Money Saving Tips from Full-time Mums

rhubarbs

Hi,

I bf too and went to a bf support cafe. It was fab and I met loads of people through that. In the early days it was great as the other babies were of a similar age and stage.

My favourite cheap day out with my baby are the free rhyme-time sessions at my local library, singing, musical instruments and cuddly toys! I started going to these when my daughter was about 3 months old and she loves them.

Huggies little swimmer nappies can be rinsed out and reused over and over again (as long as there is no poo...). We go swimming every week now and I'm still only on my 2nd pack and thats only because my daughter outgrew the first size.

Join all the baby clubs. I belong to Tesco, Morrisons, Boots, Huggies, Pampers and Organix. You get a lot of money off vouchers. I use a mixture of real nappies, tescos own and pampers and huggies when I have vouchers. Supermarkets accept each others vouchers so it can be worth joining the club even if you don't shop there.

Real nappies: I use motherease shaped nappies, think they're great. My council runs a nappy green scheme, you can either get a trial pack of nappies or cash back on a real nappy purchase.

When it comes to weaning homecooking is the best value. I started off with the puree approach but changed to baby-led weaning. My daughter preferred this method and it saved me time and money. This link explains the principal:-
http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html

NCT and nearly new sales are fab.

Sweet_Pea_2

I found my slow cooker a godsend. I bought it when I was pregnant with DD2 (now 8) when she was born I had a broken arm/dislocated elbow and was in plaster from my fingertips to my shoulder. It was a nightmare as DD1 was still in nappies too, and you really cant do much with one arm! My mum was the main godsend as she all but moved in during the day whilst OH was at work, she used to bung all the ingredients for tea into the slow cooker for me and OH would dish up when he came home. I bought it after hearing about it from a friend at work, who also found hers a godsend after her second was born.

I used pampers for DD1 but I used Sainsburys own nappies on DD2 and didnt find any difference except for price. I still buy wet wipes, always have a packet in the loo and use them to take out in the car if we are eating out as DD2 still gets covered in tomato ketchup. I buy Aldi's mamia wipes and they are great, no difference between them and the more expensive branded ones in my opinion.

However, I would have to add that if I could go back in time and do it all again I would do things so differently. Firstly I would try washable nappies, the ones that are shaped like disposables. Secondly I would use water and cotton wool on bottoms instead of wipes. Thirdly I would go more for second hand options, ebay are brilliant for bargains with kids clothes. If I only knew then what I know now, I could weep when I think of all the money we have spent on toys, clothes and baby equipment most of which we sold at car boot sales for giveaway prices.

Aoife's_mum

Googled flylady - looks very interesting, so thanks for that lynzpower - I've already signed up.

Interesting to think of what we'd do differently - I do the washable nappies and am glad I did - I use tots bots which worked well for me, but there is a lot out there and plenty of sites offering advice, so shop around. The babyshow is actually quite good for looking at all the different sorts available. I would agree on the clothes though - especially in the first year you get through them soo quickly - with my second I have used a lot more borrowed or second hand, but haven't yet got to a NCT sale, or tried a slow cooker, though I am being persuaded...

Lillibet_2

Hi Twinklybev

My son is just comming upto 15 months old, I found the first few months at home with him really diffcuilt which made me feel guilty because I had always wanted to be a SAHM:o My fisrt peice of advice would be don't feel guilty, it's bloody hard work!
Well done on the breast feeding, this is draining in iteself & hurts like hell at first, I managed 9 months thanks totally to a fab person on this site who gave me lots & lots of support (You're a total star Moggins:A).

I take Spud to baby signing classes, have done since he was 4 months old. Not cheap at £4.50 a week but he seems to love them & I have made lots of friends throguh this class. To the poster who has encountered problems, firstly please don't confuse any kind of baby signing with the British sign language for the deaf, they are completley different. Baby signing is just a stepping stone until they learn to talk & it is very very important that you always say the word several times whenever you use a sign. And there is a sign for needing the potty : it is one finger rubbed up & down the same side lapel area, maybe this will help? Anyway, I love our class & Spud has been signing since 9 months old & is now comming out with his first words in context (Ball is popular at the mo!)

I tried gymbabes but this is very expensive & I couldn't afford it, plus I didnt think it offered that much chance for interaction between babies or other parents but I know some parents love to use it.

I go to a free singing & story session every week at the local libriary & also to a mother & baby group at our local church hall which is a nominal amount. I do find it quite difficult to make freinds & even to talk to people but I am getting their slowly, it helps that I have a very chatty neighbour with a young baby & through her openess I am meeting new people too (she knows I can be a bit shy so she makes friends with someone & then introduces me). I also have started attending church withspud on a sunday morning. Now this would obviously depend on your religious persuasion but I was brought up to attend church & went to church schools etc, just had become rather lazy about it in my adulthood, but I felt I wanted our son to have the same moral guidance I had & have found our local church very welcomiing & have made freinds with 2 familes who also attend. It isn't all God-squad, they are SAHM/part time working mums like me & attending tchurch gave me an opportunity to break the ice with them & I look forward to seeing everyone on a sunday & having the old dears coo over Spud & seeing that they are all OK too.

I fidn my slow cooker invaluable, I prep the veg the night before then 1st thing before I get Spud up in the morning thorw everything in & let it do it's thing & it's ready in the evening with no effort on my part. They are also very economical on the electricity.

I like to meal plan, this helps with shopping lists & means things don't go to waste.

Obviously it's much more difficult to go out in the evenings now so we tend to have lots of people round to us, either for dinner (slow cooker means I don;t have to worry about producing a Delia-standard meal at bathtime & can utalise cheap cuts of meat without anyone suspecting the meal cost only £1 a head:D) or drinks (they usually bring the wine, I make home made savoury nibbles). Plus it also gies me a reason to keep teh house tidy, otherwise I tend to be a slob:o

Finally, make sure you are getting enough sleep! All teh planning & good intentions go to pot when you are tired so kip any chance you get! I thought the sleep would get easier as Spud got a bit older, but I am still permenantly knackered & tend to nap most afternoons! But it means I am alert to do things after he has gone to bed (erm...like lurk on here:o), not a zombie making mistakes beacuse I'm shattered!

HTH;)

callansdad

Sorry, had to add my piece.

I use Pampers Sensitive wipes and if they are out of stock then i use Pampers normal ones. I usually get them from Asdas, my local one has been doing a box of 6 for £5.48 for a few months now so i stock up often. They work out cheaper than the George ones and because my little lady has excema i have found that these agree with her better than any others. George own wipes are also quite good and Johnsons were a fave of mine (only on special offer) for DS. Tried a few value ones and they are all far to dry and thin for the job.

Although i think that Pampers Active Fits are the best nappy there can be they are expensive so i normally opt for Pampers Baby Dry. Once again my local Asdas normally do great deals and the box which contains 2 packs are on offer for £8 just now compared to their normal price of £11.48 (which is normally cheaper than Pampers elsewhere). I have tried Huggies a few times when they have been cheap but they gave both my kids horrid nappy rash and didn't keep in any kind of soiling. Tried Tesco normal ones too and ended up spending a fortune on stain removers to get rid of the explosions that had occured, needless to say i never bought them again. When we are really on a tight budget we buy Asda George nappies if Pampers isn't on offer. When Pampers is on offer we go for them as the difference per nappy is hardly anything but George nappies i have found to be the nearest thing to Pampers, keeps in leaks and doesn't play havoc with baby's bottom. Now that DS is potty trained he still needs a nappy during the night so we have opted for Asda Smart Price ones, they have that horrible rustly outer that i hate but do the job for his night time wees.

All of this is just down to my personal experience and each child is different. What agrees with one might not agree with an other, its all trial and error.

I am currently pregnant with number 3 and when he/she arrives i will be opting for cotton wool and water. Don't know if it will work out cheaper yet and i will still have wipes at the ready in case of explosions. As for nappies i would quite like to try reusables but i don't know anyone that uses them and i am unsure of them mainly because of lack of information and the fact that i can never seem to keep up with my washing as it is!

When i had DS i spent an absolute fortune on jars and packets of babyfood. With DD i made it all myself and once tried to give her a jar in Asdas and she refused point blank. I must have saved a fortune making my own and freezing and i was safe in the knowledge that i knew what was in her food. There are some decent books out there on baby food, i bought one from Asdas for £3 odd and it was invaluable (that and my trusty hand blender).

Breastfeeding also saves a fortune

As for clothing, beg, steal and borrow. I spend a fortune on mine (a huge weakness) but i also scour charity shops and Ebay for bargains. Its a good idea to stick to quality brand name clothing when buying second hand. In my experience you can wash something from say Asdas/Tescos and it looks bobbled and well worn in no time at all but clothes from Next wash brilliantly and are great when buying second hand as the wash wear is never that bad unless its been worn a million times and kids grow so quickly theres no use on spending £10 on a pair of jeans.

Toys.......once again car boots, charity shops etc. A younger child is stimulated more with things around them. I used to make up what was called a treasure basket. It was filled with safe household objects and things around me. For example, spoons, plastic bowls, cotton reels. Just make sure that the objects are safe and clean as kids love exploring with their mouths. Never leave them alone with them though. DD used to have a fascination with my pegs.

Don't ever skimp and buy or accept a second hand car seat. Its too much of a risk.

Zed42

callansdad wrote:

I am currently pregnant with number 3 and when he/she arrives i will be opting for cotton wool and water. Don't know if it will work out cheaper yet and i will still have wipes at the ready in case of explosions. As for nappies i would quite like to try reusables but i don't know anyone that uses them and i am unsure of them mainly because of lack of information and the fact that i can never seem to keep up with my washing as it is!

I used cloth wipes and cotton nappies with my DD, if you want any advice, just holler.

At the v.least, I found that cloth wipes and water were far better for her skin than anything else, and I just lobbed them in the nappy bucket and washed them with the nappies. And now she is well and truly potty trained, I still use flannels at mealtimes instead of wipes, which I reckon still works out dirt cheap - pack of 10 flannels from Ikea was £1.

Cloth nappy wise there are several sites which I found good (nappylady.co..uk, kittykins.co.uk to name 2). You can either buy new, or buy 2nd hand .... and the 2nd hand re-sale value is good also

alice's_mum

Anyway he wont speak now. instead he uses sign language - i only understand a little as the signs he knows he learnt himself from a childrens programme called something special (the presenter uses sign language)

the guy is Mr Tumble - he uses Macaton (SP) it's the sign language used for people with Downs Syndrome. If your bothered that this is all he is using then speak to your health Visitor - my DS language was really difficult to understand until he was about 3½ and then suddenly if all just fell into place. My DD has a downs boy in their class shes in Reception and all the kids are so chuffed to be learning these new signs and all using them madly at present !

Spendless

My HV ran a weekly coffee morning in an unused room at our GPs. You could go there from your baby being newborn till they walked. It was free, you just paid for your drink. They put baby mats and mobiles etc out for the babies, you could get baby weighed there and the HV was on hand if you had specific questions to ask. I made most of my friends there and now we are all at the same nursery together with our now 3 year olds and they will all go on to the same primary school. Worth asking if something similar runs in your area.

Gryfon

Just want to agree with the cloth nappies, I bought them for my DS (as for some reason when I had my DD I never thought about it) which means that this time I have loads of nappies already!!! Knew there was a reason I hadn't sold them!

Being at home means that you can cook everything from scratch which helps, though I'm a bit hopeless at this at the moment from being so tired all the time!

Also NCT nearly new sales are great as you can find some real bargains there and the clothes are in such good condition!

callansdad

Zed42 wrote:

I used cloth wipes and cotton nappies with my DD, if you want any advice, just holler.

At the v.least, I found that cloth wipes and water were far better for her skin than anything else, and I just lobbed them in the nappy bucket and washed them with the nappies. And now she is well and truly potty trained, I still use flannels at mealtimes instead of wipes, which I reckon still works out dirt cheap - pack of 10 flannels from Ikea was £1.

Cloth nappy wise there are several sites which I found good (nappylady.co..uk, kittykins.co.uk to name 2). You can either buy new, or buy 2nd hand .... and the 2nd hand re-sale value is good also

Thank you, is the Ikea flannels the same ones you used on baby's botty? That would work out even cheaper than cotton wool and would probably withstand the explosions much better as well. Is it thenappylady.co.... i am in the midst of reading some of the articles just now and am finding it very interesting.