So have you been to the giant baby super store yet? When you walk in, you’re greeted by a huge, cheerful place with millions of products that your baby just has to have to live a happy life. Right? Wrong!
Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by the sheer number of products out there – or by your desire to create that special nest for your little bird. It can be fun to shop for your new baby,but you can shop smart and save some money and still have everything your baby needs – not to mention those cute outfits and toys that you just can’t resist sometimes!
I have to admit that I came to this idea of shopping smart only after I had two children and a mortgage and a car payment and only one paycheck coming in. When I left my job to stay at home with my son, I realized that part of my new “job” would be learning how to work with a budget. I diligently sat down and spent several hours making a beautiful, color-coded spreadsheet with all of our income and expenses. Then I never looked at it again.
I think people who can work within a budget like that are absolutely amazing. I’m not one of them. But, since I had done all of that work, I now knew exactly how much I had to spend on groceries, clothes and other household items each month. And that’s when I started shopping smart.
The first thing I did was to join one of the warehouse shopping clubs. There are a couple of reasons why they save you so much money: one is that they only mark items up a maximum of 12%, no matter what the product, unlike other retailers who mark items up as much as they can. Also, buying in bulk just saves money and time in the long run.
I did a lot of price comparisons at first, just to make sure that I really was saving money. Through a very un-scientific process, I decided that I was, indeed saving money. Then I saw an expert on frugal living on TV confirm my suspicion. Yep – I was on the right track.
I started making lists for the grocery store – and, what’s more important keeping to them and not buying impulse items, which tend to be expensive and less healthy. I clipped coupons regularly and occasionally remembered to use them. I discovered the joy of online auctions – both buying and selling, keeping the circulation of things flowing into and out of my home smoothly. I found out about “freecycle” groups and joined in the giving and receiving fun. Things were going well with my checkbook.
Then I got pregnant again. I wanted to run out and buy everything my crazy hormones told me my baby needed – a diaper wipe warmer for her little bum, a musical bouncy seat, adorable little outfits, those sweet little leather shoes…I wanted it all! My husband sat me down and begged me to be rational. He was right. One thing I’d learned with my first baby was how little he actually needed. It was really a bit disappointing.
It was time for an attitude check. Had I fallen into the depths of consumerism to such a degree that I was so totally out of control when it came to buying “stuff” for my baby? My baby didn’t want stuff! She wanted warm milk and a clean diaper. She wanted sweet snuggles in the night and songs in the morning. She wanted a loving family. And that’s what she got!
Here’s the secret to truly living within a budget and being happy about it: Stop for a minute and take a look at the big picture. Keeping perspective about what’s truly important is the key to living a happy life. Don’t let TV or the neighbors or anyone else tell you that you “can’t be happy without…” anything! Simple abundance is truly a joyful way to live. It’s a change in priorities, a chance to teach your children values around self-worth instead of just more and more consumption – which is getting harder and harder for our planet to bear.
Once I learned this lesson, preparing for the birth of my new baby became a beautiful experience instead of a mad dash. I sat down and thought about what we really needed to get for her and what items we didn’t really need, but would like to have anyway. Here’s what I realized:
She needed:
- Diapers & wipes & rash cream
- Sleepwear (we got really cute sleepers that worked as outfits, too, so she didn’t need so many clothes)
- Clothes – two dresses, five outfits, socks and hats
- Blankets – 6 receiving blankets and one beautiful, thick blanket and a couple of blankets that I could throw on the ground to lay her on
- Burp clothes (I just bought a pack of cloth diapers and used those. They’re the perfect size and they’re oh, so soft!)
- A car seat
- Pacifiers (I got three different kinds of paci’s, because different babies like different ones and I wanted to have several for her to try.)
- Bassinet & sheets
- Changing table & pad & pad cover
- Sling or carrying pack
- Bath tub & organic baby soap & shampoo (no chemicals for my baby’s soft skin!)
- Baby monitor
But all that being said, there still some things that I really wanted for my baby:
- Diaper wipe warmer (I don’t know why, this contraption had just seized my attention. Imagine having nice warm wipes instead of shockingly-cold ones!)
- Baby wash clothes and towels
- Several more outfits & dresses
- Rocking chair with footrest
- Nightlight
- Soft toys and one of those baby movies that keeps them mesmerized for 20 minutes so I can do the dishes or go to the bathroom alone or something
- Stroller
So we registered for all of these things – the stuff we needed and the stuff we just wanted for fun. We hadn’t registered for a bunch of stuff that we didn’t need so we got almost everything on our list given to us – even the diaper wipe warmer!
As my baby grew, of course, she required some other things: a high chair, larger clothes, eventually a new car seat. But we only purchased these things as we needed them – and often we were able to buy them second-hand or we had cousins pass things along to us. (One thing you never want to buy second-hand, by the way, is a car seat because you should never re-use a car seat that’s been in an accident and you just don’t know the history of a second-hand car seat).
Remember, you’re baby doesn’t need to be surrounded with stuff. She needs warmth and cuddles and love. You can be smart about providing the important things for your baby and free yourself from the trap of consumerism. That’s the best way to be thrifty: to see it as a loving choice for your family instead of as a chore or a lack of income. You are all your baby wants and your love doesn’t cost a thing.
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