Linkling Massive Baby Roundup Edition

By “Massive Baby Roundup” I’m not talking about cowboys lassoing a bunch of overweight babies. I mean that there have been a lot of great baby-related posts in the last couple of weeks, and I thought I would gather them all in one place. If you already have a baby, read them. If you might have a baby, read them. Even if you don’t have a baby and don’t plan on having a baby, read them and think of all the money you’re saving!

My Two Dollars asks if you should register a domain for your child’s name. I would have but I should have thought of that before I gave my son the name Yahoo Sports.

The Digerati Life has Are You Ready To Be A Parent? Know The Cost Of Having Kids. By the time I hit “Child goes to college” I had to pour myself a Ketel One martini (dirty, shaken, straight up, 3 olives and dry) to “steady my nerves.”

The Simple Dollar  is having a second child, and has the (to himself at least) rhetorically titled Having A Second Child? Seven Frugal Tips For Getting Ready. The eighth tip that he forgot was “If you already have a child, make sure the next one is the same sex.” That saves on clothes, toys, separate bedrooms, almost everything. I keep giving my friends that advice and everyone keeps going for the more expensive girl-then-boy or boy-then-girl option. Strange.

Zen Habits, who has six kids and yet somehow still exercises, has a full-time job, maintains his blogs and guest posts on half the other blogs on the internet (and never repeats himself) has The Value of a Parent Staying Home with Kids, and Tips on How to Do It.

Four Pillars had a baby-themed week that I thought was just excellent, end-to-end. There were XI individual posts (you’ll need to brush up on your Roman numerals), starting with the kickoffpost.

Part I: Maternity and Parental Leave This is always a problem financially, and even more so in the States where minimal amounts of paid leave are forthcoming for the mother and typically only unpaid leave for the father.

Part II: Dealing with Less Income: Related to the question of leave. Dealing with less income was something we braced ourselves for and we have done alright as Bubelah transitioned to full time stay-at-home mom

Part III: Mistakes for New Parents to Avoid: Just read it.

Part IV: Car Seats and Strollers: My advice is to get big wheels on the stroller. Car seats are the kind of thing that seem like a waste of money, but much like air bags or seat belts they could be the difference between life and death.

Part V: Cribs and Bassinets

Part VI: Changing table, change mat, dresser, high chair, booster seat, baby gates

Part VII: Diaper Genie, Rocking chair, Baby monitor, Baby Bath, Portable crib and more: Diaper Genie. Ugh. We used a Diaper Champ, but finally gave up once Little Buddy went on solids. Now #1 goes in the under-sink trash can and #2 goes in plastic grocery bags, then to the garage trash can.

Part VIII: Baby Carriers, Diaper bag and more

Part IX: Clothes, toys, food and diapers

Part X: Life insurance, Hospital rooms and parking, Pre-Natal Courses and Books

Part XI: RESPs: This one is only applicable if you’re living in Canada; however, although the specific rules are different and Canada-specific, the general thoughts would be applicable to 529s.

My biggest piece of baby-related finance advice is “get one!” The return on investment is infinite.