Saving a bundle on your bundle of joy...

I found out this week that one of my friends is going to have a baby and she asked me if I knew of places to find coupons, discounts and free baby items, and while this isn't my specialty area, I am going to give it my very best shot this week.  So, here is what all I found, if you have more items to add and share please feel free to post them for everyone.

Coupons for babies are pretty easy to find and I was able to track down; the Gerber website offers a sign up for their coupons as well as special offers, articles and tips for you and your little one.  Registering at PlanningFamily.com for free will get you into the site to use the interactive tools and download coupons.  Diapers.com is a site designed very much like Alice.com except its for babies, right now they have a few great coupons, the first is for 30% off diapers for three months using coupon code BCDIAPERS30PCT, the other is for 10% off anything on the site using coupon code BC10PERCENT.  The great thing about this site is that they offer everything you could need and deliver it right to your door, no fuss no muss, you can save that part for baby.

The next thing I got to thinking about was the diapers, I did a little research and found that the cost of using cloth and cleaning them at home saves a ton of cash.  I found a great comparison at Baby Cotton Bottoms and I was utterly stunned at the cost difference, not having kids myself I never realized what a gargantuan expense this was!  For those times when disposable is the only way to go I was also surprised to see that Huggies has a reward program, all you need to do is enter the codes from the packages on to the web page and they track your points for you, you can redeem them for a bunch of things from the reward catalog.  As long as you're visiting the Huggies site, why not enter to win free diapers for a year in their sweepstakes?  Pampers also has a program called the Pampers Village & Gift and Grow.  To sign up you just need to enter your information on the web page and then enter the codes from Pampers products.  You will also get a free kit with $329 of offers as a welcome gift. Need a cute little nursery bag for organizing the changing area?  Every day at 11:00 Central time Nursery Water puts up an number of bag they give out for free, just be one of the first to click and they will get one out to you, if you miss it that day check back tomorrow, they reload this every day.

Another big expense is the car seat, with so many companies out there offering different models I really can't tell you who's to buy and who's to avoid, but what I can tell you is that no matter which one you ultimately pick be sure to register it with the manufacturer, that way if there is ever a recall you will know right away and can keep your child safe.  In looking at the many models out there I also found a few sites that said to check with your health insurer to see if they will cover the purchase of a car seat, I was surprised to see that some of them will.

If you plan on using formula you can register to join the Enfamil Family Beginnings.  By filling in your information on their web page they will send you gifts up to $250 which includes up to $60.00 in Enfamil savings as well as samples of their products.  The Similac Strong Moms program is similar, just sign up on their web site for up free offers, samples and coupons. 

The third expensive item I tackled was clothes.  I think kids grow a full size in a day when they have growth spurts so clothes are always in demand.  I found a wonderful site called thredUP, they understand that kids grow, clothes don't so they have a program where moms can swap clothes and toys on line.  The program costs nothing except what it costs to ship the clothes to the new mom, in turn your box is mailed to you free from another member.  This is a wonderful idea and with the price of children's clothes could possibly save the equivalent of a semester at Harvard, OK, not that much but you know what I mean.

A few sites I stumbled on that I felt were worth checking out and joining for coupons, freebies, tips, tricks and networking were Zulily which offers discounts kind of like Groupon, except for children's needs. Planning Family which offers free baby stuff, sweepstakes and contests as well as access to professional advice videos.  Baby to Bee which has savings on diapers and formula as well as a nice area to print coupons.

Have a great weekend everyone!

C.Q.