Stocking up on diapers while you are pregnant is a good idea for a number of reasons. When you have a newborn, making trips to the store is a little more work than it used to be, so anything you can do to eliminate these trips is a plus. When you don’t have an immediate need for diapers, you can wait around for the best sales and buy in bulk at rock bottom prices. You won’t have that luxury once you have the baby and all you have left is what’s still packed in the diaper bag.
(Now, if you are planning on using cloth diapers, then all you have to do is log on and click away. Many cloth diapers come in designs that allow them to fit multiple sizes. If you can find a good deal, grab it and build your cloth diaper collection at will. This blog probably won’t help you that much.)
Try to cut diaper costs by offering an incentive to shower guests to bring diapers and wipes along with your gift. At one of my baby showers, anyone who brought a package of diapers or wipes was entered to win a door prize. The result? I did not have to buy diapers until my son was about four months old. It was great!
Begin collecting coupons and hunt for good deals on diapers. Occasionally diapers will go on sale, and if you can combine a manufacturer coupon with one of these sales, you can get a really good deal. You can also sign up for a rewards program like the one at Babies R Us, which will give you a free value box of diapers after you purchase 9. It’s essentially the same as getting 10% off each box.
Some stores will let you exchange unopened packages of diapers for a different size, even if you don’t have a receipt. If you are shopping at one of these stores, don’t worry too much about which sizes you are buying, since you can just swap them later. If not, it’s good to try and build up your supply evenly. I wouldn’t buy more than one package of Newborns, since the size overlaps quite a bit with size 1 and your baby will probably be in size 1 for at least a few weeks. Stock up more on size 2 and 3, since it’s most likely your baby will spend the most time in these sizes. Newborns can easily burn through 12 diapers a day, while an older baby may only go through 4 or 5. Take this into consideration when calculating how many boxes or packages of each size you are planning to buy.
Finally, find a dry and accessible place to store all of your diapers and organize them by size for quick retrieval.