TOLEDO, Ohio — Jada Miller is eight months pregnant with her next bundle of joy.
On Thursday, she visited Twice but Nice, a surplus kids' supplies store in West Toledo, to pick up the essentials in anticipation.
But if there's one thing she's not looking forward to, it's another round of buying diapers, wipes and everything else. She can still recall how easily it added up with her first.
"Pretty fast, pretty fast. You think it's going to be a few hundred but it really can really go up to 2,3, 5,000 dollars worth of stuff, just shopping for babies," Miller said.
A sales tax exemption for baby essentials in Ohio went into effect on Oct. 1. In July, Gov. Mike DeWine added the tax cut for baby essentials to the state budget.
The items children's diapers, therapeutic and preventative creams like wipes, child restraints, booster seats, cribs and strollers for kids up to six months old.
"I'm actually happy about that because it takes a load off a little bit," Miller said. "You're not getting all the little fees and taxes added onto it."
When the savings on big ticket items like strollers or booster seats and items purchased much more regularly like diapers, new mothers like Sasha Howard are excited.
Howard and her daughter, Zaylaini, have just hit the end of all the donations from the baby shower, so for them, the tax exemption could not have happened at a better time.
"A box of diapers, $40, that's like a few dollars added on, so I mean, save with everything going up, inflation, it's nice that they're cutting things down for us," Howard said.
Now, soon-to-be mothers like Miller have to spend less time worried about affording a box of diapers and can spend more time on the exciting parts of becoming a parent, like settling on a name.
"I've got a couple, but I still haven't found one yet where I'm like, 'yes, this is the name,'" she said.
Miller's family and friends can look forward to the name reveal in a little under a month and a half.
It's also important to note that the end of sales tax on diapers has been applied for children's diapers only,
so sales tax on adult diapers will remain.