The cost of a baby at birth

When a baby is planned or on the way, emotions run high. Wow, we’re going to be parents! With all the joy, financial means often play a subordinate role. But starting your own family should also be well planned financially, because the beginning of parenthood is expensive.

We have already looked into the question How much does a child cost? The short answer: around 330’000 CHF up to the age of 18. However, this calculation starts with the birth of the child.

However, parents buy many things before the baby arrives, for example, a changing unit or a pram. These costs for the so-called initial baby equipment are not yet included in this CHF 330,000. Therefore, in addition to the running costs for nappies, clothing and caring for your baby, you also need to budget for the following costs.

1. Furnishing the baby’s room

The most important pieces of furniture include

• Baby cot (with mattress): 150–800 CHF 
• Changing unit: 150–500 CHF 
• Wardrobe/shelf: 100–500 CHF 
• Nursing chair/armchair: 80–300 CHF

Total basic equipment: 480–2’100 CHF

Tip: Furniture in particular (e.g. chests of drawers, shelves) can be bought second-hand or taken over from friends and acquaintances. This is sustainable and reduces costs enormously.

2. Pram

• Used: possible from as little as CHF 100
• Simple models: 200–500 CHF
• Branded pushchair: 600–1’400 CHF, in a set with 3 shells up to 2’000  CHF

Tip: You will need at least 2 pram shells anyway, and a third one after 6 months. Buying everything as a set is often cheaper.

3. Baby car seat

• New baby car seat (e.g. Cybex, Maxi-Cosi): 120–350 CHF
• Used: from 50 CHF

Caution: For safety reasons, it is recommended that you buy baby car seats as new as possible or only from a reliable second-hand source.

4. Devices and practical helpers

• Baby monitor: 40–180 CHF
• Nappy pail: 25–80 CHF
• Bathtub/bath bucket: 20–60 CHF
• Night light: 10–40 CHF
• Breast pump: 80–250 CHF
• Bottle warmer/steriliser: 30–100 CHF

Depending on whether you are breastfeeding or not, there may be no costs here.

Total estimate: Starting budget from 800 CHF

You should therefore realistically expect the following budgets for the items mentioned:

• Economical version (basic, second-hand): 800–1‘200 CHF
• Comfortable version (new and branded products): 2‘000–4‘000 CHF

It should be noted that these are only rough average values for orientation. For devices such as a baby monitor, for example, the price range is extremely high and can be far higher than the 180 CHF mentioned above if other features are included. The cost of furnishing a child’s room also varies greatly depending on the size of the room, what you may already have and how exclusive the furniture is.

Our recommendation: Only buy the absolute basics before the birth. Every baby is different and has different preferences, which you can only cater for once they are born. If you listen to all the recommendations about what you might need, you might end up buying a lot of things that you don’t need.

Tips for saving on initial equipment

• Used items from friends: First, ask around in your circle of acquaintances to see if anyone might no longer need one or two things. Perhaps someone can sell or lend you a pram at a favourable price.
• Second-hand portals: You can find many good offers on online portals such as Ricardo. The products are often barely used and as good as new, but cost significantly less than in a shop.
• Renting instead of buying: You don’t have to buy every product straight away. Especially those things that children quickly outgrow, such as pushchairs, baby car seats or cots, can also be rented wonderfully, e.g. at loopi.ch.
• Gifts from the clan: Involve your relatives and friends in the planning. For gift-giving occasions, such as a baby shower, communicate clearly what you urgently need for your baby and how your family clan can support you.
• Money back with cashback: With Clanq, you get 1 % cashback on every purchase. For purchases from our cashback partners, even up to 25 %. You can even do this before your child is born, so that you can start saving right away on your first baby equipment.

Our tips for collecting cashback

Cashback during pregnancy

Many costs are incurred even before the child is born. That’s why you can download the Clanq app as soon as you’re pregnant or at least planning to have a child. Simply create a piggy bank in the name “Baby” and enter the date of the account opening as the birthday. When your child is born, you can provide our support team with the correct data, and we will customise everything for you.

By the way: Not only (expectant) mums and dads, but also grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, and everyone else can collect cashback for a child in the clan with Clanq!

You can find out exactly how the cashback works here.

Extra cashback with selected partners

Here are a few selected cashback partners where you can get up to 25 % cashback on top of your 1 % purchase. With Clanq, you can save a lot on your first baby equipment.

🍼 Farmy – Baby food and baby care conveniently delivered to your home (farmy.ch)

🛏️ Panda Kindermöbel – Baby equipment and furniture for the nursery (pandakindermoebel.ch)

🚗 loopi – flexible pram and carrycot hire instead of buying (loopi.ch)

🌿 Löwenkind – natural herbs for all kinds of aches and pains (loewenkind.ch)

🧸 Circle Toys – sustainable toys to rent or buy (circle-toys.ch)

🧴 Online pharmacy, haar-shop.ch – care products for expectant mothers and babies (online-apotheke.ch, haar-shop.ch)

👶 Love Kids, Stadtlandkind, Kidsdream, Kidz – clothing, accessories and everyday essentials (lovekids.ch, stadtlandkind.ch, kidsdream.ch, kidz.ch)

You can also find valuable tips (in German) before and during pregnancy and afterwards during the baby and child period from our cashback partners Wireltern (wireltern.ch) and Swissmom (swissmom.ch).

You can find an overview of all cashback partners here.

Conclusion: budget CHF 1‘000 to 3‘000, the savings potential is enormous

For good quality, safe and comfortable initial equipment, you should roughly budget around 1‘000 to 3‘000 CHF for furnishing the baby’s room, pram, carrycot and the most important equipment, depending on your requirements and budget. There are many ways to save money.

If you buy new items, it’s best to pay with Clanq, you get at least 1 % of your initial baby equipment costs and up to 25 % of the amount spent back.