Thrifty Thoughts - BABY EDITION

As I was waiting for this page to load, I overheard my 4 year old ask his little brother, "do you want me to pick your nose?"  What happened to the saying "You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose?!!!  Wait a minute, those weren't my kids.  I don't know who's kids are sitting in my house. Usually I love to claim them, but anyhow moving on to the subject at hand!  And that would be?  Some BABY SAVING TIPS!

1. Make your own baby food.  I have to confess something.  Actually I have two things to confess.  The first time I tried this, I didn't realize you had to cook the carrots before putting them in the blender.  I really didn't ride the short bus.  I know you were wondering.  My other confession is, I did not make baby food for the first two children (although that one carrot attempt sorta counts), but when I went to buy those yummy smashed beans for baby #3, I had to blink a few times to see the price had gone up to 50 cents a jar!  Humph.  I get bags full of green beans from my next door neighbor and even grew a tiny patch myself this year so I make a big pot last week for supper and all the ones we didn't eat went thunk, into the blender, into baby food jars, and into the freezer.  note: add water!  And you'll have to stop the blender and pull off all the bean strings stuck around the blades.  It kind of looks like when you pull the hair out of the drain.  SICKO.
2. rip wet wipes in half.  Usually their little bums don't need more than that.  But sometimes they do, plus another, and 5 more, and oh goodness, just put them in the bathtub.
3. SIGN UP for all those baby newsletters and stuff.  They'll send you lots of free samples in the mail - including tubs of powdered formula!  My babies were breastfed so I sold them on ebay.  The coupons sell on ebay too!
4. Hit up the garage sales.  Your baby doesn't need new - she doesn't care and she probably will hate that $200 fancy shmancy swing you bought her.  Trust me, I just talked to a mom who has one and yeah.  Darn it.  Buy it (swings, strollers, jumparoos, bouncy seats, etc. ) for a few bucks, and you ain't out much when junior screams every time he gets near it and you can probably resell it for more when you're done.

Tori in her $7 garage sale bouncy seat. another money saver - put her in brother's old sleepers!  haha

5. Your pediatrician gets loads of free samples to give away to patients.  Last time I was in, our Doctor gave me six small bottles of cough syrup.  He also gives me lots of infant Tylenol.  If they don't offer it, just ask.  Chances are, they'd be happy to hand some out.  That's what it's for!