What things you bought your kids which WEREN'T a waste of money

Philycheesesteak

There's been a few threads about waste of money purchases, and kids stuff seems to rank up there with old cars.

But what toys did your kids (or if you haven't got them did you as a kid) enjoy playing with and were gvfm.

For my daughters:

Toy push chair (had to get two obviously) they've had hours of fun pushing them around. My eldest used to look like a new york tramp putting all her precious things in or on it. It was less than a tenner.

Dolls. Didn't need to have as many as they got but there was one the cheapest and ugliest doll you've ever seen, both of them adored baby chaka. (Chaka is Bulgarian for wait/stay. My wife kept on saying the "baby has to wait in the car" etc, so they thought that was her name.)

Small Beach ball. Fun indoors and out.

Slide in the garden, they've loved that.

Tea set, cheap at bargain madness so no matter when pieces got broken over time.

Leapfrog Phonic magnetic letters. You put it in the machine and it tells you the letter and how to say it, really good learning tool for the under 4's. My younger daughter just likes pressing the music button which sings the alphabet song. Great kitchen entertainment.

Colapsable tunnel.

Aqua draw - NO Mess!!

Cardboard boxes: Boats / Cars lets their imagination go wild.


Me personally I have fond memories of my lego, matchbox cars and transformers.

lovethymini

A simple bouncy ball - It has my 3 year old son in stitches when we throw it up the stairs, he plays with it for ages!

Sunny_spell

Best things we bought for our children:

1) Lego (yes, it's not cheap but they have been playing with lego for years, creating & rebuilding different things)

2) Hama beads (they love them! Again, creating all sorts of things: letters, animals, flowers etc)

3) Swings & slide from TP toys (my OH built a tree house to go with them).

4) Annual pass to Marwell Zoo (we live just 20 min away & it was brilliant. It's open all year so we always could go and spend some time there with no rush. My DD wants to be a zoo keeper! )

5) Could I put gerbils and hamster ( they are not "things" but getting animal pets was the best thing for our kids. They live in different cages , kids look after them very well, take care of them & save money to get them their fav snack or chewing toy).

bertie200

a little striped tiger.

hubby bought it for Daughter when she was born, I was expecting a pink bunny or teddy, but he picked out this little tiger.

the best thing ever bought, the tiger has gone everywhere abroad with us, Daughter is now 27 and still has him, he looks tatty but still gets popped in the suitcase when she travels.

when she was small we tried a buy another one as we were paranoid that he would get lost, but we never found another one.

the best thing ever bought, think he was about £8, which was quite a bit back then, but he has turned out to be priceless!

jcr16

lego , doll's, castles, garage, cars, colouring books, pens and pencils, reading books, cuddly toys, card games, puzzles, fireman sam and peppa pig toys, swings and slide, bikes, trikes, scooters, trampoline, ball's, masks, dressing up clothes to name a few, oh and the best freebie, card board boxes.

my children never stop playing and using their imagination. i love watching them or joining in.

shazziere

white board and pens!my daughter spends hours playing schools with them............all her friends have copied her

picnmix

Play kitchen, pans and food, bought for eldest daughter and she played for hours, still does, and now her little sis plays with it, so a buy of 40quid has had, at the moment 5 years of nearly daily play, and is still their favourite toy. Also great in the summer as move it outside and provide jugs of water for hours of fun. We have tea parties that they pretend to bake with it, dolls tea parties, it gets used as a school kitchen, hospital kitchen the list is endless.

melroccan

Duplo and Brio

julie97au

Our trampoline - cost quite a bit when we bought it but they have had years of fun on it.

emmell

A great big black gorilla with a leather (ish) chest, saved us having to buy a baby gate at my mothers house. My Mum used to sit it on the bottom of the stairs and my son daren't go near it.
As for things he really got his moneys worth out of was figures, he-man, thundercats, ghostbusters, turtles, wrestlers, transformers, oh and micromachines. Still got them all in the loft and he's 27 now and he keeps threatening to get them all down.
He now collects the new transformers and collectable figures from movies (mainly horror).
ML.

ska_lover

Cosy coupe car http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/kids-bikes-&-ride-ons/unbranded-cozy-coupe-ii-car-little-tikes.asp

It was a much loved car, my son spent hours in it and those toys are so durable after he had had it for years, we still passed it on to a friend with a smaller child as it was still in great condition