The MomSpeak

My little sister had her first baby a few months ago. I flew across the country to visit her recently, and did all the things you do with a new mom: showed her how to put whiskey on the pacifier, locked her in the garage while he “cried it out,” encouraged her to give up breastfeeding because it was so inconvenient.

And on the second day, we went to The Great Big Baby Supply Store and spent too much money buying baby clothes at the retail price.

If there’s one lesson I taught her, it was to never buy clothing or other children’s supplies at the retail price. There’s no need. Not with all those sales, end of season clearances, coupons, giveaways, and discount codes out there!

Here are a few tips for finding great kids’ and babies’ stuff online:

1. Join Freecycle, where people just want to get rid of their stuff, so they’re happy to give it to you for free if you come to their homes and take the stuff away. I’ve cleaned out a lot of unwanted clutter that I had neither time nor energy to sell, plus I’ve scored useful things like gDiaper inserts and personalized stickers for a friend’s little girl.

2. Hang out on Craigslist, which, if you haven’t already checked it out, is Craig’s gift to parents. There’s a whole section for kids’ stuff on it, and you can specify your searches to the San Fernando Valley. If I’m looking for something in particular, I skulk around Craigslist until I find it at a good price, and then I haggle. Latest score: a Winnie-the-Pooh desk for my 3-year-old from a good home for $15. Right now there’s a Bugaboo stroller for $350, which is a steal if you’re into status-symbol baby gear.

3. Sign up for retailers’ email lists. It can be a drag if you sign up for too many, and your in-box will be filled with “bac’n” (new term for spam that you ask for). But if you tend to frequent a solid few, like I rely on The Children’s Place and Target, you’ll be surprised at the great coupons and alerts of sales they will send.

4. Join parenting message boards or email groups like Jen’s List. People hear about sales at specialty shops or sample sales and they will post them on these lists. It’s like having a friend in the retail industry.

5. Ebay. Need I say more than a $99 fancy diaper bag for $36?

6. If you must buy something from a website that didn’t give you a special offer or serve you up a great sale price, at the very least do a search for a coupon code or a free shipping code. Retailmenot.com lets you search for the website you are using, and lists coupon codes you can try.

7. Make The Bargain Hunter a daily read. Julia Scott posts random deals from all over the city and the web multiple times a day, and features money-saving tips and stories as well. Not one to take herself too seriously, she shares personal stories like that one time she had a yard sale, and political humor, too. But no trolls, please.