Kay Kay Es No Money Spent

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Well THAT was a fast year! And now because I'm a dad I'm allowed to say things like "they grow up so fast, don't they?" And "Stop playing with your penis!" Haha… Man, what a ride so far :)

It's crazy to think that in only 12 months a human can go from a cute little blob in the belly, to a cute chubby speed demon trying to gobble everything in sight. Both food and money, for that matter. I can tell he's gonna be a little troublemaker when he grows up too, just like his daddy!

But hot damn do I love that child… We call him the king in our household since he's the last of our bloodline to carry on my last name at the moment, seeing how my sister changed hers during marriage and my brother is yet to settle down. Though it's quite possible he does have some illegitimate kiddos roaming around the country for all we know ;) (You reading this, brother?)

Anywho, we don't plan on throwing him too much of an outrageous birthday party today cuz we don't have $32,000 laying around (that, and our boy won't remember a darn thing anyways), but we ARE gonna have lots of fun and spend quality time with our family and friends. Along with tasty cakes and beers, of course. I hear there's some tradition of smushing the cake in your kid's face when he turns 1? We'll see how that goes ;)

In other related news, babies are mad expensive. Remember that Baby Costs Tracker I enacted over 12 months ago? Well, it keeps on tickin'! I should throw a party for myself too for staying on top of it for so long! One year is no joke! It takes forever, haha…

So if you will, please indulge me in impressing you with the results (not so much for the numbers contained in them, but just for the fact of *having* results to show off ;)):

Total amount pre-birth: $2,781.73
Total amount after 2 months born: $3,651.15 (up $869.42)
Total amount after 5 months: $5,241.83 (up $1,590.68)
Total amount after 8 months: $10,447.98 (up $4,834.25*)
New grand total after 21 months: $15,252.37 (up $4,804.39)
*Amount of that invested in his 529 college acct: $3,350.00

Yeah. Money guzzlers like no other. If you take out the pre-birth amounts and all the college savings, it looks like we're averaging a good $750 a month in expenses. Which includes both day care and crazy high insurance premiums. Luckily the latter will be cut to a third now going forward (more on that later), but unfortunately day care will only be going UP now that we have him in full-time. D'oh…

But I've said it once, and I'll say it over and over again: that's why God made them so cute :) To help make up for all the troubles they bring! Haha… And they really do bring you all the love and joy in the world like everyone says too. Not that I fully understood it until the wee one came out…

So hooray for making it out our first year alive! And not going into debt! I'll continue tracking the expenses for as long as I can take it, but probably best not to hold your breath… Oddly enough the spreadsheets aren't as important anymore as the subject behind them :)

Hope your family adventures are going well too!

——-
PS: You can see the entire breakdown of these numbers in detail here: J's Baby Costs Tracker. It's not pretty, but it sure is real… Give or take a few hundred :)

Jay loves talking about money, collecting coins, blasting hip-hop, and hanging out with his three beautiful boys. You can check out all of his online projects at jmoney.biz. Thanks for reading the blog!