Budget & Shop Around

I did start to gather things for the baby in the middle of my second trimester. At least started shopping around and I guess it doesn’t matter when you go out to buy these items, in terms of what trimester is best, because you should always have someone there to help you – while your shopping, packing the car, unloading when you get home ETC.  I also found a lot of great deals online – if you do your research and are patient enough to look around you will find some great deals and even get some opinions to help make a better decision. 
I’m happy I started looking around as early as I did; I knew babies needed a lot of things but I really didn’t know or realize it was that much.  Some people will say you need this and that, but most of the time you don’t.  Just one thing that I kept in mind is that the baby doesn’t need the fancy stuff (best mind set especially if your on a budget).
Another great way to watch your budget is put the things you want and need in your baby registry!  Get things as gifts and what you don’t get shop around for the best deals.  Toys – this seems to be a word that gets some parents all worked up.  Babies don’t need a lot of anything to keep them occupied, in the beginning stages they would rather stare at a light than play with the most expensive toy, gadget or gizmo out there, so keep it simple.  Things that will help with hand-eye coordination, or tummy time, but these things aren’t needed until they know the toy is there; these are all great items for your baby registry.
Clothes – don’t buy, well if you do buy sparingly.  You will get gifts; your friend found the cutest outfit or must have suit.  Another thing that came my way were hand-me downs! Wow! did I get a lot of them, at least a dozen garbage bags full of clothes!  I was able to pick and choose what I wanted and didn’t want, what I didn’t I donated.  I now have more than enough clothes to dress my child until she is probably five (5) or so! 
Putting yourself on a budget is a great way to keep things inexpensive and than you don’t go over-buying and than never using more than half of what you bought.  They say on average couples will spend anywhere from $10 – 20,000 in the first year of their child’s life; its easy to fall into that statistic.  I was very careful not to, there are more important things in life than just things.  I’m not saying don’t spend the money, my baby is worth every penny I spend on her and she’s worth more but my love for her is more valuable to her than things.  I would rather save that money we didn’t spend for a rainy day for her or even for her future – college isn’t cheap you know.