How to Save Money on Baby Stuff

Having a child can be expensive and not being ready for all the costs of a new baby shock a lot of parents. Here are some ideas to help you get through the first couple years of your baby’s life without going broke.

The Big Stuff

When it comes to travel systems, cribs, furniture, swings, and anything really large your best bet is to first put it on your baby registry.

If one of the grandparents is willing to buy these for you, that is always going to be your best bet.

Buy Gently Used

If the family isn’t up for helping out with the big stuff, then your next bet is to find items gently used. We bought our crib from a family whose two children each spent less than a month in their crib.

It was almost brand new and came with a changing table and night stand.  All of that cost us $150. Similar cribs (JUST the crib) were going for $200 at the time.

So hit up craigslist and other local shopping communities to pass the nine months before your baby comes to make sure you get a deal.

Baby Clothing

You will need to purchase clothes for your little one and if you go the route that many parents go you will spend a small fortune on clothing that they will wear for, at most, a couple of months.  The key here is start with buying used clothes and then fill in the gaps with items that are on clearance.

Used Clothing

If you have older siblings, like I do, you might hit the mother load by getting a ton of hand me downs.  If you are not so lucky then I would be hunting yard/garage sales, your local flea market and hitting up websites like poshmark and craigslist.org.

The reason used clothing works is that babies do not wear down their clothing.  My son has worn his clothes an average of one month.  The little buggers just grow so fast that they blast right past a whole year of clothing before they are able to move enough to put any holes or tears in them.

New Clothes

If you need to buy new clothes your best bet is the clearance racks.  I have two stores that I frequent when it comes to clearance clothing and they are Target and Kohl’s.

These two stores are far and away the best clearance store out there.  Kohl’s is a little more random on their clearance marked downs but Target has a regular schedule.  You can understand this schedule better by checking out my post on Target Clearance.

Diapers

Diapers are one of the biggest continuing expenses that you will suffer when you have a new baby.  There are many schools of thought on getting the best deal on diapers and I will highlight what I consider to be the top three.

No Muss No Fuss – for the somewhat thrifty person getting the store brand of diapers is much less expensive than the name brand diapers.  You do have to be careful about which store brand you go with, many are not nearly as good as the two big brands.

For my money Aldi diapers, and for that matter all the Aldi baby products, take the cake for the best of the store brand competition.

Cloth – Cloth diapers are the most economical from a long term perspective.  The key is to get nice ones that are less of a hassle to deal with and to get them with your first child.  Having multiple children and using the same set of diapers for all your kids is the way to go.  Many times you can pick these up slightly used at yard sales.  If that grosses you out then I found some good deals over at Amazon.com.  These are not recommended for newborns since they go through so many diapers the first couple of months.

Name Brand Cheap – Now the primary diaper changer in my house is unwilling to go the cloth route so we decided to get the best quality diapers at a cheaper price than the store brand.  This can be done using coupons and store specials. You will want to sign up for the Pampers and Huggies rewards programs to get points for each of your purchases

Save Money on Baby Stuff with Discounts and Freebies

There are all sorts of clubs and programs out there that can help you save on your baby purchases. Here are the ones that I have been a part of.  If you know of any others please feel free to add them to the comments.

National Diaper Bank Network – If you are a low income family, the National Diaper Bank Network is here to support you with free diapers.  If you are person who is great at getting diapers at low prices, you can donate diapers to help others in need.

Pampers – A community and rewards program where you enter the code from pampers products and earn points toward rewards.  You will also get extra coupons and free samples in the mail

Huggies -Very similar to Pampers offer just for Huggies.

Beechnut – an e-newsletter with extra coupons and offers.  They will also send you info on their rebate program.

Gerber – A nice program with extra coupons and savings.

Publix Baby Club -If you have a Publix near you do not miss out on this great club.  They send you store coupons which can be stacked with the manufacturer’s coupons you get from the programs above or your local newspaper.

Natural Baby Company – Their rewards program gives you $1 for every 100 points you earn and 5 points for every dollar you spend (5% cash back). You can also earn rewards by referring friends and completing task like following them on social media. You get 10% off your first order when you sign up.

Keep Your Eyes Open

As long as you live in an area where people are having children, there will be opportunities to save money on baby stuff. Whether it is through networks of new parents or baby expos that come to your town, there are always different means of saving money.

So keep your eyes and ears open and hunt out that deal. Your kids are only babies for a little while, so enjoy this time and make sure you don’t go broke trying to keep them in designer attire.

Besides, everyone thinks the almost naked baby pictures are the cutest anyway.