I am sad to say that shopping in Germany is not really the same as in America. For one, you don’t have tons of coupons to choose from every week to influence purchases. Occasionally coupons will come out from specific stores which can be used but those were really not the norm. And for the longest time, stores could not even discount products heavily to encourage fair pricing and equal shopping at all stores. It was a bit hard to get used to.  But now that we’ve had Mackenzie, I’ve discovered where all the discounts are hiding! I just wish they would last until she’s older instead of cutting out when she turns about 2 years old. Oh well, this is better than nothing.

When I was in the hospital after Mackenzie’s birth, I filled out a bunch of little cards from various baby food companies who wanted our information so they could pitch us their products. For the first 6 months, Mackenzie would barely touch any of the jarred baby food and I could understand why. The stuff tastes horrible. I know, babies don’t have developed taste buds like us…but seriously, that stuff is just gross. Now she’s more tolerable of it and it seems that the stuff for the older kids actually tastes a bit better. So when we got a free package of Nestle’s new NaturNes food in the mail, I figured I would give it a try. It was carrots and rice with little pieces of chicken or turkey, sort of in a soup-like sauce. Not bad at all. So I went online to fill out their survey (which no longer seems to be active but there are other coupons on their site) and found out you actually get a few coupons for submitting your opinion. Me likey!

The coupons will allow you to save 75 cents on menu packs and 50 cents on vegetable (I’m guessing since I didn’t say I planned to buy this and therefore got no coupon) and fruit packs. I seem to recall the menu double pack is 230g per package and cost €2.10. So that’s a pretty decent discount just for answering 10 or so quick questions.

While you’re there, hop over to their Baby Service site and register. You’ll receive free product samples every few months according to the current age of your child plus a little brochure about what is going on with your child right now. I don’t read it but I love free food.

If you’re looking for other programs to join, Milupa also has a club but I don’t know what sort of things they offer yet since I just joined last week.

I wrote about joining the Real baby program a while ago but never seemed to mention the one from dm (a local drug store chain). In case you have never been in one, dm is one of the best places to shop in Germany for baby food and care items. They have a fantastic selection of foods in all age ranges, formula, teas, diaper, wipes, etc, etc…everything you want on a recurring basis for your baby. Plus their own line of baby stuff called Baby Love which is very affordable. You can also buysome really cute baby and kids clothes at reasonable prices for the current season or pick up some awesome all natural and organic foods. Anyway, you can join the dm babybonus program online but make sure you are using a computer with a printer because you will need to print out your coupon to go pick up your starter kit. It will include a cute little toy (for us it was a little plush rattle) and the coupon book with over €200 worth of coupons. The coupons are for products you actually want to buy, not just useless stuff and they’re good for about 2 years. I think you can sign up in the store as well with forms they have available there. I have nothing but good things to say about dm.

And no, I’m not being paid by any of these companies to advertise their programs–just passing along the info for other new and expecting moms out there because I wish I had known about a few of these sooner and found them really hard to find on my own.