It can be really expensive to buy formula for your baby!  Some parents are eligible for government assistance like the WIC program, but the rest of us have to find out how to buy formula every week with the money out of our own pockets.

If your baby does not have any digestive issues, you can use "regular" formulas made by Enfamil, Similac, or Nestle Good Start.  The good news for your wallet is that many store brand formulas are just as good as the national brands!  Ask your pediatrician for advice if you would like to buy store brand formula but feel a little uncomfortable about it.  Some store brands also make a soy formula for those babies who need something like Isomil or Prosobee.

If your baby does have digestive issues, you're not going to be able to substitute a cheaper brand of formula.  The good news for those of us who use Enfamil A.R., Gentlease, Nutramigen, Alimentum, or other special formulas, is that the formula companies provide formula checks to help lower the cost of our formula purchases every month.  These are redeemable as checks, not coupons, so many buying club stores will accept them as a form of payment.  I've found formula checks to be a lifesaver, especially since my little one started going through two cans (or more!) of Gentlease every week.  You can sign up to receive formula checks through the formula company websites or by sending back a postcard from a baby magazine or your pediatrician's office.

But you only receive a small amount of formula checks in any given month.  Ebay is a great source of formula checks.  People like me signed up with all of the formula companies before discovering their children could use only one type of formula, and now we have all of these checks lying around that we can't use.  With the cost of formula being so high, it seems a shame to let them go to waste!  Ebay makes it easy for me to get the checks I do need and let someone else get use out of the ones I don't!  Take a look at my About Me page to see if I have any formula checks up for auction today!