Husband and I are considering starting trying to conceive next month—if it works, and we get pregnant right away (god willing) we will need to be frugal with our bucks especially throughout the pregnancy and within the first year raising the baby while other things in our life fall into place. Has anyone raised a baby in this group on limited income, but with both parents working full time, and how did you make it work? Any tips for saving money before the baby would get here? Luckily we still have 9-10 months at the very least, and a year or so at the most (given no unknown fertility complications) to start saving and preparing and getting our finances in order. So far we plan to:
• Move back in with my parents in their spacious house to save money on rent/mortgage until we have some money saved up or until we are comfortable moving out
• Having baby’s grandparents and sister baby sit on occasion when they are able to to cut the costs of hiring a babysitter or daycare
• Attempt to breastfeed and/or pump to save money on formula
• Hold off on buying bulky and expensive baby furniture such as a changing table, crib, play areas and possibly just buy a 3-in-1 pack and play to use as a crib, changing area, and play area that we can travel with as well.
• make our own wipes (but most likely not cloth diapering as family will be watching the baby and I want things to be easier on my family while we are at work)
• make our own puréed baby food when the baby moves to actual food vs just breast milk
• take advantage of baby freebees, sales, regifting sites, used items, registries, and baby shower at every reasonable opportunity
• forgo items such as a baby-specific bath tub, diaper genie, expensive bottles/pacis, clothing and find other items to use instead such as a homemade bath-tub or sink for baby baths, taking diapers outside to the bin, and buying cheaper bottles/pacis/clothes from either friends, thrift shops, or places like TJ maxx where I can get higher quality for cheaper price.
Does all of this sound decent? Does anyone else have any other ideas? We are also attempting to create a budget to stick to that will allow us to cut costs NOW and start putting away money before we even get pregnant so we will have at least a SMALL chunk saved up before baby gets here. We are hoping to have at least 2,000 saved by February of this upcoming year which I know isn’t a lot but it’s a start and we are hoping that that number will increase as the months go on and we learn how to cut costs even more.
April 28, 2019 at 10:55PM
