Save Big on Your Little Ones

By Ellie Kay
Financial Columnist

CBNMoney.com – A new dad watched his 8-week-old son for the first time while his wife attended a women’s conference. When she returned, six hours later, she was eager to learn how he fared in her absence.

“How did he take his bottles?” she asked.

“Just fine, no problem, he took one every two hours for a total of three,” replied the confident father.

“How many times did you change his diaper?” she queried.

“I never changed it” he responded.

“You never changed his diaper?” she asked incredulously. “Why not?”

“Well,” he reasoned, “the diaper package said that it was good up to ten pounds and we weren’t even near the ten pound point.”

The Power of Coupons

Diapers are a major expense in a family’s budget, yet there are ways to save money in this area that are fairly painless.

Coupons – Your mother may have told you “buy items on sale and use a coupon.” That’s still good advice. But where do you find coupons on your favorite diapers?

Manufacturer’s Web site – If you sign into these sites to receive their promotional offers, you can also get coupons. A few of the most popular Web sites for diaper manufacturers are: www.huggies.com, www.pampers.com , and www.luvs.com . For a variety of baby coupons go to www.momsview.com or www.freebabycoupons.com.
Toll Free Numbers – Call the diaper manufacturer’s toll free number, tell them how much you like their product, and ask them for coupon promotions. For instance, 1-800-PAMPERS or 1-800-NO LEAKS (Luvs)
Internet Diaper Sites – There are some sites that will ship diapers at a discount. It’s important to add postage and handling to the final cost and to check out the site with the Better Business Bureau found at www.bbb.com. For example, at www.diaperdandy.com, we discovered 192 medium diapers for $33.00 plus $6.92 shipping.
EBay – You can find almost anything at eBay. We found 180 medium diapers for $29.99 with free postage and handling and 140 newborn diapers for $14.50 + $5.00 P&H. Be sure the diapers are in their original package and are unopened. Also, be sure to factor in shipping (if any) and choose a seller who has high feedback ratings with a reasonable number of total reviews.

Baby Shower Bounties

Diapers aren’t the only major expense for new parents; babies cost a lot in other areas as well, especially in terms of clothing, furniture, strollers, and other necessities. With our babies, I often received baby showers from our Sunday School class, my MOPS group, and from my husband’s military unit. Whether you have one shower or three, if you organize your information, you can minimize big bucks on future purchases of everything from clothing to car seats. Most hostesses will ask for a “wish list” and that is where you can strategize to savings.

Clothing
First, take inventory of what you have and what you really need. Be sure to ask for the smaller items such as toiletries and accessories, but don’t be shy about asking each group for different size clothing starting with ages 3 to 6 months. Your baby might not even fit in the tiny 0-3 month clothes (Our youngest started out in 6-9 month clothing) and you'll probably get a lot of these in the mail from people who weren't invited to a shower. Pick up a few of these tiny clothes from garage sales so you'll have a supply on hand. Ask one group for 6-12 month clothes and another for 12 month or older clothes.

Why not ask?
It's not self-serving to ask for specific baby things at a shower. A good hostess will ask you for a list, so if you're expecting, start compiling one now. The hostess will include this in the invitations. Most people appreciate specifics and it's fairly easy to exchange duplicates.

Returns
After the baby gets here, people ask you how they can help. If you didn't have a chance to return and exchange baby clothes or if your baby is a different gender than you expected, ask a friend to run this errand for you. She can get you a gift certificate and you can save it to purchase exactly the size and style clothing your child needs. This one tip can clothe your baby for six months! (I got two boy outfits that were too small and they cost $45 each! I shopped the sales on the return and bought 12 outfits!)

Whether this is your first baby, or your fifth, you can save money by being strategic in your baby showers and by never paying full price for diapers. You can even make your own baby wipes. Just e-mail us at babywipes@elliekay.com for the free and easy baby wipes recipe!

Even dads can get into the savings act as well. I know of one father who found diapers on sale in his local store, used a store coupon and a manufacturer’s coupon, and bought ten packages of diapers for $2.32. He was jazzed and became a true believer—so can you!

Ellie Kay is a best-selling author, popular conference speaker, a frequent media guest on Fox News, CNN, and CNBC, and a commentator for “Money Matters” radio show.

For her free newsletter and money savings links, go to www.elliekay.com.