I’ve been to my share of funerals, but never planned one. I’ve been to a few weddings and planned one. I’ve had one planned baby. With that, I’ve experienced-or been witness to- the extreme costs that these three events can generate for those involved. My wedding was small, not necessarily on the cheap side, but by no means extravagant. Having only one grandparent left, I’ve been on the business end of three funerals and got familiar with the costs involved through my parents. Although these two events differ from the third (a baby) they are not necessarily cheaper.

As I’ve made somewhat of an attempt to become a more practical consumer in recent years, unfortunately I’ve entered a new phase of consumer spending-baby goods. Luckily, the beginning of this journey was set off with a proper shower that took care of quite a few necessities. We’ve also been the recipient of many generous packages filled with baby clothes and other items that would normally have a heavy price tag-strollers, seats, a crib. For those in the know, there’s nothing baby goods manufacturers like to better while they say “congratulations,” is charge you an extra fifty bucks for something that you’ll most likely use for a couple months, or just break without warning. So, if you’re not in the know, consider this a warning.

Different items for babies vary in price in a simliar way that adult goods do, but with a twist. Typically, cheaper items meant for adults tend to last a little longer than the act of removing them from the package or wrapper; baby good on the other hand, not so much. There are a few items that were purchased for said baby that were the cheaper version of whatever item we were in the market for, this turned out to be a bit of a mistake. The items in question were not high-ticket items but did come with an expectation to work-even if only for a reasonable amount of time. The other problem with these items is that sometimes, even if the product that was purchased does indeed appear to work, you may find out that it’s not working well or even at all. The baby goods market is filled with these types of products. Unfortunately, this does not help the psyche of the already nervous parents.

So far, we’ve had good luck with Eddie Bauer, Medela and Fisher-Price branded items, so-so luck with Evenflo items and horrible luck with anything branded Babies-R-Us. I accept that there’s some chance involved with buying retail products in general, but Babies-R-Us won’t be getting any visits from us in the near future.