The Top Five Top Ten Things We Don't Need

Today at lunch, I got accused of being a frugal midwesterner (this was after I told the people at my lunch table that our financial plan for sending the twins to college was to have one go first semester and the other go second semester and then have them swap notes). In honor of that, I decided to start researching the things that we aren't buying. I think this is going to be my favorite post in a while. Here are the lists of things you don't need, and here's our score for what we're not buying.

This first list comes to us from the blog Simple Mom, and includes things like shopping cart covers, diaper pails and baby lotion. Out of the whole total of this list we are not buying 5/ 8.

This next list is one of my favorites that I've found so far. It comes from CBS Moneywatch and includes the truly ridiculous, such as: jeweled pacifiers, baby cable television, and baby perfume. Of these unnecessary things, we are not planning on purchasing 9/10.

 

When I saw changing table on here, I thought this list might make me start questioning my midwestern frugality (we are waiting on our changing table to be delivered as we speak). But, when I looked at the rest of the list from the consumer webazine Savysugar, we did OK. We are not buying 9/10. So far our score is 23/28 items. We're doing OK.  

Here's an interesting list from VegFamily (the magazine for vegan family living-- no, we're not vegan). While we don't plan on buying any disposable diapers, I have a feeling that at some point, we will break down on a trip or in a car and buy something that we can throw away. This is the second list that includes baby lotion. Hmm... I actually thought we needed that! Our score for not buying: 3/10. Ouch!! There goes our thrifty average!

And finally, here's a list from the British site iVillage. We didn't do very well on this one. In our defense, a couple of these things (like the Moses basket) are available in Indian markets for really cheap, so it hardly counts. And, seriously, who doesn't buy toys for their newborn?!?  Our score, not buying 4/10. 

So, the grand total is not buying 30/48 things? Is that sufficiently stingy for two guys from Indiana? I hope so! Cheers to everyone for a great weekend. Chad and I are headed to Amritsar with two good friends. This may be our last trip without babies. That's more than a little weird to think about!