Baby Things Cost Vent

[NYKate]

My Mother-in-law purchased two Avent pacifiers for $100 pesos over the weekend for our baby. After checking on babies-r-us for prices of things for my sister (who lives in TX) I found the EXACT SAME pacifiers for $5.99!! It is so FRUSTRATING how expensive baby things are here! My mother is coming in 3 weeks and I might ask her to bring some things with her.

Anyone find any good deals here on baby things? I have checked out Mercado Libre however I am a bit wary of buying baby things from merchants there.

 

[cbonanni]

100 pesos each ? or for both ? At 7.10 per dollar that's , say 14 bucks ? Vs. 11 , plus shipping. Seems OK. Unless you earn in pesos.

Have Mom pack an extra bag full of baby stuff. That's what family is for !!

Congratulations on your baby !!

just wait till they , do school trips , school uniforms , need cars, go to University , etc..... enjoy them while they are cheap.

 

[nikad]

If you buy imports you will pay crazy prices here. There are local brands, but quality is different. We got my MIL to bring stuff a couple of times and last time we traveled we brought a tons of things. That is the way to go.

 

[Jed]

I know you dont want to hear this but the U.S. is king pin with baby clothes/toys/stuff prices. The good news is that baby loot takes up so little space you can likely ask a favor of a friend of a friend and not feel too guilty about it. On the other hand I justified a trip back to the US just to completely stock up for 2 years worth of baby stuff.

 

[dennisr]

Baby Clothes. Friend of a friend in AR had a baby and in one of my weaker moments bought a bunch of baby clothes at the Goodwill for them. Think I spent all of $25.00 for a bag full of clothes. When I gave the clothes to the family, they thought I was some kind of millionaire. Use one of those space bags to reduce the space they will take up in the luggage. Plus, customs does not have a clue what is in the bag.

 

[Vagrant Violet]

NYKate- I totally feel your pain! I'm about to return to Argentina after spending some time in the States up here (will respond to your last PM soon, BTW! )

My mom basically had to keep me on a leash from buying everything, because I am incapable of identifying a decent price vs. "overpaying" for an "inferior brand" anymore. I felt like I had landed on another planet (a colorful planet with such elaborate and crazy choices to be made, oh my!).... If I have a CHOICE between two (or maybe even more) types of the same product, OMG - Sensory overload! Totally overwhelmed (yes, very sad inded). I was ready to pull them both off the shelves and check if they had any others as a back up in stock ("just in case"). Yeah, I think i've become Argentinized, the condition has permanently altered my brain and sense of reality!

As you know, I'm also pregnant. If someone had told me that I would treat a trip to Walmart or Target (or *holy hell!* Sam's Club/Costco) like a shopping spree at Disney for a kid, I wouldn't have believed them. They say the first step in a recovery process for any condition or vice is admitting that there's a problem. I'm ready to admit that- My mom was almost screaming at me to finally leave Walmart, probably because dragging her visibly pregnant daughter out of there by her hair would have been frowned upon!

On the upside, there is one thing to think about and really appreciate: What you save in baby "stuff," you'll more than make up for for standard prenatal care even with an insurance plan. Earlier this vacation I was eating a bag of Swedish Fish candy (a sticky and chewy, supersweet vice). Somehow i managed to pull off one of my crowns from a previous root canal! Thankfully, it was the entire thing, nothing chipped off. My mom took me to her dentist. He literally had to reapply cement and apply pressure in my mouth for two full minutes and told me not to eat/drink for awhile (and NO SWEDISH FISH!). Since I do not have insurance while I'm visiting here, his hard 120 seconds of complicated dental care cost me (well, my mom, really) $210. DOLLARS.

I think I've made my point!

 

[citygirl]

Sadly no on the good deals to be found here for baby stuff. Any chance you can go to the US to do some shopping? I'm heading there next week to stock up on everything.

How do you feel about used things? I know some people have had lots of luck stocking up on moving sales.

 

[NYKate]

100 pesos each ? or for both ? At 7.10 per dollar that's , say 14 bucks ? Vs. 11 , plus shipping. Seems OK. Unless you earn in pesos.

Have Mom pack an extra bag full of baby stuff. That's what family is for !!

Congratulations on your baby !!

just wait till they , do school trips , school uniforms , need cars, go to University , etc..... enjoy them while they are cheap.

She paid $100 pesos for both, no shipping, they sell Avent here.
Thanks so much! I will def. ask her to bring things.
We looked at the costs associated with going to private school here and are sick over it.

 

[NYKate]

Sadly no on the good deals to be found here for baby stuff. Any chance you can go to the US to do some shopping? I'm heading there next week to stock up on everything.

How do you feel about used things? I know some people have had lots of luck stocking up on moving sales.

Oh i wish I could go back to the US for shopping!! I was nuts when I went in July - crazy woman running around Target. I think I was there everyday!!
I am totally fine with used and our family and some friends indicated they would give us their high chair and a few other things however, after prodding my husband to ask what they have and want to give us, we have yet to hear anything back from them. I am at 6 months now and, even though I have some time, would like to know what I need to buy and what we will be getting from them. (Also so that I can stop my MIL from going crazy and buying all sorts of things that we do not need and do not want her to spend money on)

Enjoy your vacation and shopping!!!

 

[syngirl]

We looked at the costs associated with going to private school here and are sick over it.

Whoa!! Really??? From your name I can only assume you are from New York -- school here is a BARGAIN compared to NYC. Friends of mine there are planning to move back to Vancouver by the time theirs is ready for preshool because the prices are through the roof (let's say, starting around about 15,000USD for a "decent" preschool relatively close to work / home). Here, yes, there's Lincoln (ridiculous), St Johns, Northlands etc but there are also a lot of very good quality schools that are much more reasonably priced, and don't even come anywhere near what you'd pay in New York. If you think here is ridiculously priced for private school, have a browse through some of the mummy blogs from Manhattan/Brooklyn and suddenly you'll realise you are in for a huge discount.

There are a tonne of options here for schooling, and you don't have to go jut for the top ranked ones -- and often you don't want to because frankly those children are being raised in a bubble. And look beyond what sorts of grounds they have as well, because it can be a lot cheaper to do activities off campus rather than on. And really it is not necessary for your child to be a lifer at one particular school -- I know a lot of people are into that here, but really if you think you want your child to go back to the USA for university the most important years will be high school.

If my sister-in-law can afford to send her daughter to Canada School on her salary and only gets a measly 800 pesos a month from the father, private schools are not as shockingly priced as you believe.