 | Hold off on shopping for baby for
as long as you can. The sooner you start hitting
the baby stores, the more money you're going to spend. By the time you make
your 35th trip to the local baby specialty store, you will have long since
lost track of which items you've already got stashed away in your baby's
room -- something that will inevitably cause you to overbuy. |
| Train yourself to check your
emotions at the baby store door. You'll spend a lot
more money if you let your heart rather than your head guide your purchasing
decisions. If you wake up one morning and find yourself positively oozing
with maternal sentiment, it's probably a good day to give your credit card a
rest. Otherwise, you could end up buying six of everything just because
you're so darned happy to be having a baby. |
| Beware of overzealous sales
clerks who may not have your best interests at heart.
Don't allow yourself to fall prey to nauseatingly attentive sales clerks who
fuss and fawn over you while helping you to stuff as much baby paraphernalia
in your shopping cart as possible. Keep
in mind that you're a bit of a babe-in-the-woods when it comes to the
business of equipping a nursery, something that leaves you more than a
little vulnerable to the advice of well-meaning and not-so-well-meaning
sales clerks. |
| Remind yourself that it isn't
necessary to buy everything new. You can save yourself
a small fortune by shopping secondhand for baby clothes, crib linens and
other baby-related items. Just make sure that you're shopping at a reputable
secondhand store -- one that will only accept products that comply with
current safety standards -- and that you've done your homework so that you
know which products are and aren't worth purchasing secondhand.
Most safety experts advise that you avoid purchasing secondhand car seats
because there's no way to know for sure whether or not they've been involved
in an accident, and something as simple as a low-speed fender bender can
twist a car seat's frame and make it unsafe for use. |
| Keep in mind that you're about to
hit the shower circuit. Chances are you'll receive
an extraordinary number of gifts -- some from people you barely even know.
The goal of your pre-baby shopping expeditions therefore should be to ensure
that the bare necessities are covered -- not to fill up your child's dresser
and toy box in one fell swoop. |
| Figure out which products your
baby does --and doesn't-- need. Not all baby
products are created equal: some are absolute essentials; others are nothing
more than expensive frills. Your mission as a first-time parent is to learn
to tell the difference. Rather than relying on advice from overzealous sales
clerks who may not necessarily have your best interests at heart, your best
bet is to ask other new parents which products they recommend -- and which
products they and their babies definitely could have lived without. |
| Research each model and make
carefully before you hit the baby stores. Find out
how the various makes and models stack up against one another when it comes
to both performance and price. Two excellent sources of information are Baby
Bargains by Denise and Alan Fields and Consumer Reports Guide to Baby
Products by Sandy Jones and the Editors of Consumer Reports. (Both guides
are American, but they still have plenty of sensible "generic"
advice to offer to those of us who are raising kids in the Great White
North.) |
| Get the most bang for your
furniture-buying buck. A dresser is nice to have,
but it certainly isn't a necessity. Neither is a change table. If you've got
your heart set on filling the nursery with a coordinating crib, change
table, and bookcase, at least look for items that will grow with your child:
e.g. a change table that can be converted into a dresser or a desk. |
| Don't be afraid to negotiate
on price. Come up with creative strategies for
negotiating the best possible price on baby equipment. Form a purchasing
co-op with other parents from your prenatal class and approach local
retailers to negotiate a special "bulk rate" on the big-ticket
items of baby gear: car seats, cribs, strollers and so on. And
if you're planning to purchase most of your baby gear from a single baby
store or department store, ask them to reward you for your loyalty by giving
you a bit of a discount. If they won't, chances are somebody else will. |
| Items that grow with Baby -
Think long-term. Look for items that will grow with your baby -- clothes
with "grow cuffs" that can be rolled down as your baby's legs get
longer, and change tables that can be converted into dressers or desks. The
longer your child is able to use a particular item, the more bang you'll get
for your buck. |
| Go light on the furniture. A
dresser is nice to have, but it certainly isn't a necessity. You can get
away with using plastic storage containers if you're trying to keep your
costs down. And as for buying a changing table, this is yet another item you
can definitely live without. All you really need to change a baby's bum is a
waterproof changing pad and a flat surface. |
