Now that I'm 30 weeks pregnant, I feel like I'm almost ready for the little one to arrive, but not quite. Today I thought I would share a few things I've done to prepare for baby without breaking the bank.

Maternity Clothes

Although I did buy some new maternity clothes from Old Navy (during the 30% off maternity sale), I had some success with my local thrift and consignment stores. I was able to get a few pairs of pants and shorts for significantly less. These stores had a specific maternity section, so be sure to ask if you can't find it.

I also made a few Wikston Tanks (seen here and here) that are still fitting nicely, but I may end up sewing some DIY shirts using these great tutorials from diymaternity.com.

Prenatal Yoga

I really wanted to do some prenatal yoga during this pregnancy but found the classes to be quite expensive (usually about $100 for 6-8weeks). My cousin told me about a great website called www.yogaglo.com, that provides unlimited online yoga "classes" for only $18/month. They have an amazing selection of pre- and post-natal yoga practice for all levels. It has been really great to do this in the comfort of my own home, especially now that the moves are getting harder!

Baby Gear

Try looking on Kijiji for used baby items. Tom and I scored a $600 stroller for only $350 (which included the car seat too). Before buying a stroller, I visited a local store to try out a few different brands. I settled on the Britax B-Ready, which has so many different configurations and allows easy removal of the infant car seat. But the price of $529 for just the stroller (add another $250 for the car seat) was just so much!

I was able to find a used 2010 model on Kijiji and negotiated a price of $350 for both the stroller and car seat. That's a savings of over $400! I know some people will not be comfortable buying a used car seat. But I did a lot of research to figure out if it had any product recalls and I trusted the Kijiji seller to be honest about it having never been in a car accident. Perhaps I'm naive but I like to think another mother wouldn't lie about that sort of thing!

A great source for brand new baby/kid items at discounted prices is babyhalfoff.com.  A friend told me about this website and we scored a great diaper sprayer for 50% off! There are different deals every day from clothing to cloth diapers.

Baby Freebies and Samples

Sign up for great baby product samples and coupons! Read this list of baby freebies put together by Coupon Christine.

Nursery Decor

Setting up the nursery can get expensive. Try painting or refinishing an old wooden dresser to use as a change table, like here and here. Mine is currently sitting in the garage with the drawers all primed, but still need to paint up the rest!

Make our own crib sheets! This is a relatively easy sewing project and I used this Tutorial by HoneyBear Lane. I bought a double top sheet from Value Village, gave it a good hot wash and sewed it up into an awesome crib sheet! I think there is still fabric leftover for another one too.

Family Photos

I was a bit disappointed with how our wedding photos turned out, so I've been looking forward to having an excuse for updated family photos! A local photographer was offering a mini-marathon photo session in October this year, so I decided to book a 20-min session and save some cash! This October marathon just happens to coincide with my last month of pregnancy, so we will get some nice maternity photos too. A 20-min marathon session cost us about half of what a full maternity/family photo session would cost. Obviously this is not a priority for everyone, so it may seem like just an "extra" cost.


Those are some of my thoughts and tricks for saving money! I'd love to hear about any ideas you have!