Diaper Deals

One of the biggest unexpected expenses for us as new parents was diapers (well...I won't go into buying formula...but anyway...). We knew we had to buy diapers, but for some reason I didn't really think about how much all those packs of diapers would cost. I cringe to think how much we've spent on them since Sophie was born! I suppose you could do the cloth diaper thing, save the planet, and save money all in one. But let's face it...I'm not super mom and I really just want to whip that diaper off and not have to deal with it after it's filled with a lot of yucky stuff. Don't get me wrong, though. I have considered it for money's sake. I even thought it was kind of cool. As of now, though, the only cloth diapers I have are used as cleaning cloths.

The dilemma. How can I, a wife and mom who is trying to save money, is on a limited budget, and is trying to meet our needs on one income, buy diapers without going broke? Well, you can clip those diaper coupons. That helps knock off a few bucks per pack. That's how I started. I would go to Walmart, which I felt was the cheapest place to buy diapers, and use a coupon and not pay quite as much. Then I learned a few tricks that have helped ease the diaper buying blues. Or, in our case, the diaper AND pull-up buying blues (don't get me started on our potty training experiences!).

This is my new method...and much cheaper method...of diaper buying. I'm not attached to one particular brand. As long as it holds up and doesn't cause bad rashes, I'm cool with it. So I'll start with CVS. I love me some CVS. In the past couple of years, I've learned a lot about shopping there. They have this great little thing called Extra Care Bucks (ECBs). Every week they'll have certain items on sale and you can get back a varying amount of "ECB's". Many people do not take advantage of this because you don't realize that you can actually use this CVS "money" to buy other things with. Let me give you an example. This week I needed diapers. So, I went over to CVS and saw that this week a pack of gum was 99 cents, and then you got 99 cents worth of ECBs back. So, I bought the gum and got my little paper ECB. I concluded that transaction. I also saw that milk was $3.69 at CVS this week, and you would get $1 ECB back. So I got the 99 cent paper, gave the cashier the milk, used the ECB, paid a total of about $2.70 for the milk and then got another ECB for $1 back. That makes 2 transactions so far. Then I set a pack of CVS brand nighttime pull-ups on the counter, which were about $6 this week. I used my $1 ECB and paid a total of about $5 and then got $2 in ECBs back. That was transaction #3. Then I saw that a pack of Pampers were marked down to $8 and change, I had a Pampers coupon for $1.50 off so I gave the cashier that, along with my $2 worth of ECBs and paid about $5 for a pack of Pampers. It may sound complicated, but it was worth all the money I saved! 4 transactions in all. Yes, you can do that! : )

Another great way I've found to save money on diapers is by using Amazon.com. I love Amazon, too. You can join their Amazon Mom program and it will give you discounts and (I'm pretty sure) free shipping on a lot of items. I try to find any way I can to earn Amazon gift cards. One way is by using swagbucks. There's a swagbucks button at the bottom of my blog to the right. Basically it's a search engine that you can earn points as you search. As the points add up you can spend them on things...like Amazon gift cards! I also, when I can, do product reviews for a website called viewpoints. Sometimes they offer a $5 or $10 Amazon gift card if you do certain product reviews. When that's the case, I do it! When I build up some Amazon cards, I go online and look up what's available in the diaper section. I then discovered something called ship and save. If you sign up for ship and save (which is a program where they'll automatically ship a product to you at certain time intervals), they'll give you 15% off. Then if you're signed up for Amazon Mom, you'll get another 15% off. Once your item is shipped, you can go into Amazon and cancel your ship and save subscription. I've done this three times already...and I haven't had any problems! Yesterday I paid a total of $13 for a box of 100 diapers! I think that's a great deal! I've even paid as little as $4! It's made a huge difference in our money saving efforts!

I hope this helps those of you who are diaper buying!