Advertising will suck you dry. It's insidious and it's everywhere. I've found that children-related advertising in particular makes you feel bad (along with a lot of societal pressure) when you're exposed to advertising.
I wholeheartedly advice that you get rid of your tv and install an adblocker on your computer. The machine learning algorithms will pick up on your baby related shopping habits immediately and you will drown is advertising. I guarantee it.
Here is the one piece of advice that will save you the absolute most amount of money: Buy things AFTER you find out you need them.
Do not anticipate your needs and buy anything in advance. Besides basic clothes for the first couple of days, nappies and some old used cloth diapers there is very little you need and there is very little that you must have right now, so as long as any one of you is ready to go shopping for the true must-haves you're set.
The amount of toys your child needs is tremendously little. A crinkling chew toy will do for a long time.
To illustrate here is a list of things our daughter plays with around the house:
kitchen bowls, plastic lids, stools, poker chips, dice, board game pieces, the Fatboy bean bag, the swivel chair, paper and mechanical pencils, the bed, the sofa, pillows, blankets, an old cardboard box, spoons and ladels, whisks and spatulas, trivets, tea towels, plastic clamps for sealing one-use plastic bags, stacks of dish cloth, clothes hangers, her mom's shoes, discarded clothes for dressup, pots, skillets, my guitars, and chess pieces (RIP black queen from my analysis set).
Toys we've bought that she actually played with:
Two teddies.
She has a little IKEA baby walker that she has most likely traveled miles with indoors, carting stuff around from one end to the other.
She has a small stack of books with pictures in them, say 5 or 6 books, and we practiced words and colors with them.
Duplo blocks.
A bouncing ball.
A Bobles elephant (this one has seen continuous use for 1.5 years now. Since she learned to stand up on her own, this has been a constant companion around the house).
A Toy piano.
Remember: buy things after you find out you need them. Despite the warnings of advertising, nothing truly foul will come over your child as long as there is clean water nearby for washing and tits for fine dining. We've been quite adamant about refraining from purchases, but we still acquired a little more than we truly needed over time. However; if you DO get too many toys, one of the most famous tricks is to cycle toys in and out of the room. Every three or four weeks or so, cycle some of the toys out of the room, into to attic and bring down some of the toys in the attic. That way it always feels like there are new toys to play with and you don't clutter up your home. In time you'll notice what gets played with the most.
Buy wood. It's durable and you can easily resell quality wooden toys when you don't need them anymore.