new baby ... money saving advice please

Juicy_Tube

A little bath thermometer at £2 was a gadget well worth the money for us!!

NCT sales are wonderful as previous posters have pointed out. I only went after baby was born much to error on my part.

However, they are well worth attending. I have been to 2 now and have spent £20 approx at each for a whole bag of toys and books and most were new and in their packaging..Toys a few pounds, books 50p etc-we came away with a whole host of things. I will never go and buy full price toys again! I bought a brand new Bumbo seat for £10(RRP £25). I also got tiny love wind chimes for £2 for my new nephew-I had bought some previously for my son for £12!!

TOP TIP-keep any packaging you have for toys, sterilser etc etc, if you can, as these products always look better and will go for more at sales..

Head off down there as you will get a few bargains..

HTH

JT xx

inkie

I think that the key is to not get caught up in consumerism - we need to meet the baby's need and not societies expectations of what they should have. After all, people of my generation (i'm 34) and earlier were brought up without most of the tackle that is deemed as necessary today.
Here's what I would do - and did with my 2

Have a chat with someone of the earlier generation - mum/auntie etc to determine the things that they had i.e. what are the essential bits? (they would have had aonly the basics available to them, and i'm no worse off for it?!)

Then go to charity shops/table tops/NCT sales and stick to the list of what's needed
Pop along to the jumbles sales - all these baby clothes that are hardly worn - a gift
When child is born - buy ahead as Lilibet already sugguested. I was chuckling to myself last evening - my DD1 - who is now 9 has started to wear a new school dress which I bought in advance when she was 4 - at 50p each I stocked up, and she has worn them eventually - 5 yrs later!

You will save soooo much that you will have some spare cash for those things that simply have to be bought new for safety reasons. But then again there are bargains to be had - our cot was the budget type from Ikea and cost £39 inc. matress - lasted 2 babies.

Check out freecycle and post on wanteds - there will be loads of people in your area who (like me) have a loftfull of baby equipment and clothes.

Hope this helps

jellyhead

if you will be using disposable nappies it might be worth getting them delivered and bulk buying. if you search this forum for boots and tesco codes it can be a cheap way of doing it, i usually buy a couple of months worth of nappies in one go, when they are on a 3 for 2 etc. and use a code to get points back, so it's well worth paying the delivery charge. my last lot of nappies from tesco cost around £50, was £4 delivery but i used a code on here for a thousand points either worth £10 instore or worth £40 if you change it into deals vouchers, we use our deals for days out.

highland

Don't bother buying a bottle warmer we did seems to take ages to warm up the bottles but using a jug filled from the kettle much quicker. Tesco and Asda are great for clothes. Also having a bargain hunter partner is a real bonus my girlfriend loves sales last week she came back from poundstretcher with 2 pairs shorts 4 tops and a nice cardigan all for baby highland for £3.

missk_ensington

I think I bought everything using the £500 maternity grant thing and I think I still had some spare! My cot was about £60 out of the local paper and came with all the bumpers and bedding, pram £40 second hand, I bought new bottles and steriliser, second hand car seat from a nursery shop, and clothes from Matalan/Asda.

I never bothered with a Moses basket. Someone lent me one and I only used it for a week and didn't see the point of using it when he had a cot I'd bought him! Bought a rocker chair thing, that was a waste of money he never used it!

EVERYONE will bring clothes to hospital, and they'll nearly all be Newborn/0-3 months, so just buy the essentials. I only bought baby grows and £20 on clothes, and I'm glad because he had so much from friends/relatives that some was taken to the charity shop with labels on!

I wouldn't skimp on bottles, I bought Avent and they were the best. Don't buy a bottle warner thing, I bought a second hand one and what a waste of time they are, it takes ages and not fun at 3am when you want to get back in bed! Microwave never did us any harm!

jellyhead

i've got a flask that has a lid large enough for bottles, it's made by fisher price and is available at boots. good for the night-time feeds if you're keeping a bottle cold in a therma-bag etc. by the bed. most babies stop waking up in the night after a few months so a bottle warmer would be a waste of money unless it's one you'll use later on on days out etc. such as the ones you snap, use it and then you have to boil it to return the crystals to their normal state.
the flask is easier but on days where we'll be in a theme park for the whole day etc. the flask might have gone cool by then.

AnnieH

Make friends with a mum who has a child the same sex as your LO, but who is about 6-12 months older than yours. You'll never have to buy him/her clothes again.

No seriously, it's true.

nej

As everyone else has said - DO NOT BUY NEW!

Fine, get some things, but clothes are a HUGE waste of money. They cost a fortune and they outgrow them in a matter of weeks. Friends and family are a good source of clothes, as are charity shops. My wife bought some trousers for our 7.5month old, like new, for 10p each!

And toys... they are MEGA expensive, so goto car-boots where they will be peanuts. Your baby won't care, don't be snob!

My son is just as happy playing with a cardboard box as he is playing with a £15 toy...

jellyhead

so true. unfortunately for me it's the other way around and each time i give birth my sister turns up at the hospital to announce she's pregnant. 8 months after each of my boys she has a boy and i have to pass everything on, leaving me with no resale value as i can't ebay anything - doh!

she's stuck now though because she's after summer clothes in 6-9 but my boy wasn't wearing shorts in autumn, i suppose the same would happen unless you made friends with a mum chose child was around a year older than yours (or a big baby). when they're older the sizes hardly change and hand me downs will always fit at some point, but during the first year or 2 it's tricky getting the sizing right lol!

having given birth to a baby giraffe last week i passed clothes on to a boy of 2, yet my baby is only ten months old. i'm never the winner when it comes to passing on baby clothes :rotfl:

clarew

as the others have said, beg and borrow from others or buy 2nd hand. For the 1st year the kids are hardly in the clothes and they look brand new. We were lucky enough to get lots from family who's kids are older. My son is wearing clothes that are now 4th hand, and still look immaculate. (They started with my nephew, then to my other nephew, then to my son, and now to my youngest son) Its amazing how the stuff stays in good condition particularly the m+s and next bits (my sil is no money saver ha ha!=suits me though!)

We brought the bare essentials, pram etc, and always pass things on to others/borrow from friends. Really not necessary to go overboard (as you can easily do), you will be inundated with clothes at the birth and teddies, not to mention at xmas time, and christening etc.

Also sign up for the pampers/huggies/baby organix info and tesco/boots parenting clubs as mentioned and if you have a friend/parents nearby do it in their name too (with their permission!). I do this, so mum and i both get vouchers which she gives me, so 2 lots of £1 and £2 off pampers coupons etc.

Congrats to you as well