Can you prep freezer meals or components for easy meals ahead?
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You’re living in such a different time than 5 years ago when I did this and things like coffee shops were not on the table.
So I can’t help with predicting much but I can tell you that a couple times a week at 2am or 3am you will be browsing the things that can help get everyone sleep. That may be a sample pack of pacifiers, different kinds of swaddles, a more-instant bottle warmer, or something else. But I’d have at least some dollars mentally budgeted for “in this moment I think the purchase will make tomorrow easier”
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Right? I’m like “but of course you will be home, it is the only way”. And walks. But in 2026 there is a world of difference from 2020
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I don’t know how I’m doing frugally. I’m buying used and on sale. But I’m still buying. I too, have left Amazon. But i’m on Temu. The thing is…if I see something I want, I usually buy it. I think I need to do more thinking before hitting the “Buy Now” button!
I’m also menu planning from items in my pantry/freezers. So that’s saving there. Still, I go out for crackers and come back with two bags of groceries…about $70 CAD worth. So There’s still room for improvement.
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We should have help feeding ourselves the first few weeks. 
Beyond that I have better luck with picking up frozen dumplings and burritos than freezing anything homemade due to texture aversions. But I do have a repertoire of quick, easy, and fairly balanced meals I will eat anytime.
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I definitely expect some of those! But I don’t think I will impulse buy a new snoo, yanno 
@ElleP, a coffee and a Lil Treat is an almost 100% effective way to get me out of the house, haha. I want to wean myself but also think coffee or lunch will be a way to make myself go see humans instead of becoming a goblin 
A conundrum!
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Will it assuage some of the guilt to think of what you can gift on to others for free in the future after you’re done with it? We had our crib gifted to us and I was able to gift it on a few years later to a friend of a friend who was having financial difficulties and had a baby on the way.
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Haha the number of times I did mental math on the snoo at 3am (but I did ultimately resist!)
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The only thing to note here - even if you’ve met your deductible/OOP max, the baby won’t have met theirs 
Depending on how your insurance is set up, this may completely suck.
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No deductible platinum copay plan.
They might add a small one for next year but union got us one more year.
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Damn. I love this.
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Oh I’m definitely passing things down!! It’s more like, I recognize that lots of people who have kids younger don’t get offered all these hand me downs and have to figure it out in a tighter budget. But, I’ve also tried to get something for all my friends babies even in grad school. Because it’s stinking cute and babies are great. So I try to remind myself this is fun and exciting for people who love us 
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I was having trouble thinking of a thing that we wouldn’t include because of this rule. And honestly, for the most part it is any online shopping from multinationals unless there is no other reasonable choice (exception is 2g2g, but they are middlemen, not the thing). This is a from a standpoint of enormous time affluence, I know, but that friction really helps save money.
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I’ve had am Amazon account since 1999. Lol
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I’ve had an Amazon account for a very long time as well. After all, I was online in '93. But Amazon of back then (with a good list of cheap books) is not Amazon today at all.
Similarly Google of before is not Google of today.
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I feel like the big thing that has changed since 2000 is take out food, more than shopping, though. That has really surprised me.
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It sounds like you (Galliver) are more prepared than I was for my baby, but I made a TON of purchases to the evil empire back in the early days. In the land of sleep deprivation, money seems totally fake.
ETA for baby stuff lol
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We decided that although DH is working, because we’re also collecting retirement, that we will live on the retirement only, so that we’re used to the adjustment. Also gives us the bulk of the income to put into retirement, so a double win!
To that end, I have been actually using up the leftover foods, both of us have. We still do toss food, 100% too much (any is too much) but much, much less than in times past.
I do spent $ on groceries, but I am NOT buying frozen prefab stuff hardly at all, I never got into buying precut/sliced/grated foods, but… and we’re not going out as much.
We were 1 hour + away tonight and decided we’d eat out. Found a nice bakery, had fruit juice, flat bread and a cookie. Cost < $30, which these days is not bad for good food.
Anyway, no leftovers for us tonight, but when we make bread dough tomorrow, we’re set to use up the 1/3 can of pizza sauce, had been frozen, and the next block of frozen mozzarella.
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We made our budget based on dh’s pension only, because he wasn’t supposed to get social security. But then they changed the law and he does get social security, plus I now get more because you get something as a spouse.
We have that plunked right into a separate account and it can just stay there for whatever. It’s not part of our budget at all, because I don’t trust them not to change the law again.
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I don’t trust them either, but in the meantime, our other retirement is just inadequate. DH worked in Tech, for 6 firms. Three of them went under or were acquired by other companies. It seems every time that happens, your retirement is suddenly worth less than it was. The bookstore was supposed to offset the retirement patchwork, but it nearly ate the entire thing (thank you Amazon!).
In years past, retired bookstore owners could take the end of their stock and sell it off their porch. Our plan was to make grocery money with the remaining books/antiques. It hasn’t worked that way.
So, we’re banking most of the paycheck and living on SS.
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