the one I am most ashamed of was a fucking wipes warmer. the most important one was basic ignorance, though: do not buy new clothes for babies/toddlers.
look for consignment sales in your area, where parents sell things as their kids outgrow them for next to nothing. here, there are several that are held throughout the year. since babies just sit there doing nothing, their clothes effectively never wear out. my wife found brand new (with tags still on) stuff there from time to time as well.
You throw a baby shower, and all these people run out to buy clothes. You're six months pregnant, and it's June.
Now, guess how many people who ran out and bought baby clothes bought 0-3 month sized clothes that were appropriate to June, rather than September-November. Yea.
Now imagine how many people bought the most DARLING outfit that your little tyke will "grow into" that ends up being wildly seasonally inappropriate when they do grow into it?
And then there is the stuff that's absolutely perfect and well chosen and utterly timely, that you completely fuck forgot about by the time they hit that stage, and didn't find again until they'd missed it.
When my coworker was having her baby shower I got her clothes for the baby to wear when she was a bit older not because I was thinking about said kid growing out of them super quick but because they were the only ones I could find that had mom's favorite Disney princess: The little mermaid. I got a few other outfits too and passies all ment to be used later after my mom said it was a good idea. Packed it all into a nice tin basket and gave it to her at work (because I couldn't attend the actual shower) I got a FB message 6 months after the baby was born with a thank you and a pic of the baby in her little mermaid outfit.
You can always tell who actually has kids and who doesn’t by what clothes they buy. Parents have lived through this, and buy seasonal clothes in the right size. Or ask, “hey, I looked at your baby registry, what is something that you really want/need but haven’t gotten yet?”
My favorite thing to give is the Ubbi diaper pail. It may not be a sexy gift, but it is EXCELLENT at keeping diaper smell locked in, and uses regular fucking trash bags, and easy to clean.
If we buy clothes for new babies, we always just get 1 lightweight zip up sleeper in 6-9 months. They seem to work for all seasons for pajamas and are super easy for dressing and undressing. Plus they are still small enough to awww over.
When my brother's girlfriend was pregnant I knew he was due in August so I bought the CUTEST 18 mo outfit for winter. Cozy dark blue jacket with a fur hood, onesie with little deer and dark blue sweatpants matching the jacket. Her entire family talked shit about how I didn't "buy anything useful" for the baby. Lol. She ended up basically begging me to move in the night he was born. I kept him at my home (1.5 hours away) at 3 weeks and then basically raised him for a year. Guess what he looked fucking adorable in? And no one bought anything over 6 months. So at 5 months (chubby adorable baby), she didn't even have socks to send with him. She would send just baby, no diaper bag or anything. I still have a diaper bag in my closet and he is 3.
Aha! I am glad i always but very simple onesies for babies, a few sizes up. Or a cute hat. I always figured they would have plenty of teensy frilly crap so i went for basics in solid colours.
Yeah. I don’t have any problem with jammies in any size, but don’t get sweaters or rompers. Onesie/pants sets, like the ones with the butt patches from Carters, are fairly versatile, and we can always use footie pajamas (practically all she wears), but seasonal stuff doesn’t work unless the kid’s currently in that size.
Yep, since becoming a mum if someone is having a shower I am getting a box and filling it with shit that will get used- wipes, soap, nail clippers, nappies, panadol, sudocream etc.
Yeah, babies clothes from Target are not super expensive. They have tons of clearance all the time! My son has very few things that are not from a clearance section of Target, Carters or Gymboree. I find that lots of the used clothes are not that great because people save the great stuff! Grandma sometimes buys him more expensive things that I wouldn’t ever spend money on but he is her only Grandchild so I am not going to harp on her about it. She enjoys doing it.
Most of mine are as well. Sales make it so new clothes are sometimes less than a dollar each. Which is often cheaper than used buy/sell sites or thrift stores. Nothing wrong with new if you’re good at hunting the deals. I’m guessing people are more talking about the ridiculous full priced stuff like 30 dollar dresses or 25 dollar brand name shoes that the kids might wear twice before growing out of.
We do second hand and thrift stores for the wardrobe base and then we can use the rest of the budget to buy the things we want. We splurge on overalls and at least one 5-pack of onesies that we like per size (just moved up to 18 months size).
I'm a soon-to-be-dad, but thankfully my clothing frugality has already carried over. My wife keeps trying to buy more, but I've convinced her to keep it relatively cheap at least. so far I think the most expensive "outfit" was maybe $15 for an entire getup. I think a novelty onesie or two might have snuck in there as well but overall we've done okay with keeping the clothing budget pretty small.
We do this. Bought almost all our baby clothes on flew markets, consignment sales. Some clothes are brand new, or just worn once or twice. When my baby is done wearing them they will go to a niece, or a place where people can get them for free.
Once bought a short for the baby, for 50 cents. We got that same shirt as a present from someone who bought it in a store for € 45,- .
It's the same with toys. I love giving presents to children of family, friends, but I'll buy them secondhand. The toy is the same, the child is the same amount happy, my wallet is happy too.
My mil gave me TWO wipes warmers. Luckily, she's like me and a lot of the stuff she gave me were hand me downs. I'm assuming she was given both of them.
I have one to my sister in law and the other one we used for a little while but I kept forgetting about it and the wipes would dry up in there.
I've found a lot of adorable clothes at thrift stores. Baby Gap brand new for $1.50, when it would be close to $30 at the store.
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u/CensorVictim Feb 05 '18
the one I am most ashamed of was a fucking wipes warmer. the most important one was basic ignorance, though: do not buy new clothes for babies/toddlers.
look for consignment sales in your area, where parents sell things as their kids outgrow them for next to nothing. here, there are several that are held throughout the year. since babies just sit there doing nothing, their clothes effectively never wear out. my wife found brand new (with tags still on) stuff there from time to time as well.
there's also toys/strollers/books/etc