When my husband, R came home from work one day when I was about 6 and a half months pregnant, and told me that 15 days after my due date with baby H, that we would be leaving the military I was as shocked as any. We both had planned another 22 months in the Air Force! At that point and time, I was terrified. I literally had one package of diapers and wipes and about enough clothes for baby H to last the first 6 months of his life. On top of all of it, R, baby H and I would be moving back east to be closer to family about 18 days after my due date! 1,400 miles! Talk about an overwhelming afternoon for us!
At that point and time I decided that we needed to stock up on baby essentials. Being that R wouldn't have a for sure job, and neither would I, we wanted to make sure that we had everything for baby H for at least the first few months of his life. I am now 8 months pregnant, and if I don't say so myself, I have a pretty epic stockpile for baby H.
Our stockpile includes:
about 5 months of wipes
diapers for about 2 and a half months (size NB, 1 and 2)
10 pacifiers
baby powder for the first 2 months
about a month and a half of butt paste
A+D ointment for baby H's little man parts
3 months of breast pads
2 months worth of bath products
laundry detergent for about 4 months
and 6 bottles (we plan on breastfeeding, but have these so that I can eventually go back to work)
R and I estimate that our stockpile should have cost us around $300, but we only paid about $150 by using sales and coupons. This is on top of all of the other essentials we need for baby H, such as, car seat, stroller, crib (luckily we were given a crib back east... yay,) pack and play, bedding, front facing carrier, buggy/high chair cover, high chair, swing or rocker, bedroom furniture and of course... CLOTHES!
Needless to say, babies are EXPENSIVE! Luckily, manufacturers realize that their products are pricey and make coupons for mommies to be like me! So lets get started on an easy couponing deal, baby wipes.
Baby Wipes
Babies use a lot of wipes! I worked in a day care for about 3 years and was shocked at the amount of baby wipes that were used. People use them for EVERYTHING! I've seen mommies basically bathe their babies with wipes. Once, a cashier at Target told me she used them as make-up remover, because its cheaper then make-up remover wipes! For the purpose of this blog, I am only going to focus on wipes for your little man (or princesses) bottom.
Newborns are said to go through 8-10 diapers a day (YIKES!) and by the 10 week mark usually go down to 6-8 changes a day. I guestimate that is approximately 12 wipes a day. (For some experienced with diapering, you may only use one wipe per change, for someone like R you may need 3-4 wipes per change, remember, practice makes perfect!)
Now what's the best price for wipes? You should NEVER pay more than 1-3 cent per wipe! EVER! There are soooo many coupons out there for baby wipes (because everyone uses them, for everything.) Websites like coupons.com is always running $.50 off of any Pampers wipes 56 count or higher. This excludes trial and travel size, so the smallest size that you could possibly get with this would be the box of Pampers (64 ct.) which is $2.37 at Walmart.
$2.37-$.50= $1.87/64 = 2.9 cents per wipe
Pampers brand is expensive, and for Pampers, this is a great deal. Coupons.com will allow you to print 2 of each coupon before you hit your limit every month. So if you start when you first hit your second trimester and used just this coupon for wipes, you would have 768 wipes and pay $22.44 for those wipes that if you are using them for your little ones bottom would last on average (if using about 12 a day) 2 months.
Huggies is also another brand that I see a lot of coupons for. Originally, I planned on only using Huggies Natural Care wipes, since R has very sensitive skin and was terrified that baby H would inherit that from his father. Websites like pickupthevalues.com, requires a registration, but has tons of coupons for Huggies, Kleenex, Pull ups, Viva, Scott, etc. They have a coupon for $.50 off Huggies wipes 40 ct. or higher. The smallest size that you could possibly get would be the 56 ct. which is $1.97 at Walmart.
$1.97-$.50= $1.47/56= 2.6 cents per wipe
With wipes I am not picky. I save my reciepts for EVERYTHING and tape it onto exactly what I bought. At the Dollar General they had a sale on baby wipes that were Baby Magic Brand. I know R's mom used baby magic when he was a little tike, so I was okay with buying them. We got 2 packs of 80 each for $1. That averaged out to 1.2 cents per wipe. Also keep an eye out for Target brand coupons which are super awesome too. I just got 4 72 ct packs of wipes on sale for $1.61 a piece. They were orginally $1.74 a piece so I saved 52 cents initially. Then I had a coupon that saved me $1 off of two packs of wipes. So
$1.61+$1.61= $3.22-$1= $2.22/144= 1.5 cents per wipe
$1.61+$1.61= $3.22-$1= $2.22/144= 1.5 cents per wipe
Remember to not be picky. Try a variety of baby wipes. SAVE ALL YOUR RECIEPTS! And keep your eyes out for coupons, they're everywhere. In just a month and a half R and I have aquired 1,746 wipes. And were not done! Using 12 a day, thats just a little under 5 months of wipes!
Diapers
Now for the biggest expense for most new parents, diaper. Diapers are expensive. Especially if your little one needs to wear a special brand. Like wipes, I bought a variety of different brands to try out on baby H, taped my reciepts on the packs, and will return them if need be.
My first piece of advice in a stockpile is buy the "jumbo" packs. These are the smallest size packs of diapers that they sell. DO NOT STOCKPILE THE BIG BOXES. Save those big boxes for when your stockpile runs out. If you stockpile the big boxes, you might not end up using them all, then your stuck with 200 diapers that doesn't fit your little one! My second piece of advice is to keep an eye out in your local stores for sales. Like wipes, pair diaper coupons with in store sales to get the maxium savings.
When it comes to price per diaper, this is the chart that I follow. I refuse to pay more than these prices listed per diaper, no matter how amazing a deal, sale or coupon may seem, these are the best prices for diapers!
Newborn: 13-16 cents per diaper
Size 1: 11-14 cents per diaper
Size 2: 14-16 cents per diaper
Size 3: 16-19 cents per diaper
Size 4: 16-22 cents per diaper
Size 5: 22-26 cents per diaper
Size 6: 26-30 cents per diaper
Now originally I was only going to use Luvs (that was before the couponing days.) From my experience of working with children, Luvs seemed to be the best diaper that I had used. The jumbo pack of Luvs (at Walmart and Target) are $6.97 per pack. Now a NB pack of Luvs has 40 diapers, size 1 have 48 diapers and size 2 have 40 diapers. We will just look at these 3 sizes for now.
NB: $6.97/40= 17 cents a diaper
Size 1: $6.97/48= 14 cents a diaper
Size 2: $6.97/40= 17 cents a diaper
Now even though these prices are some of the best around to buy without a coupon (unless you are looking at Walmart's White Cloud brand,) you can still get diapers cheaper than these. Coupons.com has a coupon for $.50 off a pack of diapers. If we did the same math above with that coupon, the math looks like this:
NB: $6.97-$.50= $6.49/40= 16 cents per diaper
Size 1: $6.97-$.50= $6.49/48= 13 cents per diaper
Size 2: $6.97-$.50= $6.49/40= 16 cents per diaper
All of these fall within the best cents per diaper chart that I posted above. Coupons.com always has $1.50 off a package of Pampers diapers. Before I was really good with sales and such, I made the mistake of picking up a package of size 1 diapers and ended up paying 16 cents per diaper because of this. Pickupthevalues.com has a coupon for $3 off a pack of Huggies Snug and Dry. At Walmart a pack runs $8.97.
Size 1: $8.97-$3= $5.97/44= 13 cents per diaper
Size 2: $8.97-$3= $5.97/38= 15 cents per diaper
Diaper stockpiling does take a lot of work. You need to find the coupons and then scope out online prices and sales to see if you are getting the best deals. It is a lot of work, but once you have a stockpile and your little one come, you are going to feel so much better that you do not have to run out every few days and buy diapers. You're also saving a ton of money in the long run and hubby will be glad about that!
How many diapers should I stockpile???
Now baby H isn't due to make his arrival until September. So everything in this section is my personal research!
I've read a lot on how many diapers to buy for each size. Every baby is different, every baby comes out at a different weight. Everywhere I have read says that you need newborn diapers until the umbilical cord falls off, unless your baby was a premie and isn't at least 8 pounds, your child will stay in newborn diapers longer. Size 1 diapers are usually the same price as newborns, but have more diapers in them. As long as your baby is 8 pounds, I would start them in size 1 since the diapers are cheaper.
Size 1 diapers usually go till 14 pounds. A baby is usually about 12-14 pounds around the two month mark. If your using about 10 diapers a day, that would mean you would need around 600 diapers.
Size 2 diapers go from 12-18 pounds. A baby is usually between that 12-18 pound mark between 2 and 5 months. I've read that this is where you should really stockpile because this is the size babies will be in longest. If your using about 10 diapers a day, that would mean you would need around 900 diapers.
At around the 5 month mark babies weight will slow down, and by now they should be sleeping through the night which will cut diaper changes from 8-10 a day to 6-8 a day. Size 3 diapers go 16-28 pounds. I personally feel that baby H would be in size 3's the longest since this has such a large range of weight for the diapers. Usually babies will be in size 3 diapers until they are 12-14 months. At 8 diapers a day, for about 7 months that's 1,680 diapers!
I don't recommend stockpiling higher than size 3, since around the year mark is when a lot of parents start potty training.
Right now, R and I have stockpiled NB, Size 1 and Size 2. Our stockpile as of today looks like this:
Newborn: Luvs 40 Ct
Luvs 40 Ct
Total: 80 Diapers (10 per day, 8 days, approx. 1 week)
Size 1: Honest Company 7 ct
Huggies Snug and Dry 44 ct
Huggies Snug and Dry 44 Ct
Pampers Baby Dry 44 CT
White Cloud 50 ct
Luvs 48 ct
Luvs 48 ct
Parent Choice 48 ct
Total: 335 Diapers (10 per day, 33.5 days, approx. 1 month)
Size 2: Target Brand 42 ct
Target Brand 42 Ct
Target Brand 42 Ct
Target Brand 42 ct
Luvs 40 ct
Luvs 40 ct
Total: 248 diapers (10 per day, 24.8 days, approx. 1 month)
248 diapers (8 per day, 31 days, approx. 1 month)
R and I are going to start stocking up on size 3 diapers next. Remember that there are always coupons for diapers and diapers are always going on sale. Its better to have just a few less than what is needed, then having way too much. Also, the hospital will send you home with some newborn diapers, and since you really only need them for a week, only having 1-2 packs is okay! Like the wipes, save your receipts, tape them to the packs of diapers. You can always exchange for bigger sizes if needed.
Stay tuned for more stockpiling tips and tricks and baby coupons that you cannot miss out on! Its my mission to help mommies save money on these expensive necessities for our little ones!!! :)
