is this cheap for a cot?

jellyhead

i'm pregnant and am short of money. although i'll be looking in the paper etc. for secondhand baby stuff i'm also hunting for the cheapest shops in case i can't find what i need second hand (the woman who used to run a second hand baby equipment shop now sells new stuff and told me nobody buys secondhand anymore, there wasn't enough of a market for her to stay in the business, nobody is poor anymore, the £500 people on benefits get is enough to buy new). i beg to differ, i'm poor, lol! i'm not on benefits but i'd imagine that people who are would also prefer to buy cheaply if they can, so i'm wondering if these prices are cheap for a cot or if anyone's seen cheaper?

john lewis has a winnipeg cot in either white or natural made from hardwood and rubberwood. dropside mechanism, 2 mattress base positions £60 without mattress. standard postage is £3.95 but there's £10 off a £50 shop usinghttps://www.johnlewis.com/primababy02 (voucher code printed in march edition of prima baby magazine, not a personal code).

mothercare has a hereford cot in pine. same as above but 3 mattress base positions. postage is £3.95 or free if order is more than £100. i don't know of any discounts.

i haven't looked at cot beds, i thought a cot then a single bed would be the cheapest way to go. i haven't looked at mattress prices yet either.

empire catalogue has a similar natural hardwood cot for £100 including foam mattress. new customers save £15. they also have a cotbed for £130 including foam mattress. the cotbed has a solid head and footboard, none of the cots do - is this important? the sides are removable but don't have a drop down mechanism

any advice welcome :-)
sharon

Lillibet_2

I'm also pregnant & have just purchased a cotbed. In the end I got it off ebay, brand new from a trading company. They actually had it on their company website for £145 plus £19.99 P & P so I knew how much to bid upto in the auction. It ahs 3 mattress heights & in the end I got it for £132 inculding a mattress (although it probably won't be great quality btu there was an option to upgrade it if required) and one complete set of linen inculding bumper, quilt & drapes and free delivery. I was keen to get a cotbed rather than a cot as I don't plan to be working for the next 3-5 eyars so this will save us having to repalce it too quickly, hopefully I'll be earning again before we need to, plus I don't really want to have to buy a single bed/mattress until the small person has grown out of bed wetting if at all possible. I think it would be better to get a new mattress once it's generally past that stage! However this is just my personal preference. I can PM you a link to the company if you woudl like to compare them against your finds.

HTH

Woby_Tide

have you tried kiddicare.co.uk, slightly more expensive but £79.99 incl delivery for cot with mattress, bumper and quilt

http://www.kiddicare.com/invt/cotsapjessnatd

Spendless

Do you have a Toys R us near you? I bought youngest a cot-bed and there was a mag that was free with a money off coupon you could use straight away. (this is 2 years ago).

Eldest had a cot that was given to us and was out of it and in a bed by the time he was 21 months.

Youngest is 22 months nkow and not ready for a bed yet. I bought cot-bed for as she is in a smaller room, so it gives us more space for a few more years.

Sarahsaver

there is a charity locally called sofa which offers low priced reconditioned furniture to families on low incomes, and another i think called babyquip specialising in baby stuff.
have you got a sure start in your area, they would help, or ask your health visitor.
My kids all slept in a cot that my friends had before - it slept a total of 9 kids - and thats before i gave it to charity !

frizz_head

The cost I bought for my eldest (now 7) was a pine cot from Mothercare for £99.99 - which did not include a mattress. The John Lewis cot sounds like a very good price.

IMO if you plan to have more children, go for a cot. If not, then go for a cot-bed as this will then see your child through to at least 4 or 5 years old. My second child only stayed in our cot until she was 18 months, as she kept hitting the sides and waking herself up, and we ended up transferring her to a bed with a bed guard.

If I remember rightly, the mattress we ended up buying was almost as much as the cot, I think it was called Mothercare Sleepright - or something like that. When it comes to mattresses the advice is to buy a new one for every child. We didn't as I couldn't afford to, but also knew that ours was as good as new. The mattress had a removeable top cover that could be washed.

jellyhead

thanks for all the comments :-)

woby, that cot at kiddicare is the same as the one in empire catalogue but cheaper and it comes with bumper etc. thanks, i'd not heard of kiddicare! i think i'll buy that then :-) they have loads of bargains, graco parasols and rucksacks for 2.99 each, tiny love baby gym for only 14.99 (i was looking at that yesterday and liked it), a swinging crib for only £30 for anyone who's planning on buying one.

we don't have surestart no and we're not classed as low income. although this baby was planned and wanted we only just manage on our income as hubby was in a financial mess when i married him. tax credit will be around ten a week and child benefit will be £11-ish but we really don't want to spend anything over that amount, does that sound awful? the tax credits is already sitting in the bank because they overpaid me last year, so i can use it now to buy baby stuff. so baby stuff needs to be cheap - hence my desire to breastfeed and use washable nappies, it's cheaper lol! i read the bounty forums and somebody mentioned a shopping trip for their baby where she spent over 2 grand, i nearly fell off my chair! i think all babies really need is somewhere to sleep, food, warmth and love.

toys-r-us is about an hour away, we were there a fortnight ago and the only cheaper than mothercare thing i saw was a travel system (pram/carseat combo) apart from bedding and clothes in the jan sale, the rest of it all just worried me, baby stuff is so expensive. luckily sis has a pram in her loft we can have. maybe our toys-r-us just doesn't have much of a bargain range. they didn't sell washable nappies at all. i've been looking on ebay for those, nowhere in my town sells them, it would be nice to actually see some before buying.

thanks everyone, i'm feeling much less stressed about baby equipment now :-)

Poppy9

I agree if you are planning on more kids go with a cot as a cotbed is more expensive and you will have limited use if you have another baby. Mine was out of a cot before 2 and in a single bed. Didn't buy a bed guard as there was a story in the paper about a child who had died after getting his head stuck. Funny only fell out once.

I think the one you have found sounds a good buy. I too bought an expensive mattress from Mothercare for the cots. What a waste of money. Their basic one would have done as they are so light and they usually sleep on the plastic side up of the more expensive one. Just meant that they could jump higher as it had springs in it

If money is tight have a chat with a friend or relative with a baby as to what you really need. I wasted money on a bouncing chair (it was hated) an expensive high chair, nappy disposal unit, baby bath. I bought a carrycot which fitted onto pram and stand so used that for sleeping in and that meant I didnt' succumb to a moses basket A friend lent me an extra stand so I didn't have to carry it up and downstairs as well. Should have bought second hand stair gates and 1/2 as many clothes.

bis_si

Ikea does a basic cot for £28 (I think the mattress is separate). Alternatively, have a look in the classified ads in the back of the paper for a real bargain.

Or just trust to luck lol - my aunt (who I hadn't seen for 2 yrs) turned up 3 days before my baby with a cot and a moses basket with stand that her next door neighbour had been getting rid of. We had a travel cot, free from friends who no longer needed it, and a carry cot that we were planning to have on the floor beside our bed, also free (very shabby but I figured the baby wouldn't care). Oh and a lifetimes supply of cot bedding, all free. And then my mum bought us a travel system with carry cot.

Which makes 5 seperate sleeping places for a newborn . . . who slept in our bed most of the time . . . much easier when breastfeeding, also nicer in house with no heating!

frizz_head

If you are able to get in touch with the NCT, you should ask them when and where their next Nearly New sale is. They are really popular here, and you can pick up real bargains. The thing with babys is that they don't really do much damage and grow really quickly, so when people are selling baby stuff, they are always like new and a fraction of the original cost. A lot of things are purchased and rarely used - baby baths and top and tail bowls for example. Kitchen sink (clean of course) is a better bet, and its kinder on your back, and a couple of empty plastic bowls for top and tailing (only really required whilst in hospital). Babygros and vests, particularly newborns sizes are only worn for a matter of weeks in the early stages, so these are always readily available at these sales.

Re. the washable nappies, a friend in my original antenatal group used them, and they were called Kooshies. I think the original outlay is quite high, but you obviously have to think longer term.

bumpybecky

Have you looked in Ikea? they do some very cheap baby equipment, including cots and highchairs.

As for seeing cloth nappies - try contacting Lollipop http://www.teamlollipop.co.uk/ they have agents all over the country who can demonstate different cloth nappies to you (no obligation to buy).

Becky (39 weeks with #3 who will be bfing and using cloth!)