Bargainista and friends’ holiday wish list

Behind the scenes a team of us have been busy discussing ways we can improve Bargainista in 2011, especially returning to more frequent blog posts. Have you noticed we’ve been having a busy December? We’d like to kick things off by asking some regular contributors and friends of Bargainista to share one gift she wants most this season. As for me, Hanukkah is over and I’m not expecting any gifts unless I buy them for myself but I’m going to play along.

Eden Spodek
Yes, you already know I’m a bit of an Apple fan girl and not having an iPad – touted one of the biggest game changers not only in 2010 but for years to come – seems peculiar to many of my friends and family. But money doesn’t grow on trees and you can’t have everything. I love jewelry and other pretty things but I’m also practical and a bit of a geek so yes, if I was writing a letter to Santa, an iPad would be top of my list. If you’re wondering which app I’d download first, that’s easy: Flipboard, hands down!

Rebecca Atkinson
Living in New Brunswick, I really thought that in December my biggest concerns would be snow, but apparently Mother Nature has other plans this year. With seven inches of rain falling in 24 hours (yes seven inches), the one thing I really want for Christmas this year is rather low-tech. All I want is a good raincoat. Having to walk a dog, batten the hatches during rainstorms and run to and from the car to daycare or the house – makes one see umbrellas and down-filled jackets just aren’t quite cut out for that kind of task or weather. Since we are dealing with a flooded basement, I know I won't be spending this kind of money for an occasional rain jacket anytime soon, so if the Hydroil 3 from Mountain Equipment Co-op ended up under my tree, I’d be pretty happy. Plus it comes in all kinds of fun non-yellow colours.

Jenny Bullough
I am an ebook addict. I never go anywhere without either my Kindle, my Kobo, or my Sony – sometimes all three in case the battery fails! Oh, and I also have an iPad, which does other things although I primarily use it for reading books. While I am fully on board the ebook technology train, so help me I still like the feeling of opening a cover on something rather than just picking up a tablet, and my devices need protection from the sticky, curious fingers of my 2-year-old; so Incase Convertible Book Jacket for iPad is right up my alley!

Connie Crosby
It’s a little crazy, but the thing I want the most for Christmas is a Kobo wifi ereader from Chapters•Indigo (in mauve, please!). I am feeling a bit spoiled already because I am reading ebooks on the Kobo app with my iPad which was also a gift, but I have a vacation in the sun coming up in the new year and we all know you can't read the iPad screen in the sun. I use my iPad already a lot in my work, and I like the idea of having a separate device for vacation to make it easy to carry a selection of guilty pleasure reads. Plus, since I fell in love with ebooks, I have already spent money on a number which I hope to share them friends and family. What better way than to just lend out my Kobo?

Kathryn Lagden
All I want for Christmas is an Electrolux 36" Dual-Fuel Free Standing Range. Look at the SIX burners on this baby! With one of these ensconced in my kitchen I could make a roast, boil two pots of veggies, make a gravy, simmer apples for my toddler, fry up some potatoes, and have room to spare in case a friend dropped in and I needed to heat up milk for hot chocolate. OK, perhaps a slight exaggeration, but my current stove is so old that it does not have a light in the oven and regardless of where I put the dial it only really has two settings that – on and off. In fact, when a part broke I had to call four repair companies to find someone who had even heard of it!

So I would be delighted to find this shiny new beauty under the tree on Christmas morning. Although, to be honest, finding it already installed in the kitchen would earn Santa a double serving of shortbread and milk!

Michelle Tampoya

What I want for Christmas? A pair of Frye boots – in particular, the Veronica Slouch boots in dark brown size 8! Pre-baby and pre-mortgage days, I would of had this in an instant. But the days of throwing down green for yet another pair of brown boots just isn’t within financial scope. Although, I could argue that all of my brown boots have heels making is particularly difficult to walk during 3 degree weather when ice may be possible. I could also argue that I can’t really “dress-down” my current brown boots, meaning that I don’t make good use of my casual brown jackets. Come to think of it, there are more reasons why I should have the boots than not...hmmm.

What’s on your holiday wish list this year?

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Traveling with young children

Traveling with kids can be challenging at the best of times – let alone during the holiday season. So here’s a few tips from Baby Bargainista contributor Rebecca on what to pack besides your patience.

• A couple of weeks before the trip put away several smaller toys/books that seem to be your child’s favourite. This way when you bring them out be happy to see them and (hopefully) won’t get bored too quickly. Ensure any toys with noise have volume buttons for both your sanity and the sanity of others around you.

• Take a tour of your local dollar store and look for little toys and items that can keep the kids occupied and won’t break the bank if they get lost or left behind at Grandma’s house. Stickers keep my 17-month daughter occupied for a good 10-15 minutes at a time.

• If you usually water juice cups down, consider filling the cups half full of ice ahead of time so that you water down the drink while keeping it colder/fresher longer.

• Pack lots of batteries if you are taking any kind of electronic devices. It’s always better to have more batteries than more complaints of “Mommy my batteries are dead. I’m bored.

• Buy some (lightly) scented disposable diaper bags to have on hand as if you have to change a stinky diaper without a trash nearby – you don’t know how long you might need to carry that stink-bomb around!

If you’re flying:
• It’s okay to pack snacks/food – just not liquids, unless it is milk or formula in which case should be in the diaper bag. Packing your own snacks and food not only ensures you have food when you want it, but it saves some money.

• Make sure all medicine – including Children’s Tylenol or Tempra is also packed in a clear plastic bag and in easy reach.

• Look for stroller lines and try to mark out elevator locations ahead of time if you can.

If you’re driving:
• A great idea to have to help with snacks and keeping little hands busy is a travel tray for for those in forward-facing car seats. A friend of mine got some for her kids for a long drive they took over the summer and kept everyone occupied with arts and crafts. She also said it made snack times a lot easier and required less stops.

• Similar to looking for stroller lines – try to plan and/or find rest stops ahead of time – keeping in mind that not everything goes according to plan and sometimes you can’t plan when nature’s going to come calling. It’s also important to note that not all roadside rest stops stay open year round. Check with tourism boards for more information.

• Besides toys and books, make sure you pack extra warm stuff for you and the kids – or a shovel or two that can not only keep kids occupied but can help get you out of a situation if you are stranded.

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Bargainista holiday shopping guide - part 3: toddlers

In the third installment of Barginista’s holiday shopping guide, Rebecca looks at the youngest age group of all.

Babies are cute and fun and have little to no idea what the holidays are… And yet many parents spend so much of their time agonizing over the perfect gift or running all over town to find the “hot” toy. As a parent of a toddler – I can tell you it’s really easy to fall into that trap. So whether you’re buying a gift to satisfy your feelings of parental obligation, or because you’re hoping to bring a sweet smile to an innocent face here’s some ideas on what to fill your shopping cart with.

1. Board Books: Kids love reading – or even just flipping through books or putting them on their head. Board books tend to be a sturdier option – especially in my house since my daughter may have a future career as a champion paper shredder. Friends of ours gave us some Sandra Boynton books which were an instant hit. Moo Baa La La La is a crowd pleaser amongst most toddlers passing through my house.

2. Learning Toys: Educational and fun, Leap Frog makes all kinds of great (and not too noisy toys). The 3. Art/Craft Supplies: Crayola’s Tadoodles line offers several different options for introducing your kids to art – everything from crayons that are easier for little fingers to grip, right through to those are made for the tub.

4. The box the toy came in: Seriously. Granted this won’t work if you’re trying to donate or buy a gift for someone else’s tot, but a box that can be turned into a fort or anything the imagination desires can also be pretty fun and cool to unwrap and play in – and it doesn’t cost a lot but will likely give hours of endless enjoyment and is one more present for them to open…

Some of these gifts can be quite expensive – especially if purchased directly from the store or online and shipped. I recently discovered Liquidation World where I live and wished I’d found it sooner. I was able to score some Tadoodles for half the price you normally find them for in the stores.

There are several other seasonal liquidation/discount stores that have popped up where I live in Fredericton, NB and I know in Ontario the Samko-Mikko Toy Warehouse sale is also quite popular. I also make sure to visit the dollar stores to supplement items in my craft bin and sticker collection.

What are some other places that allow you to get twice as much toy for half the cost? Where do you find the best toy bargains this time of year?

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Bargainista holiday shopping guide – part 1: teens

As part of Bargainista’s holiday features this year baby bargainista columnists Jenny and Rebecca are bringing you a three-part holiday shopping guide for the kids (teens, school-aged and toddlers) in your life.

I know, they’re not babies anymore so technically not the right age range for a baby bargainista post! But for anyone who has a teen on their gift list, it can be hard to know what to get for them – especially if they’re not close relatives, but are instead the son or daughter of a friend, or a distant family member. Teens are also the most-often requested group for charity toy drives like Toy Mountain, CP24/Chum Christmas Wish, The Toronto FireFigthers Toy Drive or other ones in your community.

It’s easy enough to buy a stuffed animal or doll or noisy truck for young kids – chances are they’ll like it; but it can be a struggle to come up with a suitable gift for a teenager you don’t know well (or don’t know at all, in the case of donated gifts). The most coveted items seem likely to be expensive electronics.

So, how do you stick to a budget and still give that teen something they’ll be happy with? By giving them the gift of choice!

1. Cash. It seems impersonal, but to a teen whose only spending money may be allowance or earnings from a part-time job, a little extra cash to spend on something – or to add to their savings – can mean a lot. If you're sending gifts in the mail and don't want to send actual cash, you could try pre-paid credit cards.

2. Gift cards. If you can find out their favorite store, clothing or activity, this gives the teen the option of choosing something they really like, or putting the card amount towards a bigger purchase (like electronics). Some of those giant gift card displays even have amounts that can be put towards fun outings, spa days or entertainment packages.

3. iTunes credits. Like a gift card for music, but without the CDs (does anyone under 25 even own CDs anymore?).

4. Movie passes. Whether it’s just the cost of admission, or package covering refreshments as well, this can offer the teen on a budget the gift of a night out with friends.

Something that teenagers crave is independence and all of the above give them the ability to choose how and when they’ll use your generous gift.

Do you have any go-to gifts for the teens on your list?

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baby bargainista addresses recent product recalls

In this week’s baby bargainista column, Rebecca Atkinson discusses the recent rash of product recalls on items for babies and young children.

As a parent, one of the things you do not wish to hear about are product recalls especially when they relate to items you own or are using. You also don’t want to think that the very products you use to keep your children safe are not safe.

On Thursday September 30, Fisher-Price announced a recall to more than 11 million toys and items across North America. The recalls are voluntary and are not related to each other, other than the fact that they happen to pose the risk of potential injury.

Consumers are advised to stop using the recalled products and call the recall hotline (800) 432-5437 between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. ET Monday through Friday.

Last Wednesday, articles began surfacing urging parents to stop using popular sleep positioners designed to stop infants from rolling over on their stomachs. What was supposed to be a product to help reduce SIDS, may in fact also cause suffocation.

Babies R Us is among one of several North American retailers and manufacturers that have decided to stop selling or to withdraw the product from store shelves. A check of their websites show they are no longer selling the product online.

As a mother of a child with gastroesophageal reflux disease, we had seen several recommendations advocating we use positioners to help MJ stay off her back, and more on her side (avoid choking stomach acid coming back up). However, with her condition, she was nothing but a wiggle worm so we worried about exactly this problem and chose not to use one. After reading this, I feel good about our choice not to use one.

Since there is no official recall, there is no recourse for parents who own one of these positioners. The good news is they generally retailed for $20 or less so while you might be out of some money, thankfully it’s not an exorbitant amount.

Have you ever owned a recalled product? Do you follow the advice to stop using products (and get replacements where applicable?), or do you continue using them? What if it was your child’s favourite toy – what would you do then?

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baby bargainista interviews Belinda from the MOM Sale

In this week’s baby bargainista column, Rebecca Atkinson interviews Belinda, organizer of the Brampton MOM Sale.

What‘s a mom to do when her child outgrows her toys or clothes and she wants or needs to reclaim the space they are taking up in the house, but knows they are still perfectly good? Hold a garage sale of course. However, your garage sale would only appeal to parents looking for items in the specific age range (or gender) you have available. Imagine if there was a giant garage sale for parents full of gently used items for children of different ages and genders. Well imagine no more. Sales of this type are going on all over the country and there are even (local) Facebook groups set up for parents to connect with one another.

Last October, Mr. Atkinson and I had the pleasure of going to one such sale and were able to pick up so many goodies for our fast-growing daughter. Babies (especially) grow really quickly and often only wear (or don’t wear) some articles of clothing a few times. Why pay $20 for a sleeper when a good bargain hunter can pay $2 for one that’s been used only a few times? I had the opportunity to speak with Belinda, the organizer of the Brampton ‘MOM Sale’ we attended and have some great insight into another upcoming sale and how you could get involved with her sale – or how to start your own.

What is the MOM Sale?
It is an indoor garage sale type of swap meet for children’s gear!

How often does it occur? (and when is the next one?)
I organize one twice a year (spring and fall). Our next sale is Saturday, May 15, 2010 from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. at the North Peel Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario.
Admission is $2 – but if you’re a child or grandparent, you get in for free!

Where do proceeds go? (Note there is a fee for vendor’s to rent tables)
Our charity this time around is the Peel Children’s Safety Village (Peel Regional Police) and in the past we have also supported our local Habitat for Humanity. All the money the vendors make selling their items goes in their pockets though!

How did you get involved?
I loved attending these sort of sales but we hadn’t had one in Brampton so I figured I would organize my own.

Are there other sales like this?
Yes they are popping up everywhere. Some have been running for years and others are being put together by daycare centers and churches as fundraisers.

What happens at a MOM Sale?
You get to come and shop some fantastic gently used items and save a pile of money doing it…and if you are a vendor you get to clear out your totes and bins and garages or all the stuff your kiddies no longer need.

How can other moms get involved? (especially if they don't live in this area)
I would suggest researching if your area has one already and if not contact the local churches etc and see about renting their space and then network and advertise through the local playgroups and in the paper and you would be surprised at the response and support you will get within the community. Involving area businesses is a great way to get extra exposure too!


What do you get out of the sale for organizing it?
Lots of sleepless nights ;) but the real reward is getting the sweet emails and calls after the sale from shoppers hearing about all the great things they found and the nice notes from vendors thanking me for helping them reclaim much needed space in their homes while filling their piggy banks with money.

What goes into organizing the sale(s)?
It takes about 3 to 4 months to pull it all off form announcing the date and getting the website launched and then getting in the registrations, working out the floor plan and assigning the tables – all the while you have to post the site here there and everywhere to make sure your turn out is fantastic!

How do you advertise/get the word out about the sale?
I basically tell anyone who will listen ;) I distribute 10,000 flyers or more into the community… and my fantastic vendors always help too by posting the sale at their sports clubs, dance classes, schools, swimming lessons, cubs, brownies etc.

Anything else Bargainista Readers should know about the MOM Sale?
Come line up early… you don’t want to miss it!
For more details visit: www.theMOMsale.ca and check out MOM sales in other locations.

Happy Shopping.

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Adventures in homemade baby food

In this week’s baby bargainista column, Rebecca Atkinson shares her experiences making homemade baby food for her lovely daughter.

If someone had told me six months ago that I would have cut out pretty much all processed foods from my diet, and that I would be making almost all of my own baby food from scratch, I would have told them they were crazy. But here I am, doing exactly that.

I didn’t originally set out to go au natural but as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, my six-month old daughter has some pretty severe food intolerances (that we hope she’ll outgrow by her first birthday). It seems whenever I eat dairy, soy, tomatoes or berries, she throws up... a lot. So as a breastfeeding mom (and because there are NO formulas that are completely dairy and soy free), I’ve had to eliminate them from our menus. Because we were able to notice a very tangible difference, I have no plans to go back to my original eating habits until I stop breastfeeding.

Now that it’s time to start her on solid foods, I discovered very few (read hard to find unless you travel far and wide) dairy- and soy-free baby cereals. So with no other convenient options, I decided to make my own.

To my surprise, I discovered it’s quite easy (as long as you have a food processor), and I feel better because I know exactly what I am feeding my child. Once I realized how easy cereals could be, other “first food” purees from scratch became simple too.

I will admit I don’t make everything myself (like applesauce), but making the majority of her food at home gives me peace of mind and saves me money in the long run!

Here are a few tips:
1. If you’re going to do this, talk to your paediatrician and/or GP. Since many cereals are fortified with extra vitamins and minerals, you should make sure your child isn’t missing anything essential. In some cases simply taking some extra vitamins if you’re still breastfeeding is all you need to do.

2. I find a coffee grinder better for grains (like rice) as the food processor takes time and patience for smaller grains.

3. When cooking vegetables, steaming or roasting them is preferred to keep all the nutrients you’re trying to get into your baby.

4. Bananas and avocados do not need to be cooked and can be mashed with a fork before feeding time.

5. Wholesomebabyfoods.com is a great site that has more tips and guidelines, including feeding charts and recipes.

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Baby Teresa – the gift that keeps on giving

In this week’s baby bargainista column, Rebecca Atkinson shares this gift idea courtesy of Kathryn Lagden (@klagden) who suggested the idea.

If you’re looking for a gift this holiday season for a baby in your life that keeps on giving, consider a Baby Teresa outfit. The brainchild (and passion) of Tasmanian entrepreneurs Sammie Appleyard and Kirsty Dunphey, Baby Teresa “gives you an opportunity to Buy Once, Share Twice.”

When you purchase a Baby Teresa onesie, not only does the baby you purchase it for get an outfit, but so does another baby in need. For every outfit you buy, a second one is donated! At a cost of just $29.95 for a short sleeved onesie and $34.95 for those with both long sleeves and those adorable covered feetsies (Prices are in Australian dollars, which are nearly equivalent to CDN dollars right now.) That’s one feel-good holiday gift you can get behind. It’s only $5 for International postage – a bargain when you consider the cost of shipping some items across the border or across town these days. 



These 100% cotton onesies currently come in two colours, Lan Orange and Hieu Blue, and in two sizes: 0-6 and 6-12 months. There are plans to expand (at least colour wise) in the coming months/year.

Having just launched three short months ago, the first donation site was for newborns and moms in need, in the home state of the organization’s founders. Eventually these two ladies made a goal of clothing babies in need around the world. So far they’ve managed to make a second set of donations in Uganda and are looking to continue from there.

They “are inspired by the Mother Teresa quote ‘If you can’t feed 1000 people, then feed one,’ and want to help people clothe one baby.”

You can also help by spreading the word and/or by becoming a Fan on Facebook.

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Rebecca’s rant

In this week’s baby bargainista column, Rebecca Atkinson rants about her trials and tribulations dealing with “helpful” comments from strangers when what it really comes down to is what’s best her daughter.

This week my post was going to be on Mom2Mom sales, but I’ve delayed it by two weeks because no matter how I tried, I kept running, I seem to keep wanting to rant.

As a mother you want to do and provide the very best for your child – while finding bargains of course, but sometimes that can be difficult especially when everyone has their opinions on how you should raise your child.

From the beginning we’ve heard – often from complete strangers – what we should or shouldn’t do and of course what we were doing wrong.

My daughter Meredith was born three weeks early and after a very long and stressful delivery (on both of us), she ended up back in the hospital because she had jaundice and as a result of the hard labour she never got her food groove on. So the doctor had us do a couple of things.

First, try some formula in a bottle to make sure she would eat. Once we established that, I then pumped milk into a bottle and gave it to her so that she would:
a) continue to eat, and
b) so we could determine just how much food she was taking in.
You see, Meredith had a great latch, she just had no desire to work for her meal by sucking from the breast which is more difficult than a bottle as it turns out.

I uploaded some photos on Facebook that showed my husband feeding her. I actually got comments from some people I hadn’t seen in years who didn’t know our situation – actually comment/send notes and suggest I should be breastfeeding instead.

Things haven’t gotten any easier on the feeding front, in fact Meredith was diagnosed with severe acid reflux and a slow digestive system. Whether I fed her directly from the breast or pumped milk from bottles, she not only spit up, she vomited, often projectile over the last four months, we’ve tried several medications, had many tests, got switched to a hypo-allergenic formula, which didn’t help and in fact made her worse, tried a second more expensive formula and are still waiting to see a paediatric gastroenterologist.

However, we think we may have figured out the cause. It seems that she is milk and soy protein intolerant (not allergic but intolerant). She also is not able to handle berries or tomatoes either for that matter. An allergy generally shows n outward reaction, like a rash. An intolerance is more internal, gas, fussiness, colic type behavior, vomiting, crying and in general difficult feeding and changing times.

I have learned more about GERD (acid reflux), food ingredients, giving babies medication as well as what works to calm down my crying child than I ever thought possible. The good news is that she seems to be doing a little better, although it’s been a long difficult road to get there. Since there are not any formulas out there that don’t contain any milk or soy proteins at all, I have no choice but to breastfeed ensuring I cut out all items from my diet that seem to affect her.

The problem? Many products are dairy/milk protein free, not as many are soy free. Many of those that are, (organic mostly) happen to have one ingredient that I am allergic to – tapioca. While at first very difficult and expensive, it’s become fun to explore grocery stores and find new and exciting products and ingredients to try.

Throughout this whole process we have had some very “helpful” people suggest to us what we’re doing right, wrong, what the problem was and/or how to correct it. The last straw which spawned this post, was this weekend when a complete stranger walked up to me and suggested that my daughter was too young to be forward facing in her carrier because she was so “small.”

Yes my baby is small, in fact she’s only in the 5th percentile for her weight (average for everything else), since she hasn’t been able to really keep food down. However, one thing GERD has done for her is give her some very strong neck muscles, so she now prefers to be forward facing. If I didn’t think she wasn’t ready, I wouldn’t have done it. Now if she’d been wobbling around like a bobble head perhaps I could have seen this woman saying something, but she wasn’t.

This experience has taught me a ton of things including the following:
• Breast pump rentals are expensive, consider buying if yiou’re going to be using long term
• The electric double pump, has been my friend
• Evymama has been a great source of help for pumping accessories (think hands free!) and milk production herbal remedies
• Pumping allows dad and other family members to be involved in the feeding process
• Tahini is a great product to cook with and can kind of filling for a cheesy substitute if needed
• Going dairy and soy free is not as hard as it looks when you cook from scratch, eating out is the challenge
• Reflux is not fun for any infant or parent
• An intolerance is not the same thing as an allergy
• People are always going to give you advice even if you don’t ask for it
• My husband and I have been with her for the last four months, we’ve tried all the different options, we’ve gone to the doctors appointments and 4 a.m. projectile vomits and crying spells, so we should trust ourselves and our instincts because we do know what is best for our baby based on our situation and her needs.

It’s the best piece of advice I can give anyone.. Trust yourself and tell everyone else to go take a hike and do what feels right to you.

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Buying baby clothes on a budget

In this week’s baby bargainista column, Rebecca Atkinson talks about shopping for clothes for her baby daughter who is growing by the minute and cute as a button.

As Jenny pointed out in a previous post buying baby clothes can be an expensive proposition when your little one constantly grows and no two manufacturer’s are alike in their sizing.
Given this the rapid changes in weather this summer and our darling’s early delivery, it wasn’t long before we were on the lookout for discount baby clothes in Toronto.

Here’s what we were able to find:
Value Village – when babies aren’t yet crawling, walking or spilling stuff on themselves, their clothes tend to stay in better shape, so Value Village is a great spot to find baby clothes at discount prices.

The Children’s Place – Depending on which location you go to you may end up with a gold mine of discounts: clothes priced between $1.99 -$4.99. I’ve been to three locations in the GTA and here’s what I can tell you. The Toronto Eaton Centre has a small discount area and is worth checking out. Yorkdale Mall’s store has the smallest discount rack I’ve ever seen. However, the motherload can be found at Vaughan Mills, with the biggest discount section – especially for infants.

Old Navy – Again, Vaughan Mills has a large discount area and we were able to buy a ton of her summer clothes, paying no more than $4.99 per item of clothing. I’m not sure about other Old Navy locations, but it could be worth a try.

Obviously, these are pretty Toronto-area specific discount shopping options, so surely there are other options across Canada. Where have you been the most successful?

The Bargainista team is growing again...

One of the most rewarding things about having a blog is you! You make Bargainista the community that it is today.

When I first started blogging, three years ago this month, I wondered if anyone would care what I had to say. Then some friends started reading Bargainista and leaving comments. It was the motivation I needed to keep going. Soon people I hadn’t met in real life started leaving comments, subscribing to the feed or the email updates. The community started to grow.

Now almost 700 posts and three years later, we’ve had several guest blog posts and a regular column – baby bargainista – written primarily by Jenny and Rebecca, who have been doing an awesome job.

One community member in particular made herself known to me. She first came on my radar when she started leaving comments and won a giveaway soon after. We started emailing a bit and her warm, enthusiastic personality came through.

Contrary to what many people think about bloggers and their communities, many of us do meet in real life. Last June at the ChickAdvisor Recessionista Shop Crawl, we met in person. Sumaya was as sweet in real life as she was online. We introduced ourselves to each other and she gave me a warm hug.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I was spending more time responding to emails from companies or people representing their clients than I was actually researching and writing new posts. From speaking with some of you in person, I knew many of you were wondering what happened to the volume and type of posts you used to read here. Ideas of enhancements were swirling in my head but with a full-time job and family, there was only so much time I could spend on the blog. Something had to change.

Perhaps a virtual assistant would be the answer. Only problem was, how could I justify paying an assistant when I’m not earning money from Bargainista? Even if I decided to try incorporating advertising or sponsorship to try and pay for a virtual assistant, it would take time – time that I didn’t have.

Fortunately, about a week later, Sumaya emailed me and told me she was pursuing a career in public relations – I had no idea – and she asked if I would introduce her to the principals of her favourite PR agency. I did. And then the wheels started turning.

Wouldn’t it make the most sense to create a position for a member of the community? Would she be interested in working together to create an internship/editorial assistant role whereby in exchange, she’d receive mentoring from me and the occasional product sent Bargainista’s way? So I asked her and she said “yes”!

I’m thrilled that Sumaya has agreed to join the team. Already she has done a great job of organizing Bargainista’s inbox. She’ll be helping me respond to some of the email requests I receive, post local event notices and perhaps some product reviews as a guest blogger.

Please help me welcome Sumaya to the team and stay tuned for my interview with her in an upcoming post.

Buying the right car seat for baby

In this week’s baby bargainista column, Rebecca Atkinson shares her experience buying baby’s first car seat and learned an interesting lesson along the way. A must read for all expectant first-time parents!

One of the most important purchases you make for baby while you’re still pregnant is choosing a car seat. Mark and I knew we had a line on a bassinet/stroller combo, so we didn’t need/want one of those three-in-one car seat/stroller deals. My husband, Mark spent countless hours researching car seat options for us. As an automotive journalist, he often has a different car each week, which means the space for a car seat varies greatly. We also don’t have a ton of storage space at home, so we thought it would be nice to have one car seat that could grow with the baby as long as possible.

We finally settled on the Sunshine Kids Radian Car Seat because it was foldable for easy storage, and the narrowest car seat around. The company claims you can put three abreast if needed. The price was a hefty one, nearly $300, but a worthwhile investment since it would definitely grow with our child.

It was a great concept in theory, until Meredith was born and we actually needed to use the seat.

We first began doubting what we thought was the smartest purchase we made before we’d even made it out of the hospital. When they discharge you, you’re required to bring your car seat inside and show the staff you a) have one and b) know how to put the baby in it. The nurse took one look at our car seat and asked my husband how he planned on carrying it. He looked at her and said, “With the carrying strap.” After rolling her eyes, she said, “I meant, how do you plan on carrying it with the baby?”

We stopped and looked at each other. We hadn’t planned on that. I guess in our heads thought we would just carry the baby if we had to take her out of the car seat and weren’t using the stroller or Snugli. Mark said he’d just carry the seat, with the baby strapped in, the nurse rolled her eyes yet again, sighed and sent us on our way. Before we even got to the car we realized how awkward the car seat was and that we hadn’t considered portability on our list of requirements when we bought it.

We spent the next week or so taking the baby out of the seat every time we had to run an errand. Neither we nor baby liked this method of transport as it often woke her when she was sleeping. Neither of us wanted to admit our mistake, but one night as we were going out to get stock up on diapers, we somehow got on the subject of the car seat and sheepishly admitted to one another that we should perhaps look at an easy-to-carry infant car seat.

I can tell you now, that was the best $100 (with tax) we ever spent, and the same seat has been on sale for about $60 since. Sure she’ll outgrow it and it takes up a fair amount of space when rear facing, but both Mark and I can carry it (for now at least) and if she’s asleep, she can stay asleep which any parent will agree is definitely a plus.

While the other car seat will come in handy down the road, it is not something I would recommend for new parents.

Biggest lesson learned? You can do all the research in the world but sometimes you have to learn things the hard and expensive way – by living through it.

Samples are your best friend – especially when you’re a new mom

In this week’s baby bargainista column, Rebecca Atkinson shares advice on using free samples to learn which products are best for your baby.

As a first-time parent you can do a lot of research and you can ask other parents what types of products they recommend, but one thing you learn pretty quickly is that every child is different. What works or worked for one parent or child may not work for you or yours.

We thought we were being smart, doing research on certain items and then going out and buying things. That worked for many baby necessities but doesn’t work so well for things like diapers. With so many brands out there we didn’t know what to choose – so we didn’t at first.

Having been to the Baby Time Show previously and having an aunt who works for a paediatrican, we were lucky enough to have received several diaper samples to get us started.

We quickly learned no two diapers are really that alike – strangely enough – not when it comes to how they fit on our daughter’s bottom. After going through several samples, we found one brand that worked best for her (right now). Considering the number of diapers you go through in a day with a newborn (8-15) and their cost, finding the right diaper is important before you decide to stock up on them when there are sales.

While we’re not currently using formula, the same principle would apply if we were. I am using bottles however for expressing breast milk and ease of convenience (Dad can feed too), and again, we were able to make some decisions on which bottles to purchase based on several sample ones we had received and tried with MJ. It really helped us learn what we liked to work with, as well figure out what good for the little gaffer (which ones did she take more air in with, spit up and so on).

We’re now going back through our baby show bags – that we’d thankfully kept – one more time to see what other goodies we have that we should try before going out to buy.

Lessons Learned
1. Stock up – Go to events like the Baby Show and/or sign up for special offers and samples online.
2. Ask your Doctor/paediatrician (or hospital) for samples – don’t be shy, they usually have cupboards full of them.

And an now for a special update...

Editor’s note: Welcome Baby Atkinson! Our best wishes go out to you and your loving parents, Rebecca and Mark.

In this week’s baby bargainista column, Rebecca Atkinson shares tips about how to save money while in labour, seriously!

Surprises are a part of life and babies come when they want to. That’s the biggest lesson I learned last week. Not due until Jul y 23, I was shocked when I arrived for my weekly check up and found out my OB wasn’t happy with some of the things that had occurred since my last check-up. A few tests later and suddenly I was going to be having a baby in a few short hours – or so I thought.

After being induced on the evening of July 3, Mark and I finally welcomed our daughter Meredith Jane Atkinson into this world at 3:58 am on Sunday July 5, 2009, weighing 6 pounds and 12 ounces (Yes, I caved and took the drugs, that was too long for me!)

I can’t help but constantly stare at her to make sure she’s breathing and to just ponder the miracle of life. The week has gone by really fast, but it’s incredible how much we’ve learned already.

Lessons Learned
1. If using disposable, buy small packages of diapers at first – or get samples if you can until you find the best diaper for your baby; it will save money in the long run.
2. Find rides to and from the hospital for Dad because overnight parking is expensive!
3. Bring or have someone bring snacks and food, and a thermos of coffee – especially for your partner – because you can only take so much hospital food. And if baby wants to be born in the wee hours of the morning, most hospital cafeterias follow regular business hours.

DIY decor not just for nurseries

In this week’s baby bargainista column, Rebecca Atkinson completes her DIY nursery series.

As a final follow up to the Nursery on a DIY budget series, here’s a recap of two bargains we found/created for less than $20, which in theory could be applied to any room of your house really.

When painting, generally you take off the light switch and electrical plate covers, which of course got me thinking. They were boring, plain, white things. I wanted to dress them up somehow – and have them match the theme of the room if we could. I went looking in stores and online and saw lots of light-switch covers, but also saw the prices and thought surely this could be recreated for less.

During one of our trips to Michaels, Mark showed me some scrapbook paper he found for $4.99 which matched the flash cards we had. He wanted to know if there was something we could do with it. For $4.99 I said we must be able to and threw it in the cart.

It wasn’t until we got home that it dawned on me. Why not cover the light switch and electrical covers in the paper? I passed the idea on to Mark who is much better with a pair of scissors than I and he too was game. After wasting a few sheets trying to figure out how to make it work, we finally figured it out and found yet another use for that wallpaper glue we still had left.

After tracing the light switch cover (including showing the outline for where the hole would need to be for the switch itself and cutting out the shape, we affixed it by applying the wallpaper glue to the paper (minus where the hole cut out was traced) and then carefully sticking the paper on the cover. Once we’d let it set for a couple of days, we then took an exacto knife and carefully “exed” out the middle, affixing it with some more glue as needed. For a final touch, we applied al light coat of a shellac just to protect the paper so it wouldn’t tear prematurely from everyday use.

One other piece of the puzzle we wanted was to find a nice drape or shear for the room. We already knew from advice from friends that we wanted a blackout blind for the room so it could be closed during the sunniest of days allowing baby to sleep.

With an older style house, we have some odd-shaped windows so on a trip to Fabricland looking to buy fabric to make curtains for another room in our house, we thought we’d see if there was anything we could find for the baby’s room. Always one to look through discount bins, my husband and I were rummaging through the “clearance” bin for packaged draperies, when he exclaimed – “I found it!”

Sure enough, it was the perfect sheer for the room, the exact colours we were looking for and everything. We checked the price tag and found it said $7.99. Bonus! So excited with our find we immediately headed for the check out in case it was a mistake…

As I neared the cash register, I saw something on the package that made me stop. It wasn’t a sheer, it was a shower curtain! I immediately groaned, showed Mark and we went back and put it down looking for something else. Very disappointed we were getting ready to leave when we both stopped and asked ourselves why we couldn’t use that as a sheer? Immediately we went back and checked it out and discovered that if we didn’t tell anyone it was a shower curtain, they might not know. All we had to do was buy some nice curtain hooks and none would be the wiser.

However, we’re so proud of our find and our thought to use something “unconventionally” that we now proudly point it out to anyone who sees the room asking if they like our $8 shower curtain turned sheer. What do you think – can you tell the difference?
Lessons Learned
1. Practice with scrap paper first – especially good if you have paper the same thickness (scrapbooking paper is a thicker stock)
2. Once you glue on the outside, the middle gets hard so you need to cut with precision and trim carefully; don’t glue anything until you’re sure it will fit where you need it to
3. Just because something is labeled with a purpose already, doesn’t mean that’s what it has to be used for – get creative
4. Bargains are available to be found, you just have to be open minded

Giving hand-me-down baby furniture a facelift

In this week’s baby bargainista column, you’re in for another DYI treat as Rebecca Atkinson shares how she and her husband updated hand-me-down nursery furniture with a little paint and a lot of elbow grease.

One good thing about having family – especially those who have already had children – is that when you announce you’re pregnant, you’re bound to get offers of hand-me-downs. This happened to us from both sides of our clan, and begat our ‘eclectic’ second-hand collection, which included a crib and a rocking chair/glider. We also included a wooden storage bench we’d had kicking around, simply because we couldn’t fit it anywhere else... The only problem was that nothing actually matched.

Having spent so much time on painting and decorating the nursery, we definitely didn’t want to just put a mishmash of coloured furniture in the room, but hadn’t saved room in our budget to go out and buy many new pieces besides a dresser/change table combo and a bookcase.

The rocking chair was a nice maple, and the other two pieces we had were more of a birch-y finish, although not ‘real’ wood. We’d though about staining them all to match, but realized it would take a huge effort to get it to look right, and my significant other doesn’t have the patience to sand. We then had another idea: if we found a change table to match the rocking chair, perhaps we could paint the other two pieces of furniture a colour to compliment the room’s existing scheme and the maple pieces. However, we wondered if it was possible to paint the crib or if it had to be done professionally, and if so that would cost a lot of money.

After doing some research, we learned it’s perfectly okay to paint a crib and/or other furniture in baby’s room if you follow these guidelines:
1. Paint it with enough time to cure before the baby will be using it (i.e. 3-6 months). This will ensure when baby gums it, he/she doesn’t eat or take off the paint
2. Replace the plastic guards on the top of the rails to make triple sure they don’t get gnawed
3. And of course, don’t use lead-based paint

In terms of the actual painting portion, Hubby experimented with any number of brushes, but discovered that the small-diameter foam rollers (about 4" wide) work wonders to get into all the crevices. Touch ups with a small brush were required, but not as much as if we’d used brushes exclusively. The larger, standard size rollers are too large to fit anywhere comfortably.

If you have access to a spray gun, use it! That would have made life immensely easier, especially if you’re not going to/able to take the piece apart. However, renting one isn’t cheap ($75/day from Home Depot) and buying even a cheap one ($90 and up) hurts the pocketbook, so if you don’t have one, don’t bother. It’ll look fine.

Once we had everything painted, we found that it looked kind of plain, so pulled on our creativity hats and decided that we could at least decorate the bench to match the theme of our room. We’d found some small, cutout chipboard versions of the flashcard animals we stuck to the wall, and used the same wallpaper glue to attach them to the bench. Easy peasy.
So whether it’s an inexpensive hand-me down or a family antique, go ahead! Adding a coat of paint or two can really spruce up a room for very little money.

Lessons learned:
1. You don’t have to go out and buy a matching baby-room set at inflated prices. Find a few used or free items you like (or can live with) and get creative!
2. Baby won’t care about paint drips or brush marks, so don’t get stressed if you aren’t Leonardo Da Vinci.
3. Talk to the paint people at the hardware store to see what they recommend based on the materials you’re trying to cover up.

How to get a designer nursery look on a DIY budget

In this week’s baby bargainista column, you’re in for a treat as Rebecca Atkinson shares how she and her husband decorated the nursery.

One of the first things my husband and I thought about when we found out I was pregnant, was space. We had a room in the house which could be converted to a nursery, but it meant getting rid of our prized Foosball table, and also creating a new linen closet somewhere else if we wanted the baby to have somewhere to put her clothes.



After convincing hubby that we couldn’t just put the crib on top of the Foosball table (much like the old ping pong/billiards combos), the nursery renovation launched a giant project of our bedroom to create more storage so baby Atkinson could have her closet. We were forced to redo two rooms simultaneously, meaning our nursery budget shrank considerably.

Being big fans of the show Sarah’s House, and having recently watched the nursery episode we decided we wanted to recreate something similar (complete with two-colours and the alphabet on the wall), but on a DIY budget.

First stop was Michaels craft store, where I fell in love. I’m not normally a very crafty person, but it is full of so many cool things to get your creative juices flowing. First thing we looked for were letters. We found several options, but went with styrofoam ultimately because it was half the price ($1.50 per letter) of the same sized wooden letters.

We got very lucky with this project as my husband’s aunt was coming into town for a few days and she is one of the most creative people I know. We immediately asked her to come help show us the light so she gets a lot of credit for this post too.

Back at Michaels, we filled up our cart with several things: acrylic paint (because we learned this would go a long way, be easy to clean up and have virtually no fumes, meaning I could paint letters to my heart’s content). We also found the cutest vinyl wall art of safari animals which would be easy to remove without ruining the paint, should we decide to change the room down the road.

Having already found a bedding deal at Pottery Barn the colour scheme for the room was pretty much chosen for us; yellow and green. We then decided to add orange and light-blue accents. Although we’ve been told we’re having a girl, we also know you never know until the baby comes out. So we opted to still go as neutral as possible without making it gender specific – just in case.

As we were showing my husband’s aunt everything, she declared we’d found a theme – Alphabet Safari. This prompted Mark‘s next brilliant find, alphabet flash cards using animals. With all the fun stuff bought, it was off to buy the room paint and material for the plate rails so we could get started on this project.

We were excited to be able to recreate the designer’s look for less and to be able to say we did all of it ourselves (with help from said Aunt). Overall with paint and supplies (tape, brushes etc), we spent less than $350 on decorating (not including window coverings, furniture, shelving or accessories). You can see the finished look in my Flickr album and read our lessons learned below for some additional tips.

My next post I’ll tell you how we saved more money by reusing several pieces of hand-me-down furniture and updating them.

Lessons learned:
1. A trip through Wal-Mart later showed us many of the same items we picked up at Michaels for less (especially for paint and brushes), so when the budget is tight, make time to look around before buying everything at one store
2. If using Styrofoam, gently sand the letters as it will heanlp the paint stick better, and get rid of the cast lines.
3. Buying primed (MDF) which we did for the plate rails, doesn’t cost much more, but saves you a whole lot of time and fuss. And use a combination of industrial glue and nails to keep it on the wall. It’s also a lot cheaper than “real” wood options
4. Wallpaper paste can be used for so much more than wallpaper – and a little definitely goes a long way. It’s also not expensive and cleans up easily with water, too.
5. Allow plenty of drying time between coats – especially for letters; drying times suggested on paint are just that and depend on a whole lot of factors (including humidity).