One way to save is to use registry completion discounts from stores like Target, Amazon and Pottery Barn.

middle-aged mother with glasses and a sleeping newborn fills out tax forms, financial reports at a table at home with a laptop and smartphone

One way to save is by hunting for deals and discounts from your favorite retailers. Keep an eye out for holiday sales and baby-specific promotions.

Purchase gently used baby clothes, toys and furniture but prioritize buying new safety-critical items like car seats and cribs.
Consider buying diapers in bulk at warehouse clubs, choosing store-brand diapers or using reusable cloth diapers.
Look for sales, refurbished items, exclusive deals and coupons.
Use apps like Fetch or Coupon Cabin to earn cash back on baby-related purchases.

When you find out a baby is on the way, it can be exciting but also a bit overwhelming – especially as you realize all the items you'll need to buy. From diapers and strollers to cribs and toys, the overall cost can quickly get into the thousands.

But there are ways to keep your costs down without sacrificing quality or safety. Here's a look at five strategies that can help you get everything you need for your little one while sticking to a budget.

1. Use a Registry Completion Discount

Registering for baby items allows friends and family to help you stock up on everything you need for a new baby. However, you may still be left with key items on your list when the dust settles.

That's where a registry completion discount can come in handy.

"One of the least talked about money-saving tips is to utilize your baby registry completion discount. Many – but not all – retailers offer parents-to-be a coupon to use towards items on their registry," Leah Rocketto, the associate commerce director at the website What to Expect, said in an email.

Target, for example, offers expecting parents a coupon for 15% off everything left in their registry and anything they'd like to add. You can get the coupon eight weeks before your expected due date and it will be valid for six months.

Other popular stores with registry completion discounts include:

Amazon: 15% discount, valid 60 days before your predicted arrival date and 90 days after.
Pottery Barn: 15% discount, valid 60 days before your predicted arrival date and 180 days after.
Crate & Kids: 15% discount, six months after your event date.

"Even though you can only use the discount for items on your baby registry, you don’t have to limit yourself to baby items. Between hand-me-downs and shower gifts, I didn’t need a ton of baby gear," Rocketto said.

Instead, she added household items like paper plates to eliminate dishwashing and a robot vacuum to handle light cleaning, along with diapers in various sizes.

2. Plan for Diaper Needs

One thing you can count on with a new baby is plenty of diaper changes. Pampers estimates that newborns use about 10 diapers per day and stay in newborn-sized diapers for around 1.6 months. If you're going the disposable diaper route, that means you'll need about 480 newborn diapers – and that's before your baby graduates to the next size.

At Target, Pampers newborn diaper packs of 31 cost $9.99 each at the time of this writing, so you'd end up spending an estimated $155 for 480.

You may be able to cut your costs down, however, by shopping at warehouse clubs like Costco and Sam's Club, where you can buy in bulk at a lower per-diaper cost.

Opting for a less popular brand, such as a store brand, can also bring the cost down. And, while a bit more work, you can consider cloth diapers that you clean and reuse.

3. Shop Gently Used Baby Items

Secondhand baby gear is becoming a popular way for new parents to save money.

A survey conducted by What to Expect found that 66% of new or expecting moms buy secondhand baby gear, with the trend particularly prevalent among Gen Z at 76%, compared to 63% of millennials and 55% of Gen X.

Rocketto explained that low-risk items like gently used clothes, toys, changing tables and gliders can be great to grab secondhand.

"Just make sure the toy or product was manufactured fairly recently so it is up to modern quality standards, and conduct a quick search online to check the CPSC recalls list," she said.

But some items are better bought new for safety reasons, like cribs, mattresses, breast pumps, bottles, pacifiers, high chairs and car seats.

"The American Academy of Pediatrics advises against used car seats because they could be expired, missing parts or have been damaged in an accident," Rocketto said.

As for where to look, you can find gently used items at thrift stores and yard sales, on Facebook Marketplace and at consignment stores or events.

Christopher Mannino, a father of two and parenting author, says the No. 1 thing that helped him save money on baby products was finding local consignment sales.

"They are enormous, and if you shop on the last day of the multiday event, everything is reduced in price even further. Clothing, toys and countless other baby necessities are lightly used but in perfect condition, often for just a few dollars per product. It is by far the best way to save," Mannino said in an email.

4. Look for Deals and Discounts

Another way to save is by hunting for deals and discounts from your favorite retailers. Keep an eye out for holiday sales, end-of-season clearances and baby-specific promotions. Rocketto recommended signing up for newsletters so the promotions and coupons come right to your inbox.

You can also look for refurbished and open-box baby goods, which can offer serious savings without sacrificing quality.

"Sites like Goodbuygear.com sell open box brand-name baby goods like the Baby Bjorn Bouncer chair for 26% off," Andrea Woroch, a mother and consumer budgeting expert, said in an email.

5. Use Cash Back Portals and Discount Apps

Cash back and discount apps can also help you decrease the net amount you spend on baby items.

"Make some money back on all that you're buying for your newest bundle of joy by shopping through a cash back portal like Coupon Cabin, which offers up to 25% cash back for thousands of popular sites, including baby-specific brands," Woroch said.

She explained you can browse a page dedicated to deals and cash-back offers for baby goods to help you find savings quickly, citing deals like 1.5% cash back at Baby Jogger and 7.5% back at Carter's.

If you'd prefer to shop with retailers and get cash back after the fact, you can look into the Fetch app. Woroch explained it lets you submit pictures of your purchase receipts to earn points. You can then use those points toward gift cards for a variety of stores that sell baby goods like Target and Amazon.

Welcoming a new addition to the family is exciting, and a little planning can go a long way in making it easier on your wallet. Hopefully, these tips help to make the transition a bit easier.

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How to Save Money on Purchases for a Newborn