If you are a new parent, there are a number of things that you have to prepare yourself for. One thing that is extremely important that you have to learn right off the bat, is how to budget your expenses for baby products. This includes everything from clothin to diapers, and everything in between. If you have never taken the time to actually look at the prices of many baby products, you will be shocked to find out how expensive some of these items are, including the big-ticket ones such as car seats and strollers. Conventional wisdom has always been that you set aside a big portion of your baby budget to get a high quality car seat, as this will usually be the most important purchase you make for your newborn baby.

However, you will soon discover that this is not even close to being one of your biggest expenses as time goes along. As my wife and I quickly learned, it is the ongoing expenses that can really add up over the course of your baby's first year and beyond. These can include monthly cost for such things as diapers, clothing and formula. If you are not careful and frugal when you are buying these items, you can literally spend hundreds of dollars needlessly. I'm sure you have been given advice about taking secondhand baby products from friends and family members who offer these items to you, and this can be a great way to save. However, such items as diapers and formula almost always have to be bought new. My wife and I found that the best way to save on items like this is to find them for sale on such places as eBay, and to join baby reward programs with your local stores.

As an example, my wife found the exact formula that we gave our baby at well over half the price being sold by a reputable eBay dealer. She bought a two month supply for only $179, and it regularly sold in retail stores for close to $480. Another way I found to really save big on baby products, is to buy closeout models. You can usually buy car seats, strollers, etc., from the previous year, at significantly reduced prices.

But one of the best ways to save a boatload of money, is to simply buy clothing for your baby as needed. This is where most parents blow a majority of their money, and their babies usually will grow out of the clothing before it is used, costing them hundreds of dollars. One way around this is to simply keep the tags on all of the clothing, and the outfits that were never used, can then be exchanged for bigger sizes.

There are all kinds of deals that you can find on baby products, but you simply have to look around for them, and be willing to take the time to find these bargains. I can assure you that it will be well worth your time and effort, as my wife and I have literally saved thousands of dollars over the years doing this.