Singapore – To simply answer the question – Singaporean parents need about S$1,600 to cover a baby’s basic supplies and items, revealed a study by e-commerce aggregator iPrice.
Based on iPrice’s data from thousands of sellers and merchants on its website, the e-commerce aggregator recorded the median prices of selected essential items for a baby’s first year.
The one-off purchases such as baby car seats, strollers, five toys, cribs, step stools, and many more, are all amounting to about S$1,557, while the median prices of items that need to be bought on a regular basis such as diapers, wipes, and milk formula cost about S$43, which when summed up leads to the said estimated budget.
The study notes that the amount only covers basic items and has not included other items such as bath products, cleaning accessories, clothing, feeding items, and baby décor, or even bigger non-item necessities such as healthcare, which all account for overall baby care.
The analysis further remarked that since the prices are only estimated ones, there could be cheaper alternatives, and hence, a cheaper necessary budget.
The study measured the estimated expenditure against the country’s minimum wage to find out how capable parents can provide for baby care. Things are looking up for Singaporean parents since the country records the highest minimum wage in the region with S$1,400, a recent increase announced by its government.
However, this may take a while for parents to save up in other countries such as Malaysia where the minimum wage is just S$387, indicating that the expense of basic baby items would take up about half a minimum wage earner’s salary in the country for 8 months.