Comments: Raising Your Quarter-Million Dollar Baby; Money Saving Tips

Here's a comment on my Raising Your Quarter-Million Dollar Baby post that contains some great money saving tips:

There are also lots of ways that you can save money on babies. (since your tips above mostly pertain to older kids-except the clothes. I don't think my kids own much of anything that was bought new unless it was a gift!)

#1 Breastfeeding of course saves tons of money over formula

#2 you can make your own wet wipes for a fraction of the cost

#3 make your own babyfood-which is cheaper, pretty convenient (you just steam veggies or fruits, blenderize it, and freeze in icecube trays) and way healthier because it doesn't have any fillers or additives

#4 don't overbuy toys. For the first 2 years of each child's life we didn't buy them almost anything for Christmas. #1, they were so small they couldn't tell the difference anyway, and #2 they got so much stuff from relatives that it was ridiculous. As they get older we have bought a few more things, but we try hard not to go overboard.

Good stuff!

Any other ideas out there on how to save on kid-related expenses?

Comments

[mel]

I agree with all of the above although I did use costco wetwipes, they are are less than $2.00 a package if you get them when they have coupons. As far as toys we never buy them for our kids. We buy one larger combined present for them like table and chairs or books/education videos etc. They get so many toys from grandparents and others that they don't need any thing. They also don't watch cartoons or disney videos so they rarely ask for any particular brand of toy.

[mel]

Other ways to say are to do rebates on diapers and use coupons (walgreens does great rebates). Don't let your kids watch t.v. or at least limit it , they miss out on the advertisments for every little thing and junk food. Our kids watch videos and we try to keep animation to a minimum. It helps with attention span and imagination. Hey it could save you on adhd meds and therapist visits! I'm not joking. I worked as a therapist and many of the adhd kids were suffering from a combination of too much sugar, lack of boundaries and discipline from parents, too much t.v. (overstimulation) and lack of scheduling. It sounds simplistic but unless adhd runs in families, it can often be treated by the above methods. Kind of went off on a side tangent but it could save money!