Beating the System

Notice, I said "Beating"... NOT "Cheating".  There was NO cheating involved.  But I do have to brag on this awesome bargain.

It's no shocker or mystery... I hate BabysRUs (BRU).  I think that they are a manipulating monopoly that leaves small town folk little or no option but to shop there.  Really, if you need a nipple shield, where else can you go?  Of course, Target has a minuscule baby section, with all of 3 whole aisles dedicated to baby gear... but how can that compare to a SUPERSTORE such as BRU?  It really can't.

The customer service at BRU is a huge joke.  No one knows a thing, and I feel like I have to do my own calculations just to be sure they don't mess it up.  There are absolutely no perks to doing your baby registry there... it's almost like it's expected... because again, where else is there?  This is not the case with wedding registries.  Companies are competing to get your wedding registry with all kinds of perks, customer service ploys, discounts and coupons.  Shouldn't it be the same with baby registries?  Sadly, it so is not.  In fact, if you have to return something to BRU, you'd better have the receipt.  Oh, it was a gift?  Where's the gift receipt?  It wasn't on your registry... oh well, no refund.  LAME-O!

Sure, BRU does offer coupons... that last for like 3 minutes and exclude everything you'd want to purchase with it.  Literally, the coupon says "20% off ANY baby item" and then goes on to list about 1,000 things that are excluded.  Uhh, since when are diapers and formula NOT baby items?  Oh, another funny and oh so BRU typical thing I saw at the store... a sign that read "All customers 85 years and older are given a 1% discount on sales tax for personal use items".  Really?! What can an 85 year old buy that's for PERSONAL USE at BRU?!  I know they sell diapers, but not adult sizes!  BRU, thanks, but keep your 4 cents.

So, anytime I get to take advantage of their system I do.  They currently have a promotion going on, called The Great Trade-In.  Basically, you take any old/used crib, car seat, pack n play, stroller or high chair and give it to them.  In return, you get 25% off of a NEW crib, car seat, pack n play, stroller or high chair.  This seems like a pretty good deal.  Problem was, we didn't have any old gear that we needed to get rid of.  In fact, all of Marco's old stuff is still in really good condition, so we're reusing it for #2.  But, we did need to buy a crib.  What to do, what to do?

Since the boys will be sharing a room, we wanted to get the same crib for #2 that Marco currently has.  He's not ready for a "big boy bed" yet, so we need a separate crib.  When we did our registry (at BRU, unfortunately), we noticed that our crib is discontinued.  They only had 50 in stock for the entire east coast!  The good side of this, was that the price was now reduced from $500 to $350.  But we still had to buy the rails to make it into a full, which was an additional $140.  Since the crib was discontinued, we HAD to buy the rails now, or else we wouldn't have them when we need them, in 2 years or so.

We were in a bind... we had to buy the crib now, or risk not getting it at all... but we didn't really have the money.  We HAD to take advantage of the trade-in promotion.

We went on to craigslist to see if we could buy some really cheap baby gear to make the trade-in.  We were able to find this car seat for just $5.  Note: I would NEVER buy a used car seat for my child... this was JUST for the trade-in.

Because we traded in this car seat, we got 25% off of the $350 crib.  There was also another promotion going on, that if you were purchasing baby furniture and spent more than $400, you were awarded $50 off!  So, all in all, we were supposed to have spent $500 for the crib and rails, but ended up getting 25% off the crib + $50 off the total and we ended up spending only $375!  

So in essence, because of a $5 crappy, used and gross car seat, we were able to purchase this BEAUTIFUL crib for baby #2! Oh yeah!  That's what I call, "Beating the System"!