You can spend as much as the commercials want you to, or you wont.  I have three my wife stays home we do fine. We dont go on trips and dont  have nice cars but its worth it. If you wait till you have enough money you will never have enough. It all works out  in the end.

I have always said and will continue to say parenting is not about money its about commitment.yes you will need to pay for a hell of alot when it comes to babies but you have to make sure you are committed to having a child that will be ultimately in your life for the rest of your life. and my mum always used to say , you cant afford everything . so id say at my current situation with 4 children theres never enough money but theres always plenty of love.

And of course, she was right. How much do you spend - depends on whether you count childcare or not & if you've got healthcare insurance (and what it covers). Probably around $150-200/month go on formula, diapers, some clothes, toys, and other odds & ends (pacifiers, bottles, blankets). I have clothes left over from my older girls & constantly get hand-me-downs from one friend and from my sisters-in-law, so I don't really have to buy any clothes at all.

During my pregnancy, most of the money we spent was on tests - we paid to have the nuchal translucency test, an early extended ultrasound at 16 weeks, amnio (done by a private doctor, the lab was funded by our healthcare plan), etc. Maternity clothes were negligible, especially considering that usually one buys some clothes every year... I only had 2 nice new things for my last pregnancy & it was almost enough :-)

I think that if you wait for "the right time" it may never come and if you put it off too long, you might regret it (I went through 3 years of infertility before I finally had my first at 24...)

I had kids both early (at 24 & 27) and relatively late (35 & 36) - so here are some thoughts from my experience:

Sooner: Your kids get old enough for you to go traveling together while you're still young enough to enjoy it; you're usually in better physical shape & health, making running after the kids easier; you have time to decide whether you want another child or not and time to go through fertility treatments if you need them; you can finish with the babyproofing part of your life & get your white carpet before you're 40; no one will mistake you for their grandparents (only kidding )

Later: You have more patience, are usually better off financially, are more aware of what you want for your children, and most importantly, you've had the opportunity to really find out who you are & therefore it is easier to cope with having less time for self-fulfillment (e.g., going to school, developing a career, traveling).

I have a 14 month old son and as far as monthly costs now, I say about $250-$350. I am a stay at home mom, so that makes a lot of difference. The money is spent on diapers, a little bit of baby food (on days I can't cook), clothes here and there, and toys. If you purchase savings plan for college, then of course your cost will go way up.

As far as being ready...I don't think anyone could trully be ready to be a parent. But as far as financial readiness, my husband and I decided that our most of our debts should be paid off before trying. Once most of the debts were paid off, we thought that we should wait a few more years in order to save up more money. But it really doesn't end up this way. There are expenses that come up all the time. Then I thought, there are a lot of families out there that are worse off than we are that have more than one children and they make it just fine. So what are we trully waiting for? So after 8 years of marriage, we finally decided to go for it. Thinking back, we could have tried 2-4 years earlier. First you may want a house, then after you have a house, you may want a bigger house with a bigger yard, when you have that you think you want a hefty nest egg, then you think to yourself, maybe after being established in my career...    My suggestion, set up basic goals that will set your financial situation so as not to be stressing out about it when your baby arrives.  This could be paying off your 2 most expensive debt, or maybe just freeing up $500 from your monthly expenses. Children are a blessing. They will fill you up with joy and peace. Good luck to you.

too much, parenthood is a money pit!   Get ready.  First, to respond to the simplest question you have posed about starting a family sooner rather than later, I say at a younger age, I probably couldn't afford what I can give my kids now that I am older but I may have had more energy (physically) for them.  Yet now I am able to stay home with them and be with them rather than having a daycare look after them.

For the first year of my first girl's life she was in daycare...I had no family around...I picked a good one near my job it was average but I thought pricey considering I couldn't claim that much on my tax return. I hated taking her to it every day especially when at 10 months she was starting to cry when I left.

Now that I stay home with them on average we spend about $800 monthly for their costs, including 2 day program for my 3 yr old (she just started in nov after she was pretending to go to school for about 2 weeks, I guess she was ready??) and then the rest is diapers (for my 22 month old), entertainment, or doctor's visits.

I'm out of time, if you'd like more info, I'll check back later.