Guest Post: Being Frugal even with Baby Necessities!!

When my husband and I decided to expand our family of 4 (2 humans and 2 dogs) and add a baby to the mix, the first worry that crossed my mind was our finances.

Our pups

I’m a very frugal person by nature and prefer to spend my hard-earned dollars on things like clothes or shoes (for me and the baby), not diapers and wipes.  And if you’re in the same boat, I will share with you my super-duper awesome ways to save a few bucks while providing your child with everything (and more) that they need.

Meet Peanut

1.  Check out tag/garage/moving sales

We bought the following items at a tag sale for a total of $35: Playmat, Bumbo, Car Seat with 2 bases (it didn’t hurt that I am not afraid to bargain).

There are a few things to consider when purchasing things from a tag sale, especially with a car seat.  To make sure that we were providing safety to our first-born, we took the car seat to a local police station to get it inspected.  Ended up that the car seat was less than a year old and in absolutely perfect condition – so it was a win for us.  However, I do urge you to check that whatever you buy is 100% safe.  Tag sales are tricky like that.

2.  Shop for diapers and wipes on Amazon.com

I am going to start by saying that Amazon.com is my favorite website and I buy almost everything there to start with.  So when we had our baby, it was only natural that I checked out the pricing for our new needs on my favorite sites and compared them to others.  Here is a way to save on Amazon.com-

Choose the diapers you want (my starting price: $44.99 for 246 diapers) and make sure they have a “30% off Subscribe and Save” discount (new price: $31.49).  You can cancel this subscription as soon as you purchase the items you want.  I also set up a free Amazon Prime membership just for being a mom to receive free 2-day shipping on most items.  Next, if you’re lucky, you can fish out some 20% off diapers or $10 off Baby purchases in baby magazines (I had a bunch of these from American Baby, which is free, and Parents magazines, which I got free from mycokerewards.com).  With these coupons combined, I’ve paid as little as $25 for a box of 246 diapers and $7 for a box of 192 wipes – all brand names and with free 2-day shipping.

I also have the Amazon app on my iPhone, which allows me to quickly compare pricing with that of any other store.  It’s amazing how much you can save if you’re just willing to compare prices.

3.  Swap with your friends.

If you are lucky enough to have friends and family that have babies that have outgrown some of their things, offer to swap items.

My best friend had a baby 9 months before us, so we borrowed all the fun activity items such as bouncer, swing, jumperoo from them.  If we received any items that they did not have from a baby shower, we plan to let them borrow it for their next baby.

4.  Don’t be afraid of hand-me-downs.

Our neighbors and a couple of friends had their fill of babies and decided to clean their house by donating their baby items to us.  And we gladly accepted.  I know that some of you might not love hand-me-downs, but we received boxes of clothes that still had tags on them.  Apparently babies outgrow clothes faster than you can buy them, so our little Peanut got to wear gorgeous little outfits that we didn’t pay for that we absolutely brand new.

5.  Use your credit cards for points.

First and foremost, this only works if you are the kind of person that will pay your credit cards off in full because you only buy what you can afford.  Please don’t acquire debt this way.

Now, since I’m a super obsessed person and will only spend what I can spend, it works for us.  Try to switch everything you pay for now to credit cards – we pay almost all of our bills with our credit cards – from electric to trash to purchases.  And sign up for credit cards that will give you the rewards you want (I have American Express Rewards and Amazon Visa card).  Both of these cards give us $$ for Amazon.com, where I shop the most.  After savings up for almost a year, we were able to buy all the furniture for Peanut’s room through our reward points and didn’t have to spend a dime our of pocket!

There you have it – super simple ways to save a few bucks when having a baby.

Check out my blog at http://www.livinglikethekings.com for updates on our lives with Peanut