One of the number one questions I get asked is about my diaper stockpile. For those of you who don’t know, I purchased all of the diapers and wipes for my son for the first year, before he was born. My budget was $100, so obviously we had to have all of our coupons ready to hit big deals when they happened. He is about to turn two, and I still have wipes left, and I didn’t need diapers until 18 months, so my goal of 100 packs of diapers and 100 packs of wipes might have been a little excessive. However, our final total for all 100 diapers and wipes ended up as a $21 MONEY MAKER when all was said and done; a bit below the original budget I’d say!
Depending on where you are in learning to coupon, you will be able to get better deals than if you are brand new. Make sure that your expectations are realistic; the last thing you want is to get burned out because you try to do too much, too early. I recommend paying $3 per umbo pack of Luvs/Generic brand, $4 per jumbo pack of Huggies, or $5 per jumbo pack of Pampers. If you can get deals lower than these prices, they are great for stocking up. I am not particular on the brand, so I wait until they are $0.99 or less per pack to stock up on anything now. Because I was shopping before the baby came, I had the luxury of waiting until the sale hit; keep your deadlines in mind (if you have two packs of diapers left, you will pay more than if you have 6 months stocked up because you are able to wait for a better deal). Here are the basics for what you need to look for in order to get your stockpile going.
- Have a goal. I would recommend having a goal of how many packs of diapers and wipes you are looking to obtain, and how much you are able to pay for them so that you will know how many coupons you need to keep on hand. I would have all of my friends and family save coupons for me, and when printables become available, you can print two PER DEVICE, so you can get them from everywhere to have ready for a sale. As my goal was 100 packs each of diapers and wipes, I created a chart to keep track of my spending and how many I had, and I estimated the number of each size I would need. I recommend mostly purchasing size 3/4. 2 I used a few packs, 1 a dozen or so. We took a bunch of newborn from the hospital and purchased only 2 packs in that size. 3/4 has been our son’s size for the last year, but obviously all babies are different. Here’s the chart I filled in over 6 months of shopping:
- Take advantage of as many freebies as you can get. One of my favorites is baby registry bags. You can get these at several locations, but my favorites are through Buy Buy Baby (the BEST one in my opinion), Babies R Us, Target, and Amazon ($35 Welcome Box!). Sign up for a registry for each of these 4, and then show up at the store and pickup your freebie. At Target you can get a registry bag at each of the stores in your area, so I was able to get a couple. Each of the registry bags will have coupons, travel wipes, coupons, bottles, and more. The Amazon Welcome Box let’s you make a $10 purchase and get a $35 welcome box freebie (ours included the BEST swaddling blanket we have too!). While we are talking about Amazon, you need to make sure that you take advantage of the Amazon Family benefits. Amazon Family membership is free with Prime membership, and gives you 20% off diapers and wipes, on top of other sales and coupon. This can be a HUGE money saver when prices stack!
- The next best thing to do is to coupon. Drugstores, by far, are the BEST place to get diaper deals. There are also some good deals at grocery stores; I picked up a ton with the Ralphs/Kroger double dipping baby promotions. The main thing that you are looking for is multiple stacking offers. For example, Huggies will offer a $10 catalina (coupon good off of your next purchase) when you purchase $25 in Huggies products. Rite Aid (as an example) will offer $10 back when you purchase $25 in baby products. Throw in a few coupons, and you will end up getting them free or super cheap, since the offers stack on the same items. I also took advantage of many cash back apps (namely Ibotta) to get money back on my purchase. The great thing about the cash back apps is that you also get bonuses for redeeming rebates, so the more rebates you complete, the more free bonus money you get back, which helps to offset the overall cost of your stockpile. You can check out all of the deals running on baby products on the baby category on the blog HERE, which includes everything from cheap diapers to free baby samples and more. This was one of my favorite posts in the last few months, and is when I started purchasing diapers again (after 18 months of no spending!):
- Another big one for us was free offers. Similar to the registry bags deal, there are some companies that will give you a free pack of diapers (or free pack of formula, free wipes, etc) just for trying out their company. TopCashback for example has had an offer for new members every few months for a free pack of diapers. My husband and myself, as well as my mom and dad, all signed up during one of these promotions, so we paid the $10 (or so) for free diapers, and then got back the $10 from TopCashback, making them totally free! You can check out the current TopCashback new user deal HERE, and get one for every member in your family, meaning you can get a few for FREE. There is also the offer for free Diapers + Wipes + Travel Set + Wellness samples that will let you get a set of everything for the cost of shipping, which is a great cheap way to get some of the extras as well.
- The last thing that I would recommend would be a diaper raffle at your baby shower. This helped us with about 15 packs of diapers, and I gave away a gift basket of Starbucks deliciousness (retail $40) that I paid under $5 for with the use of coupons. Diaper raffles are a super easy way to get people to help with the cost of diapers, and you can make the prize a great item that is super cheap for you, but expensive for a non-couponer. I added these to each of my shower invites, and it cost two sheets of printed paper to setup 🙂
Keep in mind that I put together this stockpile one.deal.at.a.time, and it takes patience and hunting to get it done. Some days you can get one pack for super cheap, and others you can get a couple dozen; over time you will get better and better deals, so you can build up your stockpile as big as you want it on the cheap!
What are some ways that you use to get cheap diapers???
