The MomSpeak

Frugal is not the first adjective you might use to describe me. I don’t wash out my Ziploc bags or eyeball the roll of toilet paper to determine if anyone in the family is using more than his or her fair share. (Seriously, I once heard about someone who did that. A little scared here.)

I am also the world’s worst coupon clipper. Scratch that, I’m an excellent coupon clipper; I’m a terrible clipped coupon user as the stacks of yellowing, curled coupons from 2003 in my kitchen drawers will tell you.

That said, I’m not a money waster either. If there’s a bargain to be had, without compromising quality, I’m all over it like Mary-Kate on muumuus. And presumably there are other mamas like me out there, not-so-frugal parents who are looking for ways to cut down on expenses and get a little more out of our American dollars.

Behold the following tips that even fancy people can embrace:

*Do not ever walk away from a cosmetics counter without asking for the freebies. Kiel’s travel packs of baby shampoo? Free! Chanel No 5? Free!

*If fashion is your bag, subscribe to sites like Gilt Groupe which gives you access to limited time online sample sales. They just launched their children’s sales last week with designers labels like Lucy Sykes at up to70% off.

*Hit stores at the middle to the end of the season when everything is on crazy super sale and buy clothes for your kids in next year’s sizes. Not only will you save a whole heck of a lot of cash, but it’s awesome to open a bottom drawer ten months from now and find all those adorable new clothes you had forgotten about.

*Hand-me downs. Oh yes.

*Hit Craig’s List before you buy any big ticket gear for your kids. It’s amazing how many fickle mamas are offering brand new in-the-box items, or shower gifts they couldn’t return for some reason.

*etsy.com is a shopper’s dream and an utterly fantastic resource for new baby gifts. You’ll find plenty of boutique-quality clothes from artists that come lovingly wrapped and beautifully presented. And generally, far less than what you’d spend in a department store. Plus a lot of the artists will do custom orders for you so you can get a personalized onesie or that orange appliquéd giraffe hat that you just couldn’t find anywhere.

*Before you buy anything at all online, do a search for discount codes. It’s a bummer to pay full price for something you could have gotten for 20% off plus free shipping.

*One place not to cheap out: Your baby’s first pair of walking shoes. Spending 30% more for something that lasts beats spending 100% more because the first pair wore down in two weeks. Not that I’d know about such things.