A baby nursery for less than $260!

Remember my post from October about looking for a pregnant Halloween costume? Well, the time has *almost* come. Here are nine ways I’ve saved money in preparation for parenthood.

• We compared the prices of popular baby gear on Amazon, Babies R Us, and Target to make sure we got the best deal on a car seat and other items we wanted to buy new. You’d be surprised which retailer was the cheapest!

• I stalked craigslist, Freecycle, and my local Mommy & Me consignment store to furnish our nursery, pictured above, for less than $260. I can’t believe how much used baby stuff is free or extremely cheap. Here are more places to look to avoid paying retail for baby clothesand gear.

• We cooked five dinners ahead of time and froze them, including turkey spaghetti, chicken corn chowder, and pork and hominy stew. I also made a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough, which freezes really well for up to a month. Everything but the turkey spaghetti recipe came from my favorite cookbook, America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.

• We considered using disposable diapers but the environmental and dollar cost convinced us to go with washable cloth diapers. We’re using the Gdiaper system and were lucky to find a huge stash of them at a garage sale for $.50 a piece!

• We planned family visits to get extra help cooking and cleaning, reducing our take out bill and sleep deprivation. Not sure if this will save us that much, but it will certainly be nice to have the company!

• We updated our budget to live on one salary, nixing a lot of luxuries we used to enjoy.

• We skipped a lot of baby gear money traps. It’s obnoxious how many manufacturers use parents’ fear to sell worthless crap.

• I bought most of my maternity clothes second hand from a local consignment shop, and found hot deals at Sears for new items. In one trip, I paid $133 for two pairs of pants, two sweaters, two bras, and three tops. That averages to $14.78 per item.

• We fully stocked our kitchen pantry and toiletry closet so we won’t have to pay full price if something runs out.

Anything else we should do before baby arrives?

greenasian / Flickr

This is a post by BargainBabe.com writer Yazmin Cruz.

I’m shining the spotlight on eight college expenses that are a big waste of money – and not necessary. Don’t forget to check out our weekly back to school deals to save money on school supplies and other back to college money savers.

1. Printer - Most universities offer computer labs where your student can print their ten-page papers for free. All s/he needs is a flash drive to save the doc and transport it to the lab. Emailing yourself the doc as an attachment is even cheaper – free! Computer labs are open to all students, whether they live on or off campus.
2. Pricey cell phone plans – On campus students will end up using the school’s Wi-Fi so there is no need to pay for unlimited data in a cell phone plan.
3. Landline – If they have a cell phone, they can do without a landline. If your kid insists on a phone in their dorm or apartment, consider landline alternatives like Google Talk and Skype that are big money savers. Skyping with another Skype user is free, or buy a dedicated phone number for $30 a year. A YEAR! Free video chats are included.
4. Pets – Don’t bring Fido. Not only will your student neglect him, they probably won’t be able to legally keep him in the dorms. If they plan on living on their own, review all the expenses of having a pet. Budget for food, a leash, bed, vet visits, doggie bags, and more.
5. Microwaves, hot plates, toasters – Unless you know for sure your kid will have space and permission to bring small kitchen items, don’t buy them. A student on a meal plan won’t need one, and they are bulky to transport. I used to bring my frozen lunch to school all the time and used the microwaves around campus to warm up my food.
6. New textbooks – Shop around online to find used textbook deals. If your student has an iPad or other tablet, they can download his or her textbooks to stop lugging books around.
7. High-end computer – An inexpensive laptop or desktop will work just as well as an expensive one. Consider the likelihood that your student will forget, drop, or lose a laptop. Dorm theft is an issue, too. Shop around for the best computer based on your kid’s major. English major will need a basic word processing laptop, while film students will need a more powerful computer to edit projects, and engineering/architecture students may need a program like AutoCAD.
8. Cable TV – College is not the time to be siting in front of the TV. Cable TV is an unnecessary expense because students will be busy cramming for tests and making friends. To stop spending money on cable try other options like Netflix, Redbox and Hulu.

For additional information: Visit our partner Devry.com, an online college that can help you reach your goals.

I re-did our monthly budget to see how everything would work relying solely on Hubby’s salary. But instead of tracking down every single penny, I stripped down our expenses and savings to the bare minimum. What is left is our discretionary income.

Here is what my monthly formula looks like:

Income minus savings minus necessities minus irregular expenses = discretionary spending.

Income: $XXXX

Savings: $833

Necessities: rent, gas, electricity, Internet service, cell phone service, gasoline (Hubby and I each get one full tank a month seeing how I work from home and he commutes on his bike), doctor visits, medicine, gifts and my newspaper subscription to the Sunday NY Times (which is on the chopping block)

Irregular expenses: car insurance, car registration, car repairs, dental visits, Christmas presents, magazine subscriptions, charitable donations……vacations, yoga classes, and oil changes. I totaled what we spent on these categories last year and divided by 12.  I automatically deduct this amount from our checking account into a special ING savings account each month.

Discretionary spending: food, clothing, bus fare, entertainment, vitamins, toiletries, meals out, hair cuts, travel, and home maintenance. To see why I put food on the discretionary list, go here.

The good news is that when I did our budget this way we have $1,593 dollars left for discretionary spending. The bad news is that our monthly savings is only enough to max out our IRAs (the 2009 limit is $5,000 per person). Though Hubby also contributes to his 401 (k) at work.

During our first month living on one salary, I would rather reduce our savings than bounce a check. If we can make it through the month on this significantly reduced spending plan, we will increase our savings.

To help Hubby and I not over spend, I divided our discretionary dollars by two (what each of us is allowed to spend per month) and wrote the number on the top of two index cards, above. Each time one of us spends, we will subtract the expense from the total. This way it will be easy to keep track of how much we have left. I hope we can make it through the month!