The Best $15 I Ever Spent On My Kids

It's not always easy to know in advance which purchases will be worth it, and which ones will not.  However, there is one purchase my husband and I made fourteen years ago that has continued to be proven useful.

(top) Snacking at home (bottom) at a church dinner

The Portable Highchair

We actually bought this chair because we couldn't afford a "real" high chair.  Our oldest and only child was six months old, and we needed something to sit her in to feed her.  So we went to the store and bought the cheapest booster seat they had.  It turned out to be perfect.  We loved it so much, we bought a second one when our next daughter was born.

One of the reasons I love them so much is they are super easy to clean.  They come apart and can fit in your sink (or dishwasher!).  So you can scrub them down or hose them off every day if need be.

Not only did these seats work perfectly for high chairs at home, but they were portable too!  If we went on a picnic, we could throw the seat in the trunk and have a baby seat ready wherever we went.  A potluck dinner at the church is so much more enjoyable when you can strap your baby safely into their own seat.  We brought the seats on nearly every outing and on every trip we ever took.  They are so small and easy to pack up, that it was almost no effort at all to bring them along.

Fun enough to make a mess in, comfy enough to sleep in!

Eventually we had three small girls, so we purchased a third portable booster.  They have proven their worth a million times over.

So easy to store!

Now that our kids are older, we no longer need to keep a high chair at our table.  But the good news is, this chair is so compact and easy to store, we can keep it in a kitchen cupboard and have it ready at a moment's notice when friends with babies come over.

I also discovered another great use for this chair: the grocery store!  When my oldest two were both tiny, grocery shopping was a bit of a nightmare. You can put the baby in the baby seat, but then where do you put the toddler?  I started bringing our portable baby seat with us to the grocery store, and it made the perfect little seat inside the cart!  I could strap my toddler safely into the basket, and she could happily (and safely) play with toys or eat snacks from her tray.  It was a total sanity saver for both of us!

So that was years ago, and I'm sure you can't get a booster for fifteen bucks anymore.  But I bet you can still find one for under $30, and I promise you'll love it.

Marcia

Even big kids can use a booster!