Turning Our Girl World Into a Boy World… Without Breaking the Bank!

In case all of Knoxville didn’t know… I’m due to have our second kiddo in October.  And can I tell you, I am SOOooooo ready for Fall weather!

The team has been telling me to write about my pregnancy on the Knoxville Moms Blog for some time now and I have just been too _____________ (you fill in the blank).  But here I am with a free moment and a blank post and I’m ready to share one of my biggest mom secrets with you.

I’m a tightwad.

There.  I said it.

I don’t wash my Ziploc bags or anything, but if I had a dishwasher???  I just might.

I’m also a crazy planner.  Did you read my birth plan with the Pickle?  Yeah… slightly OCD.

But sometimes if you put those two traits together, they can be magical.  And in the case of our second baby, I vote magical over crazy.

It started 4 1/2 years ago when we found out we were pregnant with the Pickle.  We were living in Thailand, so I had to nest vicariously through my computer.  It was hard and I was sad.  But when we returned to Knoxville and I saw her little world come together before my eyes, I was so thankful for all of my planning craziness.

What I didn’t let on was that, at the time, I was also planning way WAY ahead… for the day we would be told we were having a little boy.

No, I didn’t KNOW that day was coming, but I had a hunch.  And just in case, I wanted to be prepared.  So, you guessed it, I made sure that nearly everything we purchased or registered for for baby girl would a) last a long time and b) work for a future baby boy, if God so chose.

He so chose!

And I’m proud to say that because of my uber planning frugality we have saved a fortune on this little guy.  Here are just a few examples of what we did then that are saving us time and money now:

1. Gender Neutral!

Now, I’m not talking yellow and green (which happen to be two of my LEAST favorite colors).  I’m talking about keeping my girl’s world simple.  She had a nursery with NO theme.  (Ask me later how much this has saved us on transitioning her “nursery” into a “big girl room”!)  Her basic colors were red, blue, brown (sounding gender-neutral yet?) with pops of pink.  It was VERY girly, but with a little creativity, many of her nursery colors have been gorgeously repurposed into a boys room.  His colors are red, blue, brown… and green.  Ta-da!  What did we not have to buy?  Curtains, crib skirt, sheets, changing table cover, rocking chair… and more.

2.  Travel System

Despite all of the adorable girly strollers and carseats out there, I resisted the urge to get pink flowers and instead went with a blue and brown geometric print.  It passed off as flowers for a girl and will soon pass off as a simple geometric print for a boy.  Boom!  I did that with a lot of things, actually, and it’s exciting to pull an item out of the closet, dust it off, and know it’s going to see life again! (Although I don’t know if she’s going to let us wrap up and give away her bright Red Radio Flyer scooter.)

3. Part Timers

Now that my girl is a master pottier I often forget that we spent a great deal of her first year cloth diapering (part-time).  I loved it, again, because I only bought one box of diapers a month.  And I knew that down the road, there just might be another go ’round with these sweet little bum covers (we use Best Bottoms, by the way).  Sure enough, I pulled out my box of covers and inserts the other day and was ecstatic to find a great selection of little boy worthy covers!  I confess, I do have my eye on some very boyish prints right now, though.

4.  Don’t Be Too Gender Stingy

To balance all of my dreaming and planning and saving, I wasn’t afraid to splurge on a few girly items… with an end goal in mind, of course.  My girl’s world was still girl-friendly.  Her play mat was pink (knowing I could resell and snag a boy one later).  Her highchair was pink (I will be making a boy-friendly cover for it when the time comes).  And of course, as she’s grown we have bought, made, and received our fair share of girl things.

But seriously, I loved finding out we were having a boy.  And I loved knowing how easy it was going to be to transition my girl-world into a boy-world.  It has saved money.  Time.  Sanity.  And energy that I would rather put into spending these last precious weeks with my big girl!

I’d love to know some ways that you have crossed the gender gap with your babies!  Any other ideas for crazy frugal planning readers like me?