Lets be honest, every country is different so you might pay more for somethings and less for others. We might have free day care (by way of family members) or your day care might cost an arm and a leg. So, I am just going to give you an example in terms of clothes.
I accept hand me downs like otherwise my baby would be crawling naked in the north pole. I have bought him $156.72 in clothes in the 7 month he has and most of it had been given away brand new in baby shower gifts ... I won't lie we do have a few new items. Here is why.
1. I live in a caribbean island and my boy's temperature while still at acceptable parameters tends to be high. So at home he is usually in diapers and we don't go out that much.
2. I have 3 nephews, and 2 coworkers have boys older than my baby so everytime moms do a clean up I get 2 bags full of clothes.
3. I keep the stained hand me downs for day baby isn't feeling well or for crawling time. Yes, no matter how clean the house is having him in clothes makes me more comfortable that his belly, knees and any other part of his body is touching ground. Just imagine that soft skin next to hard floor.
4. I sort clothes by physical size (labels I have learn means nothing), new (I have received clothes with tags still on), barely used, and almost worn out/stained.
4. I keep one of each physical size out of storage and the rest in vaccumed bags. I used the physical size to know when it is time to go to the next bag as well as to sort new hand me downs.
5. I donate! Any extra clothes or clothes thatbaby outgrow to another mother with a boy younger or smaller than mine.
I do spend money on my kid. I do still think that kids cost alot but I don't see any reason why to break the bank in order to buy stuff he will outgrow (or break) in the blink of an eye.
Do you accept hand me downs? Do you have any other tips/advice on saving on LOs?
*Also I have a rule if I get any clothes with the price tag still on I put the cost in his bank account.
I always bought a lot of kids clothes at thrift stores, little kids didn't cost us that much! I used to figure an extra $100 a month for diapers and formula but that was a long time ago. When they get expensive is when they get big and need to go to college. But we saved from the time they were little and they graduated with no debt :)
Clothing wise I don't think kids cost a lot unless you make/let it cost a lot.
I definitely accept hand me downs!!! We have a couple of great HUGE consignment sales in the spring and Fall. I get clothes there and I this year I will consign some of our outgrown clothes (I have already handed down a bunch of them and still have over 100 items to consign). This will help cost wise. I also take advantage of coupons, sales and rewards programs. A couple weeks ago I had a total of 5$ in coupons and the diapers and wipes were already on sale at CVS, then if you spent 30$ on a couple specific items you got 10$ back. I used that 10$ plus a few coupons to get 25$ worth of toilettiries we neeed for 5$.
i have always accepted and bought USED items for my child...and when i can i get things on sale/clearance
this includes books and furniture for his room...not just clothing...
I love hand me downs! I got a lot more when they were smaller. But fortunately, my son has a neighborhood friend who is one year older than he is, so we get all of his hand me downs. It's great, especially for a boy since he wears his clothes out so fast.
If I buy clothes, 9 times out of 10 I get them at thrift stores. It's rare that any of us get brand new clothes. They are just so expensive nowadays, and I can get higher quality clothes for a fraction of what new lower quality clothes would cost.
I love hand me downs and garage sales for kids clothes, we are raising 2 Grd's. One is 9 and tall and skinny, the other one is almost 5 and a chubby short one. LOL containers full of clothes that aren't going to work out like I planned. :(
Guess that will mean more shopping. It's hard when all the cousins are skinny too...
clearance at Target
- XVAmomma
on Feb. 3, 2013 at 11:53 PM