One year of Diapers

Diapers, by per piece, bought during the month. Some variation due to bulk purchase during promo period.

I spend $624.66 in diapers for baby's first year. This translate into roughly $0.38 per piece when pampers is on promo (the best price so far for Large size is $18 per pack. I am paying $25.9 at this point in time with no promo. Having said that, not much promo from Pampers this year.) and close to $0.50 per piece when not on promo. That's a difference of 20%, or for my case, slightly more than $100 of savings a year!

Baby have diaper change on average 5 times a day and generally after 9 months or so, night changing is less frequent as his stool comes once or twice in the day and pampers can hold liquid over night (some leakages still when its bursting full).

Looking at the number of diapers we got (1823 pcs), I cant imagine we have changed baby more than a thousand times already and its still a struggle to get him changed sometimes when he refused to be lying down! In that regard, the walker diapers are really convenient when we are outside. Good to get some in case of emergency.

Full details below:

Previous comment on diaper review.

A year's worth of milk

Milk Tins purchased per month. Started formula milk from 8 mths old. First 2 months were a mix of formula + breastmilk. Pretty consistent consumption over the months.

When baby was still in mummy's womb, we went to quite a number of seminars on prenatal and infant care. Many sponsors setup booth to give away free samples and of course the milk powders were quite popular. In fact, they quite one whole tin. And I think, this is a marketing genius. In our case, we went about starting off baby on his first milk tin by using the largest sample we had - NAN Pro. Baby did not had an adverse reaction, and we continued till today.

Guess what, we have already gotten 18 tins by his first birthday, or equivalent to $728.50. From the looks of it, this will not stop. So that one tin of freebie has turned into a recurring income for them, from us.

There are promotional offers for milk powder, especially if you buy more than 1. For NAN, they had a buy 2 for a discount of 7.5% per bottle. However, I couldn’t find the discount in Feb this year and paid the full price. Now he is on NAN Pro 3, which is alot cheaper ($34.50) than Pro 2.

Full details below:

The cost of raising a one year old baby

It's not cheap. $29979 to be exact. 

Below are the breakdown:

The numbers here are on the conservative side because (1) as diligent i try to be, not all receipts are captured. (2) did not include expenses such as increased in utility bills, groceries etc.

More than 2/3 of the cost goes to medical and infantcare. Indeed should a pro-baby government want to promote a higher birthrate, this 2 aspect should be tackled.

If we strip out the non-recurring like Gynae (until the next baby comes), Pediatrician (unless we are talking of chronic illness) and Enrichment classes as well as having Grandparents or relatives take care of baby instead of infantcare (not getting into the pros-and-cons yet), the recurring cost is a lot lower than the headline figure may suggest.

Stay tuned for further breakdowns into the cost of each category.

Thank you, father of modern singapore

Thank you sir, for your life's work.

Under your leadership, you have given your people both dignity and confidence in life. We are now a wealthy society compared to 50 years ago, are educated and a first rate justice and enforcement system. Without economic success, we would be easily trampled on. Who would look up to a society with mass unemployment? Without education, we would be ignorant. And without law and order, we would not be safe. How can a society have freedom without a sense of security?

You allow us to dream, instead of facing survival and how harsh reality can be. My mum tells me how difficult it was in the pre-independence day. Now they retire comfortable, with a roof over their head, adequate retirement fund and their children, with good jobs.

This week, i learn more about you at a personal level, and it touches me more the person you are.

Ethan was cranky the whole day, but quieten when your cortage drove pass and again when the nation held a minute silence. He seems to understand the situation. I hope he will grow up learning about you and understand the foundation you created and how he must preserve all that is good.

Sir, may you RIP.

Lky speech

Lee Kuan Yew - Youths dont know what its like to be poor.7.: https://youtu.be/MnlPfvx7Cgg

How you have grown!

Cheeky little boy...we took out ur scooter box from the store-room to assemble the scooter for u to play. All this while u kept trying to close the box and carry it to me seemingly with an objective. Didnt know what u are looking for. Finally u pointed to the store-room...eureka! You close the box so u can pass it to me to keep it and open the door to ur favourite storeroom so you can play in it!...cheeky...very cheeky

How you have grown!

You make me laugh, whenever i smack your hand for something you should not touch and you walk away with a cute expression of a 'ouch' look mixed with a sly 'i will be back' smile. All on that little face of yours.

P/s: of coz i laugh still with a stern look on my face :)