Lately I've had coworkers, cousins, friends and other family members ask me how Preston and I are doing trying to prepare for our baby while being a full time student and a part time worker. Basically what we get asked a lot is, "Is it so expensive to have a baby?" and we've heard a lot of, "we would love to have a baby but it's so expensive!"
It's true, having a baby is expensive, there are a lot of costs you just can't really avoid.
These are some of the tips I would share for those who have been asking us. My apologies is this isn't helpful to anyone out there who may be in a similar college/early marriage baby having situation, but I figured I'd try.
Most my tips are for diapers and you can apply the same tips for wipes too, just know wipes are not nearly as expensive. Diapers are an expensive, in my opinion, must buy item. Yes, you can try the cloth diaper trend but Preston and I agreed that is simply just not for us. So I took it upon myself to get REALLY good at saving on diapers. Here's what I have done to build us a glorious BIG stash of diapers that I really love, haha it actually brings me a little bit of joy to see it and know that I paid wee bits of cash!
Tip #1: Learn to make drugstores your best friend! This is where I have always found the best savings. Check out your local CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens blah blah blah. Next hit up Walmart (believe me I know this is not the greatest place to visit but it's worth it-plus they price match) K-Mart is a close second to Walmart if you have one near you (also a bit of an adventure but the savings are worth it)
Ok, the thing with drugstores is they usually put their diapers on a nice sale at least once a month so keep checking their websites and ads or stop in quick on your way home from work!
Tip #2: BEWARE of warehouse stores! Believe me, I'm sad about it too, but Costco and Sam's Club are great at blinding you with their GIANT boxes of diapers but here's the thing, a box of Huggies Snug and Dry diapers at Costco is $38.99 for 180 diapers-sounds great right? FALSE! That's 21 cents per diaper which is WAY too much to pay for diapers! That's almost a quarter per diaper, especially when you factor in tax!!!! BOO, I normally love Costco but they disappoint more often than not in the diaper buying business.
Tip #3: Understand that diapers get more expensive as the size goes up because they package less diapers in a pack but keep the price right around what it was or bump it up a smidge! Also, note that newborn size diapers are expensive, it's just the way it is. Luckily you really only need to buy MAYBE one smaller size pack of these because they only go up to 8 pounds. So, I made the decision that I would not pay more that 17 cents per diaper regardless of size (keep in mind I've only stashed til size 3 at this point so I can't speak for those size 4 and 5's)
Tip #4: Become a beginner coupon lady! This is the simplest, best thing you can do to help yourself out. Search for diaper coupons anywhere: online, in magazines, in those free goodie bags they give you for registering at stores, in weekly ads, in your neighbors trash...I don't care, just find the coupons! Also here is one of the BIGGEST things I noticed: Diaper companies will put coupons inside SOME of their packages of diapers, so go crazy like Preston and I did and feel up the packages nice and good and only buy the ones that have coupons enclosed! These coupons are the great ones like $3-$5 off your next purchase so it's worth looking like weirdos.
Tip #5: Don't be a brand snob. I will admit my stash that I have collected is primarily Huggies and Pampers brand diapers (mainly because they offer the most coupons and have more sales) HOWEVER-some friends of ours gave us a package of generic brand diapers that they had only used a few diapers from. Well, one night I dropped our Ipad on my toenail-OUCH first of all, anyway I needed an ice pack and of course we don't own one for some ridiculous reason. Anyway, we were out of baggies to put ice in, so I grabbed one of the "Western family" store brand diapers, loaded it up with ice, and made a nice ice pack full of big ice cubes. Then I fell asleep and woke up in the morning to my little creation only to find that it had not leaked! All the ice was melted but still no leaks, I even squeezed the thing to try and make it leak! Moral of the story, generic brand diapers actually do the trick and are cheaper than most so give them a try!
Tip #6: Take ANY diapers people are willing to give you! Also keep your receipts taped to the diaper packages you buy because stores will let you either return the unopened packages or exchange them for a bigger size!
Tip #7: Let me just demonstrate the beauty of a coupon quickly! Say you found Huggies Snug and Dry "Jumbo Packs" on sale for $8.99 for 50 diapers (this is an EXTREMELY common sale I have run into) Add in your glorious manufacturers coupon for $2.50 (which are also EXTREMELY common coupons to find) and you will have a total of $6.49 to pay for 50 diapers (keep tax in mind where ever you may be) BUT that means you will have paid 12 cents per diaper! Cha Ching! Add on an additional (VERY common) 25% off purchase coupon for a drug store and you're in business to save a lot. Now, lets say you want to buy 200 diapers so you're above what the warehouse had to offer! Here's what you are looking at:
$8.99 sale price for 50 diapers
-$2.50 manufacturers coupon
= $6.49 X 4 (so you can have 200 diapers)
=$25.96
-25% off purchase coupon
Making your grand total= $19.49 for 200 diapers! Meaning you paid 9 cents per diaper!
Take that Costco!
Okay, MOVING ON-how to save on things that aren't diapers
Tip #8: If you are going to be pregnant during Black Friday use that day! I'm not saying you have to wake up at 3 am and get trampled by crowds of people because that sucks even if you're not pregnant. So go at like 6 or 7 PM and you'll avoid all that crap but you'll still get the sales benefits! I bought bottle sets, diaper genie refills, hangers, binks, diaper bag, blah blah blah all for great prices on good ole Black Friday (I know I said I would stop talking about diapers, but just know diapers go on sale during Black Friday...which I never knew)
Tip #9: Use KSL, Craigslist, yard sales, online yard sales...anything! Buy as much stuff used as you can and you will save thousands! The only things I knew I wanted to buy brand new and spend some money on was a nice stroller and car seat set and a nice baby monitor (I bought these things on Black Friday and got them 50% off) other than that, we bought pretty much all of our big ticket items used and they still look brand new!
Tip #10: Take everything people offer to you! We had lots of friends and relatives offer us things that they were done with and we took it all in, went through it together and then donated what we decided not to keep. It was great and we saved sooooo much money thanks to all those willing to discard their unwanted items on us.
Ok, so that's my biggest tips I have for those who have asked. I hope this helps anyone out there save a couple (or thousands haha) of dollars.
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