I took advantage of a lot of baby freebie offers this summer and wanted to share the bounty of sources for free diapers and bottles. Free stuff is always nice. The complete extensive list with lots of photos is on my baby blog, but that's too long for 1 post so I shared the best ones here. Edited/Updated August 5th
We got pregnant in January 2015, announced both the baby and *his* gender in May 2015, and I began really keeping track of all the cool free baby stuff in June 2015. I update it periodically, but what I find most irritating about free baby stuff blogs is that some of them are from YEARS ago, and some of them are super cool but only available in Canada (or other countries, but mostly Canada) so with this blog you know, it's from
Baby freebies- both convenient, and kind of fun. This was a baby thing we got to do before we told everyone our little secret. It was a fun bonding experience for me and hubby (trust me, when you get to the toy section, he'll have fun)
I immediately threw away miscellaneous flyers and any coupons that will expire early. There are multiples of pretty much every coupon. This is: 1 lowgrade multipurpose bag, 3 baby bottles (i actually got a 4th when amazon brought back their welcome box), 2 pacifiers (3 actually), a tub of enfamil formula, 2 pampers samples in pouches, 1 travel pack of seventh generation wipes, 2 lasinoh sample sets (1 is combined in a pouch and 1 is 2 separate samples), 2 hospital gift bag certificates, 2 safety latches, a baby sling, a magnetic frame, samples of: medela x3, desitin, booger wipes, gripe water, laundry detergent, babyganics, belli cream, bio oil, buttpaste x3, and a minitube of healing balm Coupons (that i kept): $5 Rebate on forehead thermometer, JCPenney Portraits x4, Golden Girls Baby Announcements, carters, Oshkosh, disney, buy buy baby, Shutterfly, Target (whole book including $1 off a starbucks drink) |
You are probably going to make at least 1 registry, but if you weren't, I think you should know- ALL the major baby stores offer a free goody bag when you register, and there is some cool stuff in those goody bags. For the most part, you CAN do your registry online and just go pick up the giftbags, but both my husband and myself thought wandering the store with the little scanner gun was actually really fun. ALL the registries include a "completion discount" which is basically a big one time discount of 10%-20% on any (or all) of the items remaining on your registry around the due date, so adding items you want to a registry is economical in the sense that you're guaranteed a discount if no one purchases it for you. I've included pictures of what was in my goody bags circa Spring 2015. They differ a little bit from store to store and year to year, but in general yours will be very similar. Almost everything in the photo above is from Registry GiftBags
Walmart 2nd Trimester Box Summer 2015: Has Baby Bee samples, a nivea sample, my 3rd pamper sample, aquaphor sample, and coupons for gerber, avent, and beechnut. It also had flyers for lasinoh and munchkin but no associated promos. |
This box contained an Avent Bottle, a MAM Pacifier, a (big) pack of Amazon Elements Sensitive Wipes, a Happy Baby Food Pouch, a 4 pack of single serve Enfamil Supplemental Formula, Breastpads Sample, Sample Babyganics Lotion, Sample Burt's Bees Renewal, and an Amazon Cloud Drive for unlimited photo storage. The registry "completion discount" is 15% for Amazon moms and 10% for non-membership Check out Hip2Save for weekly amazon discount roundups for more saving |
I didn't bother figuring out which samples were in here, but i know there was a sample of buttpaste, mustela, and lots of other tiny randoms with coupons. There is usually one " cool item" like a bottle or a pacifier. |
There are some very cool freebies by mail and while i did not really take advantage of formula ones i did use quite a few of the others. Most of these were just webforms where you fill out your information, and i tried to group similar samples together.
Mr. Yuk stickers. We had these in my house growing up so i just take for granted everyone knows what they are. They are provided by poison control for you to put on potential poisons in your house- mainly all those cleaners you keep under your kitchen sink. They are NOT meant to replace safety latches, but as your kid grows (or you forget to put something away!) this is an image they can understand relatively early. YUK!!! bad! don't eat it! |
Bambo |
"Hi, my name is Samantha we're expecting our FIRST baby in October! We're a bit overwhelmed by all the options for everything baby! Does your company offer product samples for comparison? Thank you so much for your reply! (signed with name and address)"
*Below i am only posting the "Yes" responses and what was offered:
Deals- There are a couple sites I visit weekly for deals. Sometimes the stuff they put up is free, sometimes it's just a really great deal.
*Every bag you get has coupon cards for leggings, breastpads, uddercovers, nursing pillows, carseat canopies, sevenslings, bellybuttonband, etc. My general opinion is they aren't worth the shipping and handling (which is usually around $15 though some of the smaller things have $7 shipping). The bellybuttonband is sucky, I haven't seen a good review of it by any mom so don't bother. Hip2save or BD4M codes usually work, but there are others if they don't.
Re: All the Free Baby Stuff
@przemosbabe, you can get samples from Seventh Generation and The Honest Company by going directly to their websites.
yes, they should just give it to you when you go to the store. If they haven't, you can always ask. "I saw online that you do a registry giftbag. I never got one- do you not do that here?"
For the rest, I didn't include anything that makes you jump through hoops or click a million screens or has a participation asterisk because I think they're all annoying. I also didn't include the "just pay shipping" slings/nursing covers/pillows etc that you've seen codes for everywhere. The list is a little more extensive on my blog, but these are the best ones
IMO, the nursing cover is worth the shipping, but not necessarily better than ones you could buy in store. I like that the one I have has boning material in the top so it stands out and gives baby some air and you the chance too look down at baby. Not all covers have that feature.
I liked the carseat canopy when I had my son, enough that I ordered a new one for my daughter. But a friend who ordered the whole car seat cover you can get to match said its not worth it.
The belly button band was a disappointment. I couldn't figure out exactly how to use it, and one of them is still in its package unused. Not worth the shipping.
Walmart is sort of a subscription box in that they send one every 3 months and you have to pay $5 shipping on each one. I did link it, but it's https://babybox.Walmart.com