1.Make your own wipes:
Supplies:
1 roll of Bounty Rinse and Reuse Paper towels (cut in half)
2 1/2 cups hot water
2-3 Tablespoons Baby Bath
Resealable container big enough to hold half the paper towel roll
Put the water in the wipes container (I usually heat mine in the microwave) and add the baby bath. Put in the half of the paper towel roll. Choose a container that is not too big for the paper towel roll. Servin Saver has one that comes close, I also found the buckets they give away at Blockbuster for promotional stuff work great (They just gave us a bunch of these buckets with Barney on them). Let the paper towel sit in the water for several hours. The towel will absorb the water and grow to fit the container. When completely absorbed reach in and pull out the cardboard tubing in the center.
2. Use cloth diapers if you are able. I was not so my relatives collected diaper coupons for me.
3. Breast feed if you are able.
4. Make your own baby food. Vicky Lansky has a great book out called Feed Me I'm Your's. She gives some easy recipes for baby food although sometimes I would just take what we were eating and put it in the blender. This works well with things like spaghetti, pumpkin pie, vegetable soup. Be careful that you have introduced your child to whatever food you are giving them. Sometimes you run into food allergies with too complicated a dish.
5. Buy white matching baby socks. If the dryer eats them you can match the survivors.
6. If you sew-make your own baby accessories: Bed ruffles, diaper holders, curtains and those quilts you can buy premade at the fabric store. You just have to be able to sew a straight seam and put on the seam binding.
7. Don't buy individual small packages of wipes for travel. Put some wipes in a ziplock bag or even a wet washcloth.
8. Buy animal crackers in bulk, then break down the bag to smaller bags and freeze to keep them fresh.
9. If your children are in the "Lunchables" stage, buy a permanent "Lunchables" container (found at Walmart in plastics) and fill with their favorite foods.
10. Buy their clothes at yard sales or resale shops. That beautiful dress you saw at Macy's that costs $40 and will probably show up at the resale shop for much less. Every time you think about spending a large amount for clothing imagine that same article covered in chocolate syrup or spit up on. It helps to place a true value on the clothing.
11. Put a blanket or plastic table cloth under your child's car seat. This helps protect your car from leaking bottles, spilled juice, etc.
12. Buy toys and books at yardsale.
13. Begin a co-op with other parents with children your children's age, swapping clothing, toys and books are fun as well as money saving.
14. Have a book swap with other home-school parents.
15. BEFORE buying toys and products check with manufacture about mail in rebates.
16. DON'T throw away games or toys with missing pieces. Most manufactures offer replacement parts very cheap.
17. Stroller, highchair, crib parts missing or broken again most all manufactures offer replacement parts for next to nothing.
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