You are soon going to be welcoming a brand new baby into your family and are elated, you keep finding beautiful hand knitted baby clothes and little soft toys, but you may also be feeling a bit overwhelmed. Reading any parenting book or talking to your friends may have you more focused on dollar signs than lullabies. According to everyone, you are going to need everything, but before you start to officially panic, here are a few tips to getting most everything you need without draining your checking account.

Find That Secondhand Treasure

Babies grow fast and furious so it is no wonder that second hand stores, consignment shops, and sites like craigslist are filled with low priced baby clothes and other baby products that are new or practically new condition. If you call around there are even a lot of thrift stores who have so much baby merchandise that they are looking to unload their baby loot in the form of additional discounts on certain days. Of course you want your impending arrival to have the best of everything so it’s important to know the ins and outs of these kinds of sales. Check with friends and family members to see what baby products are worth buying new and which are ok to buy used. It is also important to remember that a lot of baby products are recalled for various reasons so do your research before you buy used to see if the product is safe.

Baby Shower

This is the “mother” load (pun intended) of getting great products for your baby for free. Make sure to be thorough on your baby registry so you can get the most out of your shower gifts (also make sure that you let guests know that gift cards are acceptable too). Another great idea is to have a diaper and wipes raffle to ensure that you are stocked once your little mister or missus is here. Have the guest bring a package of diapers and a package of wipes to enter into shower gift giveaways. Make sure that your host or hostess gives each guest a specific size of diaper too. That way you don’t end up with 20 size one diapers and no size twos.

You Don’t Need To Buy Everything At Once

Many new moms tend to think that they have to buy everything before their little one gets here but the truth is in the beginning babies just don’t need very much. Diapers, wipes, a car seat, some clothes and a bassinet are about all the necessities you need in the first few weeks. Buy things when the time is right, not because you feel like you have to get everything ready all at once.

Hope these tips help you get back to basics when welcoming your new baby. Remember to just buy the essentials and between your baby shower and shopping gently used stores you should find everything you need for a lot less than you may think.

Katie
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