Are you asking about budgeting for all of childhood, or just for the first year or so?
Honestly, we budgeted zero for our baby. We had very little income at the time and were used to making do. Though we made little, we also did manage to save. We never felt like there would be a problem providing what our baby would need materially. But we also did not even know that the plethora of baby stuff even existed, so we did not think we needed it. Our friends with children did not have a lot of baby stuff, so it just wasn't something we saw.
Does someone give you a list of stuff they expect to see in the baby's room when they do the home study? I ask because I would not like to have to comply with somebody else's ideas of what is necessary for an infant.
If you did not need to impress some third party, I would advise you to keep it simple. Babies just don't need a lot of material things. And it is hard to know ahead of time which of the baby-oriented material things will make life easier for you as parents. Like---maybe you are sure you need baby monitors because your house is two stories with baby's room on a different room than the kitchen or office. But then, later you may find that you decide to make a sleeping place for baby on the first floor close to where you really are anyway because you do not want to have to dash up the stairs, or just because you want baby close. But I can see how you might want to have that kind of thing to demonstrate for the home study people that you are responsible and anticipate a child's needs.
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