We wipe butts with dollars...

When I was pregnant, I thought that I could budget having a kid. WRONG! You can never begin to imagine how expensive these little boogers are until you have one of your own. Just to think of all the things a baby/toddler/kid/teen/adult needs is o-v-e-r-w-h-e-l-m-i-n-g.

While pregnant, I did decide that we would cut costs by making our own baby food (a topic I'll cover later), but there was NO WAY I was going with cloth diapers. Instead, "we wipe butts with dollars"- not literally of course, but diapers and wipes are pure gold!

You ask, where does the "wealth" part come in (remember, I promised I'd do a blog alternating health, wealth and happiness!?!?)...

#1: You have to allocate money to buy these diapers and wipes

#2: You have to spend time searching for ways to SAVE money on diapers and wipes

#3: You must find ways to reward yourself for buying wipes and diapers

Enter, budget queen Erica!

As for topic #1, I am a HUGE budgeter to say the least. Again, a topic we'll cover later. However, in brief, I choose to buy diapers in bulk when they are on sale. Even if I do not need them, I buy them. There's always a stinky butt to be changed later down the road. Also, allocate space on that baby registry! I thought that a few cases of each size would get me by...WRONG! An infant poops more times than seagulls...honestly. I don't see how they gain any weight! So, buy in bulk when they are already on sale in the store. Now onto #2: there are coupons galore for our brand, Huggies. But, again, you may have to buy diapers when they are not needed. I've never seen an expiration date on diapers (is there one??) so buying when there's a coupon is a must! In many cases of Huggies, there are coupons for the next case. SWEET! And, rewarding yourself (#3)for buying diapers? Not in the Starbucks run so to speak (although that's a GREAT reward for tired mama's), but in the diaper/wipe points. Yes. They are wonderful! Huggies uses Enjoy The Ride Rewards. I cannot begin to explain how many free things that we have gotten from this program. Feeding tools, learning tools, toys, coupons, music downlowads and even a pair of  Crocs! It's a bit time consuming to save the little labels inside the diapers packs but well worth it! And, you can't complain about FREE! Even Donald Trump wouldn't complain about free.

So, continue to wipe those butts with dollars all you little Mama's! But, find ways to save and reward yourself for doing so!

Our little butt...with his baby duck friends at Easter 2011

Until next time,

Erica