Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Taking a few days off to enjoy my family and such, new financial stories and tirades coming starting the week of August 8th. Stay tuned.

–C8j

I asked Mrs. C8j for a topic, and she gave me this one. Well, no we are not complaining about the cost of baby C8j, but the expenses are there, let’s look at a few of them.

Formula: Well that’s about $11 for a 10 oz can of baby formula in powder form (it gets more expensive when you buy concentrate, and pre-made stuff is even more expensive). Right now the can lasts about 3 days, so let’s say $25.00 a week

Diapers: We buy them in a BOX (this is new, 10 years ago when we had our last child they only came in large bags). In Ottawa at the Loblaws the size baby uses is $43.00 for about 150 diapers, given baby uses 6 a day, that’s not too bad really.

Car Seat: First car seat cost us $129.00, but it is also a carrying seat, but he also hasn’t lasted too long in this, we plan on trying to sell it second hand to get some money back.

Car Seat (again): He now has a new one that he will be in for about 6 or 7 more years, this one cost $250.00, but again, amortized over 6 or 7 years, not too bad, I guess.

Crib: Got that second hand $100.00, but baby C8j is going to be the last (I promise, I have gone for my second vasectomy, first one didn’t work).

Stroller: You buy a Perago and that is about $350.00 at least. Some folks pay a lot more for these things that are SUV’s for babies.

Clothing: That can add up, unless you have a lot of rich friends who buy clothes or a big family with LOTS of hand me downs.

High Chairs: That might cost about $200 that will get used for about 2-3 years.

Swing: That is about $179.00 or so, and swings are great to help baby get to sleep!

Exer-saucer: $75.00 or so, pretty cool though

Vibrating Chair: $65.00 he can sit in that, but was a gift.

Mobile: About $30.00

University fund: Better start thinking, $1000 a year is a good idea!

First year total : Around $5000 or so, if you include clothing, and the University fund, and that is just the beginning folks!

Is it worth it? Every single penny! –C8j

I was trying to figure out what the family could do while on vacation next week and I looked around at a few places to see how much this might cost, and saw the following:

• At La Ronde (a Six Flags associated amusement park in Montreal), if I and my 3 daughters went for the day, this would cost around $140 with parking included (3 adults one kid under 12). If my wife comes kick another $35 (not including food and such). So about $175.00 for a day (I am not ragging on La Ronde, we have been there and the kids like going there, I am just using them as an example).
  • If I buy a season pass I can then go to Darian Lake’s six flags park, and that would cost about: $400, I figure, but I could be wrong. The family passport doesn’t fit my family any more, oh well.
  • There are also discounts available if you buy your tickets earlier, but not much.
• Paramount Canada’s Wonderland would cost you around $290 for the day (not including food, parking, etc.,).
  • A set of season passes would cost around $390.00
• Marineland in Niagara is going to cost us somewhere around $220.00 (parking is free, but food is not).
  • The one nice thing about Marineland is for an extra $25.00, you now have season passes (which is nice).

What does this really mean? Man it’s expensive to go to a theme park these days, holy cow!!! Now that I have this information, I need to confab with the family and see whether this is the choice, or whether we look for a nice beach and spend the day there, or go to a movie, or many other family things that are a little cheaper.

Why is it I end up spending so much on vacations, that I start out thinking are frugal? –C8j