This is the third and final article in the series, The Recession and Our Family.

Your sister or best friend is expecting her first child.  You’re responsible for throwing the baby shower but are strapped for cash in this economy.  How do you throw an affordable baby shower while still keeping it special?   Here are some ideas on how to host a baby shower on the cheap:

Invitations

The invitations are an easy area to cut back on when planning a baby shower.  Almost everyone has email these days – even Grammy.  Send an E-Vite or for anyone who isn’t web savvy on the guest list, invite them over the phone.

Have a Potluck

Divvy up the cost of food by having a potluck.  Be sure to coordinate with guests about who is bringing what so you don’t end up with five different variations of Seven Layer Dip.  Set a theme for the food, either by region (Italian, Mediterranean) or find out what the mom or couple to be’s (if you are having a co-ed baby shower) favorite family and friend’s recipes are.  Set a budget per dish so no one spends too much.

Skip the Favors

Guests can do without that baby carriage candle or chocolate bar.  Show your appreciation of their presence at the shower with some thoughtfully prepared words during the celebration or a thank you email a few days later.   Your gratitude will shine through, probably even more than with a traditional baby shower favor.

Choose Free Games

There are plenty of free baby shower games to keep the crowd entertained.  Here are two of our favorites:

• Guess The Baby: Ask each guest to bring a photograph of themselves as a baby.  Hang the photos on a string and then give everyone a scrap piece of paper and something to write their guess of who is in each photo.
• Baby Features: Moms or Dads?  Before the party, make a list of different features the baby could inherit from their parents, from physical characteristics to personality traits: eyes, cheeks, ears, toes, sense of humor, work ethic, etc.  During the shower, have each guest guess which features the mom-to-be will hope the baby will inherit from mom or dad.  After everyone has “voted,” have mom read aloud her answers.

Cheap Baby Shower Gifts

Gifts can be one of the biggest expenses at a baby shower.  Shop our affordable baby gifts section for baby gifts that are economical but will still stand out from the crowd.  Our best sellers: baby sock bouquets, cupcake baby onesies and baby pajamas, all priced under $20.

Have additional cheap baby shower ideas? Do tell!

This is the second article in the series, The Recession and Our Family.

Affordable Summer Crafts for Kids

Summertime provides endless opportunities for activities to do with your kids.  But sometimes between the gas, parking fees and the inevitable ice cream or shaved ice, trips to the beach or the local water park leave your wallet feeling empty.  Here are three ideas for affordable summer crafts for kids you can do with items easily found around the house or inexpensive materials found at any craft store.

Summer Kids Crafts Ideas:

Baking Soda Volcano

What you’ll Need: empty bottle or can, about 2 gallons of dirt or sand, vinegar, baking soda, red food coloring

What to Do: First, pile the dirt or sand into the shape of a volcano with your child.  Carve out an opening at the top of the volcano and place the empty bottle or can in the opening.  Fill the container halfway with vinegar and add a few drops of food coloring.  Then add a tablespoon of baking soda.  Watch the eruption!

Rainy Day Tip: On a rainy day, you could do this activity inside by mixing 6 cups of flour, 2 cups of salt, 4 tablespoons of cooking oil and 2 cups of warm water together for the volcano materials (you won’t want to bring 2 gallons of dirt inside!) and placing it into a baking dish.  Then follow the same instructions as above, beginning with “Carve out an opening…”

Lollipop and Flower Gardens

What you’ll Need: green craft foam, buttons of varying colors, stiff construction paper of varying colors, green pipe cleaners, organic lollipops, scissors

What to Do:  You’ll first make button flowers. Cut out the shapes of flowers from construction paper. Depending on the age of the children, simply cutting a circle will work fine. For an older crowd, star or tulip shapes would also work well. Have each child choose a button to place in the center of the flower.

Poke a pipe cleaner through your flower so that it comes up and through the first hole of the button, then poke it down through the next hole in the button and through your flower. Twist the short end of the pipe cleaner around the long end, as close as possible to the flower and button.  Each child should make three flowers of different colors.

Cut the green craft foam into foot long pieces.  Hand each child their own green foam piece. This is their garden. Now have the children “plant” their flowers and some organic lollipops into the garden by poking the lollipop stick or pipe cleaner into the green foam.  The result is a colorful garden of lollipops and flowers!

Adapted from Kid-Friendly and Co-Ed Baby Showers by The Baby Bunch

Musical Rain Stick

What You’ll Need: Long cardboard tube (paper towel or mailing tubes work well), aluminum foil, uncooked rice or popcorn, packing tape, crayons or markers, other decorating materials (confetti, feathers, stickers)

What to Do: Tape shut one end of the tube with packing tape.  Pour a heaping handful of rice or popcorn into the tube.  Tear the foil into several one inch pieces and then drop them into the tube.  Seal the other end of the tube with packing tape.  Decorate the tube with crayons, markers and other materials.  Then shake your new rain stick and listen to the sounds of summer rain!

This article kicks off our The Recession and Your Family Series.

In this economy, parents around the globe are coming up with creative ways to make ends meet.  More than ever, we are very conscious of what it costs to raise children.

In this first article, we explore the question: is the recession causing a baby boom or a baby bust?

The Cost of Raising Children

As many parents can attest, if you wait to have children until you can afford it, it may very well seem like you’re never able to afford it.  Traditionally, child-rearing has been somewhat of an exercise in budget strap-tightening for all but the very wealthy.  Depending on whom you ask, of course, the cost of having children can be affordable or expensive.  Often, the cost of raising children can be a product of parental tastes.

For parents who can accept nothing but the latest and greatest in children’s accessories and furniture, raising children is sure to be expensive.  But for those willing and able to receive second-hand furniture and accessories, there is certainly money to be saved.  Regardless of how frugal one attempts to be, though, the cost of raising children is sure to affect a budget in ways both predictable and not.

With world and domestic financial markets reeling, and with no end to our current recession in sight, will tough economic times help foster the next baby boom or will they discourage prospective parents and bring about the opposite, a baby bust?

The Baby Boom

The country’s most celebrated ‘Baby Boom’ came in the years immediately following World War II.  With young soldiers returning from the war and starting families, the United States witnessed an unparalleled birthrate.  But the generation of Americans born in those ‘Baby Boom’ years, known as the “Baby Boomers,” had less children than did their parents, resulting in what has been often called the ‘Baby Bust.’

In recent years, signs have indicated that the U.S. could be headed toward another boom in births.  In 2007, for example, there were more births than in any other year in American history, and the most since 1957 (the heart of the ‘Baby Boom’ years).  Of course, 2007 also represented some of the headiest days of the U.S. real estate market, leaving many to suggest that there is a direct correlation between strong financial markets and the birthrate.

Logic would seem to dictate that if strong economic conditions result in a higher number of births, then the opposite should also be true.  Consistently, this country’s lowest birth rate years came during the Great Depression, a time during which people were clearly concerned with the cost of raising children.

It would seem upon first examination that people most often choose to have children during strong economic times and choose not to have children during times of less economic prosperity.  And to most people, that makes sense.

Historically, there has been a strong correlation between birth rate and economic strength but there is no assurance that this will continue.  For every prospective parent that thinks having a child may be too expensive, there is another who thinks that the cost of raising children is overblown.  For every future parent who looks at their job loss as an obstacle to parenthood, there is another who thinks that it represents the ideal opportunity to stay home with their child.  And for every parent who thinks that childcare costs make parenting prohibitively expensive, there is another who recognizes that increased life expectancy makes grandparents viable childcare providers for longer than ever before.

As long as the economy concerns us, so too will its effect on various elements of our lives, including the cost of raising children.  As economic conditions change for the better or worse, speculation will continue as to how we might be affected.

How are economic factors affecting your decisions in regard to parenthood?