Borrow things like Swings, Bumbos, Baby Bjorns, if you can. They are expensive, and you have no idea before using them if your kid actually likes being in them. Plus, even if they do like them, they don't fit in them for very long.
We find that Life brand diapers (shoppers Drug mart) work well, for less money than the name brands.
Trust your instincts for the most part. Don't wait until 6 months to feed your baby solids (like they tell you to) if your kid eats far too often. Don't waste too much money buying "outfits" for the first while, just dress them up in onesies and sleepers, they grow out of stuff so fast at the start.
If you are planning to have more kids, buy the onesies (and as many clothes as possible- especially the expensive stuff like jackets) in gender neutral colours, so that you can use them again even if your next kid is the opposite gender. For many things, this can actually be fairly hard to find. When we were looking or snow pants for our 2 year old daughter, The boys ones at The Children's Place were grey, and the girls ones of the same style were pink. We got the grey ones.
Speaking of The Children's Place, the one up in South Edmonton Common up in Edmonton has lots of clearance stuff - you can often find some articles of clothing cheaper on the clearance racks that you could ever find the same thing used at a consignment store. The Children's Place at CIM may have some of the same clearance stuff, I haven't been in there yet to see.
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