How to Style Your Baby on a Budget

Frugal but have trouble scrimping on baby cloths? With safety issues and fabric concerns, there’s only so much you can save in the first year. On average, for example, parents spend approximately $60 each month clothing their little one. It’s a lot, so let’s make it count.

As much as shopping in person can help you find amazing pieces and sometimes save when you run into a sale, it’s not easy when you’re about to have a kid, have multiple children, or have one on the way. We recommend cutting down the browsing time by going for tried-and-true brands like Carter's, Gymboree, and Baby Gap. Here are some of our other prime tips below:

Start the Swap: Team up with friends who have babies and start swapping once you get to the next size range. And don’t do it haphazardly, either: arrange an actual event and have everyone bring a prescribed number of items for a certain age group. Invite lots of people and make a night of it. We've noticed that pieces from Giggle.com and Ralph Lauren Baby do well.

Buy Gender-Neutral Pieces: Yellow, green, red... if you’re planning on having another child or on giving the pieces away once your little one grows, consider sticking to gender-neutral pieces to make them more versatile for the ones who inherit them. We recommend starting at Janie and Jack.

Get Stitching: This is where we may lose you, but hear us out: sewing is an amazing way to save. One thing you can do is repurpose kids’ tunics into tank tops by slicing off the sleeves and trimming them in lace, hemming the bottom in the same trim.

Resell: Brand-name children’s clothes sell at a premium, and we highly recommend you shop smart now so you can sell smart later. Whether it’s consignment or Craigslist, you can find ways to recoup some of the money you laid out for baby’s steals and deals. And if there’s a particularly fabulous clearance sale? Buy a few extra pieces and “flip” them on eBay for twice the price. 

If we have one more tip for you, it’s don’t delay in picking up the essentials. You can take your time with everything else, but strike while the iron is hot for onesies, sleep sacks, and baby booties. You’ll need a lot of them, and buying online also means waiting for the items to arrive.

Happy Shopping!