Ultimate Baby Registry Shopping Checklist – Customizable, Printable Spreadsheet

Shopping for a new baby, especially for a First Time Mom is OVERWHELMING! There is SO much information available everywhere that it is hard to discern what good advice is and what is not. Here’s an Ultimate Shopping Checklist with a description of why each item is needed and whether it was useful for me or not. This list has been compiled from various sources given below, and I can confidently say that this is the Ultimate Baby Shopping Checklist – It’s here!

If you are just getting started with your Baby Registry and need some great tips on how to register and where and what to keep in mind where registering, see this post! Baby Registry: Do I Need One? And Helpful Tips to Create One

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DOWNLOAD THE CUSTOMIZABLE, PRINTABLE EXCEL SPREADSHEET HERE!

The list is formatted as a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet. You can download this spreadsheet and edit it to suit your needs, and make your own notes in it. 

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HOW TO USE THE CUSTOMIZABLE PRINTABLE EXCEL SPREADSHEET:

1)      Qty: Number of Items you may need during the course of 1 year

2)      Item: Name of the Item

3)      Expected Price-Low [PRICE IS NOT UNIT PRICE] The Lowest Price I could find (as of Jan 2015) on various websites (not including deals/offers/coupons). The Price is NOT the UNIT PRICE of the item. For example, if there are 4 items in Qty., this price represents the cost of buying 4 of those products.

4)      Expected Price-High [PRICE IS NOT UNIT PRICE] The Highest Price of the item, available at multiple stores. It is assumed that you are using the products with the highest features – all the bells and whistles for this price. The Price is NOT the UNIT PRICE of the item. For example, if there are 4 items in Qty., this price represents the cost of buying 4 of those products.

5)      Must-Have or Good-to-have or Do not Need There is no CLEAR demarcation between these choices and it all comes down to your personal choice in most cases and as always, there are a lot of variations on this. I have tried to give you a generic list of items and my humble opinion on what is needed for the baby.

a)      Must-Have Must-Have implies that this item is an essential item and has to be bought before or after the baby is born.

b)      Good-to-have Good-to-have implies that this item is NOT an essential item, but it may make your life easier to own this, and it is up to you if you would like to purchase it.

c)       Do not Need Do not Need implies that this item is NOT necessary for the baby (in terms of physical, emotional or social development) and is purely your personal choice if you would like to buy it.

6)      When to buy? This column tells you if you need to buy the item before the baby is born so you are ready for it; or if you can wait for a few days or weeks and buy it when needed.

7)      Usage Tells you when you will use the product most or what the lifetime of the product is. It also indicates when you can buy the product (if it is not needed Before baby is born)

8)      Notes/Specific Features Desired What are the most important features you will need? This is only a very short summary of only MOST IMPORTANT features. For the full list of features, visit the blog.

9)      Links Links to the blog posts or product page which will give you more information about my recommended products.

10)   How much did I pay? You can erase the items in this column and write down your own price next to it.

11)   Did I buy it? Check if already bought. Use this space to put a check next to the items as you buy them.

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OTHER VERSIONS OF THE CHECKLIST

Different Versions of the Registry Checklist available on this Blog:

1. Customizable, Printable Excel Spreadsheet: The list is formatted as a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet. You could download this spreadsheet and edit it to suit your needs, and make your own notes in it.

2. Quick One-page Printable Cheat Sheet: There is also a quick one-page PDF version of the spreadsheet that you could print out and take with you to the store while shopping for all the baby stuff. You can access it here.

3. Amazon Baby Registry: I’m working on an easy to read Wish-List on Amazon.com with all the products that I recommend for each item on the Baby Registry. You could then create an account on Amazon.com (if you do not already have one, that is) and copy the items directly to your Baby Registry. It’s that simple and easy! Watch this space for more updates!

4. Blog Post with links to recommended products: My next step will be to with all the products that I recommend with reviews and pros and cons of each item. Watch this space for more updates!