[hillies]

UMMM don't tell my parents that or they would've cut me off long ago.

I know they probably spent at least half that to send me to college at University of Miami for four years and I had a THREE QUARTERS paid scholarship...which made it cheaper than state university! Oh, and now that I can't get a job because the economy is terrible I'm in graduate school and that costs 15k a year...although that's student loans.

But considering a decent carseat/stroller combo costs $400-$500 now...it really doesn't surprise me. I heard somewhere that it was actually more like $300-400,000 when you count prenatal medical costs and the cost of medical insurance and all those other little things you typically don't put a specific price tag on...vacations, feeding an extra mouth at dinners out, etc.

I know my fiance wants kids sooner rather than later...but the whole budget thing is my way of putting him off...I think we're more on the 10-year SkinKid plan for that reason!

PS- forgot to add in the cost of my wedding this summer. And we're being very frugal with our budget decisions--only inviting family, doing invites ourselves, etc. But still, the budget is enough to buy a nice car...mostly because everything is so darn expensive now!