How to complete a layette for a newborn, fully managing the budget?

Completing a layette for a newborn is an important period in the life of most future mothers, unfortunately it is also quite complicated and ... cost-consuming, but fortunately it is spread over time, so we can carefully consider and plan each expense. Today I have a few tricks for you that will allow you to complete everything you really need and not spend a fortune on it.

 

1. Make a lay-out list - use Excel!

In my opinion, the checklist, which is only a list of items, is definitely incomplete. I can't imagine using it to start making such complex purchases. I wouldn't know at all what amount I should be prepared for, or how to manage my budget (I assume it is limited for most of us), or how to set priorities.

 

This is why in my list with a layette for a newborn, each item has not one or even two prices - the minimum and maximum market price for a given product. After all, when buying a bath towel for a baby, I can choose one for PLN 30, I can also choose one for PLN 200. I can also not buy a baby bath towel at all, but use ordinary towels that I have at home. Only the construction of my list with a layette for a newborn baby in this way allowed me to initially estimate the minimum and maximum budget that I should prepare for a layette for a Child, define my own financial possibilities in these ranges and only on this basis to set priorities and ... delete most of the unnecessary things from the list. This approach to the subject of the layette also allowed me manage my budget on a regular basis and make changes at any time. By saving each new purchase, entering in the appropriate line the specific amount that I spent on it, because I am getting its final shape.

 

I also used the list of my newborn's layette color code:

• red I marked the lines with font color with all the items that I considered necessary to buy,
• green I marked with the font color all the lines containing the items that I had already bought - for each of these items I entered both in the column for the minimum price and the maximum amount that I actually spent on a given purchase,
• black with the font color I marked all the poems containing things, the purchase of which, although it would certainly make my motherhood more pleasant, is not necessary;
• gray with the font color I marked the lines containing the things that I gave up buying, here I left the market prices in the minimum and maximum price boxes, but I entered zero in the field for the quantity. Thanks to this, the value of these purchases came to me also at the level of 0 PLN, so on the one hand I did not disturb the overall shape of the budget with these items, on the other I could always return to these ideas for shopping.

 

For example, this might be a fragment of your list with a layette for a newborn baby:

 

 

As you can see, you can spend PLN 108 or PLN 527 on the bathing part of a layette for a newborn - there is a difference, right? Already at this stage, before you make a purchase, you can set upper limits for the prices of all products that will allow you to fit into the overall budget. This will allow you to avoid shopping mishaps and spend more on a layette for the newborn than you originally intended.

 

2. Plan your shopping in time

Although probably every future mother can not wait for the day of the birth of her child, on the other hand, it is fortunate that the pregnancy lasts up to 9 months. For most parents, this time is sufficient to reorganize their lives or prepare for the emergence of a new family member both mentally, organizationally and financially.

 

Having already had the list of layettes for a newborn in Excel, created as I proposed in point 1, only then did I start ... shopping planning. Yes, yes, there will be time for proper shopping.

 

On the one hand, I estimated my financial possibilities for each subsequent month, on the other, I decided to take advantage of the fact that I do not have to hurry with the purchase of layette for a newborn baby - I used this time to look for the best price opportunities. Here, the portal comes to my aid alerabat.comthat brings together thousands of promotional offers for shopping in both online and stationary stores. What's more, thanks to the division of offers into the appropriate categories in my project, layette for the newborn I immediately limited myself only to visiting the category For baby.

 

 

What I really liked was that division of promotional offers into categories:

 

 

Thanks to this, depending on my needs at a given moment, I can look for the best offers, for example, immediately in discount codes, apart from promotions based on free delivery.

 

Why is such filtering important? Almost every online store offers free shipping for larger purchases, so if I'm planning more specific purchases, I'd like to go to the tab discount codes, because of the high amount, I will probably get free shipping in every store. In turn, wanting to make a small, but specific purchase, without finding the discount code I am interested in, I will probably go to the tab of shops offering free delivery.

 

When I can find promotional offers in more than one store, very often I compare not only the prices of specific products, but entire baskets. Sometimes, it turns out that despite a larger discount code in one store, the final value of the basket will come out lower in the other store, which, despite the lower value of the discount, also offers lower exit prices or cheaper or free shipping, and shopping in it will prove financially better. Comparing the entire baskets usually allows me to save extra.

 

An interesting solution is also promotion search engine in a given store - just enter the name of the store in it to check if there is any promotion there. I use this option, making every online purchase.

 

If you have your favorite brick-and-mortar stores and you like to shop there, you'll love the Always Up-to-Date section newsletterswhich you don't have to wait for from the mailbox from now on.

 

 

3. Gather a support group

On your expedition list there is certainly a huge amount of items that the Baby uses for a very short time. Think about whether there are people around you with whom you could exchange such things. Among my friends there is such a mutual support group, in which we borrow ourselves or pregnancy clothes that really only serve us for a moment and we simply won't even manage to destroy them, or we borrow bigger and more expensive things, such as an educational mat for a child or travel cot or playpen. Often we also exchange toys, which sometimes get boring very quickly, and such an exchange allows you to enrich this children's world without costs. It happens that before a larger purchase, we test our child's interest in a given item by borrowing for example a scooter or a cross-country bike for several days. I am sure that if you come up with an exchange offer, many people around you will like it.

Be sure to let you know if you liked my idea for an extensive list of layettes for a newborn, and if you have your own proven ways to embrace the subject of the layette, I will read about them with the greatest curiosity.

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