In light of recent developments with the Saverocity management, I’m here to talk today about an easy way to waste a lot of money: baby stuff. A lot of you who read this are in your 20s and 30s and have not yet given baby stuff much thought, but as the father of four children I can assure you it’ll be on your radar soon enough. Even if you will never have kids, your friends and family will, so pay attention here and you can at least figure out some decent gifts. (If you just read the headline and want $1,000 worth of baby stuff, scroll all the way to the bottom.)
When you first find out that you or your wife is pregnant, it’s kind of intimidating. But when you walk into “Babies R Us” for the first time, it’s really intimidating. There are thousands of products there and you have no idea what you need, what’s any good, or anything else. A good place to start before you step foot into a baby superstore is with the book “Baby Bargains” which goes over all things baby at an incredible level of detail. I read this book when we were expecting our first child and it was enormously helpful.
As for my own opinions on what’s worthwhile, I’ll start with the stuff you don’t need first. Parents and grandparents, please add your two cents in the comments below.
WHAT YOU DON’T NEED
Baby breathing monitor: This is one of those products that preys on the anxieties of new parents-to-be. Unless your child is in some sort of high-risk category and your doctor tells you to buy one, don’t buy this. It’s not likely to cause you anything more than false alarms and worry–or, to be a waste of a few hundred dollars. If your baby really does have a breathing problem–for example, if she’s extremely congested as ours has been for the last week and a half–you likely won’t need a monitor to tell you this.
Low-quality onesies: Do all of you know what a “onesie” is? I had never heard the term until my wife was pregnant. Anyway, babies use a lot of these–ours have, anyway–and I can tell you that Gerber onesies are crap (they’re undersized and fall apart easily) and Carter’s onesies are pretty good.
Some advice about gift-giving: a lot of people like to give newborn clothing, but newborns grow very quickly and newborn clothing will last a couple of months at most. Try to be one of those thoughtful souls that gives clothing for, say, 12-month-olds, because the parents will not have nearly as much of that.
Expensive high chairs: Don’t spend a lot of money on a high chair, it’s a waste. Besides, the fancier ones are harder to clean. Instead, I highly recommend this $20 high chair from Ikea and the $5 tray that goes with it.
Bumbo seat: Do not buy! Physical therapists advise against this thing, and I can tell you from my own experience that our older daughter spent a lot of time in this and didn’t start walking until she was 14 months, vs, 9 months for her two brothers who didn’t. Obviously one example doesn’t prove the case, but we got rid of our seat after finding out it’s been linked to developmental delays.
NOT BAD, BUT YOU CAN GET BY WITHOUT IT:
Diaper Champ: We had one of these through our first two kids’ potty-training. Midway through kid #3’s diaper era, the Diaper Champ began to wear out and it started to smell like death within a day or two of being cleaned out, so we trashed it. Now we buy a big package of cheap but airtight plastic bags (though you could just use plastic bags you get from the grocery if you want), put the diapers in, tie a knot, and toss them in with the regular garbage.
Bottle warmer / bottle sterilizer: We have a bottle warmer and a bottle sterilizer: the microwave and the dishwasher. We actually had one of those special-purpose bottle warmers, but it fell out of use. The microwave’s fine. We haven’t had a bottle sterilizer before, though we know some people who have and they like it. If your baby’s going to be formula-fed, it might be useful.
Video monitor: We mostly use this for watching the kids when they’re in the bathtub, though it’s also nice for keeping tabs on sleeping babies and toddler. I really like having it, but I wouldn’t put this in the “need” category if you’re on a budget. We have a Motorola monitor now and really like it. We had a cheaper one before, the brand of which I don’t remember, and it was pretty lousy.
THINGS WORTH BUYING:
Disposable diapers: Experiment with a few different types. The name brands are pretty good but more expensive. Some of the generic brands (I’m looking at you, CVS) are low quality. We have found Target brand diapers to be a good mix of quality and low price, though I’ve also heard good things about the Costco diapers as well. If you need a useful baby gift, I always appreciate diapers, because they’re not cheap and you go through a lot of them. Babies grow out of the newborn diapers pretty quickly, so consider going for size 1 if you’re gift-giving.
Cloth diapers: We have a package of these. We’ve never actually used them as diapers, but they’ve been very useful as burping clothes, changing pad reinforcements, and 100 other different places.
Infant carrier / car seat: Their lifespan is only around 6-9 months, but those baby carriers are enormously useful during the first few months. One of the best pieces of advice my mom gave me is “never wake a sleeping baby”, and being able to move the baby from the car to the house is a good thing. They also double as a baby bed if you’re taking a road trip.
Pack and Play: If you’re going to do a lot of road trips, these make a great portable baby bed. In my experience, however, the “Play” has never happened since my kids started bawling the instant they realized they were being confined. But still, we’ve gotten a lot of sleeping use out of it while traveling.
A cheap cell phone: Once you kid is old enough to hold it, a cell phone makes a great child pacification device for times when you just need the kid to hold still (for example, when you’re waiting at the doctor’s office). Get the cheapest Android phone you can, load a few apps on it, and you’re all set.
A nice stroller: If you want something as small as possible for a plane trip, you can get one of those $10 collapsible strollers. For regular use, I’ve enjoyed our Maclaren strollers, but I will caveat by saying DON’T buy new if you can avoid it. Find a church with a well-to-do congregation that’s having a consignment sale, show up early, and get yourself a nice stroller for a song. I recommend this approach for young kids’ clothing as well.
A changing table: You can get by without one and just use your bed, but your back may suffer. I don’t have any strong opinion about types or brands, just make sure it’s got storage space for diapers and wipes.
Baby swing: This may be a YMMV thing, but our kids have for the most part not been very good sleepers. We have a swing and it’s been a lifesaver. If your kid is the type who goes down easily, I wouldn’t worry about this.
Bouncy chair: Extremely useful as a place to put babies when they’re awake but don’t need to be held.
Forehead-scanning thermometer: It’s quick and reasonably accurate, and I use this on myself now as well. The great benefit of this is that you don’t have to shove anything up your kid’s ass.
Nursing pillow: Mrs. PFD made sure I included this. She’d in trouble without it. She also really enjoyed the Snoogle while she was pregnant.
HOW TO GET $1,000 WORTH OF BABY STUFF DIRT CHEAP: The Chase Southwest Visa card (click here and scroll down, it’s currently the 7th card from the top) periodically offers a 50,000-point bonus. Southwest Rapid Rewards can be redeemed for a lot of things besides flights, though–one possible redemption is a $50 Bed, Bath, and Beyond gift card for 5,000 points.
Those can be redeemed at Buy Buy Baby, which is part of the Bed, Bath, and Beyond empire. So 50,000 points gets you $500 at Buy Buy Baby and if your spouse joins in that’s a cool thousand dollars of baby stuff. Start here if you’re interested. Do note that there is a $99 annual fee for this card, so your baby stuff won’t be free, just a lot cheaper than it would have been.
One additional tip: as I explained here, coupons are also interchangeable at the two Triple B stores, so be sure to get on the email list for both companies if you want some great coupons.
(Note: this article contains my Amazon affiliate links, but in a lot of cases you can do better by using coupons, hitting clearance sales, and so forth. Shop around!)
I would agree with most of that. What I’d say about disposable diapers is that the “quality” is actually more about how well they fit your baby. So, I’d try a bunch of different brands until I settled on the one that worked best for us. I’ve heard people say that i.e. Pampers are terrible, they always leak, but most other people think they’re great. A lot of it is baby shape vs diaper cut and do they work well together. I’ve always thought a great baby gift would be a “variety” box of diapers. i.e. you make a basket or box of the jumbo packages of diapers (which are actually the smallest packages, go figure) from about 5 different brands. Then the parents have tons of diapers and when they run out they can go buy the brand that they liked the best.
Funny about the onesies… I agree that the gerber ones are cheap, but they seemed to fit our second child the best. So, they mostly only lasted for one child, but since they seemed to stretch in all the right places for us, we really liked them.
Finally (-: we lived in England when our daughters were born and the clothes from Next and Marks & Spencer were very good. I especially loved the onesies and sleep suits from Next – good quality soft cotton and generously sized. Both shops are ubiquitous, so if you’re a traveling friend or parent to be pick up a couple things from Next when you’re in the UK.
Oh Lordy, posts like this don’t make be appreciate savings yet, they make me more scared by reinforcing how many crazy things are out there in babyland! Thanks for the post, I’ll be back to it once I start having to buy all this stuff.
Just came back from a newborn class. They don’t recommend microwaves for bottle warming because microwaves heat unevenly and can create uneven hot sections. That’s the line from the hospital.
But a pot of warm/hot water that the bottle can be immersed in should work just as well.
Your link to the bestcards page in the final section about the Southwest card is broken (should be an absolute path but is currently a relative path). Thanks for the post – good info to keep in mind 🙂
Thanks. As you can see, the snow has caused a lot of link glitches today. 😉
Ah, I’d forgotten about those newborn classes! We went to every single one, then when the baby came instinct kicks in. Good times… Best of luck with your young ‘un!