Bed Time Essentials for Baby on a Budget

This post was sponsored by Walmart Baby as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own

For something that comes in such a little package, babies sure can be expensive. The good news is, there are lots of ways to save money on baby essentials. Today we are looking at some of our favorite products that help make your bed time routine a peaceful experience for everyone without breaking the budget.

How to Shop for Baby on a Budget

I’m a mom of 6, so anytime I can save some money on baby items, I’m all for that. I look for a few things when I’m shopping:

• Can the baby item be used for multiple uses? I don’t keep too many one hit wonders around my house. Too much clutter and I hate wasting money on things that only have one use.
• Is the quality good enough that it can make it through multiple kids? If you have more than one child, you know that reusing baby items whenever you can is a great way to save some money. I had 3 boys in a row then 3 girls in a row. I couldn’t have planned it better if I had tried as far as sharing baby gear goes. I made a point to buy higher quality items that I knew could be used for younger siblings. With my younger kids, I could get away with only buying a few fun baby items that were on my wish list.
• Is the baby item a good value? There’s usually a more affordable option for just about everything out there. Sometimes it makes sense to go with the top of the line if you’ll be using it for multiple kids or it is something you don’t want to substitute anything else for. Most of the time, there’s a more affordable option that is very similar to the more expensive choices. I love that my local Walmart has so many great baby items at a fraction of the cost that I find anywhere else. They have a great selection of quality, on-trend baby items that I know won’t break my budget.

Bedtime Essentials for Baby

When it comes to creating a peaceful bedtime routine, I stick to the basics. Our routine consists of bath, brush teeth, story, bed.

It’s tried and true for us.

Walmart is our go-to for baby essentials. They are refreshing the look and feel of the baby department in over 600 stores this year. They are making it easy to find everything you need in one place. They are prefect for stocking up on some of the things you need for a great bedtime routine.

You can find everything from the perfect bath toy to a great car seat. They even carry the new, exclusive Evenflo SensorSafe™ Titan® Convertible Car Seat that was built with technology aimed at preventing child vehicular heatstroke, as well as alerting a driver when a toddler has unfastened their chest clip. What a great tool to help keep baby safe!

Here are a few of the things I like to have on hand for our bedtime routine:

• Bath toys. You have a lot of choices when it comes to bath toys. I’ve found a lot of them are hard to clean so they end up with mildew buildup and those get thrown away at my house, which is a waste of money. To keep my budget on track, I look for bath toys that don’t have small crevices water can get stuck in and cause mildew growth. I definitely avoid anything that requires batteries (and a surprising number of bath toys do). Walmart had a great selection of bath toys I knew my kids would love, including some cute foam letters/numbers and some great little containers for scooping water.
• Baby wash. Babies play hard so you definitely want to make sure they get clean at the end of the day. This is one area where I splurge a bit so I know I’m getting something that will be gentle on my baby’s skin. Walmart had a huge selection of baby wash and I loved that even the higher end brands were cheaper than I’ve seen them other places.
• A container to pour water. It can be tricky to find a way to rinse shampoo out of baby’s hair without getting water in their eyes. My babies have always hated that process so I’ve tried to be as gentle as I can while rinsing their hair. I found a great little container at Walmart that has a flexible edge to keep water out of baby’s eyes that has made our bath time so much easier.
• Lotion. Babies have sensitive skin so I like to follow bath time up by rubbing lotion on their skin. Just like baby wash, I look for something gentle. You’ll have to play around with different brands to find out what works on your baby’s skin.

For after bathtime, I make sure and have clean diapers, a nice soft blanky, and anything else that I need to make sure baby is nice and snuggly. I love the aden + anais swaddle blankets so I was thrilled to find that they make a more affordable version just for Walmart. It is packaged under the idealBaby line and is the perfect way to stretch your budget.

Not sure what to buy?

There’s a lot of trial and error as a parent. Walmart has a great service called Walmart Baby Boxes that delivers free stage-relevant product samples of items sold at your local Walmart and Walmart.com to ease transitions all the way to your baby’s first steps and let you focus on their development. What a great way to try out some new products! Sign up here.