I’m not a first-time mom, so I haven’t spent much of this pregnancy poring over listicles of “things you need” and “things you don’t need” to bring home a new baby. It may be false confidence, but I think we can handle it. Although there still are a few things we need to buy.

One thing we definitely needed was a car seat, since the car seat we brought our first daughter home in is a convertible model (Britax Marathon) that four years later she’s still using! Luckily Target has pretty good baby clearance in January, and I managed to get the updated version of my firstborn’s car seat for $90 off. SCORE!

One thing I definitely don’t need is another bag. I never LOVED any of the bags I used with my daughter, and I’ve always admired a friend’s Vera Bradley tote that she uses as a diaper bag. I’m so not southern, but I think I can pull it off. I found a great deal on a bag – free shipping, discounted because it’s several seasons old – and snagged it the same week as the car seat. Definitely a luxury, but it’s making me happy to think about using it.

A pretty big gaffe on my part is the fact that I have very few clothes left from my daughter’s infancy. My husband and I struggled with infertility before both pregnancies, and I guess it felt like tempting fate to save all her baby clothes. Now I really wish I had, because she had some great ones that I donated or otherwise gave away. I’ve been reminiscing by looking at her baby pictures, and a part of me kicking myself over some of the cute outfits I’ll never get to put on my second born. In the grand scheme it’s no big deal, and an opportunity to shop for baby clothes is never a bad thing (for me or for my girls’ grandmothers).

I did save the big items, so we don’t have to repurchase a crib, high chair or stroller. And oddly I kept almost all of my daughter’s toys even as she outgrew them (so I can’t claim getting rid of the clothes was a clutter-busting tactic). I’ve also never thrown away a book unless it’s destroyed, so we have lots of those to share with baby sister. We borrowed a few items – the breastfeeding pillow I loved and a Pack & Play for travel – so I intend to replace those too, but otherwise I hope to keep our baby spending in check.

Preparing for a baby can be expensive, but I don’t think we’ll be going broke to get the things we need to start. And a great reminder for all moms – there are still stores open once the baby arrives and online shopping still works just as well with a babe in arms as it does before she’s born. Happy shopping!