Now being the responsible pillar of the community that I am my first instinct when this news arrived was to go on a spending spree.  I figured that if I did not buy it then, that in the future when the bundle of joy presented itself to the world I would not be able to afford anything but nappies, formula and wipes.

I quickly went out and aquired some $800 worth of power tools. I also splurged and spent some $1200 on a brand new set of custom golf clubs. Now that is responsible spending... Not.

As it turned out, this entire process was quite unwarranted. Granted with the prospect of a developing family our priorities changed.  This is not to say that we gave up anything financially due to having kids, in fact in our experience it has been quite the opposite.

In short, having kids is a gift and a blessing and for the most part they are only as expensive as we make them.  

In the words of a great Vulcan "Live Long and Prosper".