Vanishing Act of the Thin Line between "Want" and "Need"...

Our little baby girl is here! She is such an angel! We are getting settled in and things are beginning to fall in place. Knock on wood. I have a lot of help and support from my family and the "better half" has shown that he truly deserves that name :) But still, somehow, there seems to be no time for anything else, other than learning to be parents! Posting on this blog is going to continue to be pretty sparse, unless I have some guest posts to publish.

A quick note on the personal finance front - it seems to me like the thin line between "want" and "need" has started pulling a vanishing act on us. For instance, we have a very good crib (for upstairs) and a pack 'n play which acts as a bassinet (for downstairs). But within the first two days of bringing our baby home, we ran out to get a co-sleeper so we can put her on the bed with us. She would neither sleep in the crib nor the bassinet and I don't know what made us think the co-sleeper would work... To cut a long story short, now in addition to the crib and bassinet, we have a co-sleeper that she won't sleep in.

There are so many other things we have done this with! Her grand parents have got her a tonne of newborn clothes and we had gone and bought a few too. Within a few days of bringing her home though, we realized that the most convenient clothes were ones that did not have to be slipped over her head and did not have zippers or lace etc. So we ran out and got more sets of the one type of outfit that we like, while the rest of the clothes are just sitting in the closet, waiting for her to outgrow them.

We have gone from a household of two part-time residents (we did spend a lot of time at the office!!!) to a household of five full-time residents (at least until the better half returned to work), and the cost of everything from utilities to groceries has more than tripled! I was expecting the costs to increase (though not as much!) and have a buffer for it. What is completely unexpected though is this sudden inability to distinguish between what we really need and the sleep-deprivation induced urge to buy stuff with the hopes that they will magically make things smoother! Oh well, it ain't everyday that you have a precious little baby, so roll with it the way it goes for the next few months (years?) I guess...