How to Make a Baby Budget Before Pregnancy (Fill-In Template)

You are thinking about a baby in a year or two, you have typed "how much should we save" into a search box, and every answer is a different range with nothing behind it. This page does something else: it gives you a worksheet that turns the question into your own figures, in your own currency, from your own pay and your own bills. Nothing here depends on where you live.

What a baby budget actually is

A baby budget is not a prediction of what a child costs. It is a short document that answers three questions: what changes in our money, by when, and who is looking after each piece. A budget that answers those is useful even if every number in it turns out wrong, because the habit of looking at it together is what protects you.

Consumer-finance educators say much the same about saving in general. The consumer-finance guide to building an emergency fund suggests setting a specific goal, estimating how long it takes from how much and how often you can save, and automating the transfers so the habit does not rely on willpower. A baby budget is the same idea with a longer list of goals.

Step 1: sort what changes into four buckets

A baby budget feels huge because it is a pile of unlike things. Sorting them makes each one answerable and shows which ones you can still influence. Write a question mark wherever you do not know yet: a question mark is a task, not a failure.

1. 1

   Months with less income

   If either of you expects to work less or stop for a while, there is a stretch where the money coming in is lower than today. The first move is to ask your employer or your clients what you can expect, in writing, rather than guess.

2. 2

   One-off purchases

   Things you buy once to set up: somewhere to sleep, a way to carry or transport the baby, clothes and basics. This is the most flexible bucket, because much of it can be borrowed, bought second hand or left until later. See what to buy before the baby arrives.

3. 3

   The monthly baseline

   The change in your regular monthly spending once there is one more person: food, supplies, transport, housing, and above all childcare if you will need it. This is the bucket that lasts, so it decides whether the budget works in month 9 as well as in month 1.

4. 4

   The cushion

   Money for the things nobody listed. The costs nobody lists are a good way to find them, and how big a savings plan to aim for helps you size the cushion.

Your fill-in baby budget

Copy these tables into a spreadsheet or print them. Every example is made up to show the arithmetic and is not a typical cost. Delete the example column when you have your own numbers, and write "unknown" instead of leaving a cell empty: an empty cell looks forgotten, an "unknown" looks like a question you will ask.

Bucket 1: months with less income

Bucket 2: one-off purchases

Bucket 3: the monthly baseline

Put the buckets on one page

When each cost shows up: a rough timeline

Money moves on a schedule of its own. This timeline is a suggestion, counted in months around the baby's arrival, not a prediction of when anything will happen. Shift it to fit your own dates.

1. 6 to 12 months before

   Ask and collect

   Ask your employer or clients what you can expect, fill the first column of every table and start moving a little money into the baby fund while nothing is urgent.

2. 3 to 6 months before

   Rehearse

   Live on the post-baby monthly budget (next section) so you learn what it feels like.

3. In the months before arrival

   Fix the income gap

   Confirm dates and what will actually be paid, and update table 1. A call now beats a surprise later.

4. Last two months

   Buy what you decided to buy

   Work through the one-off list and leave the "can wait" items for later.

5. Months 1 to 3

   Compare the real month with the estimate

   Open the monthly baseline and replace guesses with what actually left your account.

6. Months 4 to 12

   Adjust

   Childcare, a return to work or a change of hours usually changes the baseline. Redo the summary once a quarter.

Try the budget before you need it

A budget on paper hides the part that is hardest to estimate: how it feels. A rehearsal month finds out while there is still time to change something.

1. 1

   Build the future monthly budget

   Use the "after the baby" column, including your best guess for childcare and any change in income.

2. 2

   Live on it for a month or two

   Pay the same bills, in the same categories, from the same accounts. If the budget includes a lower income, simulate it by living on the smaller amount.

3. 3

   Move the difference into savings

   What you did not spend compared with your usual month goes into a separate pot, on the day it would otherwise be spent. It is both the proof that the budget works and a head start on bucket 1. A consumer-finance guide's advice to automate the transfer fits here.

4. 4

   Note what hurt

   Write down the lines that were hard and adjust the table. If the budget does not work, you found out early, and you can change the plan, the date or the size of the cushion.

Settle the questions that belong to both of you

The numbers are easier than the decisions behind them. If one partner earns less, will work less or simply feels differently about money, the table is the same but the conversation is not. The Your Money, Your Goals toolkit from the same agency includes booklets for starting money conversations, which shows how normal it is to need a structure for this. Try a short, regular money meeting with a fixed agenda.

If you expect to rely on one income for a while, test that scenario directly with a baby on one income before you commit. If you are not yet in the same place about the whole idea, start with when one of you is ready and the other is not.

Pick a way to share the money

Budgets fail less from bad arithmetic than from unspoken rules about whose money is whose. Three set-ups are common; none is right for everyone, and you can switch later. Whatever you choose, write it down in one sentence. Joint finances for couples goes deeper.