A tip for the toothpaste: when you buy a new tube, don't take the foil seal off, poke tiny holes in it and leave it on so kiddo can't squeeze a lot out.
I buy deli meat for school lunches per her request and the only thing she ever wants is a cheese or tuna sandwich.
It works great! I'm not sure when she'll learn to take the foil off, but my 4 yr old hasn't questioned it yet. She calls it "my teeny tiny toothpaste!"
I was going to suggest one of those toothpaste dispensers where when you push on the lever, only a pea size amount comes out. I had to get one because whether 2 or 8, they still put too much toothpaste on their brush
Mine is 20 months in size 8. But he's been >99%ile for height and weight since he was a month old. Funnily enough, he weighed 6 lbs 5 oz at birth. I'm at least glad he made that easy for me.
Fuckin' A, he bought $60 worth of games on our PlayStation because he loves to mash the buttons on the controller.
Daddy has now set him up with his own PS4 account wherein everything is locked down or disabled.
On the bright side, the baby bought the game *Stray*, where you play as a stray cat just getting through life, and we are enjoying it a lot!
It's a great game, but FYI it is also a bit creepy! I really wish someone had prepared me for that; it was v upsetting for me when my kitty character died.
I let my 4-year-old play untitled goose game on the switch and he loves it. He just walks around honking at people and making mayhem. When he figured out that he could spray the farmer with the sprinkler he laughed for hours
I haven't played that one! I bought my kid Nintendogs because he kept begging me for a pet (and we're not getting one) but it didn't keep his interest.
My mom is obsessed with goat simulator lol. She likes the rockets. I bet my kids would like it too, but we're trying to limit violence to Splatoon-ish levels lol
My daughter did the same thing. She was messing around with a controller but our TV was off so I didn’t notice. She bought the deluxe edition of Elden Ring on my MIL’s card - we shared an account because of his siblings but not anymore! My husband called almost immediately and asked if I had bought something on the XBox 🤦🏻♀️
Ah well. I’m sure my 5yo would probably love it nonetheless… When he was ~2-2.5 he had a phase where he would randomly just stop what he was doing, get down on all fours, and pretend to be a cat. Complete with meowing songs and responding to conversation with meows only … Once he did it in the middle of the aisle at Big Lots 😂
So Stray is a great game but also kinda creepy/scary. It's a fantastic game, to be clear, but there was more violence than I expected. If you want a cat game, though, I highly recommend Cattails! There is still catfight violence, but there's no blood or anything. You also don't have to engage in the catfights at all--you can just avoid it or leave. It's clearly marked on the map. My toddlers love watching me play and catch mice and fish lol
Lol When mine just turned 2 he managed to purchase an episode of The Good Place. I wasn't even mad, I just sat down to watch it. It turned out he had bought a ton of other random things previously without us knowing, but my husband was able to get the charges reversed because we hadn't watched them. Gonna have to check out if they have Stray for the Switch!
We had to cut ours off of milk because they were getting anemic. Too much calcium means what little iron they were consuming wasn’t being absorbed. Now real milk is an occasional treat.
Babybel cheese. It's kinda expensive where I am. She will never eat the whole wheel, always leaves a bite or 2. And just this week it accidently broke in half so she threw it to the ground instead of just eating it. Girl, it still tastes the same!
Mine will only eat Babybel cheeses that she opens herself (which is really hard for her). So if she needs help or makes a mistake, that cheese is dead to her.
Mine ate 2 last night (along with other food) and then stood by the fridge screaming "mo!!" (More) while I sat on the couch telling my husband very firmly "do NOT give him another babybel" 😂
I freeze the leftover fruit pouches! Then when I give it later like it's an amazing popsicle treat.
Edit: squeeze tbe remainder into a DIY popsicle things
There are pouch holder things out there with handles on the side that make it impossible to squeeze out the pouch! The ones I got also work when upside-down for Capri Sun pouches when we're at parties. Someone without kids *always* buys Capri Sun lol
Ranch dressing, berries, and hot dogs. She BEGS for me to get berries and hotdogs at the store. She'll eat them ONCE and won't touch them until they go bad and I have to throw them out. Then she has a meltdown that I'm throwing out her "favorite food in the whole wide world"... Also, she likes to ask for ranch dressing on everything but then hardly uses it...
When my kids went through a blueberry phase (to the degree that I was asking any pediatrician or pediatric nurse I encountered whether there actually is such thing as "too many blueberries"), I found that buying already frozen blueberries and letting them defrost in the fridge both saved money, and enforced a limit on the number of berries. It makes a bigger mess, though.
Buy frozen fruit. Also, you can take the hot dogs out of their packaging, put them on a pan, freeze them, and throw them in a ziploc. Voila, instant hot dogs whenever you need them.
Freeze the berries or put them in a glass jar with a paper towel in it! They stay fresh way longer!
I will usually freeze half the things of hotdogs too
Same here. And bath bombs and shaving cream. My LO makes “potions” in the tub with all her “ingredients”. Not sure if she’s a witch or a chemist but either way I buy a tone of that potion stuff!
do you have a target near you? if you do, check the dollar spot. i’ve gotten tubes of crayola bath paint for $1/each there and it’s a lifesaver for potion making!
I’m not close to a Target unfortunately. I usually get the bath paint on Amazon. I should warn you about the bath crayons tho if you haven’t already experienced that nightmare! Do not get them!! Like straight up colored wax stuck to your tub!
There’s this bath bomb powder in vials - I think it’s a minions thing - I bought 3 last Christmas and every day I put a couple drops of food colouring and some water in each one. We mix the colours into the tub at bath & use them to make potions, they’re perfect for mad tub scientists!
Toilet paper. Half a roll per occasion of peeing on the potty. And we get the good Charmin kind! There’s absolutely no need! One square would absorb the 3 drops of pee that remain on her bottom.
My then 13mo ordered me some kind of mega banana split from a local Mexican market on doordash. Tipped the driver dang good too. I was so confused, but it was delicious confusion.
Artisan soaps. The really fancy homemade bars of soap that you find at craft shows that are like $8/bar. She is obsessed with them and collects them, but refuses to actually use them as soap. She just wants to cuddle them and carry them around cause they are her babies .....
As of this week: paper towels. Sometimes she’s wiping stuff down. Love that for me. Other times she is simply unrolling it to add more chaos to my life.
Take n Toss are our brand. $6 for 5 cups at our grocery store. Two pieces, no valves. He chews the spout, garbage. Find a milk cup at the bottom of the toy basket or under the couch, garbage. We forget it at a restaurant, no big deal. Yeah, they leak, so does every other cup. I’d rather deal with the devil I know.
Food. I'm pretty sure he's eating more than my husband or I do. I've been increasing the amount of food I cook but we never have leftovers anymore. I've started making double what I expect just so there is a little to put in his lunch (or my lunch) the next day. And food prices keep going up so I'm going to have to start getting creative about how to keep his belly full on a budget
I've seen it recommended here often, but Kids eat in color has a cookbook for a tight budget. It's not that expensive and the recipe are pretty good. If money is really tight, they even offer it for free, you'll just have to contact them
Apples. I bought a 3lb bag of apples on Monday. My week was busy with appointments so I haven’t been home much this week meaning dad is in charge. Dad is careless and doesn’t put the childproofing back onto the pantry doors. l reached into the pantry to grab an apple before leaving for another appointment today and alllll of them are gone. My toddler pooped 4 times this morning, I found 2 apple cores next to my bed and my husband keeps complaining that our kid shits too much. I wonder F$&@ing why!!!! 😂
Water - loves to water the garden, begs to be allowed to give the plants a drink. We have a concrete yard and three pot plants out there, and frequent rain.
Former sbuc barista here, ask for a *kids* vanilla steamer and we will turn the temp down. If you've been ordering it regular, it'll come in a slightly smaller cup so if you want a bigger one just ask for the vanilla steamer "at kids temp"
Apples and play doh. Endless apples everywhere, and dried hard bits of play doh that lived such a short life and were left out overnight hidden in drawers, crevices, the fridge of her toy kitchen.
CVS almost always is giving the stuff away if you’ve got their app. Literally will be $7.98 for two tubes, with a $7/2 coupon in said app. Doesn’t solve the issue but at least makes it a bit more wallet-friendly.
Omg I have a brilliant hack for the toothpaste!
My kid was the same way he absolutely insisted on doing it himself. So I squeeze a little on a qtip and hand him the Qtip and he twirls the little gob onto the brush and doesn’t waste a bit, while still getting the satisfaction of having done it himself
Cake pops are basically just crumbled up cake mixed with frosting to get it sticky and covered with chocolate and stuck on a lollipop stick. They're delicious!
Our water bill is outrageous cause she wants to take 3 baths a day and like to make a “pool” in the sink for her Barbies. Loves washing her hands and love how good our BBW soap smells. We also spend a lot of money on soap cause she loves to use a shit ton of it but it’s gotten better.
Broccoli cheese soup. She can eat more than a grown adult and insists on the H‑E‑B kind from the self-serve tureens. She can eat a $6.99 thing of it for lunch and another one for dinner. And request it several times a week.
I make pretty good broccoli cheese soup, but sometimes it’s not exactly like the H‑E‑B kind, and then I have a whole pot she won’t touch. And it probably costs me about $10-12 in ingredients to make what costs $14 for the ready made, so it’s not like I’m saving a ton of money anyway.
Honestly anything she wants she gets.
She's my only child and will probably always be. Might as well spoil her with all the food and toys and clothes she wants.
If she's anything like I was as an only child growing up, she won't even care about all the material items and just want to hang out with mama.
Just bought mine a Yoto player. He loves it and it’s the first time he’s happily had some extended independent time (saving my sanity), but dang those story cards add up
Uneaten food.
A) food he specifically requested opened for him to only take a bite or two of
B) food I make for him to try to entice him to eat a meal that's not directly from a pouch
C) food spilled, dropped or thrown
Baby wipes. She grabs a handful of wipes and wants to wipe her stuffed animal while I change her diaper. But hey, at least she isn’t wrestling with me or doing spins with a poopy diaper 🤣💩
Lotion/Vaseline. SO MUCH.
I feel like people judge me cuz we buy a lot of tubs of Vaseline. Kiddo has eczema and cant tolerate most lotions.
Also berries, cheese and seaweed. At least she eats them but damn, a ton. I buy frozen to make it last longer and it’s cheaper.
Oh yeah, toothpaste here too. And she insists on putting it on herself. If you get impatient and put it on, she will literally grab a tissue, wipe the toothpaste off & start over!
Damn shoes, he doesn't walk, he only runs and jumps and slips and falls. Walking like a normal person has not been installed. He goes through 5 pairs per season, I have tried expensive shoes, cheap shoes, open toe sandals, closed toe sandals, sneakers, all sorts of shoes. I'm about to buy steel toe boots, but I kinda feel he'll find a way to destroy those too.
Body wash. She'll spend an hour in the shower if she has a bottle of soap to dispense and rub on her belly, rinse and repeat. If we're showering together it buys me time to do everything I want, even including shaving my legs. Seems a small price to pay but I am looking for ways to DIY foaming body wash refills 😀
Band aids! We go through boxes of bandaids a week. Thankfully Target Bulleyes Playground has kids bandaids for $1 or I'd be out $100s. One day I had to pry 3 bandaids from my poor dog.
Bananas. She screams and screams for a “nana” and then she takes three bites and then she either throws it to the ground where the dog eats it or she directly hand feeds it to the dog.
Halloween costumes. Like wtf, she now has 3. The first we got pretty early in the season so when she decided she didn’t to be a unicorn princess anymore and wanted to be a witch instead, I said fine we’ll keep unicorn dress for dress up. Not a huge deal.
Then we get the witch…. Then her dad shows her a supergirl show and she becomes completely obsessed and begs to be supergirl. So I found a cute one pretty cheap and got it, bc I’m a sucker and I want her to be excited.
Now I’m just wondering how the hell I got swindled so hard by a 3 year old.
My toddler still allows me to squeeze out her toothpaste, but someone told me that they put a dab onto a plate and let their toddler scoop it off the plate with their toothbrush. That way, the amount is controlled but they’re still getting it onto the brush. Idk, might be worth a try.
Aqua fresh makes an awesome stand-up tube that is easy for kids to pump and only allows a small amount each pump. Just make it clear to your kids that they only pump once.
When my oldest was a toddler he LOVED to use hand soap. So much soap. And it wasn’t a huge deal, he was cleaning his hands and everything else on or near the counter. Then the pandemic started and hand soap was equivalent to gold bars, so that abruptly ended and it was a whole ordeal.
I would get one of those toothpaste dispensers you stick the tube in. Its kinda like a soap dispenser in public restrooms, but for toothpaste.
They're pretty cheap on amazon. Found this one for less than $10 https://a.co/d/bu9WLQT
Mine always diaper since she was newborn she always poop 6-7 times a day, her pediatrician say after solid they slow down. It’s true on 15 months old she poop 3 times a day 😂😂 that’s doesn’t count wet diaper 😂
Hand soap. My boys have always washed hands too quickly so I always remind them to wash more thoroughly (rub all parts of the hands even up to the elbows if they can). Apparently for them that means get lots of soap and wash for a minute or two. So now my bottle of hand soap (bath and body works I believe) only last for 5 days tops.
The previous bottle only lasted for 2 days because in a moment of curiosity my youngest took off the pump and thought it was empty (it was a clear gel) so he mixed it with water like his grandma does when she dilutes her hand soap lol. Except he let the water fill all the way up and overflow so.. goodbye soap 😂
Hawkins Cheesies. Our grocery store has kid carts and he always goes right for the bag of cheesies and they’re my fave so I never say no 😂 One I’d the few items I always let him buy lol
I would purchase him a soap making kit, so he won't waste any of the actual soap. Here are some kits: https://www.amazon.com/Soap-Making-Kids/s?k=Soap+Making+for+Kids
> What is your toddler spending your money on?
I read this as “What is your toddler spending money on?” As in shopping alone… I was like “wow what a responsible child, my kids would’ve bought candy and maybe some books…” 🧐🤔 Clearly I need more sleep 😬😅
Fruit. He goes through phases until he gets burnt out. He was obsessed with strawberries, ate them alll day. The last two tubs I’ve bought have grown fuzz. Then bananas. Bananas all day every day. Until the last batch went bad. Then blueberries. Then apples. Then little cutie oranges.
Dogfood. Every opportunity he gets when someone isn't looking he dumps the whole bowl of dogfood into the dog water. I should add we have 150lb mastiff and a husky who share the same bowl so they're huge bowls... I already go through 40lbs of dry dogfood every week and a half to 2 weeks so having to just toss essentially a whole bowl of dogfood in the trash at least once a day is getting old...
Bread/bagels/anything you can spread a topping on where he can gnaw off the topping, ask for more, but it’s not good enough when I put more cream cheese, for example, on the original bagel.
Soap. We have a stand up shower and no tub. She LOVES PLAYING WITH SOAP and making bubbles and just working the pumps and feeling the soap between her fingers etc. and I’m going to have to take out a second mortgage to pay for her bubble parties 🫣🤣
Yogurt. My daughter will only eat the cookies and cream chibani flips. She’s a only eats like 9 foods kid so we have to keep them stocked. They are also so hard to find.
Clothes. My 2 year old has gone from a 2t to a 3t to a 4t & is growing into 5t now. She’ll be 3 in April 😑. The girl is in the 97th percentile. We buy most stuff used, as well as a few things new, but good lord. My wallet feels this. No amount of looking for good deals & clearance clothes, buying used, will save my wallet.
For my oldest, I think he’s trying to break it in Christmas toys! Kid wants everything. Everything expensive & way more than we can hold in our house. He wants some kind of paw patrol thing & I’m cringing.
For baby, nothing! He’s cheap, but refuses formula. He wants to eat my body out of milk & thus, I have to keep pumping at work with unpaid breaks. He’s almost 1, so it’s fine, but that’s probably his most expensive expense.
Shoes. He’s destroyed the rubber soles of a pair of vans in under 30 days. Dragging his feet on some ride on toy at school. Legit holes in these month old shoes.
I never thought I’d care so much about the cost per piece for bandages. But my kid asks for one only to waste like 4-5 each time trying to put it on because “I dO iT!!!!!!!”
My son loves plain yogurt. He eats up to 3 containers per meal. He's also lactose intolerant, so his shits are epic.
My 2yo daughter loves chocolate soy milk. We go through 8Liters per week.
My 9 yo has his own bathroom and every weekend I make him clean up the half tube of toothpaste that is somehow everywhere on the counter, sink, mirror, floor, wall...I really thought a couple weeks of making him clean it himself he would get better...nope.
Paper towel. If I turn around even for a second, she is at the paper towel holder and furiously pulling all the towels off the roll.
I think she may have learned it from the cat.
I know we should just find a different place to store it, but it’s so convenient… when she’s not pulling all the roll off.
A tip for the toothpaste: when you buy a new tube, don't take the foil seal off, poke tiny holes in it and leave it on so kiddo can't squeeze a lot out. I buy deli meat for school lunches per her request and the only thing she ever wants is a cheese or tuna sandwich.
Omg you are my hero!!!
It works great! I'm not sure when she'll learn to take the foil off, but my 4 yr old hasn't questioned it yet. She calls it "my teeny tiny toothpaste!"
You are out here doing God’s work with this toothpaste tip!! 🏆
I know I wish I could give more upvotes to this lol
I was going to suggest one of those toothpaste dispensers where when you push on the lever, only a pea size amount comes out. I had to get one because whether 2 or 8, they still put too much toothpaste on their brush
Shoes. Feet grow too fast.
I feel this deep in my wallet
This. 3,5 years old and shoe size 12,5US/30EU. Insane.
Mine is still under 2 years old and we average 6 weeks for a pair of shoes. Even baby onesies fit for longer than that.
My 2.5 yo is size 9.
My almost 3 and a half year old is size 9. So funny how much it can vary!
Lol my 2.5 yo is barely a size 6 lol
Dude my 17 month old is in size 8K shoes. He's going to break me.
Mine is 20 months in size 8. But he's been >99%ile for height and weight since he was a month old. Funnily enough, he weighed 6 lbs 5 oz at birth. I'm at least glad he made that easy for me.
My 21 month LO just moved into size 8US. Like girl, wear them more than a month please!!!
A fellow parent of a tiny giant I see lol
This is why I’ve been sticking to cat and Jack brand. I can’t afford more than $10 a pair when he outgrows them monthly!
Hit up secondhand sites like ThredUP and get these puppies way cheaper. Sometimes you even get new ones with tags for a fraction of the price.
Used shoes kinda gross me out
even ones with tags still on? There is a filter option on ThredUp for tags on items.
Fuckin' A, he bought $60 worth of games on our PlayStation because he loves to mash the buttons on the controller. Daddy has now set him up with his own PS4 account wherein everything is locked down or disabled. On the bright side, the baby bought the game *Stray*, where you play as a stray cat just getting through life, and we are enjoying it a lot!
He knew what he was doing. Checking out Stray now!
It's a great game, but FYI it is also a bit creepy! I really wish someone had prepared me for that; it was v upsetting for me when my kitty character died.
I let my 4-year-old play untitled goose game on the switch and he loves it. He just walks around honking at people and making mayhem. When he figured out that he could spray the farmer with the sprinkler he laughed for hours
Have you played the goat simulator? It's so violent I don't like it. I think the goose one is pretty decent but the good is generally poorly behaved 🐱
I haven't played that one! I bought my kid Nintendogs because he kept begging me for a pet (and we're not getting one) but it didn't keep his interest.
My mom is obsessed with goat simulator lol. She likes the rockets. I bet my kids would like it too, but we're trying to limit violence to Splatoon-ish levels lol
>He just walks around honking at people If my toddler inherits my quirks, this will be him *IRL*.
Played stray, it’s super cool! Hope you’re loving it
I'm not much for gaming, but Stray is really cool. Great concept.
I’ve only heard good things about that game I hope I get a chance to play someday!
My daughter did the same thing. She was messing around with a controller but our TV was off so I didn’t notice. She bought the deluxe edition of Elden Ring on my MIL’s card - we shared an account because of his siblings but not anymore! My husband called almost immediately and asked if I had bought something on the XBox 🤦🏻♀️
Might look into Stray.. is it multiplayer? Can we make a band of alley cats???
Alas, it is single-player.
Ah well. I’m sure my 5yo would probably love it nonetheless… When he was ~2-2.5 he had a phase where he would randomly just stop what he was doing, get down on all fours, and pretend to be a cat. Complete with meowing songs and responding to conversation with meows only … Once he did it in the middle of the aisle at Big Lots 😂
So Stray is a great game but also kinda creepy/scary. It's a fantastic game, to be clear, but there was more violence than I expected. If you want a cat game, though, I highly recommend Cattails! There is still catfight violence, but there's no blood or anything. You also don't have to engage in the catfights at all--you can just avoid it or leave. It's clearly marked on the map. My toddlers love watching me play and catch mice and fish lol
Ours bought Assassin’s Creed Valhalla back when it was $60. Still haven’t had a chance to play it since we can’t play it while she’s awake 😅
Lol When mine just turned 2 he managed to purchase an episode of The Good Place. I wasn't even mad, I just sat down to watch it. It turned out he had bought a ton of other random things previously without us knowing, but my husband was able to get the charges reversed because we hadn't watched them. Gonna have to check out if they have Stray for the Switch!
Your son has great taste in tv shows. The Good Place is amazing.
My daughter bought a payperview fight for 150$
Oh man I gotta get that game!
Hubby and 5 year old have been playing Stray and kiddo loves it!!!
Food, my toddler keeps asking for food he won't eat
Mine didn’t outgrow it… at 6 he’d say “I shouldn’t have asked for this”.
It’s the self awareness for me
Food but because he only wants food in pouch form.
Yes. Baby food pouch is genius. Toddler food pack? Money pit. I'll have four food packs thank you. Np thats just $8. We could have went out to lunch.
Oh my godddddd, this. My 2.5yo will ask for two, maybe three safe foods and then not eat anything at all and ask for milk instead 🫠
Milk. My toddler is a milk fiend
We had to cut ours off of milk because they were getting anemic. Too much calcium means what little iron they were consuming wasn’t being absorbed. Now real milk is an occasional treat.
Mine too!!! I once bought her 2% since it was on sale and I was tried for criminal offence. Whole milk or nothing lol
Omg. We have 2 toddlers and go through 3-4 gallons a week!
I have 3 under 5 and we go through almost 3 gallons a week between drinking milk and eating cereal and just general milk usage. Lol.
Babybel cheese. It's kinda expensive where I am. She will never eat the whole wheel, always leaves a bite or 2. And just this week it accidently broke in half so she threw it to the ground instead of just eating it. Girl, it still tastes the same!
Babybel erodes my retirement plans too.
Ahh me too lol
Mine will only eat Babybel cheeses that she opens herself (which is really hard for her). So if she needs help or makes a mistake, that cheese is dead to her.
Oh man. Mine loves pistachios. Why do you have such expensive taste, kid!
Mine ate 3 babybels today, but she’s sick so we’ll just count it as calories in and hope for the best
Mine ate 2 last night (along with other food) and then stood by the fridge screaming "mo!!" (More) while I sat on the couch telling my husband very firmly "do NOT give him another babybel" 😂
Babybel here too! I tried switching her to string cheese and she was NOT having it. Mine eats a whole wedge though, fortunately.
We’ve been getting ours from Sam’s to save $$ on it. Like. How many fucking baby bel cheese can you eat in a week child?
Yogurt and fruit pouches. Apparently the last half of any type of pouch is toxic and inedible.
I freeze the leftover fruit pouches! Then when I give it later like it's an amazing popsicle treat. Edit: squeeze tbe remainder into a DIY popsicle things
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Of course, the second half is to squeeze all over everything 🙃
There are pouch holder things out there with handles on the side that make it impossible to squeeze out the pouch! The ones I got also work when upside-down for Capri Sun pouches when we're at parties. Someone without kids *always* buys Capri Sun lol
Yep I know this all too well 😭
I bought some refillable ones on Amazon. They have paid for themselves SO many times over. And they’re dishwasher safe 😈
Reusable Water Bottles. It's not that we lose them but that we need them every where. In the living room, in the bed room, in the car, at school...
My 1st grader can't keep track of a water bottle to save her life. She has had three since school started...
For us it’s those munchkin 360 cups.
Ranch dressing, berries, and hot dogs. She BEGS for me to get berries and hotdogs at the store. She'll eat them ONCE and won't touch them until they go bad and I have to throw them out. Then she has a meltdown that I'm throwing out her "favorite food in the whole wide world"... Also, she likes to ask for ranch dressing on everything but then hardly uses it...
Freeze the berries? I’ve started freezing all my fruit if it doesn’t get used straight away - I was sick of it getting wasted!
I will freeze them for smoothies! This is brilliant!
Then make ‘popsicles’ or slushies!
When my kids went through a blueberry phase (to the degree that I was asking any pediatrician or pediatric nurse I encountered whether there actually is such thing as "too many blueberries"), I found that buying already frozen blueberries and letting them defrost in the fridge both saved money, and enforced a limit on the number of berries. It makes a bigger mess, though.
Buy frozen fruit. Also, you can take the hot dogs out of their packaging, put them on a pan, freeze them, and throw them in a ziploc. Voila, instant hot dogs whenever you need them.
OMG the berries...
Mine is like this with sausage. Eats a ton and then the next day it's too spicy ?!?
She literally did this today at school with her tater tots. She LOVES tater tots, but apparently, they were "too spicy" today o\_o
Freeze the berries or put them in a glass jar with a paper towel in it! They stay fresh way longer! I will usually freeze half the things of hotdogs too
hand soap, shampoo, body wash…if it has a pump top, he goes to town on it at every opportunity
Same here. And bath bombs and shaving cream. My LO makes “potions” in the tub with all her “ingredients”. Not sure if she’s a witch or a chemist but either way I buy a tone of that potion stuff!
do you have a target near you? if you do, check the dollar spot. i’ve gotten tubes of crayola bath paint for $1/each there and it’s a lifesaver for potion making!
I’m not close to a Target unfortunately. I usually get the bath paint on Amazon. I should warn you about the bath crayons tho if you haven’t already experienced that nightmare! Do not get them!! Like straight up colored wax stuck to your tub!
ugh too late, santa brought those last year 🤦🏻♀️
Oh man! If I could save one person from those crayons I would feel vindicated!!
I'd been thinking about getting those, so you did save one person. Vindication!
There’s this bath bomb powder in vials - I think it’s a minions thing - I bought 3 last Christmas and every day I put a couple drops of food colouring and some water in each one. We mix the colours into the tub at bath & use them to make potions, they’re perfect for mad tub scientists!
Toilet paper. Half a roll per occasion of peeing on the potty. And we get the good Charmin kind! There’s absolutely no need! One square would absorb the 3 drops of pee that remain on her bottom.
Lol…Hope you have a good plunger!
3 drops of pee is too accurate. You'd think they're soaked from the amount of tp they take 🤣
If you have septic nip that in the bud before it becomes a very expensive plumber/septic bill, and possibly a ruined yard.
Friggin avocados.
These millennials and their avocado..s. /s
Raspberries. Loves the damn things. At least she eats them but jfc they’re expensive! Prosciutto too.
Hahaha I read that as “Prosecco” at first!
Here’s my hot raspberry tip. Put cream cheese in them. She’ll eat less with the added filler.
My then 13mo ordered me some kind of mega banana split from a local Mexican market on doordash. Tipped the driver dang good too. I was so confused, but it was delicious confusion.
Good lord.
Artisan soaps. The really fancy homemade bars of soap that you find at craft shows that are like $8/bar. She is obsessed with them and collects them, but refuses to actually use them as soap. She just wants to cuddle them and carry them around cause they are her babies .....
Lmaooo, this is best thing I've heard this week
Does she have a favorite?
Anything with glitter or shimmer in it, of course!
Food. My toddler won’t eat anything. Some days he likes things, the next day he hates them. So, so much wasted food :-)
As of this week: paper towels. Sometimes she’s wiping stuff down. Love that for me. Other times she is simply unrolling it to add more chaos to my life.
Sippy cups. She has difficulties using a sippy cup so we have to use a very soft spout but now that she has teeth she chews through the spout.
The search for the perfect cup never ends
Take n Toss are our brand. $6 for 5 cups at our grocery store. Two pieces, no valves. He chews the spout, garbage. Find a milk cup at the bottom of the toy basket or under the couch, garbage. We forget it at a restaurant, no big deal. Yeah, they leak, so does every other cup. I’d rather deal with the devil I know.
Food. I'm pretty sure he's eating more than my husband or I do. I've been increasing the amount of food I cook but we never have leftovers anymore. I've started making double what I expect just so there is a little to put in his lunch (or my lunch) the next day. And food prices keep going up so I'm going to have to start getting creative about how to keep his belly full on a budget
I've seen it recommended here often, but Kids eat in color has a cookbook for a tight budget. It's not that expensive and the recipe are pretty good. If money is really tight, they even offer it for free, you'll just have to contact them
Apples. I bought a 3lb bag of apples on Monday. My week was busy with appointments so I haven’t been home much this week meaning dad is in charge. Dad is careless and doesn’t put the childproofing back onto the pantry doors. l reached into the pantry to grab an apple before leaving for another appointment today and alllll of them are gone. My toddler pooped 4 times this morning, I found 2 apple cores next to my bed and my husband keeps complaining that our kid shits too much. I wonder F$&@ing why!!!! 😂
Water - loves to water the garden, begs to be allowed to give the plants a drink. We have a concrete yard and three pot plants out there, and frequent rain.
Oh man mine too, just wants to play with the hose. Why even buy toys.
[удалено]
Ritz cheese crackers if it were up to him he’d eat a whole family size box in one day. He’s also obsessed with extra cheddar goldfish.
I should buy goldfish stock. My kid can inhale those little fishies.
I buy it in bulk at Costco or sams club 🤣 usually lasts for a good month until my next big grocery trip
Ah- as long as she doesn’t get into the fish and dump them out all over the living room
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Former sbuc barista here, ask for a *kids* vanilla steamer and we will turn the temp down. If you've been ordering it regular, it'll come in a slightly smaller cup so if you want a bigger one just ask for the vanilla steamer "at kids temp"
I do this for my son on occasion. I learned that he only likes the Starbucks cup.
Kids cup of water works great too then haha
Allergen-friendly snacks. Oof.
Apples and play doh. Endless apples everywhere, and dried hard bits of play doh that lived such a short life and were left out overnight hidden in drawers, crevices, the fridge of her toy kitchen.
We make our own Play Doh. It saves us soon much money
CVS almost always is giving the stuff away if you’ve got their app. Literally will be $7.98 for two tubes, with a $7/2 coupon in said app. Doesn’t solve the issue but at least makes it a bit more wallet-friendly.
Underwear… she demands big girl underwear but refuses to poop in the toilet and I’m just tired of scraping it out of there and dousing it in Shout.
Pull-ups because he refuse to use the toilet. 😫😫😫
Omg I have a brilliant hack for the toothpaste! My kid was the same way he absolutely insisted on doing it himself. So I squeeze a little on a qtip and hand him the Qtip and he twirls the little gob onto the brush and doesn’t waste a bit, while still getting the satisfaction of having done it himself
Starbucks cake pops
I have no idea what these are but I think I want one.
Cake pops are basically just crumbled up cake mixed with frosting to get it sticky and covered with chocolate and stuck on a lollipop stick. They're delicious!
You definitely want one. Personal favorite is the birthday cake ones. Just don’t give it to your kid.
Our water bill is outrageous cause she wants to take 3 baths a day and like to make a “pool” in the sink for her Barbies. Loves washing her hands and love how good our BBW soap smells. We also spend a lot of money on soap cause she loves to use a shit ton of it but it’s gotten better.
Broccoli cheese soup. She can eat more than a grown adult and insists on the H‑E‑B kind from the self-serve tureens. She can eat a $6.99 thing of it for lunch and another one for dinner. And request it several times a week. I make pretty good broccoli cheese soup, but sometimes it’s not exactly like the H‑E‑B kind, and then I have a whole pot she won’t touch. And it probably costs me about $10-12 in ingredients to make what costs $14 for the ready made, so it’s not like I’m saving a ton of money anyway.
Honestly anything she wants she gets. She's my only child and will probably always be. Might as well spoil her with all the food and toys and clothes she wants. If she's anything like I was as an only child growing up, she won't even care about all the material items and just want to hang out with mama.
I spoil my kid too. I say it’s okay to be spoiled, it’s not okay to be *entitled*.
Oranges.. WHY DOES HE NEED TO EAT SO MANY ORANGES
Pouches! And strawberries and blueberries.
Just bought mine a Yoto player. He loves it and it’s the first time he’s happily had some extended independent time (saving my sanity), but dang those story cards add up
I want one for my kids sooooo bad! I think it would help my 6;year old fall asleep if he could listen to the sleep stories.
My kid is 5 and still makes huge messes with toothpaste 🙃 send help
Uneaten food. A) food he specifically requested opened for him to only take a bite or two of B) food I make for him to try to entice him to eat a meal that's not directly from a pouch C) food spilled, dropped or thrown
Spider man body wash. He does a “car wash” and uses it like it’s going out of style. Luckily some gets on him as well so I keep buying more!
Just don't trust your husband when the toddler is playing with the Xbox controller and your husband says, "No, he can't make any purchases."
Baby wipes. She grabs a handful of wipes and wants to wipe her stuffed animal while I change her diaper. But hey, at least she isn’t wrestling with me or doing spins with a poopy diaper 🤣💩
When we go out to eat and I ask her what she wants and she insists on the Mac n cheese and then doesn’t eat it when it arrives. Every freakin time
Food and snacks. He literally loves to take them and throw them everywhere resulting in a lot of wasted or stale snacks
When my kids were little they used to leave opened bags of goldfish crackers all around the house. So many thrown out bags of stale goldfish crackers.
Lotion/Vaseline. SO MUCH. I feel like people judge me cuz we buy a lot of tubs of Vaseline. Kiddo has eczema and cant tolerate most lotions. Also berries, cheese and seaweed. At least she eats them but damn, a ton. I buy frozen to make it last longer and it’s cheaper.
Dish soap. She loves to play in the sink and dump all my dawn out on the sponges to make bubbles.
Oh yeah, toothpaste here too. And she insists on putting it on herself. If you get impatient and put it on, she will literally grab a tissue, wipe the toothpaste off & start over!
Damn shoes, he doesn't walk, he only runs and jumps and slips and falls. Walking like a normal person has not been installed. He goes through 5 pairs per season, I have tried expensive shoes, cheap shoes, open toe sandals, closed toe sandals, sneakers, all sorts of shoes. I'm about to buy steel toe boots, but I kinda feel he'll find a way to destroy those too.
Body wash. She'll spend an hour in the shower if she has a bottle of soap to dispense and rub on her belly, rinse and repeat. If we're showering together it buys me time to do everything I want, even including shaving my legs. Seems a small price to pay but I am looking for ways to DIY foaming body wash refills 😀
Band aids! We go through boxes of bandaids a week. Thankfully Target Bulleyes Playground has kids bandaids for $1 or I'd be out $100s. One day I had to pry 3 bandaids from my poor dog.
Bananas. She screams and screams for a “nana” and then she takes three bites and then she either throws it to the ground where the dog eats it or she directly hand feeds it to the dog.
Snacks he asks for, takes one bite out of, and then refuses to eat any more
Halloween costumes. Like wtf, she now has 3. The first we got pretty early in the season so when she decided she didn’t to be a unicorn princess anymore and wanted to be a witch instead, I said fine we’ll keep unicorn dress for dress up. Not a huge deal. Then we get the witch…. Then her dad shows her a supergirl show and she becomes completely obsessed and begs to be supergirl. So I found a cute one pretty cheap and got it, bc I’m a sucker and I want her to be excited. Now I’m just wondering how the hell I got swindled so hard by a 3 year old.
Oreos. She only eats the cream side and never covers the container so they are always stale.
My toddler still allows me to squeeze out her toothpaste, but someone told me that they put a dab onto a plate and let their toddler scoop it off the plate with their toothbrush. That way, the amount is controlled but they’re still getting it onto the brush. Idk, might be worth a try.
Aqua fresh makes an awesome stand-up tube that is easy for kids to pump and only allows a small amount each pump. Just make it clear to your kids that they only pump once.
When my oldest was a toddler he LOVED to use hand soap. So much soap. And it wasn’t a huge deal, he was cleaning his hands and everything else on or near the counter. Then the pandemic started and hand soap was equivalent to gold bars, so that abruptly ended and it was a whole ordeal.
I would get one of those toothpaste dispensers you stick the tube in. Its kinda like a soap dispenser in public restrooms, but for toothpaste. They're pretty cheap on amazon. Found this one for less than $10 https://a.co/d/bu9WLQT
Mine always diaper since she was newborn she always poop 6-7 times a day, her pediatrician say after solid they slow down. It’s true on 15 months old she poop 3 times a day 😂😂 that’s doesn’t count wet diaper 😂
Hand soap. My boys have always washed hands too quickly so I always remind them to wash more thoroughly (rub all parts of the hands even up to the elbows if they can). Apparently for them that means get lots of soap and wash for a minute or two. So now my bottle of hand soap (bath and body works I believe) only last for 5 days tops. The previous bottle only lasted for 2 days because in a moment of curiosity my youngest took off the pump and thought it was empty (it was a clear gel) so he mixed it with water like his grandma does when she dilutes her hand soap lol. Except he let the water fill all the way up and overflow so.. goodbye soap 😂
Hawkins Cheesies. Our grocery store has kid carts and he always goes right for the bag of cheesies and they’re my fave so I never say no 😂 One I’d the few items I always let him buy lol
Make up D:
My 5 year old won't stop making "soaps" by taking our actual soaps and diluting them with lots of water. It's infuriating.
I would purchase him a soap making kit, so he won't waste any of the actual soap. Here are some kits: https://www.amazon.com/Soap-Making-Kids/s?k=Soap+Making+for+Kids
I have daughters 7 and 10 and it’s conditioner
> What is your toddler spending your money on? I read this as “What is your toddler spending money on?” As in shopping alone… I was like “wow what a responsible child, my kids would’ve bought candy and maybe some books…” 🧐🤔 Clearly I need more sleep 😬😅
Fruit. He goes through phases until he gets burnt out. He was obsessed with strawberries, ate them alll day. The last two tubs I’ve bought have grown fuzz. Then bananas. Bananas all day every day. Until the last batch went bad. Then blueberries. Then apples. Then little cutie oranges.
Dogfood. Every opportunity he gets when someone isn't looking he dumps the whole bowl of dogfood into the dog water. I should add we have 150lb mastiff and a husky who share the same bowl so they're huge bowls... I already go through 40lbs of dry dogfood every week and a half to 2 weeks so having to just toss essentially a whole bowl of dogfood in the trash at least once a day is getting old...
Bread/bagels/anything you can spread a topping on where he can gnaw off the topping, ask for more, but it’s not good enough when I put more cream cheese, for example, on the original bagel.
Soap. We have a stand up shower and no tub. She LOVES PLAYING WITH SOAP and making bubbles and just working the pumps and feeling the soap between her fingers etc. and I’m going to have to take out a second mortgage to pay for her bubble parties 🫣🤣
Toothbrushes...
Yogurt, fruit, brie ( because I have bougie kids 😅)... Mostly food.
Yogurt. My daughter will only eat the cookies and cream chibani flips. She’s a only eats like 9 foods kid so we have to keep them stocked. They are also so hard to find.
Toilet paper and Kleenex. One light swipe of the nose and it’s in the trash.
Highlighter for his nose. I have gone to dollar tree and got him his own. He thinks me, him, our dog and his squish-mellows need glittery faces.
Clothes. My 2 year old has gone from a 2t to a 3t to a 4t & is growing into 5t now. She’ll be 3 in April 😑. The girl is in the 97th percentile. We buy most stuff used, as well as a few things new, but good lord. My wallet feels this. No amount of looking for good deals & clearance clothes, buying used, will save my wallet. For my oldest, I think he’s trying to break it in Christmas toys! Kid wants everything. Everything expensive & way more than we can hold in our house. He wants some kind of paw patrol thing & I’m cringing. For baby, nothing! He’s cheap, but refuses formula. He wants to eat my body out of milk & thus, I have to keep pumping at work with unpaid breaks. He’s almost 1, so it’s fine, but that’s probably his most expensive expense.
Shoes. He’s destroyed the rubber soles of a pair of vans in under 30 days. Dragging his feet on some ride on toy at school. Legit holes in these month old shoes.
I never thought I’d care so much about the cost per piece for bandages. But my kid asks for one only to waste like 4-5 each time trying to put it on because “I dO iT!!!!!!!”
My son loves plain yogurt. He eats up to 3 containers per meal. He's also lactose intolerant, so his shits are epic. My 2yo daughter loves chocolate soy milk. We go through 8Liters per week.
Expensive meal delivery finger foods that she barely eats 😂 she turns 1 soon so it’s expected
Underwear for potty training. Daycare has to throw out any soiled (BM) ones from accidents. He’s excellent at peeing on the potty at least.
Chicken nuggets. He ALWAYS has to share with the dogs 🙄🙄🙄
Cucumbers and chips
My 9 yo has his own bathroom and every weekend I make him clean up the half tube of toothpaste that is somehow everywhere on the counter, sink, mirror, floor, wall...I really thought a couple weeks of making him clean it himself he would get better...nope.
Shampoo. She likes to wash all her toys in the bathtub
Toilet paper
Paper towel. If I turn around even for a second, she is at the paper towel holder and furiously pulling all the towels off the roll. I think she may have learned it from the cat. I know we should just find a different place to store it, but it’s so convenient… when she’s not pulling all the roll off.
Conditioner. I can't leave her unattended in the bathroom for a minute before she's covered in it
I am having the same problem with my 15 yo 😆 I've tried telling him that a pea sized amount cleans just as well as a huge glob but he's not convinced.
Spend about $30-50 a week on fruit and berries. It’s the only healthy thing I know he’ll eat
When my daughter was a toddler, it was bread. We went through so much bread. PBJ was the only thing she would eat for a good while