It's no secret that babies need a lot of stuff, and this can be daunting for expecting parents. Have you checked out the cost of a nice breast pump lately? Swung by Babies -R- Us and perused cribs?
Early on, a friend lent us a copy of Baby Bargains, which promised to reduce our first year expenses by about 30 percent. The book, along with C's ingenuity and her dad's love of yard sales, yielded a series of slightly smarter purchases that paved the way for Prince Clementine's arrival at home--a mint condition Graco Pack 'n Play found on Craigslist, a sturdy and clean high chair, backup everything for the grandparents' house. Who knows if we've saved 30 percent, but shopping for baby things, especially new baby things, was eye-opening. It comes with a little hitch, though. The baby industry loves to make us fear for the safety of our child as a way to motivate expecting parents to buy the latest and greatest. Some of these fear appeals are legitimate, of course, but I suspect that few parents need to be taught to fear for their child's health and well being. Baby product ads tap into what most parents already feel--an overwhelming desire to do the best they can by their kids.
Sometimes going to yard sales was really fun, like the day we found the above basketball warmup suit at a local middle-school's massive parking-lot bonanza. I was so excited when I saw it, I didn't even realize until later that it's probably not going to fit until about 2011.
Oh well, it was only a buck.
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