. I found that absorbing the cost of children was actually the easy part. Yes it is expensive but worth it. You will joyfully find ways to accomodate :-)
Use condoms.





Don't have a baby.





Seriously, if you can't do the time, don't do the....crime.....





Sorry, that was a bad metaphor. But you need to sit down with a financial planner and go over your budget. And rethink why you want a kid so bad! Keep in mind when he or she is older, they might want to go to university. Can you pay for that? If not, they might not be able to get a job in 20 years time. Every day there are fewer and fewer job positions. You need to think this through very carefully.





What if your kid is born with a birth defect and spends the first year of his or her life in hospital? Can you pay a year's worth of hospital bills? You and/or your husband will NEED to take time off work for that.





What if your child is born deaf and needs to go to a special school? Can you afford it?





What if your child is born with a speech impediment? Can you afford speech therapy?





Think everything through very very slowly. Once you have a kid, and you realize you can't afford him or her after all, then what? Are you going to put him or her up for adoption? That sounds like a gr8 idea. Nobody wants to do that.
You can never afford a baby.
You won't ever know if you can afford the baby. As far as costs:





Depending on your insurance, there will be multiple OB visits (weekly towards end of pregnancy), as well as a hospital bill for you AND baby. Baby will also have 5 well visits within the first year, and if you have daycare baby will likely get sick during that first year just do to a lack of immunity to germs. And remember that being sick might not just be a doctor visit - at 10 months we had to take my son to the ER for croupe - a $100 copay, not at all like an office visit.





If you can breastfeed, that will save money; if you cannot breastfeed (I could not both times), that's $25/week in formula. Additionally you'll later be buying baby food if you don't make your own. Diapers are around $10 and you'll be buying them 4-5 times a month too.





Childcare depends on your area; you would have to check around. If we had used that like we originally planned (I stay at home) that would have been $500-$600/month.





Those are the big costs if you have a healthy baby. I hope that helps.
Start keeping track of everything you buy and spend money on for a month. Then sit down and right out a budget. See how much money you have left at the end of the budget. Now research child care prices, diapers, formula, clothes, etc... and see if it will fit into the budget. Then try cutting one of your incomes and not sending your child to day care, saving on transportation, etc... and see if this fits better in your budget. For diapers you should figure that a newborn will need to be changed every 2-3 hours throughout each day and then add one or two diapers during the night and you will have an average of diapers you will go through in a day. Formula you really can't figure that in, because some babies will eat 2oz. and others will eat 4-6oz from the start. Good luck
as long as you ,your husband,and your new baby are not in a bubble(mortgage) you should be ok
if you have to ask yahoo answers then i'm calling cps right now