Baby Bargains Sucks

Look, my little cyberbaby is looking fatter and more babylike today! Awww.

I had a farked up dream last night that my mom was pregnant again - at age 56! I went with her to the doctor, where she found out it was too late to terminate - she'd wallowed in denial for so long that she was already 6 months pregnant. I said to her, "Oh my god, you got pregnant before me? - that's fucked up!" Haha. She was completely distraught and I was trying to help her calm down and go over her options and all that... so weird.

So: Baby Bargains. I have to tell you something, I am NOT impressed. There was so much chatter about how great this book is, and yet I think it might be the most overhyped pregnancy companion I've come across. I guess it might be useful if you had no ability to access the internet whatsoever, but as it is, I really don't get what is so great about it.

Supposedly it saves you money by telling you what you really don't need... and yet, even though I don't have any kids, somehow I had already figured out with my tiny little brain that I don't really need a full bedding set with a quilt, window valance, and dust ruffle.

Supposedly it has a ton of product reviews, but when you get down to it, it only has reviews for about a dozen items per category (if you're lucky). You figure for each category - cribs, carseats, strollers - most people have a predetermined price range for their budget. So within your price range, the book might review 2 or 3 products (if you're lucky). But with the amazing power of the information superhighway, I can find way more than 2 or 3 carseats in my price range, and every website you look at has customer reviews (which is basically all that the reviews are in Baby Bargains). And on top of that, if you're registering at one or two stores, the likelihood of that store even having the 2 or 3 carseats reviewed in BB is not always good. So, it's essentially useless for reviewing products unless you want to only go around buying what they recommend.

And lastly, as far as the money savings tips go, I am massively underwhelmed. As an example, they estimate $350-400 for baby clothes for the first year, but that's if you buy everything new. Who seriously buys an entire wardrobe of brand new baby clothes? - only those who are not bargain hunting. In most of the categories they wind up recommending the more expensive products - well, obviously I could have guessed that if I spend $250 on a carseat it's probably going to be pretty fabulous, but I don't want to spend that much. And besides painfully obvious advice such as "be on the lookout for sales," there is nothing groundbreaking here in terms of creative ways to save. I don't know what I was expecting, but there is absolutely nothing enlightening to anyone who has even a rudimentary idea of how to shop without just buying the most expensive version of everything you see.

In conclusion, I am very happy that I only borrowed this overhyped loser from the library and did not shell out the ridiculous $18 it sells for in bookstores. Hopefully I can save someone who's reading $18 by telling you not to buy this book... if you're dying of curiosity, borrow it. But it pretty much sucks.