Having a baby Old Style???

NinaM

Check out Ikea for amazingly cheap cots, bedding and highchairs. Often cheaper than second-hand. Your local NCT group will also hold nearly new sales for baby gear. Own brand nappies are far cheaper than pampers or huggies and just as good. Collect all the literature that you are given (Emma's diary, bounty guides) as these often contain money off vouchers and free samples. I can guarantee you will be bombarded with "offers" but ignore them: bronzed foot and hand prints are very nice but not essential.

chevalier

Just reading through the posts. If you do suffer from nausea in the mornings, can I suggest that the night before you take two ginger biscuits to bed with you? On waking eat said biscuits before getting out of bed. Ginger has anti nausea properties and helped alot with me. Also it is a treat first thing!.....As long as you like ginger that is!
best of luck.

jenpoptab

I have two babies. I bought very little new.

Nearly all of my two year olds clothes have come from charity shops, car boots or as gifts. My 12 week old has most of number ones hand me downs plus the new gifts friends and family bought even though I told everybody not to worry as we already had so much.

I bought my cot of a friend for £20 then bought brand new matress.

Have borrowed baby bath- used couple of times and was more hassle so just bath baby on stand that was bought for us, it raises baby out of water so that i don't have to hold her whilst bathing.

Bought tandem buggy on e-bay for £56, was £120 new, in near new condition.

Skipped cot bed/ toddler bed and went straight to big bed, got a baby dan side ( so that she doesn't fall out) for a fiver in local paper.

I now have so much stuff in my loft it's ridiculous and I'm probably not having anymore kiddies, so I now have to decide what to do with it all, do I try and sell it or give it away.

jenpoptab

Also ( sorry just thought of this after other post), I breastfeed, make most meals from scratch, use washable nappies and still manage to work 31 hours per week, although I am currently on maternity leave, however I did manage to still breastfeed no1 when I returned to work when she was 6 months old, so it can be done. All of this is cheap or free.

Kyley_Wyleykat

Hello. First message/reply for me, couldn't resist on this particular subject! I can only say Ancasta that you have got some good advice here. Most people want some new bits for a baby but I found I was given loads that looked brand new. Anyway once the baby is with you, a brand new clothes outfit might have to be changed before you even leave the house so you soon stop stressing about that!! A lot of gorgeous 'designer' baby gear is actually very impractical/ uncomfortable for the baby too.
I'm just pregnant with my 3rd! Not even told people yet!! The question of money never even crossed our minds. It doesn't have to be expensive at all.
2nd preganancy I really caught on and have since done a lot of e-bay dealing. I bought lovely stuff I would never have otherwise been able to afford and then when baby had grown out of it sold it back again!
Don't think too badly of me but, having learnt my lesson 1st time around, I also sold some brand new gifts I had been given and knew would never get used e.g white fleece top, toys we already had. The money then went into baby's account.
I could go on and on and on, especially about making food and breast feeding ( do and do ) so I won't!

honey

Hello and welcome Kyley Wyleykat :hello:

Congratulations on expecting your third baby. DH and I think we have finally decided to start trying for our third. Seems like a harder decision and a bigger jump than for our first two!

Hope all goes well and hope you enjoy getting to know everyone at MSE

Kerryatter

Congratulations on your life changing decision!

Firstly I hope that it happens fairly quickly for you - it took my dh and I over 2 years to conceive - in the end it cost us over £3,000 in IVF fees so not much money saving there, but she's worth every single penny!

Right - my tips for you are:

Buy your pushchair, car seat and cot (or at least the matress) new.
I bought all of my stuff in sales etc, but there's a shop in Birmingham (near the Bull Ring) called 'Just Kidding' who do a fantastic offer - if you buy your travel system from them they give you a free cot bed!! They also do the range of Mamas and Papas nursery stuff with around a third off.

One fantastic place to get new pushchairs, highchairs and travel cots is a company called Jomodo4kids on Ebay - I got a brand new Hauck buggy for £23!

We actually made a list of the stuff that we needed so that when people asked we could get them to buy something that we actually needed - very much like a wedding list.

Clothes - For the first couple of months you'll have more clothes than you can possibly get the baby into as everyone will buy you clothes! Otherwise do buy second hand - babies grow SO quickly that you'll find second hand clothes are barely worn! (I have a lovely selection of baby girls stuff if you're interested!!) As this baby will be your first you'll be desperate to buy at least a couple of outfits new - my big tip is the Next Sale! I buy all my daughters clothes in that - I get outfits in her 'now' size and the next two sizes up. The stuff is fantastically made, washes brilliantly and looks beautiful and in the sale you can pick stuff up for half price!

I hope that this helps

Good luck

Kerry x

Kyley_Wyleykat

Incidentally, with regard to going back to work, I'd have gone absolutly BONKERS if I was at home full time until they went to school!! I have a happy medium now, after trying various things, and work part-time for myself. My youngest is two and she goes to an excellent minder one morning a week just so I know she's had some quality time AWAY from me :-D. It's wonderful when they're pleased to see you. I work about 16 hours total.

And I'm a bright August baby grown up!!

apprentice_tycoon

You can all call me a real wet blanket on this - we are at the other end of the baby business - ours are either side of 20 years old and no matter how cheaply you can get them through the first couple of years with second hand cots, buggies and clothes etc - we did all of that - it's when they get older that the expenses get heavy. Our eldest is at Uni and it's a major undertaking money wise, we are sending him £80.00 per week for his expenses and our other teen is shaping up for Uni too, so double the costs to come.
So make the most of the second-hand babystuff years because if all your babies turn out to have aspirations then you are going to need every penny.:eek:

Spendless

bluep wrote:

Sigh. Katinkka, please don't accuse me of misleading people. I've switched to formula after breastfeeding and we get through 2+ packs of Omeno comfort formula a week at £7.49 a tub - so some months this is over £100 without adding the cost of bottles and buying bigger sized teats. Different formulas have different thicknesses as well - so some babies drink more formula on different makes.

Of course there are mothers who can't breastfeed due to medical or physical problems and those who chose not to as well, I DO NOT judge anyone for either choice. As asked by the OP, I was merely saying that this is a big part of our monthly outgoings at the moment.

Have you checked whether you can get the milk cheaper at your baby clinic?

I had my own reasons for breastfeeding and in 2000 the SMA milk was £1 cheaper than supermarkets. In 2003 when I had daughter the difference was pence, but their were big savings to be had on diff brands the Aptamil/Milumil being the biggest saving.

Your HV should be able to give you details.

Regarding babies and birthdays. I'm a Sept baby and was put in a class with older kids and taught the higher years class work!!!! (as I've said already on another thread my head re-assures me that this no longer happens!). I managed ok but if I'd been a child struggling academically regardless of my Autumn birthday I think that would have been hard.

Interestingly my sons school though it sometimes does mixed year classess doesn't do it by birthdays and goes on the ability of the child to be in a class of older children.

My 2 are both march babies and the one I lost was also due in March but I can give a simple explanation for this -I conceive very easily and take my holidays in June ; - )