Frugal Parenting

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• Homemade Baby Cereal With Only 2 Ingredients

  Make Your Own Baby Cereal.

  

  Well… it’s happening. Though I keep telling him not to, my baby is growing. The time has come for him to begin eating baby cereal. I went to the store, as I did with my other two when they were babies, picked up a pack of the $5 baby cereal and groaned.

  I knew the cereal would last only 1 week. A $5 box of baby cereal would add a minimum of $20 a month to my grocery bill!

  I make my own fruits and veggies – but what is it about baby cereal that makes it so expensive? Is there any way I could do it myself and save money? A bit of research confirmed that yes, yes I can make homemade baby cereal!

  I found the original recipe for homemade baby cereal on Momtastic. The only issue with that recipe is that it requires about 10 minutes every single time you make it.

  Through my own experimenting, I found you can make a large batch of this baby cereal and freeze it in ice cube trays – a big time saver!

  If you’re like me, you won’t believe how simple this baby food is to make (and it’s inexpensive, too!).

  Ingredients

  • Whole Grain Oats (Any kind – rolled or steel cut)
  • Water

  Instructions

  Put your oats in a food processor, blender or magic bullet and blend into an “oat powder” – this powder can be kept in the fridge for 6 months.

  

  Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a small saucepan.

  Whisk in 1/2 cup of the oat powder.

  

  Whisk constantly for 10 minutes

  Pour mixture into ice cube trays and freeze.

  

  Once frozen, these can be stored in a zip-top bag in the freezer.

  To use your homemade oatmeal, thaw in the fridge overnight (or in the microwave ). It thaws a bit pasty/glue-ish, but just add breast milk or formula and whisk until smooth.

  Note: You can do this with any grain – long grain brown rice, barley, etc.

  One package of rolled oats can cost $5 or less and will last you months. This recipe is also very pure and simple, as baby food should be!

  Note: Homemade baby cereal is not iron fortified, and most doctors recommend adding iron to a baby’s diet by 6 months of age. You may wish to speak with your doctor about adding iron drops to your cereal.

  Do you make homemade baby cereal?

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• 4 Ways That We Spend Less on Baby Clothes

  

  This post is part of the Frugal Parenting series with Taya and Lori.

  One thing that I wasn’t worried about when I was pregnant with our first child was how we would pay for baby clothes – I knew there were so many ways to get them for next to nothing.

  It is incredibly easy to overspend on cute outfits, shoes they will likely never wear and hats that they always seem to hate on their head – but you really don’t have to. There are so many easy ways to purchase baby clothes very inexpensively.

  Below are 4 ways that we spend less on baby clothes.

  1. Thrift Stores

  These stores are a goldmine for infant clothing at low prices. I can’t remember ever walking into a thrift store and paying more than $2 for article of baby clothing. Sometimes I even got lucky and found brand new items with the tags still attached!

  Talize is my favourite thrift store for kids clothes, as I find that they have the best selection. They also have 50% off sales quite often. This is usually when I will shop there.

  2. Yard Sales

  Another great place to buy baby clothes is from yard sales. I found lots of fantastic bargains when I was pregnant the first time – often paying $0.50 or less per item if I bought them in lots.

  I find that most sellers will give you a pretty good discount if you buy more than 10 pieces, so this is what I would do in order to save the most amount of money.

  I got a ton of brand name clothing items for my son at low, low prices by shopping at yard sales!

  3. Passing Them Down

  Every time my son grew out of an article of clothing, I would pack it away in bins, because I knew we wanted to have more children and it just made sense to pass down the clothing to them (especially if we had another boy).

  Well, 2 years after we had our son Elliott, I became pregnant again. Halfway through the pregnancy we found out we would be having a girl and it was the day after my ultrasound that I started going through all of Elliott’s old clothing to see what we could use for our little lady.

  Thankfully we received a lot of neutral clothing at Elliott’s baby shower, so I had plenty to start with for our baby girl .

  4. Sharing With Friends

  A few of my good friends that had boys gave me some clothing when Elliott was born, and when they eventually had more babies of their own, I gave the clothing back so that they could use it again, too.

  With Kaylee, our baby girl, one of my friends continuously gives me huge bags of baby girl clothing as her baby grows out of them. If she has another baby girl, she will be able to use all of those clothes again. If she has a boy, she can use all of Elliott’s baby boy clothes. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!

  Because babies grow so quickly, they don’t usually have a chance to “ruin” their clothes, which makes reusing them with other babies such an easy way to save on clothing costs.

  Infant clothing is one of those expenses that is necessary, but it doesn’t have to be costly.

  By avoiding high-end clothing stores and passing them down, sharing, and buying used, it’s not difficult to spend less on baby clothes. Save your pennies for the more expensive baby items (such as a crib or car seat).

  How do you spend less on baby clothes?

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• 3 Easy Ways to Save on Baby Stuff

  

  I recently wrote an article for Simply Frugal, sharing 3 easy ways to save on baby stuff. Here’s a short sample:

  Purchase used for as many baby items as you can.

  You can find fantastic bargains on clothing and toys at yard sales and thrift stores. Ebay is another great resource for used goods.

  The only items you don’t want to buy used are a stroller, car seat and crib. Those are things you want to invest some money in, since they will be used heavily.

  Read the full article here.

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• 5 Simple Ways to Save on Baby Stuff

  

  This post is part of the Frugal Parenting series with Taya and Lori.

  This guest post was written by Taya of Simply Frugal

  For many soon-to-be and new parents, stressing out over how to afford a new baby is a given, especially in a shaky economy. But for many first-time parents, when it comes to actually buying things for their baby, many will spare no expense.

  But, there are easy ways you can save hundreds, maybe thousands on your baby essentials. Here are 5 simple ways to save money on baby stuff:

  1. Buy the smallest diapers possible.

  Don’t be in a hurry to move up to the next size of diapers if you don’t have to. By buying bigger diapers you’re also getting less in a package.

  For example, a package of size 3 Pampers Baby Dry (mega pack) has 60 diapers and fits babies that are 16 – 28lbs, while the size 4 has 52 diapers in the pack and fits babies that are 22 – 37lbs.

  2. Buy in bulk.

  By purchasing the items you use every day, such as diapers and wipes, in the biggest package possible you can definitely save money in the long run.

  Not only will it save you money, but quite possibly, late night runs to the grocery/drug store!

  3. Be patient.

  When it comes to preparing for the arrival of a new baby, it’s very easy to think you have to have everything ready before the baby is born. However, if you wait to buy some items, you’ll discover what you really want, or need.

  One thing you might think is essential: newborn sized clothing. Most babies can get away with wearing 0-3 month clothing, which will fit quite a bit longer anyway. The longer you wait to buy, the more informed you’ll be about where you want to spend money and where you’d like to save.

  4. Talk to other moms.

  When you talk to other moms who have “been there, done that”, you’ll find out what they found to be useful and what they didn’t.

  Some moms find infant car seats to be a waste and just go straight for the convertible seat. Listen to their reasonings, then decide for yourself what will be best for you when it comes to all baby purchases.

  5. Save with social networking.

  Not only is it beneficial to sign up for manufacturer’s mailing lists, but joining your favourite brands’ Facebook pages and following them on Twitter could garner you good savings and free stuff.

  Social networking sites are a great place to find coupons, giveaways and special offers for your favourite products.

  Having a new baby is such a wonderful time, but there’s no need to spend all your hard earned dollars on baby stuff, when you’re armed with some frugal tricks!

  In my opinion, saving money on the purchases you have to make is just as fun as spending money, especially when you know you’re making an informed purchase.

  How do you save on baby stuff?

  Taya enjoys the simple pleasures in life, deal hunting and being creative on a budget. She is also a new stay at home mom to a sweet little girl, living in beautiful British Columbia. With the help of her supportive husband Jesse, she writes daily on her website, Simply Frugal – which is dedicated to making the frugal lifestyle more simple for Canadians.

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• Save Money on Toys: Host a Toy Swap

  

  This post is part of the Frugal Parenting series with Taya and Lori.

  This guest post was written by Lori of Frugal Edmonton Mama

  If you’re a parent, chances are you have bins and bins of toys lying around your house. You step on them on the way to bring laundry upstairs, you pick them up in the morning, in the afternoon and at bedtime – and you probably wonder why it is that you have so many toys. Am I right?

  That trip to the store to buy new toys every few months? It’s not very frugal. Getting new toys doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg.

  Hosting a toy swap can update the in your home toys – for free.

  Interested in hosting a toy swap but not sure where to start? Here are some tips:

  

  Avoid the Free for All

  Most swaps have guests coming with bags of items that are simply strewn in a pile and you can take what you want.

  Doing it this way might mean that you will lose out on the value of the toys being traded. Avoid the free for all and use tickets instead. Decide what types of toys (or values) will be worth how many tickets.

  This way – everyone wins.

  Choose Moms with Similar Age Groups

  It’s likely that you are going to want to use these toys right away. Invite mothers (or fathers) to the toy swap who have children of similar ages to make sure that the toys are going to be used, and are age appropriate.

  Get a List – Before the Swap

  Get a list of the items that people are going to bring to the swap. This lets the other members of the swap know what will be available, and helps to avoid multiples of toys showing up.
  Use an event page, like on Facebook, to track who’s coming and what they are bringing along to the toy swap.

  Label

  Use coloured labels affixed to the toys during the swap. This helps with the extra toys that are left over. If you brought along toys that have not been swapped, you can easily identify these toys and bring them home to use at the next swap.

  These labels can easily be found at office supply and dollar stores.

  Swap Time

  At the time of the swap, it’s important to determine among guests whether the toys are going to be return to the original owner, or whether the toys are being traded permanently.

  Toy swaps are a great way to curb the spending on new toys and done efficiently, can help to get new toys on a regular basis.

  Have you ever taken part in a toy swap? What was your experience?

  Lori is an Edmonton mama that can help you to change the way that you shop through coupons and deal-hunting. Money saving and coupon using made simple is the name of her game. Lori blogs at Frugal Edmonton Mama daily.

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