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The Best Baby Shopping Hacks That All Parents Should Know

By Kate Michael

October 1, 2022

Babies. They are little life-changing miracles, so perfect and precious — and pricey!

While there is a lot of happiness around welcoming a new baby, families experience a lot of anxiety as well, because for something so cute, curious, and cuddly, these little bundles of joy sure cost a bundle, too.

That is why we are bringing you the best baby shopping hacks that all parents should know, to help moms and dads save money, shop smarter, get cash back, and earn free gift cards in those critical first years.

Let us help you become a smarter parent and get your budget to go further.

With Fetch by your side, you will learn how to save on diapers and baby wipes, utilize helpful shopping extensions, employ discount timing tactics, and more!

The USDA estimates the average cost of raising a child these days at well over $200,000, over the course of eighteen years, with an average of $1500 a month in the first year. That’s a lot of diapers and baby formula… but also so many more essentials to shop for and spend.

Right now it’s especially hard to make ends meet, but families want to make sure their children are starting life off with the best opportunities they can offer. Let’s dive into the list and help our Fetch parents create a better life for their children.

Tips for Shopping

Whether you are a frugal family or a solo money-saving mom, Fetch knows that you are looking to save money wherever you can with deals and hacks at the stores you visit most for your baby’s needs.

These are our best suggestions for saving money while you shop:

Shop Late in the Season

Did you know that August is actually the most expensive time to purchase clothing? Not only do stores take advantage of families’ Back-to-School needs, but many people also examine their work and casual wardrobes and update them right around this time, so some stores have been known to raise prices in July and early August — and then put clothes “on-sale” later to attract shoppers.

This is why most deal sites suggest that you should shop off-season. But with babies and children constantly changing sizes, it can be hard to know what will fit them if you wait to shop for summer in the Fall. Smart new parents know not to buy a lot of clothing far in advance, so your best bet is to shop as late as you can in the season to take advantage of late-season sales, and avoid August at all costs.

Buy in Bulk with Friends

Shopping at warehouse stores is enticing because the per unit cost of each item is likely the lowest around. But stowing those items is a challenge! So share the price — and the savings — by splitting the cost of bulk shopping with family or friends, especially other new parents that are looking for the same items that you are stocking up on frequently. This helps everyone to save without overloading their storage or bank accounts.

Make a Note of Local Tax Free Shopping Dates

Most states and localities offer one or more tax-free weekends, or tax holidays, when they choose to waive taxes on eligible items. These weekends (or special days) often take place when families are shopping for necessities for major life events, like Back-to-School, or even for seasonal preparedness, like prepping for hurricane season.

Planning ahead for these tax-free dates can save new parents quite a lot since diapers, bibs, baby clothes, and blankets are often specifically included. This makes tax holiday dates a rare opportunity to save big on essential items. Just keep in mind that there is usually a limit on the total amount of eligible sales.

Choose Gender Neutral Essentials

Gender-neutral baby items are a great cost-saving idea for you to have, borrow, and share. Great for baby boys and girls, these essentials are useful now and in the future because you can be sure that these items will also serve your next baby, reducing the cost down the line. And they are also a great investment because they can be shared with other expectant mothers (or they can share them with you).

Furthermore, gender-neutral baby clothing is often easier to mix and match or pair with accessories, which is a time and cost-saver as well.

Create Events for Registry Discounts

While you can create a registry for just about any major life event, having a baby is one that comes top of mind. But not only are baby registries great because they help your family and friends to know which items they can give, to better serve your needs, but many registries come with the added bonus of saving you and your gifting loved ones quite a bit of money.

Master registries, like Zola or Babylist, are a convenient one-stop shop that lets gifters easily view and purchase specific items, even identifying when those items are on sale at their respective retailers. But choosing to register at individual stores also comes with price-saving perks.

Often when you have unsold items remaining in your registry after your event, whether it is a baby shower, birthday, or other created “fun”, some stores will let you buy out those items at a “registry-completion discount.” By scoring these registry deals, parents can usually get 10-15% savings off their registry within 90 days of the “event.”

Download Shopping Extensions

Everyone loves the convenience of shopping online these days, and with a new baby in the house, this may be the

Adding a free shopping extension like Cently or InvisibleHand will take the work out of finding the best price online, and will even score you promo codes and discounts you probably wouldn’t have found on your own.

These browser applications automatically prompt users with savings and coupon codes when they are about to check out. They even search the web for available coupons when there is an empty “Promo Box” upon online checkout and identify which one is the very best deal, making sure you are saving the most every time.

Extensions like Fakespot can help you better evaluate the review ratings for products. Better quality and value will help you save money in the long run, when you won’t have to replace cheap or poorly made products.

Tips for Saving Money

In addition to being savvy about when and what to shop for, Fetch has gathered some specific tips on saving money at many of the most popular stores that parents turn to for their baby needs.

Saving at Target

As one of the largest retailers in the United States, parents know they can shop online and in-store at Target for just about everything that their baby needs. From formula and diapers, to clothing, toys, and so much more, Target is one of the best destinations for one-stop shopping. To save money at Target, parents can take advantage of a host of tips — like daily deals, price adjustments, coupon stacking, creating a registry, and even joining Target Circle. Check out Fetch’s complete list of how to save money at Target (and earn free gift cards!) here.

Saving at CVS

CVS stands for Consumer Value Store, and this popular convenience store certainly makes it easy to save money and even score free products for babies, with so many opportunities for discounts.

From doing something as simple as carrying CVS’s free ExtraCare card, to subscribing to the store’s super perked ExtraCare pass, or joining its specific Beauty and Health clubs. Smart shoppers will have more than a dozen ways to save some serious money while shopping for their baby. Don’t believe us? Read more about the best ways to save money at CVS.

Tips for Earning Rewards

No matter where you shop for your baby essentials, any parent looking to score the best deals and save the most money should be looking to earn points toward free gift cards through Fetch!

Baby Formula

Baby formula is the other baby necessity that parents are seeking to save money on during those crucial — and most expensive — first months. Even when baby formula isn’t in short supply, as it has been for the last year or so, it can be expensive to supply babies with the nutrients they need to grow and thrive.

Hacks for securing and saving on baby formula, like signing up for companies’ baby formula checks, looking to see if specialty formulas may be covered by health insurance plans, nabbing sample products from your pediatrician, and joining formula swap communities are just some of the tips offered by Fetch in a recent post on How to Find and Save on Baby Formula.

And in addition to offering tips and tricks for parents as they search for formula savings, Fetch often has Special Offers at stores that carry baby food and formula, like Safeway, Kroger, Winn Dixie, and Amazon — or even delivery apps like GoPuff.

GoodRx

And don’t worry as much about any pharmacy needs that your baby may incur. Smart parents can save money on prescriptions at participating pharmacies and earn Fetch points with GoodRx, the exclusive prescription savings provider for Fetch.

Fetch shoppers can find GoodRx prescription savings directly in the Fetch app while racking up rewards points that can be redeemed for free gift cards to hundreds of popular retailers and restaurants, or that can be donated to over 20 different charitable organizations.

Using Fetch to Have it All

Fetch earns you points on every shopping receipt. Unlike other reward apps, you don’t need to shop at specific places or buy special items to reap the benefit, but there are a few tricks to getting even more out of the app every time you shop.

Parents love Fetch because it’s free and they can redeem points almost instantly. Points awarded from a quick photo snap can be seen in your account within seconds. And there is no need to search for deals, rewards are easy to redeem on purchases on everything from grocery store trips with baby to gas station fill-ups and more.

Shop Fetch Special Offers

Fetch users earn points from every receipt, but don’t miss out on Special Offers, which can be thought of as “coupons” that have bonus points associated with them. Shoppers can find these Special Offers in the Fetch Discover Tab. Special offers generally reward you with hundreds or even thousands of bonus points.

Choose Partner Brands

By shopping Fetch’s preferred and partner brands, users uploading their receipts are seeing great returns as well as finding new products to try!

Fetch is constantly updating its list of featured brands and products that earn users extra points. Uploading receipts that contain sales of products from these brands will earn you rewards even faster. So be sure to check out the Brand Partner categories and choose to purchase those brands to earn additional bonus points, as these products can put even more cash back in your pocket in the form of free gift cards.

Limited Time Bonuses

Be sure to check the Fetch app regularly for limited-time offers. On the app’s Discover page, you can earn extra points by making a specific purchase, responding to a special offer as mentioned above, or completing a task.

Connect Your E-Mail

It doesn’t get much more convenient than snapping your receipts and uploading them in the app, but did you know that you can also securely connect your email account to automatically scan those eReceipts that are sent to your email address? It’s yet another easy way to add your receipts to your Fetch account, get your points, and earn free money. You can even connect your Amazon account for even more points!

Refer Friends

Don’t forget that you earn 2,000+ points when you refer a friend. So refer all of your friends, especially those parents that are also looking to save on the tons of expenses that come along when welcoming a new little one into their life.

Start Earning Points

Now that we know a lot more about the best baby shopping hacks, you can get started, earning free gift cards, by downloading the Fetch app. Click the buttons below or scan the QR code with your smart device to be transported to the app store.

Happy shopping and saving to all of our Fetch parents out there!

Topics: babies, Moms