Planning for a Baby

When my husband and I got engaged, my mother begged us to have a short engagement and skip right to the business of giving her a grandchild. When we bought our house, my mother-in-law gave us a crib as a house warming gift since she figured we’d need it someday. They certainly weren’t subtle with their desire for a grandchild, but we knew that deciding to have a baby wasn’t a decision to take lightly. So we started planning well before there was even a bun in the oven.

We focused on and are still working on four things: childcare, health insurance, building a savings to draw from while I’m on maternity leave, and adjusting our budget.

Unfortunately all of the daycare options that we’ve looked at so far cost more for just one year than my tuition cost for four years at FSU. We knew that that alone would mean a huge adjustment to our budget and lifestyle and so we said goodbye to things like HBO and gym memberships. When it came to health insurance, we compared the different plans offered at both of our jobs and decided to go with the one that cost the least (even though it had higher co-pays) and opted to open a pre-tax health savings account to put towards the cost of our hospital stay. In addition to the health savings account, we decided on a monthly savings goal to have enough money to offset two months of unpaid maternity leave. To do this we gave up a lot of luxuries like vacations and dinners out, and even decided to share a car to save on a car payment for a year.

Just planning for a baby has certainly brought on a lot of lifestyle changes for us and I’m sure that our lives will change even more once our baby arrives into the world. However as corny as it sounds, I am also positive that the planning and sacrificing will all be worth it. I can’t wait to meet this little guy in person!