Pregnancy is such a crazy time for most of us women. We are so excited, yet often feel sick or in pain. It’s so fun to imagine our little one, who he/she is, and what they will look and act like. Yet, it’s unnerving thinking about costs that will be incurred for the prenatal, labor, and postpartum care. I hope that by using these 11 Pregnancy Tips that Will Save You Thousands dispels some of the anxiety you may have about the cost.
1- Prepare. I found that as soon as I knew I was pregnant, putting away a little money each week and starting to accumulate items early helped immensely. These Posts: 23 Ways to save over $10,500 on your baby’s first year Part 1 (and Part 2) have been read by thousands and shared by hundreds more. The title is perhaps a little deceiving though because I started shopping early. I saved so much on my son’s first year well before he was born (by starting as soon as I hit the 14 week mark).
2- Beware of the minimalist craze. Cutting out everything because you’ve read that it is better to be a natural or minimalistic mom sometimes doesn’t work. Why? Because when you finally realize you need (or really want) a bouncer or a swing or a stroller you won’t usually have time to find a good used one and may, therefore, spend quite a bit of money on the new ones. My son loved his bouncer, he slept super soundly in a swing, and his vibrator chair was a great place to put him for entertainment. I used a lot of things that people say you can go completely without. Personally, I would’ve never wanted to try going without them (which was still the case for my second baby). Here is my list of things you need and logical substitutions to things I think may not be as necessary.
3- Buy used or borrow maternity clothes. Maternity clothes are expensive when bought new. You can find them for much cheaper at places like consignment sales, garage sales, hand-me-downs from friends, classifieds ads, and thrift stores. Another idea is to ask other moms (about your same size) if they still have their maternity clothes. Most of the time they are willing to let you use them for the few months you will need them or even give them to you if they don’t need them anymore.
4- Contact your health insurance and hospital and ask them detailed questions (the questions you should ask are in my post: Must-Learn ways to save on Pregnancy-Related Medical bills on this post here). Some insurance plans charge you one set amount for everything the hospital gives you. In that case, take advantage of as many items as come within that expense. Other insurance plans add each and every item to a total bill. This is usually the case if you have a maternity deductible. If the deductible is over $4,000+ it may save you a lot of money to bring in your own items. Further, I found that there were important labor items I needed that the hospital didn’t provide. This post: 11 Secrets to Have in Your Labor Bag (that you’ve never heard of) has been extremely popular and I’ve had a lot of people thank me for writing it. By taking your items with you, your own baby diapers, baby clothes, wipes, etc. you can/will avoid the outrageous charges that the hospital will hit you with if you have a very high deductible- read links above for more info. If you have any prescriptions, download the free SearchRX app. It will show you based on your area the cheapest place to fill a prescription at and also if there are any available coupons.
Bonus Tip: This is a cost-effective healthcare option that everyone should look in to. It covers everything over $500 at 100% (Gold plan). It’s better than a disaster plan, cheaper than almost all other regular insurance, and even has full maternity coverage: http://www.chministries.org/default.aspx?mem=249233
5- See if your employer will allow you to do a few things from home to help with the income. Working for as long as physically possible will also help with pregnancy expenses. My employer let me do a few extra projects from home (even after I had my baby). Here almost 2 years later I’m still making a few hundred extra dollars a month because of our arrangement. Thinking of ways to make money from home? I interviewed over 40 SAHM’s who make money legitimately. Click here to see the list of interviews.
6- Buy Netflix or use a library card instead of renting videos. When you are in the first months you don’t have time to do much, but you have tons of time to kill. How? Your hands are always full. I was always carrying my baby around or nursing him so getting things done was difficult. But you have a lot of time as well (at least on your first baby…not sure what it will be like with two). They eat and sleep and eat and sleep. My baby breastfed for an inordinate amount of time. He ate 45 minutes to an hour at a time every few hours! I had at most 2 hours at a time when I was not nursing him and much of that was when he was asleep in my arms which I honestly just loved! It is the only time he has ever allowed me to hold him for more than a few seconds and I’m so glad I took advantage of it and held him for so many hours each day. But it’s nice to have something to watch while your hands are full. Netflix was awesome, cheap, and I could find just about anything I was wanting to watch on it. My sister would check out different TV series from the library like Andy Griffeth or I Love Lucy because they are just 30 minutes and worked great for nursing entertainment. If you love romantic movies or series, don’t miss this list.
7- Buy nursing bras instead of regular bras when you are pregnant. Most women have to go up a size when they are pregnant, I decided to save money and bought nursing bras and made sure they fit me well with a little room to grow. This is an awesome nursing bra fitting guide which helped me find a quality bra that was supportive and comfortable. I can’t recommend this post (and Courtney’s other bra fitting tips) enough! The nursing bras have worked great and I have only had to invest in 2 or 3 bras since being pregnant and having my son.
8- Use a Lactation consultant. The longer you can breastfeed (if you can and want to) the more money you will save and the more health benefits for you and your baby. I had a TON of trouble breastfeeding but the help I received from the lactation consultants got me through about 4 months of breastfeeding and supplementing until 5 months which was a feet in and of itself.
9- Pay bills before you go into labor or set them up on automatic payment. It’s hard to remember everything when you are in the dazed, out of your mind, always tired, no sleep stage. I recommend setting up bills on autopay so that you don’t get fined if you forget to pay.
10- Have a diaper shower. One thing you can not buy used is diapers! Besides medical expenses, diapers will most likely be your biggest expense. If someone is throwing you a shower suggest a diaper shower in which everyone just brings a box of diapers. It makes it easy on them and it will save you hundreds! Or use cloth diapers which you can buy used and they will save you hundreds to thousands if you use them for more than one baby. Learning to coupon will save you hundreds to thousands in and of itself. Here is an easy tutorial with 11 couponing tips for beginners.
11- Make your own meals and freeze them ahead of time or stock up on quick to make low dish use meals. Costco also has some amazing frozen foods that average $1.00 per meal that can be put in the microwave and eaten 3 or 4 minutes later. I recommend having lots of those options for the first couple of weeks. Accept meals if people offer to bring them over.
Doing these 11 things will save you thousands.
Articles mentioned above:
Must-Learn ways to save on Pregnancy-Related Medical bills
Top Romantic movies and series like Pride and Prejudice and Downton Abbey here
How to Make Money as a Stay-at-Home Mom
How to garage sale successfully
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Having a baby girl in June – love all these tips!!
As I posted in another comment, my niece is pregnant with twins. And as any soon to be parent shes nervous about being able to afford TWO babies,these tips will definitely give her a little peace of mind. Thank you!!
My best tip is to hire a doula!! The money spent on a good labor support person can save you thousands in intervention costs (epidural, c-section, episiotomy, etc). And some insurance companies will cover some or all of the cost of the doula
Peggy- Wonderful advice! I had midwives and delivered on the Navajo reservation and a great hospital there (lowest C-section rate in the nation). They allowed me to labor down, didn’t pressure. If people feel comfortable in hiring a doula than its great!
You CAN buy used diapers. Ditch disposables and you save even more money 🙂
Brittany- Very true!
Disposable*cloth* diapers are also somewhat pricey on the front end (unless you buy them used) but in the long run (especially if you have multiples kids coming) they do save a lot!Anita – You mean *cloth* are pricey, right? Because re-using disposable diapers is incredibly gross!
But fluffy bums are so cute! I’d rather spend “good money” on new one-size diapers than clothing that gets outgrown almost immediately.
Becky- Yes I meant cloth, thanks for catching that mistake! I prefer disposables but I can see a huge money saver in cloth so I support them as well. Thanks again for your comment!
Don’t forget- ask your insurance company if they will cover the cost of a breast pump, most do now! That saves a couple hundred!
Rose- Yes thanks for mentioning that. I have that in the other article on how to save over 10,500 but I’ll add it to this article too. Thanks! Anita
Oh, also, consignment sales, Craigslist and Freecycle are huge money savers. We purchased a beautiful bassinet at a consignment sale this past weekend that brand new cost $300, we got it for half that price. Found a changing pad as well that fits perfectly on top of my chest of drawers that will belong to baby once he or she arrives for only $7; I’d been finding ones that run easily 3 times or more that amount. Freecycle requires a little more caution, because you’re getting a free item, sight unseen, but if it isn’t up to snuff, you give it away to someone else or trash it.
Rose- That is great I’m so glad that you were able to score such great deals. You may enjoy these posts that go into ways to save on the baby items: How to save over 10,500.00 on your baby Part 1 And Part 2
These are good ideas. There are a lot of people with REALLY high deductibles out there.
My #1 tip is to call the hosptial in advance and see what the cash price for a delivery is. If your deductible is high enough it will often save you money. Realizing, that is onyl for the hospitals. All the doctors will charge you extra!
Hilary- Thank you for this helpful tip! Yes, that is a great suggestion and I recommend others doing that as well.
Good tips. I’d amend the diaper suggestion to consider cloth diapering though — it is very economical and really, once you get the hang of it, you may even find it preferable to disposables. We used a diaper service to start with for my first, but then realized how easy it was and switched over to doing it ourselves.
Betsy- Thanks for the info. Yes, cloth diapers do save a lot! I’m totally supportive of them 🙂
Anita,
Thank you for the wonderful article! You mention that you started saving money once you hit 14 weeks. How much and how often did you save? How did you use those savings?
Thank you!
Kathleen, With my first I started spending about $50 a week on stocking up on baby items found at garage sales, classifieds, and super low prices with coupons for diapers, wipes, lotions, bottles, etc. I budgeted that amount because I knew it was going to be easier on us to spend $50 a week instead of it all at once. I found a brand new crib at a yard sale (still in a package) for $60.00 and 2 strollers and new car seat all for $100 so I bought it and just skipped stocking up or buying things the next week. So take the opportunities where you find them, just budget according to what you can afford. The second baby will be much less expensive (typically) because you will have the majority of items needed.
Please tell me where this gorgeous dress is from!!
I’m not sure sorry! It’s a photo that I bought… not me.
Don’t just check with your insurance if you have WIC they will more than likely help you get a breast pump too. At least in the state of Indiana Medicaid and WIC will help you. With their cut backs they don’t provide enough formula for a full month so they encourage any woman that can to breastfeed. WIC will also help you find the right size cups(sorry forget what they are called, prego brain here) because most of the ones are too small that come with a pum.
Thanks for the tips. This will prove useful for those who cannot afford a pump and can get help.
Does buying used/early apply when it is a first baby and you expect many baby shower gifts? I want to buy early and scour ebay/KSL but then I always think “I might get this brand new from someone…”
This is a great question! My cousin just asked me this question too. I’ll write it here and probably do a blog post about it. First you want to get as much as you can on the list of items you need used at crazy good price early then take everything you’ve been able to find used and at great prices off of the list. Only register for the items you can’t find used. That’s what I did. Every Saturday after garage selling, I’d come home and update my online registry. I’d take off the items I found. Eventually right before my showers I only had items on the register that I knew I wanted new or could not find used. It worked GREAT! Also, having a diaper shower is a great way to get diapers if you are using disposable. Best of luck. Be sure to subscribe to get my free downloadable excel file on how to save over 10,500 on your first baby!
Reusable Nappies! Massive money saver, super cute, better for babies bottom and you can colour coordinate outfits if you want/have time. without even mentioning the impact on the environment.
They are a MUST!
great tip! Thanks
“One thing you can not buy used are diapers!”
Wellllll actually that’s not true. You can buy cloth diapers. And frankly, if you sanitize them once you buy them, there is no reason not to buy them used. There are only two sizes – newborn and one-size. The one-size diapers will fit your baby literally from 3 months to 3 YEARS old, so they are a great investment for frugal mommies!!
Plus if you use them through multiple children, you will laugh at disposable diaper users. I think I spent $300 maximum on my cloth diaper stash and they will go through a total of three children. That’s $100 per child on diapers, meaning I have saved thousands of dollars because we usually spent $50 per MONTH on disposables.
Great tip! I really do like the idea of disposable diapers.