I like your blog on keeping track of baby expenses; I have been doing the same. Right now mine are somewhat under yours because she is younger. I’m interested to see how it progresses. We are cloth diapering and breastfeeding at the moment, but I bet we will be where you are soon with the new childcare expenses.

I’m going to send this info over to my wife for us to discuss – I guess it couldn’t hurt to get more info and check it out a little? Even though I think eventually I want him in daycare w/ all the other kids, sicknesses and all… but maybe in the beginning as a trial run? Could be something.

Thanks so much! And congrats on your precious little one too :)

Let me tell you, it is the best $100 bucks I have ever spent. Baby is happy, I am happy, and a college student makes more money per hour than I ever did going to college, so is also happy. I went online to care.com, paid for a three month membership, and got a list of part-time candidates who I now have at home in my handy little microsoft access database based on times they are available, qualifications, and pay scale. Most are child psychology majors, CPR trained, have had flu shots and TDAP, and have references I’ve already checked. The few continuous hours I can now devote to work without feeling guilty that I am ignoring my child are the best and worth way more than the $400 I’m going to spend per month–and a steal compared to day care centers.

My responses for y’all:

@Lance @ Money Life and More – Funny enough we thought about that just yesterday :) But a few things nixed it: 1) It would still be distracting for me while I work cuz I’d still rather go and play with him instead! haha… and 2) We’d have to make sure they were licensed/trained just in case something crazy happened… which from what I hear is hard to find, not that we have tried yet… Oh, and 3rd) We want him to be around other babies and meet start socializing :) I think that’s an important one.
@Mrs. Pop @ Planting Our Pennies – HAH! I love that actually, that is hilarious :) I think he’s having one right now too cuz he went from drinking like 5 oz a bottle to now 8 1/2!! He’s crazy tall… If we could figur out how to correlate the two on the graph I’d totally be down :) like does each inch = $1,000 or something to compare? haha…
@moneysavingmama – Yeah! We kinda do want to try it but the 3 options I listed above to Lance squashes it :( We may change our minds though as time goes on…
@Alexis – See above responses :) Though the idea of not catching so many illnesses would make up for it!
@Emily – I’m glad you caught that! I was trying to work it into the post the entire time and finally just did it at the end, haha… Ron Swanson would be all over this! :)
@Brian – Yeah!! Everyone keeps telling us that too, haha… Gonna enjoy these last few weeks/months/days until they start crawling away from us!
@Joe @ Retire By 40 – Tell your mom to come over here next!! Mine hasn’t been over in a while! :)
@Joanna @ Our Freaking Budget – Awwww, well the good thing about once they’re out is that you can then have the other side of the equation of LOVING AND PLAYING WITH THEM! Totally makes it worth it even as those numbers climb :)
@Karen @MSEnthusiast – Hehe thanks! I think we all got more out of it than him – about 10 seconds after taking that pic he started protesting pretty loudly ;)
@Linsey K – The New American Dream is awesome :) I bet I’d get along with your husband great too, you should take him to a conference one day!
@Aaron – Thanks man :) Both he and the numbers keep me entertained, haha…
@Eddie Spaghetti – We have considered it in the past since a lot of people have recommended it, but we got into the rhythm so well with disposables tha we decided to just keep going with what works. Especially since we’ve heard horror stories about cloth too – pros and cons to both it seems. Totally awesome that you and the othes are saving tons of money though! That is one of the cons to disposables for sure :)
@R J Rogers – Oh jeez, yeah that’s what we’re hearing too… But what about the socializing aspect?
@Stephanie – Yeah, we do breast feeding but not cloth diapers :) So one win and one loss, haha… As for subcategories, I don’t have them labeled out but you can check the entire online spreadsheet of them here. I list every single item :) Congrats on your new baby in the works!
@daveM – 30 years huh? Man, I can’t even imagine where he and all our future children will be/etc. But I bet it all goes by fast! :)
@Debt an the Girl – Thanks! And we hope so too :)
@Christopher @ This that and the MBA – Yes! Definitely – good point. I tend to forget how flexible hospital bills are, so if we end up getting stuck with it at least we’ll do our best to negotiate it down – thanks for the reminder! :)
@K.K. @ Living Debt Free Rocks! – Haha… I hadn’t even considered that – I like the way you think ;)
@Financial Black Sheep – Well at least for now :) Circumstances and priorities do change over time, so no need to worry about it being a now or never type deal. If you become ready for it one day you go from there :)
@Alexa @ travelmiamor – YES! Love it! Haha…
@lori – Well I do like the idea of another kid being here too – but I still have concerns about legal/liability stuff shall anything go wrong :( With daycare/etc I’m pretty sure most of that is covered… maybe that’s why it costs so much?! :)
@debtgirl – Raises are good! Especially when you’ve actually EARNED it :)
@becca – YES! Immune System Of Awesome – that’s what we want him to get too! I think I agree with you on it’s a now or later kinda thing, and I’d much rather get it out of the way now if possible :)
@Faith Helmin – REI, Inc.? Like shopping there for the kiddo? I don’t think we even have one of those near us so I guess I’m safe!

I didn’t track expenses, but 5 months is also when my kidlet started daycare (which worked out reasonably ok), so I’m pretty sure the expenses got MUCH worse around that time.
I will also say: my kidlet got lots of sniffles and one or two ear troubles, but now (at 3 years) he has Immune System Of Awesome. I think if your kid is healthy, you get the illnesses early or you get them later, but you can’t minimize the total by delaying daycare (NB: if your kid has health issues early on this is a totally different case).