Counting cost of twin babies

Being a parent can be an expensive business – a buggy costing £600, a £50 baby swing, £25 baby gym, feeding chair at £30, £40 for a bouncy chair – and not to mention the cost of nappies and food.

Black Country mother Kerry Goodall knows just how easy the baby bill can escalate. But she is also aware that when twins arrive it can make a double dent in the parental purse.

Parents are spending hundreds and hundreds of pounds in the first year of a child's life on baby-related kit.

But in their mission to get the best for their baby many spend a fortune on items which go unused, a recent survey has revealed.

Kerry, aged 34, who is mother to four-and-a-half-month-old twins Isaac and Poppy, admits the costs can easily go up and up. And although she keeps her eyes on the pennies – she does a lot of shopping on ebay – she admits she can go a bit mad when it comes to buying baby outfits

"I am very conscious of the costs of bringing up a baby" said Kerry, who lives in Finchfield, Wolverhampton, with husband Robert, 36, and daughter Scarlett, four.

"I know that first time round you can go a bit crazy as a new parent, so we've tried to be as good as we can with the twins, but you still end up spending a lot on the essential items alone," said Kerry, who is currently on maternity leave from her job as a PA at Stourbridge College.

"The double buggy was £600 and the changing bag was £100.

"And then we spent £200 on each cot, £25 each on the mobiles, and bedding and blankets adds up to another £150."

And when it comes to keeping Isaac and Poppy amused the Goodall family has toys and activity play centres galore.

A play gym cost £25 and a baby swing - which Kerry admits "is worth its weight in gold as it provides a 20-minute respite" – has a price tag of £50.

Their bouncy chairs are £40 and when it comes to the cuddly toys – around 30 in total – they vary in price from a couple of pounds to a fiver.

When it comes to feeding, that's another expense altogether. Isaac and Poppy gobble up £20 of formula each week and another £20 of solid foods each week.

And their anti-colic bottles are not cheap either, coming in at £60 for a dozen and there's also a £20 steriliser.And they enjoy feeding times while in a snug Bumbo chair, which cost £30 each.

Changing time is spent on a £10 mat, while the twins go through 30 nappies each a week, at a total cost of £12.

With clothes costing anything from £10 upwards per outfit it can be a costly business keeping them dressed.

"Baby clothes really aren't cheap and as Isaac and Poppy go through two outfits a day it can certainly add up," said Kerry, who does two loads of washing each day.

"It's very easy to get carried away when it comes to clothes but I do like to dress them well and buy outfits from all sorts of shops such as Next, Gap and Mothercare. And Primark is great for socks and vests," she said.

But savvy shopper Kerry is also an ebay fan and saves her pennies by snapping up some second hand bargains on the website.

"The pink and blue outfits they have on today were just a fiver each from eBay," she said proudly. So, do any of her baby items go unused? "Well because they grow so quickly I think clothes can go unused, as well as some of the toys.

"But I think parents need to remember that they don't have to buy everything for their babies.

"It's so easy to snap up everything, but it's certainly sensible in financial terms to shop around and to also take up offers of donations of clothes and baby-related items from friends or family who no longer need them," she said.