A testimony from Jaime who blogs at Busy Mom on the Go
When my husband and I found out we were expecting our first baby (a girl!) I decided that this would be a great opportunity to use the cash system. I tend to use the cash system for purchases that have a likely chance of going over the budget and preparing for a baby girl easily fit into that category!
I just sat in the “would-be nursery” room and started imagining all of the ways I could dress it up. My imagination was running wild with ideas of a small chandelier with crystals hanging down, a Princess style crib with the matching changing table, a plush glider in the corner with a little end table adorned with light purple handles… and as you can see I needed to reel myself back in with a cash-based budget approach.
Set Limits
I needed a way to set limits. The cash system lends itself so easily to situations like this one. I could see myself buying a cluster of small items spread out over about seven months and not keeping an accurate track of each item and before too long we’re over the budget.
My husband and I sat down and discussed what we wanted for our baby’s nursery, researched the costs, and then set our cash budget.
Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize
After we’d set limits, we had to prioritize our nursery room by creating two categories: needs and wants. As the months passed, we started out with our “necessary” remodel of the room itself. This included re-painting, installing new carpet, and replacing the old hollow wooden doors with new ones.
Afterward, we knew exactly how much we could spend to start the fun shopping by dressing up the room!
Ask for Help
As a budget conscious initiative I strongly encourage asking family and friends to go in together on baby shower gifts. If it’s appropriate, ask them to help you by buying the larger items off of your list first. My grandmother-in-law had provided us with a new crib and then my mom and sisters went in together to buy us the bedding.
Stay Realistic
Having a baby is such an amazing gift and as parents, we only want the absolute best for our kids. I thought about this when I asked myself initially why I was setting a budget in the first place because, after all, my baby is priceless.
Realistically though, everything needs a budget. It’s just a matter of determining if the situation best fits into the cash system or not.
Emily was welcomed into this world on Easter Sunday 2011. We brought her home to a beautiful nursery room all while keeping our budget in tact thanks to the discipline of the cash system.
Jaime Pyles is a full-time retirement planner during the day and co-editor of Busy Mom on the Go in the evening. She enjoys sharing her ideas and tips on personal financial management alongside her journey as a blessed mom. She says, “Emily has taught me more in 10 months than I would have learned in a lifetime without her. I love motherhood.”
Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.
Brooke says
Fantastic tips! I think the number one waste of money is a bedding set. Babies aren’t supposed to have anything in their crib but a sheet, so really, its just there to look at before the baby comes! No need to spend $100-300 on a bedding set, 5 cute sheets will do! 🙂
kristin says
Babies grow up so quickly that paying cash for a nursery is a very wise investment. The pics on your blog are great! Thanks for sharing!!!
Emily says
We found the book Baby Bargains by Denise and Alan Fields to be a great resource in figuring out what we actually needed for the baby, where we could skip or save, what brands got good ratings, and what stuff was worth spending money on. We bought a ton of stuff at consignment sales, got hand-me-downs from friends, and picked a good quality dresser/changing table with a removable top rail so it can just be used as a dresser as he grows up. We found the dresser at a local overstock freight place at a heavily discounted price.
I second the rec by he previous
Emily says
Sorry, hit “submit” accidentally on the Kindle! I second the rec by FunMomma about getting a good quality ring sling or baby carrier (don’t waste your money on a Bjorn!). Mine have been invaluable in helping me get things done while keeping the baby close, especially so I can be hands-on with my older child.
Christy says
I would advise not going out shopping until after your shower(s). I know this is difficult, but I am so glad I waited. An aunt bought our crib, my parents bought our changing table. Since we used a dresser we already had and my parents gave us their rocker from when I was a baby, that was all the furniture we needed. I had 2 showers, one thrown by friends and one at work. This was 5 years ago, so I can’t remember all the specifics but I do know I ended up with all our nursery bedding, bumpers, decor, etc. that I had picked out and registered for either by receiving them as shower gifts or by purchasing what was not recieved with gift cards and money given as shower gifts. And then there were the duplicates. I got 2 diaper genies, 2 of the light up things that you attach to the side of the crib, and I know I got 2 of other things; I even remember I got 3 of something, but I don’t remember what it was. So, I marched all that stuff up to Babys R Us and exchanged it for things I had not received yet. Then I marched the duplicates up to Target and it was $100 worth of stuff, which was the perfect amount to purchase a crib mattress. My father-in-law and wife bought us our travel system. A gift card from a great grandmother that couldn’t make it bought us our second base for the infant car seat (we both work, so this was a much with daycare drop off and pick up), someone bought us the pack and play (can’t remember who?). Money came in the mail from great grandparents and we already had everything for the beginning, so we went ahead and bought the highchair, even though we wouldn’t need it for a few months. I didn’t have to buy clothes until he was 6 months old and then I just used all the gift cards given to me for showers that I’d held onto (to places like Old Navy where I couldn’t get the initial things listed above). So I really didn’t spend money on his clothes until he got into the 9 months size. It really is worth waiting to see what you get at showers, using what you already have (dresser and also we already had a nice blue and yellow striped window seat cushion and matching valance in the room so we kept it–if it had been a girl, we couldn’t have, of course), and also shopping for deals. I know I was blessed with the amount of stuff I was showered with, but I am so glad I didn’t go crazy buying everything before my showers because I could have easily spent 100s of dollars and it turned out, I didn’t need to! Since we had a second boy, we literally moved the first over to another room and used the room again set up exactly the same! If we do have a third and have a girl, we’ll need new bedding and probably paint the walls, but will still reuse the crib, changing table, etc.
Jaime @ Busy Mom on the Go says
Thanks Crystal for featuring my post! What I learned through this process is that no matter what the size of the budget is or what the budget will be used for the benefits of using the cash system are remarkable! And in this situation in particular it is what kept me on track.
Silly me, I never actually took pictures of the room before the remodel, but I do have pictures of the empty room after it was painted, then with the crib and then a finished nursery. I’ll see if I can get those to you relatively soon.
Lisa says
I had waited a long time to get pregnant and had grand dreams of the room-then we found out we were having twins and we had to scale that dream back A LOT since I would not be returning to work and we had to get a lot of additional items (bigger stroller, 2 car seats etc). But now they are 2 1/2 and already in big beds and I am glad we didn’t spend too much because it is for a VERY short time and they don’t care anyway. Not worth it-but yes as the Mom you want the best and cutest for your little baby!
Kyndal says
We did this. My grandfather is a fantastic wood craftsman and I love heirloom so I asked him to build her crib which he did (he even researched what kind of sealants are safe when they inevitably start chewing on the crib) and bought her dresser in a matching wood then sealed them both. My friends buddied up to buy her bedding and the rest was thrifted or hand me downs.
With my little man I realized that bedding was overrated and just have boyish sheets and the only purchases we made to prep for him were cloth diapers and a changing table ($10 at a garage sale). I switched my daughter to cloth at 13 months but she was already potty training at that age so I needed diapers for him. Best purchase ever and every last one of them has been cash.
Jessica says
We are paying cash for our baby’s nursery. Lots of my friends have gone all out decorating, but we decided that so much of the money that is spent is more for the parents’ sake than it is for the baby’s. We are going to put the money we save in a college account for him. He probably won’t remember anything about his nursery, but hopefully he will appreciate the college money when he is older.
Holly says
We want pictures!!!!!!
Jaime @ Busy Mom on the Go.com says
So sorry for not including them. I let the readers of Busy Mom on the Go know that my post was being featured on Money Saving Mom and in that post I include several pictures. Please feel free to see them here:
http://busymomonthego.com/2012/04/we-paid-cash-our-nursery-my-guest-post-on-moneysavingmom/
Thank you for reading this post!!!
Krysten says
I’ve never seen any purpose in spending tons of money on a nursery. We painted and put up a border. The crib and mattress came from garage sales. (I think $25 or 30 total) The dresser came from our bedroom after friends gave us a new one with a matching bedside table and mirror. I bought a changing pad with a gift card from a baby shower, and all of his clothes came from friends and family, with a few that I couldn’t resist buying from garage sales. =)
Our baby girl (due any day!) is living in our room until my BIL leaves at the end of the school year, so we don’t even have a room to decorate for her!
Diane says
My almost 3 yr old sleeps in our bed so really I wish we had never bought the crib in the first place (although I did sell it). Babies and toddlers really don’t need too much stuff.
Fun MOmma says
I agree that babies and toddlers don’t need much. Their own room, their own furniture, and their own toys–well, these are amenities that some people might find nice, but they aren’t necessities.
Our kids have slept in our bed until they were around 2/2.5 years old (when the next baby arrives, basically. A queen sized bed gets crowded. 🙂 )
Here is my baby necessity: slings (ring sling, mei tei, wraps, etc. Look up thebabywearer.com for lots of great baby wearing tips and information).
Marianne says
We were able to do up our nursery for about $470 and it came out awesome! We repurposed some furniture that we already had and I did a lot of crafting. Our inlaws gifted us an Ikea crib and we were gifted a few other things as well. I’m really happy with how it turned out and blogged about it here: http://preservingpennies.com/baby-on-a-budget-furnishing-the-nursery/
Lynette says
We did the same thing! We bought things used from friends, budgeted well and didn’t have any bills later! It was awesome!
Kimberly says
With our first, my parents graciously gifted us with the crib and changing table. My inlaws gifted us the bedding. My moms sister, brother and families went in together to get the car seat, and my huge extended family went in together to get the stroller. My husband built the shelves and a book case. It was wonderful to have all the big stuff taken care of! Our 2nd arrived 9 days ago….another boy, so all this can be used again!
Rose Myer says
Would love to see pics of the nursery
Krysten says
I agree! That’s what I was looking for throughout the whole article!
jo says
Me three!!!!
Maria says
Me four!!
Jaime @ Busy Mom on the Go.com says
I certainly apologize for not including pictures with this guest post. In the post on Busy Mom on the Go letting our readers know about the post and where they can go to read it I included several pictures of the nursery room. Please click on my name above and you will be directed to the post. Let me know what you think!
Thrifty Military Mommy says
Great job! She’s a beauty! I wish we would’ve used the cash system for our nurseries but I didn’t know about it before we had our kids. We use it on other things now, though, and it makes all the difference as you know now!
Congratulations!!!
Dri says
I love this! We paid cash for our nursery too! Our little Avelea was born January 25th of this year, so we spread out our spending over about 7 months. Our big savings was DIY. We found a crib and a dresser/changing table at garage sales, $5 each. I know they say not to buy a used crib, but this one was in perfect condition. We sanded and restained them to match, for a total cost of around $50. We inlisted the help of our inlaws for painting ($50). Got a deal online for a vinyl decal with her name ($17). Used a Bed Bath and Beyond coupon for some wall art ($20). Waited for a sale on the book shelf at Target (30). Found an amazing recliner at a discount furniture store… on clearance (for $198). And my favorite part, I found 2 large paper lanterns at a garage sale for $5 for both and we hung them over the recliner. Now when she looks up while we rock, she has something fun to look at.
Jaime @ Busy Mom on the Go says
That’s awesome!! I could not live without garage sales. The deals simply cannot be beat!!