What is your #1 money tip for new parents?

My number one money tip for new parents is that kids don’t need much! As the mom of three boys ranging in age from 14 down to 2, I know how overwhelming it can feel preparing for a new baby. You’re told by the baby industrial complex that you need ALL THE THINGS before that baby comes. In reality, you only truly need a few items:

A place to sleep

Clothes to wear

Milk to drink

Diapers

A carseat (if you have a car)

That’s pretty much it. Everything else is technically optional, and you shouldn’t feel like you’re “depriving” your kids if you don’t have a boatload of baby things in the house when they’re born. You can always get more later, as you find you need items.

There is also a huge market for second-hand baby items. Why? Because kids outgrow baby equipment in an extremely short period of time. Tag sales, consignment shops, thrift stores – they’re chock full of like-new baby items. Babies outgrow clothes in a matter of months, so why spend the money on new ones? Same with baby toys, exersaucers, rockers, bouncers, and most of the other things you see in baby magazines or online.

How did you prepare financially for your first baby?

My first son, now 14, was born only a few months after I finished college. I was working full time and going to school full time, so I had an OK income and good health insurance. I had been good with money throughout college – not only graduating debt free thanks to that full time job and employer tuition reimbursements, but also purchasing a condo at the bottom of the market. Basically, we set aside what we could, but because we were both so young and lower income, it wasn’t much.

I also started devouring everything I could about raising a baby inexpensively. It was at this time I found The Tightwad Gazette, which is still to this day my go-to resource on frugality. It gave me a ton of ideas for saving money.

Some of the things we did would probably be considered “extreme” – we did cloth diapers, bought all clothes and furniture second hand, made all our own baby food, and basically bought nothing but the needs. Luckily we also had generous family and friends that gave us plenty of things for our baby shower, holidays and birthdays, so we never felt we were depriving our son.

With our littlest son, only two, we still use many of those same strategies even though we no longer “need to”. I find it wasteful to spend tons of unnecessary money on anything, but especially on small kids.