Why New Moms Overspend on Baby Products
- June 11, 2012
- by Melissa Lawrence
When you’re trying to think of a newborn baby checklist while you’re pregnant, it’s extremely easy to over-think and overspend on items that you would really be better holding not buying right away. I recently read a very intriguing post by KJ Dell’Antonia on the New York Times Motherlode blog, and she explains why new moms have a tendency to overspend on new baby products.
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What To Buy For Your Baby
In this piece, Dell’Antonia interviews Jennifer Trachtenberg, a pediatrician, who explains that moms have a tendency to buy more when they’re stressed because they think that it will make child care easier for them. After reading this, I found that this described me in a nutshell with my first baby. I can actually remember calling up my friends to see what products they recommended for baby care, and I created list after list of things from pacifier holders to wipe warmers. Anything that you could possibly think of, I was making a list for it. To say that I was stressing out would be an understatement.
Now I know better, and I understand that fear was responsible for my compulsive buying. I was so afraid of getting caught without something essential that I went overboard and bought things that I really didn’t need. When you start to sit down and think of what your newborn baby really needs, try to be wary of fear and recognize it as an emotion that will make you overspend.
There are several benefits when it comes to waiting to buy baby products. First of all, unless you live somewhere completely obscure, you can usually get all of your baby products very quickly. When you come across something you need, the solution is usually as easy as walking or driving to the store to pick up the item. In the event that the item needs to be ordered and shipped, there are shipping options that will get the item to you within a couple of days.
There are a couple of other tips that worked for me that I go over in my video, and I think they could work for you, too. Being a new mom is scary and you want to be prepared, but I found that there were a lot of products that I thought were necessities which I barely used.
So, for all of you new moms, do you fall into this category? Tell me what tips you use to avoid overspending!
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