Baby Budget

In November I started selling some of the little man’s winter clothes on ebay in an effort to have money to buy stuff for the little pink frosted bun in the oven. I made over $250 with everything that I sold. The sad part is, I didn’t even scratch the surface of what I can sell. It’s such a pain in the bum that I don’t know if I want to sell the summer wear. I just may have a yard sale over the summer and sell it then (on the other hand, we have family who just had a little boy, so I should let them go through it first and take what they need). Since selling the clothes, I bought a lot of girl clothes on ebay and a painting for her room.
I planned to spend the rest of it over the weekend. My brother-in-law’s girlfriend is having a baby and is due one week before me. We planned this big shopping trip (I say big because the nearest babies-r-us is almost 1.5 hours away) on Saturday. The hubs and I had been talking about it and I was getting excited (shopping does that to me). I don’t have many friends in NH to buy things for us and it is a second baby, so a shower really isn’t going happen. On one of our final conversations about the shopping, the hubs started asking a lot of questions.

Hubs: “what are you going to buy?” “how much are you going to spend?” “what are you going to buy?” “what are you going to buy?” and finally “why don’t you wait awhile to buy things.”
Me: “hmmmmm…we’ll let’s see. The nearest babies-r-us is over an hour away. Do you really want me to drive over an hour much later than the end of January?”
Hubs: “why don’t you wait awhile to buy things.”
Me: “ARGHHHHHHHHH” “What is going on?” “Do you have something you need to tell me?”
Hubs: No response, just a quirky smile.

Okay, something is going on. It couldn’t possibly be a shower, because I seriously have like 2 friends that’s not really enough to count on a shower. (It’s pathetic I know…go ahead and get out your violins. Let me explain, though, I moved here as a stay at home mom in my mid-thirties. Most of the women here have lived here their whole lives. They didn’t exactly throw out the welcome mat at mommy group and invite me into their little cliques. Now that I ma back at work, I work in HR. HR is not exactly a position where you make a lot of friends. I need to keep too many secrets and can’t participate in office gossip.)

My hunch was right; something is going on. My dear friend, Yesenia, who lives down the street and with whom the hubs and I share our Wednesday night dinner called the next night. She was feeling bad for Todd and thought he might crack under the pressure, so she was calling to tell me she was giving me a shower. This is very sweet of her, but I still have my reservations about the number of people at this shower (it just might be short and sweet).

Anyway, I kept the shopping trip as planned. My mother-in-law was with us too, and was like a bull dog keeping me from buying too much. I will say it worked. Because she was there, I showed great restraint. My Grandma and Grandpa sent money for the baby and said to use it for my shopping trip, so that’s what I did. I only dipped $30 into my baby budget. I ended up with a new diaper bag, 6 carter’s sleepers (which are just about the best item of baby clothing ever), a couple of outfits that were on sale, two towel sets that were on sale, a basket for the changing table, and a cheapy tub for the counter (our infant tub leaks). I thought I showed great restraint. There was so much more I wanted! I registered, so I hope that I get some things off my registry…otherwise it’s going to be online purchasing for me and a budget that gets cut because of shipping. There’s not really a lot that I actually need. Most of it is girl bedroom things.