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Tips for broke mamas
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Ah, the economy. It's all you hear about these days. It is bad for everyone, and possibly worse for new parents. It seems like you can drop $100 on Junior in 10 seconds flat (I certainly can; most of the sites where I buy baby stuff have my AMEX on file. Click click; I'm broke).
I'm way too lazy to go radical (you would never catch me using cloth diapers or making my own baby wipes) but I do have a few strategies to rein it in. Here are a few:
Make your own baby food. I used to think this was just for hippies. Not so! It is super easy to make baby food, especially for young babies who are only eating a few things. You can spend an hour a weekend and make and freeze enough portions for several weeks. For example:
- Peel, chop, steam, puree, and freeze sweet potatoes in ice-cube trays. Empty the cubes into a zip lock bag to keep in the freezer.
- Avocados slices freeze very nicely.
- Mashing up your own banana seems like a no-brainer, but since they sell it in jars I'm assuming some people don't know how much cheaper it is to DIY.
Don't skimp on diapers. (I learned this the hard way so you don't have to.) But DO skimp on wipes! Safeway's "Mom to Mom" brand are cheap and perfectly serviceable.
Buy Little Teethers. These teething tablets are cheaper than the more popular Hyland's, but have the same ingredients. They do not dissolve as easily as the Hyland's; however, I have found that you can easily crush one into powder between your thumb and forefinger and give them to your baby that way. I'm not convinced that these do much for teething babies, but I'm not ready to pump my son full of Motrin every day.
Go old school with toiletries. There is a reason that products like Desitin and Johnson and Johnson baby wash haven't changed in years. Because they are cheap, and they work fine.
Buy in bulk whenever possible. Duh, right? My husband is finally learning this, after coming home a few times with ONE pack of wipes.
Shop at Drugstore.com. They have absolutely everything, and at a slight discount. But what you save most is time. It's hard for me to find time to make an extra drugstore trip to buy baby things so I have it all delivered. Wait until you need $50 worth of stuff, because then you get free shipping! Seriously, time is money.
Now if I could only find a way to make my son look less cute in their outfits, I might stop dropping so much coin at Old Navy. But come on, baby rain slicker? You gotta have one of those!
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