1. Before the baby, find out whats important to you - I know this seems like a strange thing but it can really help lower the cost of stuff that you need for a baby. It's so easy to get into the train of thought when you are at the baby store that you need to have all this stuff and to be honest, you do need a lot of stuff but you need to make a personal decision on what stuff is important to you and what you are really to give in on.
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| Our clearanced crib |
Before James came I almost got pulled into the idea that we need an expensive crib, that what the crib looked like mattered but totally it doesn't, as long as it's safe. I was lucky enough to come across a markdown crib at meijer - walked, actually waddled, out of there with a crib for $80. It wasn't my dream crib but truthfully it has grown on me.
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| The chair and footrest that I got at a discount - the chair is so comfy and I couldn't have made it without the footrest |
The same could be said for the rocking chair that I got away with. I was at the baby store with the my MIL and I was in search of a chair, I was testing some out and the store associate told me that they had a brown one in the back that was purchased but never picked up. Truthfully, I wasn't too happy about the brown color but considering that I was going to get the chair at about 40% off, after some thinking I took the chair home. Both of these purchases I'm very glad that I was able to get out of my mind set of what I thought I needed and was able to get the deal and save me a lot of money.
2. Limit Clothing - This one is a hard one to control. Kids clothes are just so cute and it seems to be the go to baby gift. It's easy to blow anything that kind of resembled a budget when you don't have a way to hold yourself back. Luckily for me I have a big thing stopping me going crazy on baby clothes - the lack of storage.
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| James' Dresser/ changing table Diapers and stuff - top drawer clothes - middle drawer blankets and bedding - bottom drawer |
Due to the renovations going on in the house and the fact that I didn't think James would still be in the guest room at 1 year old. I don't have a lot of storage for his clothes hence I can't go crazy and buy a lot. I have one drawer that I can put his clothes in and one spare drawer (in another dresser) that I put clothes that he isn't fitting into yet or I know he won't wear often enough to put into rotation.
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| It was laundry day so it's a little slim but thats about all the clothes |
I do understand that when babies are little they poop and spit up on a lot of things - James would go through about 3 or 4 outfits a day. But those clothes are little and take up less space. Now, unless we have a leak or get way to crazy at meals, we are in one outfit a day. When I'm buying his clothes (which usually is either seasonal or when he grows too much), I usually try to get one 5-pack of onesies, a couple of t-shirts, 3 to 4 pants or shorts, 4 to 5 PJ's, 2 to 3 church clothes (mainly just a shirt) and maybe a couple of other thing but thats about, more or less.
3. DIY Toys - Babies love toys - for about 5 minutes and then they are off on to something else. With this in mind and noticing what James liked to do with this toys - take things out and put them back in again - I DIY'd some toys just from stuff we have at home.
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| Egg carton with and without stuff in them |
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| An old diaper wipe box with fabric strips |
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| A basket with fabric |
Other items are as rice or beans in a bottle, old snack container and kitchen utensils that you don't use.
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| First day wearing cloth diapers - he was so little |
I think some people are overwhelmed by the idea of having to deal with baby poop. Trust me, there have been sometimes where what has come out in the diapers were hard to stomach but generally it's not that bad. In terms of baby poop, yes we are gonna go there, breastfeed only baby poop isn't that bad, washes right out in the wash and when they start eating solids, there is a gross period when it's in-between hard and soft, that stuff isn't fun. But now we are at the point of where the poop is similar to ours (or what I would assume) and I just plop it right into the toilet, put the diaper in the pail and go on.
I think the estimated savings of doing cloth diapers over disposable diapers in the first year alone is about $400 and even more as the child grows up and you have more children because you don't have to buy more, you can just reuse.
5. Return items - This one was a hard one for me to get used to - keep items that you will really use and return the items you won't. People love to buy babies stuff - toys and clothes and sometimes they aren't things that you would actually use. So instead of keeping thing that you know, deep down, that you will never, ever use, return it and buy something you will need. I did this with a lot of the baby items that I received for James' baby shower and I'm glad I did because I ended up with a nice gift card in the end and was able to use it for stuff as he grew up. I only ended up rebuying one item but it wasn't the exact thing that I returned, just the idea.
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| 4 things of baby food = $4 more for the grocery budget |
Just recently I returned some baby food that I got at the store and instead of keeping it in the cabinet for a just in case, I returned it. I got about about $4 for it, so the amount wasn't great but it's better than what I would have gotten if it just set in my cabinet.
I think the taboo thought about returning items is that someone spent time to find and purchase this item and you don't want to hurt their feeling be returning it. But babies grow so fast and you don't visit people all that often the first few months of the baby coming so if you don't love the product, don't keep it. They will never know, I promise.
So those are my tips for keeping your baby budget in check - limit clothes, save money on things that aren't as important to you, return items, DIY your toys and use cloth diapers. But the truth of babies is that they are as expensive as you want them to be. You can follow all of those tips and still spend a crazy amount of money or not follow all of those and still keep it in track.
Happy Savings!
-Megan
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