Splurging on Baby Stuff: Yes or No?

Your baby is the grandest, newest love of your life and naturally, you’ll feel the urge to give him or her the best you possibly can.

However, as much as you’d like to indulge in expensive items, overspending for your baby, especially if it becomes a habit, can lead to serious problems down the road. If spending on baby precludes you from meeting other essential financial goals such as settling of debts, saving for retirement or college, etc, you might run into some problems. Remember too that if your child is brought up with only expensive tastes, it’ll lead to financial strains and possibly even family feuds in the future.

If you happen to not be in any financial constraints, e.g have loads of money to spend after paying off your overheads, saving for some college funds for your kid and also for your retirement, and plus, you easily meet your basic obligations, by all means, splurge away! If you do however, find that the budget is a bit tight while expecting a new baby, there are some areas you might want to think twice before going overboard.

A fancy baby nursery

Just log into Pinterest or even baby furniture pages on Facebook and you could be faced with adorable pictures of nurseries in countless attractive themes that seem to have your baby’s name on them. Yes, it’s hard to not get bowled over by beautifully-made baby furniture, alluring wall-papers, nursery walls decorations, toys and high-end fixtures. Still, the fact is, your little one doesn’t really care for those things and it’ll be some years before they even learn to appreciate a well-decorated room!

So, if you wish to save some cash, get practical and skip the fancy nursery in favor of a comfortable, safe place for baby to sleep. If you happen to have a spare room, a coat of cheerful yet calming shade of non-toxic paint and some basic furniture will do nicely for your nursery. You can add on other nice things as baby grows and as the need arises.

Intricate and expensive furnishings

Those miniature bedroom furniture sets for babies generally come with not-no-miniature price-tags! Depending on your sleeping arrangements, you might not, or rarely ever, use an actual baby crib. Many parents have been known to purchase expensive baby bedding only to see them go to waste.

A baby changing table is another example of pricey options when it comes to baby furniture. While they’re really nice to have if you can afford one, any comfortable surface, like your bed, for instance, is good enough for nappy changes and the likes. Besides, with all of the diapers you’ll be changing throughout the day, you probably won’t be going to the nursery every time your baby needs a change, especially if you have stairs in your home. Instead, you’ll likely be doing it where ever that’s most convenient.

If you really think about it, you just need a comfortable place for your baby to sleep, and a place to keep clothes and other essentials.

Does your baby need loads of clothes?

Definitely not, for babies tend to outgrow stuff very quickly. There is absolutely no point of burning holes in your wallet for a cupboard full of designer baby outfits (and yes, they can be unnecessarily expensive!). A few comfortable pieces of clothing will do nicely. You actually only need enough clothing to get through a week, less if you do a load of baby laundry mid-week.

Baby footwear

Baby shoes are quite in a league of their own and can be ridiculously expensive, even though they’re adorable to look at! The fact is, babies who haven’t begun walking yet don’t have any real need for shoes, but it can be fun to have a pair for special occasions. When your little one begins to cruise, protect his or her delicate feet with affordable, sock-like shoes with flexible, grippy soles.

Gadgets, gizmos and other unnecessary stuff

There are dozens of redundant baby items available nowadays, most of them marketed to play on the sentiments of loving parents, especially new parents. – Diaper disposal systems, wipe warmers and baby bath thermometers are just a few examples of probably helpful but completely unnecessary item. When in doubt about an item, ask your mom or grandma if they needed anything like it. Chances are they didn’t, and neither will you!

Mommy splurge? Well…

You may think that a designer nursing bag will make you feel less like a sleep-deprived zombie when you’re out and about with your little bundle, but it won’t! Besides, you’ll soon realise that you couldn’t care less about who designed it, as long as it has the wipes and clean diaper at hand when you need them. The fact is, designer ‘anything’ may be really nice to have and to own if you have enough cash to part with.

At the end of the day, the question that remains to be answered is: Would you splurge on luxurious, pricey items, and if you do, for what reasons?