Secret way to save money on baby gear
April 30, 2009 by Jennifer Chait
Filed under Baby Savings
This is actually a great secret way to save not only money but time on baby gear – and we all know time is money.
It’s pretty simple. NEVER tell people the baby’s gender. Keep your baby’s gender under lock and key to save both time and money.
How it works:
Friends and family will buy you plenty of baby gear. This rocks because, well, you need baby gear. You’ll get clothes, toys, and all kinds of extra goodies. However, what I’ve noticed is that as soon as you tell people your baby’s gender, people loose their flipping minds when it comes to practical baby gifts.
The gear you want is practical. You need diapers, basic onesies, blankets, and books. These are the sort of items I got when I was pregnant – why? Because I didn’t tell anyone the gender.
What happens if you tell people the gender:
I’ve seen this happen to friends time and time again. They say, “Yay! It’s a girl” and what do they get as baby gifts? 16 pink and frilly dresses that, by the way, your baby will never wear, flowery hair accessories (hair – on a baby?!), and pretty little princess decor items. Nothing practical, nothing you actually need. In my best friend’s case, she made sure to write “NO fills and pink dresses!” on her baby shower invites – and she still got tons of pink dresses and frill.
On the flip side, my friends who have announced boy arrivals fair a bit better, but still get lots of silly stuff like baseball mitts, baseball hats, and lots of little car accessories.
The issue here, I’m guessing, is that people can’t resist gender related gifts. Don’t say the gender, and they get confused about what to do and thus go practical with the gift giving. While some gender-minded gifts can be fun, you don’t need them. When you get too many silly gifts you’ll need to go out and buy the actual stuff you need OR waste time returning stuff and dealing with people’s feelings.
Not stating gender is a much easier way to get the baby gear you need as gifts.
What do you think? Have you seen this happen – because I see it all the time.
[image via stockvault]
I completely agree! Also, it can mess up hand me downs for a second child. I had a girl first then a boy 17 months later. Thank goodness we didn’t get a pink car seat or stroller. We got nice neutral colors that could be passed down. I think it’s silly to go with pink for those big ticket items.
That’s a great point. Hand-me-down baby gear is so darn cost effective, but not if your second is a boy, and all you have are pink dresses. Pink car seat! Egad, glad you didn’t get that either.
I never actually thought of that. I always told the gender, but I had family members who made it a point to buy the practical stuff for us. But it’s still a really good idea to keep the gender under wraps, especially if you hate the whole blue for boys and pink for girls mentality.
I think it is happening to me right now
I wish I was told this like 8 months ago… I need boring practical stuff bad!
Well, hopefully you can take some stuff in and trade it in – sorry to hear this though, people don’t think logically, even people who have had babies – it’s astounding!
Exactly! I had a daughter, and 90% of the stuff we got were pink blankets and pink outfits. We only got ONE package of diapers. Ahhh. So, I’ve told my husband we shouldn’t tell for the next one, but he doesn’t know if we can keep the secret. So, you were able to keep the secret??
Yup, we didn’t tell anyone, which by the way, made everyone super hyper mad so we compromised and told people our name choices – one for a girl one for a boy. It somewhat calmed folks down.
Yes I agree! I have an 11 week old son, and we got clothes, clothes, clothes, all in …. you-guessed-it … blue! He has so many clothes, there are many outfits he’ll never wear (wrong season like sweatshirts for the size he’ll wear this summer). It makes me feel so wasteful, but they didn’t include gift receipts so I couldn’t exchange