Welcome to the world Baby Flame! Katie and I, have been preparing for months for this time to come. Our baby was due to be born today, but she was in a hurry to get out into the world and surprised us a few weeks sooner.
Our initial reaction when driving to the hospital was, “We aren’t ready! We were supposed to have more time!” As I frantically tried to pack a hospital bag with random items that looked useful from the nursery, I was running a mental list. What were the essentials? What were the nice things we were planning to buy? What if we forgot something?
I did end up having to come back to the house from the hospital to finish packing that bag, but overall the nursery looked great and we were ready to welcome Baby Flame in with a little organization to be done.
And to be honest, almost all of the credit of knowing what we needed and having it ready to go almost a month in advance goes to Katie. She did so much research throughout pregnancy, and it is amazing how much marketing and products are out there for babies.
It is easy to try to order one baby item and get swept up in all of the products that your child “needs”. Some of the stuff out there is alright, some of it is awful, so here is my list of questions I would use to navigate the world of baby products.
Before diving into the list, the best advice is always to know what you need before going online or into stores, but if you are having or have had a baby you probably know how this stuff seems to find you.
And remember, as a parent, the most important thing you can do is create a home, but for those things you find yourself about to purchase, heres the list.
1. What does it do?
This may sound like a silly question, but some of the ads that come up make me feel this is necessary. They’ve got things that light up, change color, do all kinds of things that I never knew we needed. Contraptions to put babies in, on, or next to that all claim they are #1 recommended for something, but somehow human babies have lived for generations without this item, but not any more!
Going back to the beginning, it helps to find a trusted book from the library with a concise list of items that are good or needed to be a good parent, and then know what you are shopping for. Then you will hopefully be able to answer question #1 before you even have to read a cheesey discription of how this item will make your child graduate from Harvard.
2. What else does that?
Two weeks into caring for Baby Flame I started to realize that it is really good to have a lot of fabrics of various sizes around. Katie asked me to hand her a swaddle so I reach into the pile of laundry and grab a square cloth. But what looks like a swaddle is actually a baby bath towel someone got for us. Then “receiving blanket” (still not sure what these are or why we would ever need one but that’s what the tag says, so I put it in quotes) and a wash cloth, and a hundred square patches with adorable prints before I found a legit swaddle. However, I wonder, do a lot of these things do the same thing?
It seems to me that many baby items are forms of a cute blanket or a pillow, but before you buy a special Velcro sleep-sack with ultra special fibers, maybe check out what cloths you have so far*!
3. Does it solve a REAL problem?
All of these questions kind of build on each other, but this is worth asking in the process of purchasing your baby gear because I have seen products that claim to solve all of these problems that no one has. Ads complete with black and white videos of people struggling and fumbling to hold their child.
You can pay just $59.95 to buy what is basically a fanny-pack with a foam brick in it that acts as a seat for those who cannot carry a child on their hip. Needless to say, I have never seen this item in real life and I don’t know any parent who has ever wished for it.
That’s a funny example, but especially when it comes to your baby’s sleep routine, simple tends to actually be safer. Some of the crazy items I have seen are downright unsafe for babies. One company’s Facebook post shows 50% of people angry at this ad (because it goes against safe sleep recommendations), yet somehow every comment is a raving review of fans asking how they can get one. This doesn’t add up.
Marketing is important for companies, but sometimes too much and too obvious of marketing tactics can be a clear tell that they are compensating for something. The best products, are those that spread by word of mouth, not paid ads.
4. Could I solve that problem with something I already have?
This is question #2 again but diving a bit deeper. Maybe its the engineer in me, but even if something isn’t designed to do a task, sometimes you find a way to make it work.
It’s not a baby example, but ask Katie about the dryer vent clamp that holds my Mazda’s muffler in place. Not meant to do it, but its the stuff that works.
5. Can I / should I find this elsewhere?
Once you decide this a value-added item for your nursery, household, or life, determine if it can be purchased on Craigslist or elsewhere. Katie was a total pro at scoping out Facebook Marketplace in our area.
The benefit to FB marketplace is you can get an idea of the home your item is coming from. We got this beautiful rocker for only $60 and a baby bjorn bouncer (apparently one of the hottest baby items on the market valued at $200) for only $50. Plus we met some really kind families with plenty of wisdom and advice to share when we picked up the items.
I knew Katie was having fun when she said, “This toy bar is priced at 60 alone!” There was almost as much satisfaction in the hunt for quality products as there was in the saving.
On the other hand, certain things are not recommended to be bought used for a baby. Mainly, the car seat. There are some special requirements for carseats, and it is in a parents best interest to be 100% certain that the seat has never seen an accident before. Also, depending on the year of the carseat, it may not be up to the latest regulations. I would only get this used from very close family or friends. Some feel similarly about strollers and bedding / cribs as well.
6. Is it worth that price?
Found one on marketplace for $100, and they can’t be talked down? See the new one on sale for $120? Sometimes mom and dad just need to grant themselves permission to pay the extra to save the worry of if that sleeper is from a clean home (i.e. smokeless, few or no pets, generally not gross). Hunting for quality is exhausting at times and takes patience, so let yourself have one sometime.
7. Can it wait a month?
As I have known for a while, but is put so clearly by YNAB, it is important to start aging your money. If something can wait til next month and you can pay for it with money you made a while ago rather than your paycheck that you are still waiting for, that is always best. Postponing purchases will result in clearer decision making and more interest gained in your accounts each month.
I can’t count the number of times I almost bought something, postponed, and found the next month that I actually didn’t need the item that much after all, clearing clutter before it arrives.
Delayed gratification is a virtue in life and finances. It helps your wallet and may someday teach your little one by example the values of your home.
Thanks for reading! Any other tips on furnishing a nursery for less?
Stay tuned for Katie’s first article on furnishing a beautiful home on a budget. Some of her finds have amazed me and have me bragging about all of our used stuff a bit too much lately.
*we did get one swaddle along with our baby registry that is actually my favorite cause it is a thicker material that keeps the baby from busting out. The registry link will bring you to Amazon. If you make your registry there and check off all the boxes of categories as you go through, they send you a pretty sweet welcome box!
A Note on Baby Registries
I didn’t like the feeling of making a registry either for our wedding or our baby; however, after receiving some super useless stuff here and there, I have been converted. You can make your own registry like we did at Amazon or anywhere else you please. This is a solid way to minimize family and friends getting you anything that you don’t need/want, although that will likely happen anyways. Affiliate links only because I genuinely found this stuff useful!
