12 Ways to Save on Baby Stuff
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Having a baby is a joyous time — and it doesn’t have to break the bank. Here are 12 ways to save money on baby stuff.

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My baby days are over. The Girl turns four next month. Last spring I gave all my gear to a friend having a baby. The maternity clothes went the previous fall.
But, even though our family has moved on, I still remember those days of preparation and excitement as well as those moments of oh-my! how in the world will I survive?
You’ll be fine. Promise.
Here are 12 ways to save on baby stuff, learned through experience. Believe me.
1. Lower your standards.
With my first child I wanted the biggest and the best of everything. I can’t believe how I traveled all over town looking for a certain patterned fabric on my “travel system.” They had just come out with car seats that attached to strollers. I wanted a “unique” pattern and searched high and low to find one. And paid a pretty penny to do it, too.
Guess what? The baby didn’t care.
2. Set a budget.
If you don’t put limits on your spending, who will? Keep in mind a bare minimum list of baby items. Buy those items first and then wait.
3. Learn to be patient.
THIS is the number one lesson of motherhood anyway. You don’t need to have everything you think you need to have today. Be patient. The right time will come. Or that item will just be unnecessary; time will pass and you’ll find that you don’t need it anyway.
4. Borrow from friends.
We never bought an exersaucer –until our sixth baby came! I consider those suckers must-haves when babies are between 4 and 9 months old when babies are more active and yet still need to be contained so you can get something done. We always had friends happy to loan one to us and free up storage space for 6 months or so. When the last baby came along, none of our California friends had one, so we splurged. (Must-have). And then we were happy to give it to a friend.
Hopefully, you’ve got generous friends who don’t mind sharing.
5. Buy used.
Babies grow so quickly, you really don’t need to worry about them wearing out their clothes. They just outgrow them. You can easily find almost-new baby clothes at garage sales, thrift stores, and consignment shops. Babies don’t care what they’re wearing as long as they are warm and dry.
6. Save hand-me-downs.
I have known moms who gave away their baby clothes right away even though they hoped to have more children. This always puzzled me. Why rebuy all that stuff again?
To each his own, but you can save a lot of coin if you save hand-me-downs for your next kid.
7. Use coupons.
I’ve almost kissed coupons goodbye. But, if I were still buying diapers, you can bet I’d be grabbing all the diaper coupons I could lay my hands on. It was rare that a diaper coupon ever went unused in my baby days. You’re going to buy them anyway, why not use a coupon. Put out the word that you’re looking for diaper coupons. My grandma used to mail me any that she found in her paper. Those suckers are expensive these days!
8. Stockpile.
Build a stockpile of baby supplies that you know you will use. Buy these items on sale whether or not you need them that week. As long as you’ve got room in the budget and in your closet, it’s a good move to buy things that you know you will use at a great price.
9. Try out cloth diapers.
I’ve never done cloth. The easy kind of diaper wraps came on the scene in the middle of my baby years and I was too stuck in my ways to try something new. Plus, I already had laundry in the millions to wash.
My sister, however, had a great experience in cloth diapering. Depending on how you go about it, you can do it very economically and possibly save money over disposables.
10. Breastfeed.
I know, not everyone can do this, but breastfeeding can save you a chunk of change over formula. I never bought formula, so I can’t speak to the experience, personally. However, The Simple Dollar crunched some numbers in 2007. The figures are admittedly up for debate based on the differing nutritional needs of the baby, the additional calorie intake of a breastfeeding mother, and all kinds of other variables. But, if you’re able to nurse your baby exclusively, you can save close to $2000 over the first year. (I’m rounding up since I’m sure the cost of formula has gone up in 5 years.)
11. Don’t buy what you don’t need.
It’s hard to avoid, but overbuying is a big money waster. I often found diaper rash creams on sale and stocked up. But the reality is that we didn’t need to use it that often. I am still finding random tubes of Desitin, two years after we kissed diapers goodbye. Obviously, I could have saved a few pennies by not buying what we didn’t need.
12. Do without.
As long as your baby is well-fed, diapered, and warmly clothed, he doesn’t need much more, except time with you. There are lots of baby things that we don’t need. We actually loved our diaper wipe warmer, but it was definitely not a must-have. We could have lived without it.
There are plenty of things like that in life. We can do without them if the budget doesn’t allow them.
And even if it does.
Great post Jessica. I wish all new moms could have this info. I remember that we didn’t get a swing for our daughter – we knew she’d be the only one & didn’t want to spend the money on it so we never got one. I was amazed at the reactions we got from people who couldn’t understand how we would manage with out a swing. Of course we did! We did love the exersaucer though – it was great for putting her in there while I showered.
Thanks for hosting frugal Friday!
We never got a swing because I was too worried about the toddlers in the house messing with it while the baby was in it! You can definitely live without a swing.
I loved point #3– especially applicable with kid #1 when folks are throwing you showers. It’s easy to get impatient and go out and buy the stuff you’re “missing.” Folks will either give you most of what you need or you may not even need it.
Three things to add:
-Give generic brand diapers a try. Many generics are equivalent or even better than the name brands. Quality really has improved over the last 10-15 years.
-When stockpiling, stock up on the bigger diaper sizes (3 and up). I took advantage of a deal and stockpiled size 2 diapers, but I received so many diapers from showers and friends that he had outgrown the 2’s by the time I got around to using mine! It’s remarkable how quickly they outgrow the little sizes of both diapers and clothing.
-Invest in a high quality electric breast pump. This was a must for me because I work part time outside the home, but it also saved me from a bad infection in the early weeks of breastfeeding before baby got the hang of things. I have been grateful for it during times of sickness, blocked ducts, and travel. I consider it an essential and don’t know what I’d do without it!
Those are some great points! Especially regarding generic brands. The generics of today must be running on the same machines that the expensive namebrands used fifteen years ago. Huge improvements.
Thank you so much for this post. My husband and I have been going back and forth about having another little one but struggle with the thought of the expense (even though we know that should never be the deciding factor). It helped to see someone break it down and point out what you can do to keep the costs down.
We’ve got six kids and don’t make a lot more than we did fifteen years ago. We’ve just learned to do better with what we have. You can totally do this. 😉
number 12 worked for me too. we originally were going to have two. those kids had most everything. then we sold it all, got a wild hair, and decided we needed more kiddos. so number three had nothing. we got a car seat, manual breast pump, and an excersaucer, our necessities. we still had a pouch we were still using for two and i was still carrying a diaper bag for her too.
i wanted a high chair though. i was getting help from an elder gentleman on prices since nothing was labeled at walmart, and it was $60. I thought that wasn’t too bad when he said, “whoa, I can’t believe they are so much. it’s just a chair.” i got to thinking about it and thought, you’re right. i fed that baby on my lap until it went on clearance three months later for $22.
Good for you! I don’t think I could have held out that long. LOL. I like eating with both hands too much. 😉
I think number one was the biggest thing for us. Once you can lower your standards and realize that not everything has to be either brand new or the best of the best, your budget suddenly seems much larger than it did five minutes ago.