Tips to save money with baby...

[BellyBelly]

I think we all know as soon as baby comes along, there is an extra person to care for financially and one less income in the house - this can put lots of pressure on the household budget unless you've been meticulous in planning ahead!!!

What do you do to help save money with baby that you can share? i.e. ways to save money on baby related things?

I'll start:

I only heard of this long after I had Marisa, but if you are a Huggies Baby Wipes person, a great way to save on them is to tear them in half! They are so big anyway, you get less wastage. If you tear them down the middle not across, they can clean just as well. Plus they are easier to use in half especially on smaller babies!

Next?

[Pietta]

What a great idea Kelly!!

My money saving advice- Use the plastic bags you get from the shops for dirty nappies instead of nappy sacks- that way u are having less plastic and saving money- Mind you i would stick with Nappy Sacks when you have gone out!!!

Also buy their clothes from ebay! I have got sooooo much great Pumpkin Patch stuff for Ryley for so cheap!! Also you can re-sell stuff on ebay too!! So it also can make you money. Actually you can buy almost anything from ebay!!

[Melinda]

A fairly simple thing, but if you are using disposable nappies, buy in bulk when there are sales on! It works out HEAPS cheaper and means you don't buy nappies anywhere near as frequently at more expensive prices!

Also, if you are formula feeding and are going out, take hot water in the bottle and the formula in a formula dispenser to make up your bottle fresh. This way if baby doesn't end up needing a bottle whilst you are out, you only end up throwing out the water, not the formula!! Formula can be expensive (depending on the brand you use) so you don't want to waste it!

[Amity]

We buy most of Alex's clothing from op shops.

And when we were living in the country, people used to lend us stuff all the time.

Garage sales (for cots/bassinets/toys etc) are also really good. But I wouldn't buy prams or car seats there, unless you knew where they had been.

We also use cloth nappies at home and disposables at childcare/when we are out. Saves us heaps.

I also make all of his food at home and put it into little Tupperware containers (actually they're not Tupperware, they're from the supermarket on special for $1.15 each for a 250ml tub) and freeze them. I do about 12 each week for lunch and dinner.

We also cook up a big bunch of apples/pears/mangoes (whatever is in season) and mash them in the blender, then put them into the glass jars that babyfood comes in, and freeze them too.

I have used commercial babyfood when we are out, but Alex doesn't like many of the varieties. I usually just buy commercial babyfood when we need new jars for freezing our own!

[anney]

this is more for first timers about to drop to one income. When you are still working and doing your supermarket shopping and see good specials for the expensive nonperishables such as laundry and dishwashing detergent and toilet paper and baby wipes stock up on them. Also good as these things tend to be big and heavy and when you are shopping with a child you don't want to have too much stuff to lug around.

[anney]

Ooops - forgot to add. Even though there is an expense up front, a freezer is a great investment. You can buy milk and bread (and anything else that freezes ) in bulk when on special and then you always have it there ready and convenient. and don't have to be going out every day for milk.

[spiddles]

Kel -I wish you could tell that to my DH. If Liam does a number 2 there goes 20 huggies nappy wipes!!! I told him you scrape off the excess first with the nappy and use a wipe to clean up the rest. You may need 2 max!!! Oh well at least he tries!!

[JOJA]

If you have a sewing machine or know of somebody that does, you can make your own bunny rugs and bassinet sheets. I picked up material at spotlight which was on special for $1.99 a metre and made most of Jack's bunny rugs and bassinet sheets. By making your own, you can make them in any size you wish and I also personalised the sheets, so when you folded the top one over I had little pictures for Jack to look at. (Not that he was aware of them at that age, but it looked nice!)

I also made quite a lot of clothes, but didn't really find that very cost effective with stores like Big W about!

I also use face washers for his bum, which (of course) are seperate from his general face washers. This cuts down on baby wipe usage.

Cornflour works just as well as curash nappy rash powder, although I only resort to corn flour if I have run out of the curash stuff #-o

I try and buy clothes/toys when there are sales on, even 10% off in Target makes a difference.

[Astrolady]

When I was pregnant with Kameron I did the stock up on wipes etc for the 9mths of pregnancy. I also brought "seconds" disposable nappies. Out of 7 boxes that I used I only had 3 that were duds.

I also use the plastic shopping bags as well for getting rid of disposable nappies at home.

Instead of using baby wipes at all - how about buying flannels and using warm water to wipe babies bottom after all baby wipes would not have been around 40 or 50 years ago. Keep a pack of wipes just for when you go out.

You can also make your own baby wipes too.

Plastic Container

1 roll of Paper Towels (a better quality brand, strong and thick)

2 T Baby Bath Lotion/Wash

1 T Baby Oil

2 C Water

Directions:

Cut the roll of paper towels in half with a very sharp knife. In your plastic container, mix the ingredients well. Add ½ roll of paper towels. Place the lid on the container and let it set for about 10 minutes. Then flip the container over for another 10-15 minutes. It might not even take you this long, if you keep your eye on it. You want to make sure that the ingredients have soaked through all of the paper towels. When all of the ingredients have absorbed, open the container and stand the paper towels on end with the jagged side that was cut down. Pull the brown paper out of the middle, so that you can pull the wipes through the center. Then you just pull the wipes as needed. They tear apart very easily and make diaper changing simple.


This recipe can be adapted for several household uses. Exclude the baby bath and baby oil to include about ¼ cup of your multi-purpose cleaner for quick wipe-ups. Exclude the baby bath and increase the baby oil to your own desired amount for after-bath body wipes to decrease baby oil on the floor of your shower or tub. Add some Armor All for quick car clean-ups. The possibilities for homemade wipes are limitless and efficient.

Love

[spiddles]

You sound alot like me JOJA...I only buy things when on special and all his bunny rugs were hand made apart from a few good ones. If you can crocher (sp?) you can go around the edges and make them look fanastic!!!

If you want to make a cheap mobile. Get some old cd's you dont want. Put them in the microwave for a few seconds and they crackle. get some fishing wire and some coat hangers and makes a cool mobile.

[Phteven]

For cot sheets you can just cut a double sheet in half. You will only have to hem one side on each half. For a bassinet a decent sized pillow case can fit over the mattress instead of buying bassinet sheets.
Lots of chemists have loyalty programs that are free to join. Its amazing how quickly those points add up after you buy a few boxes of nappies. Spiddles, I love the CD mobile idea.

[{sarah}]

I like the sounds of these, very helpful

One thing I have done is to buy things each week when shopping & I've been doing it virtually from the start. A dummy, singlet, baby wipes, baby soap etc. You don't notice a few dollars extra on the groceries each week & I've got a pretty good collection going.

[Lilly-Pilly]

My best money saver was to have the first grandchild on both sides!!!
The second both our parents found out I was pregnant they wouldnt stop spending money! I had enough stuff for 20 babies!!!
We (the grandparents) would laybye nappies and wipes and stuff when places like target had the big sales on baby stuff so we didnt have to buy nappies for ages after having her.
Make all your own baby food and freeze it in ice cube trays. Apart from being cheaper and healthier, Ashlea hated the canned food.

Not really on the topic of saving money, but an idea if your pregnant and dont want to know the sex of the baby, but want to get prepared. Go and make two laybyes, one with clothes and stuff that you want for a girl, and another laybye for a boy. Then when you have the baby just pick up the laybye that you need and cancel the other one. I remeber falling in love with little dresses and things and michael wouldnt let me get them cause we didnt know what we were having, so this way I didnt miss out on anything, but I didnt waste money buying things we didnt need.

[Lulu]

I buy single flat sheets for Mitchells cot and fold them in half. When he moves to a big bed, that expense will be covered.
EXCELLENT wipes recipe (!), I'm going to make some ASAP!

[BellyBelly]

Hey guys,

I am going to create an article on the main site based on all these great ideas, if anyone has any problems with me using their ideas, please let me know! I will credit them with your forum names. If you have more to suggest, please add them!

[Lucy]

Really look at the way you shop and cook for weekly meals. This literally cut our grocery bill in half!

~ Make a list of meals that you are planning on cooking
~ Make a shopping list based on what your weekly meal plan is & what you already have in the pantry/freezer
~ Stick to the list as you shop

Also, with cooking, try to avoid convenience foods.....they are so expensive & really don't save you that much time at all!

[Fi]

When I get around to it I'm going to cut up some old towels and do some home sewn baby wipes. You can buy them from many SAHM on the internet for about 50c to $1 each, and they make a great alternative to disposable ones. And you wont get them muddles with normal face washers.
Try a couple of different varieties to find out what works best for you. Polar fleece on one side, flannel or towelling on the other. Use one side to wipe the poo away, and the other to clean up.
You could either wet them and carry them in a zip lock bag, or you can make a solution in a small spray bottle and carry it with you - very similar to the recipe Kathryn mentioned
The internet is a great tool for finding this sort of stuff out.

I also made all my own bunny rugs from flannelette - the best thing is you can make them what size you want, and they can double as sheets.

You can also save heaps of money if you knit by buying second hand jumpers and things from the sallies and pulling them apart - then reusing the wool to make something you like! $2 for wool rather than $30 is a big saving.

Fi

[christy]

We make our own baby food, cut wipes in half, don't make up formula ahead of time...hmmmm... what else to add?

We bought non perishables every week during PG to last. Still have baby bath soap from then. We were told to use cotton wool instead of wipes when Matilda was born, so we had a jar of cotton wool soaking in baby lotion and water, with heaps more cotton wool and half sitting in the mixture and half on top. DH used this for Matilda's clean ups... as I have an aversion to cotton wool which I won't go into at the moment, I had my own with cotton gauze which I got from work.