Crib-hopping

We got a crib today. A little early, yes. But it relates to my strategy. Living off of one very humble salary while your husband is in school and living in a small apartment means you have to have a strategy for these baby items. It means no brand-new nursury decorated to the nines with all brand new items. Heck, we won't even have a nursery, just a crib in our bedroom with itty bitty walking space. I call them the "big 3"- a crib, stroller, and car seat. The must-haves. The most expensive items (other than the astronomical health bills :) I needed a strategy on how I could save some money. Time was on my side. The longer you have to look around for something, the better chance that you'll find a great deal and won't have to settle or buy something out of a sense of fear-urgency (never a good idea). I kept shopping around online and didn't want to spend over 200 for everything, but when you look at crib, mattress, and if you want a changing table, you're looking at 300-400 range. I found a nice, small crib on sale for half price that had great reviews. I ordered it for $150, even though it was a little early (great deal, I told myself).

When we got it, lo and behold it was missing all the hardware. So we had to arrange for it to be picked back up (because they wouldn't just send us the missing pieces)and a replacement sent. When we got the replacement on Friday, it was missing the same pieces! Ah! A sign? :) I looked on Craigslist today and found a sweet grandma selling a 2-year old crib WITH mattress and changing table for $50. No way! I hadn't seen anything that great for a while on Craigslist. Ben went and checked it out and the crib was great, no recalls, good condition, matched our furniture, though had some baby teeth marks and that gently-used feel. I can deal with that. So we returned the missing-pieces-crib and within 24 hours we had a nice used crib, mattress, and changing table. Yay! Now I just have to get used to the itty bitty strip of carpet in our room that you have to squeeze by to get around the bed :)

Not fully assembled, but you get the idea. Notice the bed corner in the lower left?

Now, if any of my new-mom readers have any great advice for baby stuff, share the love with the pregant woman.