How to Create a Nursery on a Budget

“This post is sponsored by Parent’s Choice brand and Walmart. All opinions are my own.”

When you’re a new mom, you worry about having everything ready for your new bundle. You believe you need to have high dollar products that cost a fortune to keep your baby safe and comfortable. Once you’ve been through two kids, you’ve got everything down and realize a high price doesn’t mean safety or comfort. With number three on the way, I decided to create a cute but affordable nursery on a budget and here’s how I’m doing it.

Buy Secondhand

With my first, the thought of buying second-hand items was never an option. Now onto number three and instead of spending $400 on my dream crib, I opted to buy second hand. It took a lot of searching and patience to find a similar version to the crib I wanted but I did and guess what?! Not only was it in fantastic condition, it was only $100! That’s $300 in savings, cha-ching!

Since I had such great luck with the crib, I decided why not aim for a changing table dresser too? It took some searching again as I am picky but I found one for 30 bucks! It was fairly dirty so I took some Clorox to it and scrubbed it spotless. It has some sharpie marks as well so I grabbed a $1 tube of white paint and touched up what I needed and wah-lah! I have a superb looking changing table dress now too.

Make Smart Choices

If there’s one thing I like to splurge on it’s the baby bedding. Though you can use hand me downs, I prefer to have fresh new bedding for each little one. They pee, poo, puke and more on bedding so having quality options is key. This is why we have chosen Parent’s Choice Mix and Match Bedding as our go to this time around as experienced parents.

Parent’s Choice offers more than 275 essentials for your baby’s first years of life. This includes receiving blankets, crib sheets, changing pads, baby blankets, and nursery sets. With the availability to have them picked up at your local Walmart store or shipped directly to your door for free, it’s no wonder they have been a staple in American homes for nearly 20 years. 

We checked out all of the trendy patterns and narrowed down our choices out of the nine coordinating colors. With the majority of the items being less than $13, we were able to score a sheet set, receiving blankets, and a soft comfy blanket for under $50. Saving money on the bedding totally freed up our budget to grab a rug for the room and higher a cleaning service for after the baby is born. Score!

Make it Yourself

Everyone loves to decorate their nursery with wall art as it brings it to life. While looking for a particular piece on Etsy, the pricing just became really expensive for my budget. After some thought, I decided I was going to wing it and try to create them myself. After playing with some fonts, I was able to create the same two pieces for a fraction of the cost. Not to mention, you can find cheap graphics on Etsy so your options are endless.

Here are the totals for what I wanted versus all the money I saved for a nursery on a budget:

Crib – The crib I wanted was $400 and I only spent $100. That’s $300 saved!

Changing Table Dresser – The dress I wanted was $250 and I only spent $30 on a used one. That’s $220 saved!

Sheets & Blankets – The typical bedding set is roughly $200, I only spent $49 on a similar set with amazing quality on the Parent Choice options. That’s $151 saved!

Wall Art –  The two pieces I wanted to purchase were $120 for both. I ended up spending $15 to create and print the pieces myself. That’s $105 saved!

Though babies need of items coming home, learning to create a nursery on a budget is a great way to ease the financial burden.