9 Ways to Save Money on Baby Gear

The cost of raising a baby is only rising, and while you can budget during pregnancy and minimize your registry to focus on just the essentials, big-ticket items like cribs and car seats are costly, and when you add in the products you’ll have on repeat (like diapers, wipes and formula), it can add up.

Turns out that saving on baby gear and essentials doesn’t have to be overly complicated or require you to hoard the Sunday circular to clip coupons. As the commerce editor here at Babylist with over 6 years of experience researching and writing about sales and baby products (including researching, curating and writing our weekly sales and deals series), it’s safe to say I know about saving money on baby products. 

We’re sharing our top ways to save a few dollars, from learning about when to shop for certain products and what gear is still great secondhand to strategizing the use of your registry discounts.

1. Mark Your Calendar For Deals

If we had to choose the absolute best way to save on baby products, sales events would be it. Happening all throughout the year, you can usually find significant markdowns on top-registered baby products like baby monitors, car seats and even diapers. The key to squeezing out the most from sales events is knowing what to shop for. Some sales events, like Amazon’s Prime Day and Black Friday, are better for big gear items like car seats (here are the best times of the year to save on car seats), while other sales are good to peruse for price drops on miscellaneous baby and parenting products. Specifically, July is usually when Amazon and Nordstrom have big sales, then Prime Day returns around October, followed by Black Friday in November. Those are the heavy hitter sales events but there are plenty of smaller holiday sale weekends sprinkled throughout the year where you can save (like Presidents’ Day in February and Memorial and Labor Day bookending the summer).

If clicking through hundreds of pages of sales sounds like a time suck, I actually do the job for you and share my findings here. You can use our deals page (updated every week) to find discounts on baby products you’ve registered for (and ping your family and friends to alert them it’s a good time to buy) or just go ahead and self-purchase the item—especially if you’re worried you won’t receive it as a gift. 

2. Use Your Registry Discounts

Most baby registries offer a completion discount—a coupon that can be used on unpurchased items that are still on your registry for a certain window of time. Most registry completion discounts are around 15 percent and are a great way to stock up on the items you need at a reduced price if you haven’t already been gifted them. Babylist offers a 15% off completion coupon that can be used on products in the Babylist Shop 60 days before your expected arrival date and up to 90 days after. Within that timeframe, you can use the coupon multiple times for up to $300 in savings.

You can use your discount strategically, saving it for a higher-priced item that's unlikely to go on sale (think high-end brands like Nuna and BabyBjörn) or on a product you can use in the future, like a high chair or convertible car seat. Just make sure you note the coupon expiration date so you don’t miss out on savings (Babylist will send reminders via email so you don’t forget). 

3. Bookmark Our Weekly Sales And Deals Article

Outside of the major sales events, there are dozens of smaller sales happening every week. And unless you’re signed up with virtually every baby brand and retailer out there, you’re more than likely going to miss a fair amount of opportunities to save—and that’s where I come in. Kind of like your bestie with insider knowledge about deals, I comb through digital sales racks, brand blowouts and random price drops every week (focusing on the products Babylist parents and users really value). I then share those deals here for you to shop from your couch (or nursery glider), essentially doing the hard work for you. Make sure you have that page bookmarked so it’s easy to check in weekly to see if the thing you’ve been waiting to go on sale is finally marked down. 

4. Sell or Trade-in Used Gear For Upgrades

Baby gear is pricey, and for the more expensive products, the resell value is high enough that it’s worth selling it and using the cash to buy whatever you need. While our gear editor and resident CPST Jen LaBracio recommends not selling items like car seats and cribs for safety reasons, other items like strollers, high chairs and bouncers/swings are perfect for the resale market. We break down how to sell used baby items to get the most return on your investment here. 

And if you happen to have a car seat or car seat base lying around that you’re ready to retire, at Target’s biannual Car Seat Trade-in event, you can trade it in for a 20% off coupon that you can use up to two times on certain baby items (typically another car seat, bouncers, playards and other baby gear). 

5. Stock Up on Secondhand

So much baby gear has a limited window of use, because as your baby grows, their needs change and they outgrow many of the products they use regularly. A swing, for example, is the perfect spot for your baby to chill while you get other things done, but between six and nine months, the swing will be a less desirable place to hang as your baby learns to sit up, roll over and attempt to climb out of the swing. The same goes for lots of other big-ticket baby items like a bassinet, most baby containers and some types of swaddles. Plus, babies will need a new wardrobe several times in their first year as they grow out of clothes in the blink of an eye. 

Buying used baby gear is a budget-friendly strategy you can start before your baby is even born. And if you’re still in the registry-building stage, you can even request secondhand items from your friends and family. You’ll need to know where to shop, though, and what baby gear is safe to buy used and what isn’t.

Here's how you can get secondhand gear:

• Register for secondhand gear. Use your baby registry to alert your family and friends that you’re open to receiving some items secondhand. Simply click the open to secondhand slider bar on the item within your registry.

• Facebook swap groups and Marketplace are two of the best destinations for buying gently used baby gear. Swap groups are usually local to your area and run by other parents, while Facebook manages Marketplace and covers a larger geographic area. Although you’ll have to arrange the delivery and payment, there aren’t any fees (like with other platforms).

• Online marketplaces like OfferUp sell gently used children’s gear and clothing, and you can trade in your child’s outgrown clothes for new ones with a Swoondle membership. You can stock up on gently used baby clothes from places like ThredUp (there’s a dedicated kids’ section) and eBay’s baby section, which has a host of baby items, from baby shoes to toys. Going this route means all of the payment and delivery is handled for you but these platforms also charge fees.

• GoodBuy Gear is an online resale marketplace for high-quality baby gear. Unlike other online sellers, GoodBuy’s gear experts inspect and clean all items before listing them and never sell recalled items. They also sell open-box items from popular brands.

Here’s what to keep in mind from a safety perspective when shopping for used baby gear:

Gear like strollers, baby carriers, playards, swings, bouncers, activity centers and play gyms, infant seats, nursery furniture like a glider or a dresser, baby bathtubs, baby clothes, toys and books are typically good secondhand buys if they’re in good working condition. If you’re buying used gear, always check for recalls and be sure the item is structurally sound before purchasing. Also, always give everything a good scrub before using it with your baby. 

If you’re into vintage baby gear, check to make sure none of the components have been banned because of safety concerns. (I was given a drop-side crib in 2012 and the drop mechanism was banned just the year before, which I didn’t know.)

It’s not recommended to buy car seats, cribs or crib mattresses secondhand. Car seats may have been involved in a crash (or even dropped) without you knowing and may be structurally compromised—even the safest infant car seats shouldn’t be used after a crash. Cribs and crib mattresses are both held to very high (and constantly evolving) safety standards and tend to weaken and sag over time. It’s best to buy all of these products new.

6. Consider Renting Certain Gear

Did you know you can rent baby gear (especially the really expensive kind)? If you need a specific item for a short, one-time window of use—think a travel high chair or a super lightweight travel crib, for example, or even a bundle of beach toys—it may be more cost-effective to rent rather than buy, especially if you don’t think you’ll ever use those items again. It’s also convenient; depending on your location, many baby gear rental companies deliver the items right to your door. (Some even ship.) BabyQuip, Baby’s Away and Rents4baby are three good options to check out.

You can also rent out the ever-popular smart bassinet SNOO, instead of shelling out over $1000 since your baby will only use it for a short period of time and there’s a chance they might not prefer it. 

7. Shop Store Brands For Consumables

Outside of gear, other baby essentials can add up in price, but you can save on those, too. From diapers and wipes to bubble baths and beyond, most big retailers have their own store brands across many different baby product categories. Most of the time, they’re just as good as (if not better than) many big-name brands, and they come with significant cost savings. Here’s what to shop for the next time you head out on an emergency toilet paper run and find yourself wandering the baby aisle of your favorite big box store.

• Target: There are so many Target-owned brands to love, but some of the best are Up & Up diapers and infant formula, Cloud Island sleepers, Cat & Jack baby clothing and the adorable Pillowfort line of kids’ decor.

• Walmart: This budget-friendly retailer’s store brand, Parent’s Choice, offers a wide range of baby items, but the standouts are the diapers, wipes and infant formula.

• Costco: If you have a Costco nearby, a yearly membership may be something to consider when accessing the store’s money-saving bulk buys. Their Kirkland wipes can’t be beat (they’re fragrance-free, really affordable and a favorite of our gear editor) and many parents swear by their diapers, too. The store carries tons of big brands as well, like Huggies, Similac, Enfamil and more, and you’ll save money by buying in bulk.

• Amazon: Yup, the mega online retailer is also in on the store brand game. Their Mama Bear line includes diapers, wipes, infant formula and more, and is an affordable diapering alternative to other big-name competitors. Another favorite is their Earth & Eden line of eco-conscious diapers.

8. Don’t Retire Your Registry

Once your baby shower has come and gone and you’ve used your registry completion discount, don’t close out your baby registry just yet. There are ways to hack your registry, so even after you aren’t using it for friends and family to gift you the things you need, it's still a helpful tool.

You can use it to compare prices on products to ensure you get the best deal out there, all on a single page (instead of opening five different internet tabs at once). You can also sign up for price drop alerts—you'll get an email when there’s a markdown, so you don’t miss your chance to take advantage of it. 

9. Subscribe and Save

It’s fair to assume that some consumable baby products, like wipes, formula, baby soap and lotion, will be purchased on a monthly or even weekly cadence. And while they are smaller items, the cost definitely adds up over time. One way to save on these items is to sign up for subscribe and save (which is not exclusive to Amazon—a bunch of brands and retailers offer this service). Brands and retailers will usually knock off a few dollars when you sign up for their subscription service, solving two problems in one—the items you use regularly are sent to your house automatically and you save a few bucks every month, too. A few of our favorite subscription services include diapering essentials, household items and vitamins.