Mrs Sparkle's sparkly debt diary

Mrs_Sparkle

Hey ladies, sorry for the lack of response- it's been a manic week and I forgot to check for replies

Megsmum- thank you for your fantastic advice. I'm happy to say that I've already done most of that. To date I haven't washed any baby clothes or taken the labels off the new stuff as I'm thinking I can sell unused stuff on eBay. I'm very glad I bought a sleeping bag now and am on the lookout for another one on eBay for when one of them is in the wash.

Beccaoz- saw you on the "other side" tonight... matched betting is great and it's helping me to make a little bonus to hopefully clear a bit more debt. I went ahead and booked my pregnancy yoga classes to start on Monday and I wouldn't have been able to if it hadn't been for the MB pot.

Imelda- shame on me, I haven't bothered writing to Tesco yet. I'll let you know if I get any joy when I get around to it.

A beautiful blue and white striped box of goodies arrived from my sister-in-law and mother-in-law today containing a baby care book, teddy, a cup with the baby's name on it and tons of gorgeous little outfits. I feel very spoilt! He definitely has enough clothes now- he's got a better wardrobe than I have now :rotfl:

I'm doing ok with this week's challenges but I haven't got around to putting stuff on Amazon so I must remember to raid my bookshelves. Amazon sales have really slowed down anyway so it's not really worth stressing about.

I've gone for a promotion at work- awful timing I know but I'll be back from maternity leave in April so it's just possible that they will agree to it and it's my perfect job, not to mention more dosh. Because of the interview coming up I thought I'd better invest in a maternity suit but blimey they are so flipping expensive. After a week of searching I found one on eBay which I won today! A lovely black Next trouser suit, worn once for the grand total of £21, can't be bad

OneSpike

Mrs_Sparkle wrote:

Thanks for this! I have a bundle of Boots money off vouchers for baby stuff and have to use them by end of October but I don't get paid until 29 September, so only another week and I can start buying baby stuff. That's a great tip to buy a little every month- I will try to stick with this.

Hello and congrats. I must confess I haven't read all this diary (but I will!) so I don't know yet if you're expecting a Sparklo or a Sparklette, but having had a baby myself 4 1/2 years ago I thought I would pass on a load of unsolicited advice!

My first point really is that it's amazing what you don't need when you have a baby. Baby bath and all that special stuff isn't necessary at all, in fact it's better for babies' skin just to bath them with water. It's not like BO is a major issue! Baby wipes contain some nasty chemicals but you can make your own so easily and then you know exactly what's touching your baby. I bought a length of fleece very cheaply, cut it into strips and put them in a plastic box with a mix made up of (cold!) camomile tea, olive oil and about one drop of the gentlest detergent I could find. It lasted as long as the wipes, then I just made new. We used cloth nappies (you've prob been given loads of advice on that but I'm always happy to talk about them) which you can buy second hand then sell on. The only kit you need is a plastic bucket, preferably with a lid.

There are always prams, cots etc on Freecycle. A new cot mattress is advisable but sheets and blankets just need a wash. A Grobag is a good investment. We took anything second hand that was going, which then meant we could make up our own minds about what we did and didn't actually need and what types of things we wanted. For instance SIL gave us her old '4x4' going-over-ploughed-fields pram and it was a nightmare, steered really badly - I got jawache gritting my teeth as I tried to go round corners! I'd have been gutted if I'd spent £100 on it and in the end I bought a £30 Mothercare umbrella style one which we worked to death for two years. There are also breast pumps on Freecycle all the time, but you're probably best getting fitted for a new nursing bra. Personally I found muslin squares indispensable. Several million babygros as babies go through them at an astonishing rate, a fair selection of bottom sheets for those possetting moments (although I put a folded muslin under DDs head so that was all I had to change) and a monitor if your house is big enough.

I could go on in painful and probably embarrassing detail, but basically don't be fooled by all the advertising. People managed for millions of years without all that stuff! You will undoubtedly be very hungry feeding your LO so the food bill might go up, but it will be six months before you're buying food for the baby and even then it will be two cubes of pureed squash and a spoonful of rice a day!

You probably know all this. anyway congrats, and now I'm off to find out what you're going to have!

Mrs_Sparkle

Hi Onespike,

I can save you ploughing through my posts by telling you it's a Sparklo :-)

Thanks for all the tips- in fact I'm quite proud of my money saving as far as the baby's concerned. We've had lots of stuff given or loaned us and we've also used eBay to snap up hardly-worn baby clothes. All our newborn stuff is in cream, white, beige etc so it can be used for the next baby too whatever that happens to be! My mum said she managed with 3 of everything (vests, babygros etc) and Mothercare would prefer you to buy a whole shelf-full so we've gone for a happy medium and have a good selection of basic stuff- about 10 vests and 10 babygros, and somehow have ended up with 4 hats and about a thousand little cardigans but hey, I'm sure he'll puke a lot so I'll probably be very grateful when the time comes.

Oh, I've also got some cloth nappies- bought from a girl off my baby forum who hadn't liked the style so I got a bargain! Nice to see I'm not the only one making home-made wipes and planning to use cloth nappies... people usually roll their eyes and say I'll be fed up within a fortnight...

C x

OneSpike

Mrs_Sparkle wrote:

Hi Onespike,

I can save you ploughing through my posts by telling you it's a Sparklo :-)

Thanks for all the tips- in fact I'm quite proud of my money saving as far as the baby's concerned. We've had lots of stuff given or loaned us and we've also used eBay to snap up hardly-worn baby clothes. All our newborn stuff is in cream, white, beige etc so it can be used for the next baby too whatever that happens to be! My mum said she managed with 3 of everything (vests, babygros etc) and Mothercare would prefer you to buy a whole shelf-full so we've gone for a happy medium and have a good selection of basic stuff- about 10 vests and 10 babygros, and somehow have ended up with 4 hats and about a thousand little cardigans but hey, I'm sure he'll puke a lot so I'll probably be very grateful when the time comes.

Oh, I've also got some cloth nappies- bought from a girl off my baby forum who hadn't liked the style so I got a bargain! Nice to see I'm not the only one making home-made wipes and planning to use cloth nappies... people usually roll their eyes and say I'll be fed up within a fortnight...

C x

Cool, well done you! The thing with clothies is to get a system going, whatever suits you in terms of how often you wash (every day/other day/third day), whether you assemble the naps in wraps when putting away or wait til you're putting them on the baby, what you do when you go out etc. Cloth naps can become an absolute obsession as there are such gorgeous ones around! If it's not to late...if you're buying a birth-potty size try to avoid velcro, as toddlers can easily undo it. We had poppers on Motherease Onesize and Airflo wraps and they were absolutely fantastic - even nursery coped!

Mrs_Sparkle

A small victory! Last month I complained to M&S about their awful bra-fitting service and the response I got from them was extremely poor. I wrote back to the customer services person who had written to me saying how disappointed I was in his customer service, that it was actually worse than the bra-fitting itself. I got in from work to find a very apologetic reply from the same guy and £15 of vouchers :T

Now I have £15 to add to my Christmas pressie fund of £40+ Boots advantage points. See, it pays to complain!

luckylukey

Mrs_Sparkle wrote:

A small victory! Last month I complained to M&S about their awful bra-fitting service and the response I got from them was extremely poor. I wrote back to the customer services person who had written to me saying how disappointed I was in his customer service, that it was actually worse than the bra-fitting itself. I got in from work to find a very apologetic reply from the same guy and £15 of vouchers :T

Now I have £15 to add to my Christmas pressie fund of £40+ Boots advantage points. See, it pays to complain!

What a good idea - i went for a bra fitting and stupidly bought the sizes she recommended and had to return them all the next day as they were far too big - i think i shall write a letter of complaint too - i even said to myself as i bought them this are too big. I may as well have been wearing a baggy shirt when i tried them on!

Mrs_Sparkle

luckylukey wrote:

What a good idea - i went for a bra fitting and stupidly bought the sizes she recommended and had to return them all the next day as they were far too big - i think i shall write a letter of complaint too - i even said to myself as i bought them this are too big. I may as well have been wearing a baggy shirt when i tried them on!

Same complaint here- the assistant convinced me that my back size had gone up 4 inches and when I queried that the bras seemed really loose on me she said I needed room to grow! I mean I know I'm pregnant but an extra 4 inches "just in case"? I took them back the next day and went to Mothercare and have been comfy ever since (and no, I haven't needed the extra inches yet, I think I'm the only pregnant woman not to see any um, boost in that area). Complain! It's the only way they'll realise that their service is dire when it comes to bra fitting

moozie_2

Hey Mrs Sparkle

Just caught up with your thread again and it seems all is going well which is what we like to hear - or read

You made me smile with the 'sparklo' confirmation and with the 'i'm sure he'll puke a lot' comment. Sounds like you are fully prepared in a very DFW/old style kinda way :T

Hope all continues to go well and keep standing up for yourself, I like it!!!

Mrs_Sparkle

moozie wrote:

Hey Mrs Sparkle

Just caught up with your thread again and it seems all is going well which is what we like to hear - or read

You made me smile with the 'sparklo' confirmation and with the 'i'm sure he'll puke a lot' comment. Sounds like you are fully prepared in a very DFW/old style kinda way :T

Hope all continues to go well and keep standing up for yourself, I like it!!!

Hey Moozie, haven't spoken to you for a while...hope it's going well for you.

Off to Tesco now to stock up on dried fruit + spices for my marathon Christmas cake baking session today... I have some gold and cream ribbon leftover from my wedding so am planning to make family presents out of my goodies

Talk to everyone later- hope you have a fantastic weekend!

gallygirl

Glad to hear you and little sparklo are doing well! Good news on M & S - it really is worthwhile complaining. I wrote to egg with queries about my mortgage and mentioned almost in passing that I was disappointed in teh service I'd had - 6 bottles of wine delivered following week :j :j .

Am enjoying all the baby tips, although if I needed them I'd have more to worry about than saving money :eek: . If you are doing this in proper DFW fashion I trust you will be doing without baby bath & shampoo & using stardrops instead:D .

Hope cake turns out ok - feel free to pm me if you want any quality control doing.