{"id":2911,"date":"2020-02-04T06:00:45","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T06:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inboxdollars.com\/blog\/?p=2911"},"modified":"2022-03-08T19:19:34","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T19:19:34","slug":"12-weird-things-i-do-to-pay-for-diapers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inboxdollars.com\/blog\/12-weird-things-i-do-to-pay-for-diapers\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Weird Things I Do to Pay for Diapers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Easy Hacks to Cover Diaper Costs: Stop Leaving Free Diaper Money on the (Changing) Table<\/h1>\nDiapers are expensive. At an average 20-cents per diaper (with 3,650 changes every year), that comes to a whopping $730. $61 per month.\n\nAdd that to formula, nursing supplies, diaper wipes, diaper cream, clothing, toys, and childcare, and multiply that to each additional sibling, and woah. Babies can seem like an endless money pit.\n\nEver the bargain-free huntress, I\u2019ve found plenty of ways to pay for diapers. Here are 10 things that I do every month to offset the costs.\n

1. Every day, I print off 25 coupons on InboxDollars to earn $7.50 a month.<\/h2>\nYeah, yeah, I work here. Of course, I\u2019d say that. And I do. But it actually works. That\u2019s an extra $7.50 a month cash for printing coupons<\/a>, or 12% of my monthly diaper costs getting covered. For free.\n\nTip: redeem them in-store and earn an extra 10-cents for each coupon you redeem. There are loads of supermarket coupon deals for Tylenol, cereal, and you guessed it: diapers!\n

2. I let other people pay for my phone data to save $18 a month.<\/h2>\nI lowered our data plan. It seems like everyone wants more data, right? We use our phones everywhere. And because everyone does, WiFi is everywhere. We have WiFi at home, so I always join our home network. And wherever I go -- gym, hairdresser, airport, restaurant, stores - they all have free WiFi as well. Every place is giving you data for free. I don\u2019t miss it.\n\nThe only time I actually seem to need to have data: running GPS on my smartphone if I\u2019m going somewhere new.\n

3. I put grocery products on my head to save $9 a month.<\/h2>\nWith dry, coarse hair, I love conditioners, serums, and hair treatments with sunflower seed oil and coconut oil. But they\u2019re expensive, like $25-$50 a month or more. And this is for just a tiny bottle.\n\nBecause coconut oil is expensive, right? But instead of paying $50 for a 6 oz bottle of hair product that contains \u201csome\u201d coconut oil, you can pay $7-$12 to get a 16 oz jar of 100% coconut oil<\/a>. Much better deal. And because it\u2019s more concentrated, you need to use less of it.\n\nSince I go through about one bottle every three months and I save $27 a bottle, that\u2019s roughly $9 a month I\u2019m saving.\n

4. I canceled Nextflix to save $9 a month.<\/h2>\nGasp. We used to have it all: Hulu, Netflix, Sling. And all of these services together was so much less than cable. It felt so good to save.\n\nBut really, our \u201chabit\u201d is to binge-watch. And you can\u2019t physically binge-watch more than one show at the same time, and found that there\u2019s always one show you\u2019re always into for a while. And then you discover something new. But it works out great since streaming services are flexible beasts with month-to-month plans, not yearly commitments.\n\nSo over 1-2 months, we\u2019ll binge watch everything we\u2019re interested in on Netflix. Cancel. And go onto Hulu. Watch everything we want to there, cancel, and onto the next. And we rotate that pattern. Right now, we have the Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN bundle<\/a> because we were able to get all of them together cheaply as one package.\n

5. I plan our weekly meals in advance every Saturday to save $30+ a month on groceries.<\/h2>\nThis may sound odd. But taking 15-20 minutes to meal-plan each week has been such a money saver. When we don\u2019t plan our meals in advance, two things happen:\n\n1. We overbuy at the grocery store. There\u2019s no list to stick to.\n2. We eat a lot more fast food. Fast food dining is an unplanned, impulse buy 70% of the time. When we\u2019re hungry and tired and have no plan for dinner, the lure of neon signs is powerful.\n\nWhen we started making a deliberate effort to plan our meals (and we did so around weekly deals and savings at the supermarket), we shaved at least $30 off our grocery bill and even more off our total monthly \u201ceating out\u201d tab.\n

6. I buy discounted gift cards to save $5-$50 a month.<\/h2>\nSometimes people get stuck with unwanted store credit or gift cards. Or maybe they\u2019d just rather have cash. Enter online gift card marketplaces and trading posts. People sell their gift cards for cash and you can also look for gift cards you do like to buy at a discounted rate. (And of course, the site gets their cut.)\n\nMy family, for example, tends to shop a lot at Target. (We live in Minnesota, land of Targets.) They have groceries there and dry goods, so it makes for one-stop shopping. On gift card sites, I\u2019ll buy gift cards at 8% off (i.e. paying $92 for a $100 gift card). Which means I get to save 8% on of groceries, diapers, or whatever else I need at the supermarket.\n\nGift cards sites that I\u2019ve used and like are:\n\nCardpool<\/a>\nGiftCards.com<\/a>\nGift Card Granny<\/a>\nRaise<\/a>\n\nAvailable gift card inventory can change a lot, and the discount amounts change all of the time. It's a good idea to set up alerts and reminders to check-in.\n\nIn addition to buying discounted gift cards, you can also earn\u00a0free Target gift cards<\/a> and free gift cards for Amazon<\/a> on different rewards sites and apps.\n

7. I sell my kid\u2019s outgrown clothes at Once Upon A Child for $10+ a month.<\/h2>\nI bring my daughter\u2019s outgrown items to Once Upon a Child<\/a>. They\u2019re a national consignment chain that buys gently used kids\u2019 clothing, toys, and gear like baby carriers and strollers.\n\nOn some trips, the store will buy lots of items. On others, it seems like they reject almost everything. But on any given run, I\u2019ll get anywhere from $8 to $27. I\u2019m purging, which always feels good, and making some extra cash.\n\nTip: What gets purchased is always at the store clerk\u2019s discretion. I\u2019ve often seen them turn down items that I know are popular and in high-demand, but pointing this out isn\u2019t helpful. So, when they pass on things that are in good shape and currently in-style (within a few years), I\u2019ll bring them to a different Once Upon A Child location. (There are 2 of them within 5 miles of our house.) The other location will always take some of the goods off my plate. And sometimes, I\u2019ll just hold onto the \u201cgood\u201d rejected goods and bring them back to the same location on a different day. A different clerk is a different set of eyes with a different opinion. There was one dress I brought in on 4 separate trips (rejected each time) before it got accepted on the fifth.\n\nIf the item has stains, holes, or lots of fade, or was manufactured a while ago (say 2002), I\u2019ll either donate or discard.\n

8. I \u201clisten\u201d to InboxDollars videos every day at the office to earn $2-$5 a month.<\/h2>\nAgain, yeah. I work for InboxDollars. But, that\u2019s probably what prompts me to actually use the site to make money. Some of the earning activities InboxDollars offers, I don\u2019t like. And some, I do.\n\nInboxDollars Videos lets you get paid to watch streamed content<\/a> from different across different categories like News, Celebrity, Food, etc. The blurbs are actually fun; they give you snack-size bits of news, politics, celebrity gossip, and trending stories.\n\nI tend to enjoy just \u201clistening\u201d to the news while I start off my workday. Typically, I\u2019ll earn $2.20 to $4.62 a month doing this every day Monday to Friday. It\u2019s not a lot, but I enjoy it. I don\u2019t get paid anything for watching or listening to YouTube videos or other podcasts. And it\u2019s enough to pay 11 to 23 free diapers a month, I reason. No sense leaving free diapers on the table.\n

9. I buy my family ugly-looking produce to save $20 a month.<\/h2>\nOne of my girlfriends shared Imperfect Foods with me, and I\u2019m now a huge fan.\n\nImperfect Foods sells imperfect produce (and other grocery goods) to consumers at 30% off grocery store prices<\/a>.\n\nThe reason for the imperfection is always shared with you, and some of the reasons include inconsistent sizing, small size, surplus, scarring or bruising, inconsistent coloring, package changing, low market demand, or other cosmetic imperfections.\n\nThe food is still perfectly good to eat, but because of any one of these so-called imperfections, thousands of pounds of food are thrown out every single day.\n\nImperfect Foods is like CSA (Community Sustained Agriculture) boxes because you are supporting local farmers. However, the difference is it\u2019s much cheaper (even cheaper than grocery stores because you\u2019re getting flawed goods) and you can pick out the items that you want. No getting fancy-looking root vegetables you\u2019ve never heard of before. It gets conveniently delivered straight to your door. And if you're a SNAP recipient,\u00a0 you can enjoy special discounted rates.\n

10. I go to Swagbucks before every Amazon trip.<\/h2>\nLike InboxDollars, Swagbucks has a lot of cash back shopping retail partners and Amazon is one of them<\/a>. (With cash back shopping on Swagbucks, you visit a retailer\u2019s website through one of their links and earn a portion of whatever you spend there. You earn it in the currency of SB, and it\u2019s 100 SB to one dollar.)\n\nWith Amazon, you can earn up to 5% cash back. It depends on the category. Not every item on their site is eligible, but for example, you can earn 5% cashback for apparel or 3% cashback on pet supplies or sports and fitness equipment.\n\nThe available stores, categories, and cashback percentages will change from time to time, but it\u2019s a no-brainer. If you already shop at Amazon<\/a>, JCPenney, or Retailer X, you might as well make money off of your purchase.\n

11. I take pictures of my receipt to make $2-$10 a month.<\/h2>\nThere are plenty of smartphone apps that will pay you cash for submitting pictures of your receipts<\/a>. Typically, it\u2019s tied to the purchase of a specific item. Buy 1 box of \u201cBrand X\u201d and earn $0.75. It's not a ton of money, true. But you made the purchase anyway, you might as well get paid for it. It all adds up. And in many instances, you can earn just for purchasing items in a certain category (dairy, eggs, produce) so it can be any brand.\n\nSimilarly, you can upload your receipt for in-store purchases on Swagbucks and earn cash rewards. You earn for the purchase of specific items (i.e. Dove 6 oz. bottle), and you may be required to purchase it from a specific retailer (i.e. Target<\/a>). The retailers and featured items change periodically. But again, you already bought the item. They\u2019re willing to pay you for it. Don\u2019t leave money on the table!\n

12. I go out to eat with the family on Tuesdays to save $40+ a month.<\/h2>\nFoot traffic is lighter in restaurants on Tuesdays so the deals are a lot sweeter. Search your local area, but where we live, there are quite a few joints that will offer 15% to 20% off your tab or multi-course meals at a special rate, like a pizza, an appetizer, and a bottle of wine for $29.\n\nAdditionally, there are a lot of kids-eat-free restaurant deals<\/a> that happen on Tuesdays.\n\nSo those are the 12 weird things I do to pay for diapers every month. You can find even more tips (weird and non-weird) on scoring diapers and free baby swag on InboxDollars<\/a>. Or if you\u2019re feeling extra motivated, check out ways to make money online in your PJ\u2019s<\/a>.\n
\n

If you\u2019ve found any of my 12 \u201cweird things\u201d intriguing or helpful, please share this post!<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are lots of free ways to cover this major cost. Check out these weird tips (#3 is crazy cool) and stop leaving free diaper money on the table! ","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[242,11,10,331],"tags":[57,666,667,668,663,664,665,669,670],"class_list":["post-2911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-deals","category-make-money","category-save-money","category-trending-now","tag-free-diapers","tag-make-money-from-home","tag-make-money-from-phone","tag-money-hacks","tag-save-on-diapers","tag-ways-to-get-free-diapers","tag-ways-to-save-money-on-diapers","tag-weird-money-hacks","tag-weird-money-saving-ideas"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inboxdollars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inboxdollars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inboxdollars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inboxdollars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inboxdollars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.inboxdollars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inboxdollars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inboxdollars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inboxdollars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inboxdollars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}