Finding out you’re pregnant can bring an avalanche of emotions, both positive and negative. If you’re already struggling to make ends meet though, those negative feelings of fear and overwhelm might threaten to drown out excitement.
Thankfully, it’s possible to survive your pregnancy and little one’s babyhood even on a low income. This website is devoted to parenting on a budget, and I’ve got tons of strategies to cut costs without totally slashing your quality of life.
Here are some tips on how to financially prepare for a baby when you’re broke.
1. Understand your current finances.
It can be easy to quickly get overwhelmed with the idea of a baby when you’re already living paycheck to paycheck. But before you despair, it’s time to get real. Grab some paper or the note app on your phone and answer the following questions:
- How much money do you bring in each month? (If your income is irregular, try taking the average of the last six months to give you a rough estimate).
- What bills do you need to pay each month?
- What else are you spending money on each month besides bills?
If you’re not exactly sure where each and every one of your dollars go, try tracking your expenses for a month to get a better handle on it. Sometimes, simply tracking your expenses and writing everything down can help you see cracks you didn’t even know were there. Or you might cut back on unnecessary spending just because you know you’ll have to write it down later. Either way, both outcomes are great news for your future baby budget!
2. Research government benefits.
Don’t write this tip off as only for “poor people.” There are several government benefits available to help families with financial difficulties, and pregnant women are eligible for more than average. Here are a few that you’ll want to check out if you live in America:
- Medicaid is a government-funded health insurance program for low-income individuals and families. Pregnant women who meet certain income requirements may be eligible for Medicaid, which can help cover the costs of prenatal care, labor and delivery, and other medical expenses related to pregnancy. Even if you normally make too much money for Medicaid, you might still qualify for “pregnancy medicaid” thanks to expanded eligibility.
- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, provides low-income individuals and families with special debit cards they can use to purchase food. Pregnant women who meet certain income requirements may be eligible for SNAP benefits.
- Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) gives low-income pregnant women, newly postpartum mothers (both breastfeeding and not), and young children with nutrition education, healthy food, and other services. WIC can help cover the costs of nutritious food, such as milk, eggs, and fruits and vegetables.
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is a government program that offers financial assistance to low-income families with dependent children. Pregnant women who meet certain income requirements may be eligible for TANF benefits. TANF is run by individual states, however, so benefits might vary widely from place to place.
- Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) helps families to help cover the costs of child care if they can’t otherwise afford it. Pregnant women who meet certain income requirements may be eligible for CCDF benefits.
As with most things, you should contact your state or local agency to determine eligibility and apply for the programs you might qualify for.
3. Be strategic about baby gear.
First, ignore all the store-produced registry checklists, as their main goal is to make you spend more money. Listening to them would have you believe you can’t properly raise a child without a bottle warmer or one of those diaper cream spatulas (yes, they exist!)
Instead, only worry about the essentials at first: where they’ll sleep, carseats, diapers, and clothes. If you want a more detailed, essentials-only baby registry checklist based on the results from my survey of over 6,000 moms, I’ve already written that for you, too!
You can always add items that make life more convenient as you go. This spreads out the cost over the course of several months too, instead of one big shopping spree that’ll put you in credit card debt forever.
Second, buy as much as you can secondhand. Babies grow and develop rapidly, so even pre-loved gear and clothes hasn’t been worn or used for very long. Let other moms buy the brand new gear. YOU can happily take it off their hands after a few weeks of use.
To find secondhand gear, check Facebook marketplace, Buy Nothing groups, and baby consignment stores like Once Upon a Child. You can also put the word out among any friends, family members, and co-workers that you’re looking for used gear. People are often happy to help you hunt!
4. Get baby registry freebies.
Did you know all the major baby registries you can create online give free boxes of products, samples, and coupons? They do! Plus, some don’t have any requirements to get the freebies other than just signing up.
I’ve tested all four: Amazon, Babylist, Target, and Walmart, and give you an idea of what your boxes might contain:
You might also be interested in some of my other articles, like my ultimate guide to getting free diapers or how to get free baby clothes.
5. Plan for medical expenses.
Medical expenses can be one of the biggest expenses when having a baby. Start planning for these expenses early. Know how much your deductible is, your out-of-pocket payment maximum, which doctors are “in network,” etc. Then, you can look for ways to lower the costs. You can consider a midwife or birthing center instead of a hospital birth, which can be significantly less expensive. (I’ve already written an article on how much a home birth costs here, if you’re interested.) You can also research insurance plans, if you’re in a position to shop around, and see which one offers the best coverage for pregnancy and childbirth.
If you’re stuck with your current insurance, be sure to milk them for every offered service and reward. Some insurance companies even offer prizes like diapers to those who go to prenatal appointments or bring their baby to well child visits. When I was pregnant with my oldest, my insurance offered me a $300 worth of Visa gift cards just for chatting with a maternal health nurse three times over the phone about how to have a healthy pregnancy!
In any case, all breast pumps are supposed to be covered by insurance for free, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. To order yours, the company Aeroflow Breastpumps will do all the insurance paperwork for you and ship you the pump of your choice, free. I picked the most basic pump they offer, and it still is working for me on baby #3.
6. Look into maternity leave options.
Unfortunately, most Americans don’t have access to paid family or maternity leave. However, there are still some options you can look into.
- Sick time: Most jobs offer at least a few days of paid sick time if you’ve worked there long enough.
- Vacation time: Also called PTO (paid time off), this paid leave might be available for you to use after the birth of your child.
- Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA): This federal law requires employers to save your job for up to twelve weeks following a family or medical leave as long as your company meets certain size requirements and you’ve worked there for a year. However, it doesn’t require your company to pay you during that time.
- Paid maternity leave: Some companies offer paid maternity leave. In fact, it’s required in certain states. Your company might still have a policy about using up all your sick and vacation time before qualifying for paid maternity leave.
- State-funded parental leave: Some states, like California, offer paid parental leave for pregnant or new moms.
- Short-term disability: The rules for employer sponsored short-term disability vary wildly from company to company. You might have signed up for a policy when you began working without knowing, so definitely check your hiring paperwork. If you didn’t sign up in advance, some companies allow you to apply and get benefits even after you find out you’re pregnant, but most don’t. Still, it’s worth applying and chatting with HR to find out the rules where you work.
Finally, even if you make too much money for government assistance while you’re pregnant and working, be sure to reapply once you’ve had your baby if your family’s income has changed. If you have to take unpaid maternity leave, you’ll likely qualify for much more aid during your leave because it’s based on the income you’re making at that moment in time. Getting assistance like WIC, TANF, or SNAP can help stretch your family’s dollars and make ends meet postpartum.
7. Ghost host your own baby shower.
A baby shower can be a great way to help prepare financially for a baby, and you should make having one a priority. Lots of new moms-to-be have plenty of loved ones who want to help them “prepare the nest” for the new bundle of joy.
But if I’m being realistic, I know not everyone has friends or family who have the time to plan a baby shower, especially with all the pressure social media puts upon a shower looking nice. If you find yourself in that position, you can approach a best friend or close family member to be the “ghost” host. You’ll do all the planning and preparation, but they act as the hostess on the big day. That way, you don’t seem like you’re just throwing your own shower to get gifts.
At the very least, you can try to organize a diaper raffle. This is where you offer some kind of prize: a gift card, service like house cleaning, or even some kind of technology. Then, for every box of diapers or wipes someone gives, they get a ticket placed in the raffle. One lucky winner takes it all!
And if you’re looking for ideas on how to throw a baby shower on a budget, I’ve written an article about that, too.
8. Look for affordable child care.
Child care can be expensive, so start researching affordable child care options early and get your name on all the waiting lists. As mentioned previously, your state or local agency might be able to hook you up with assistance or benefits, depending on the day care.
Be sure to check out the closest Early Head Start programs, as they not only provide FREE childcare, but also support you while you’re pregnant, provide free food and diapers to kids during the day, and can even hook you and your child up with free or low cost medical & dental care.
If Early Head Start or traditional daycares aren’t an option right now, you can consider alternatives. Asking a family member or friend to provide child care, or looking for a daycare center that offers sliding scale fees based on income are options. Some parts of the country also have church programs called “Mom’s Day Out” (or similar) and offer free or very low cost child care for a few hours a week. You usually don’t have to be a member of the church to take advantage of the care, either.
Finally, some moms just need to make a weird patchwork of child care work. Grandma might babysit on Mondays, your neighbor on Tuesday mornings, a Mom’s Day Out for Thursdays, etc. It’s not pretty, but it gets the job done in a pinch, or at least until a more stable option opens up.
9. Pile up cash & gift cards.
As soon as you know you’re pregnant, start saving as much money as you can.
This doesn’t just have to be cash, though! If you have an HSA account at work, start thinking of that as a savings account you can use to pay for doctors and hospital bills. If you get gift cards for holidays or birthdays, consider setting those aside for baby needs. Even restaurant gift cards will be useful in your postpartum period when you’re sleep deprived or too busy rocking a baby to cook.
If you’re worried about just spending anything you save, consider putting your money somewhere that’s harder to reach, like online savings accounts. Financial tech companies like PayPal and Chime offer safe, federally backed places to stash your cash, fee-free.
Finally, if you think doing a savings challenge like a no spend month would help motivate you to save more, you can check out some tips to crush your savings challenge.
10. Make more money at work.
Even if you slash your budget to the bone, sometimes there’s just not enough money to make ends meet. If this is where you find yourself, it’s time to up your income in any way possible.
The most likely path to making more money is to consider the job you already have. Can you get a raise?
- See if you’re being underpaid by checking salaries for your job title in your area on LinkedIn, then ask your boss to match the industry going rate in your area. This is more likely to work if your employer is desperate to hire and keep employees.
- Gain a new skill that makes you more valuable and worthy of a raise. Then ask for it.
- Take on more responsibility and get a promotion that comes with a pay raise.
- Even if you can’t increase your hourly rate or salary, try to work some overtime or take on a few more shifts.
11. Find a side gig.
If none of those are an option right now, the other choice is to pick up a side hustle to bring in extra income. If you You can consider freelancing, selling items online, or offering services such as pet sitting or house cleaning. You also might consider babysitting and getting in some practice before your own little one arrives!
Every little bit helps, and every dollar of extra income can go towards preparing for your baby.
In conclusion, financially preparing for a baby when you’re broke can be challenging, but it’s not impossible. By creating a budget, saving money, researching government benefits, planning for medical expenses, considering a baby shower, looking for affordable child care, and considering a side hustle, you can financially prepare for your baby and provide the best life possible.
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