Having a baby Old Style???

Tippytoes

When my first was born, we didn't have a pot to pee in. It's surprising how you can make do and mend when you have to.

Baby's grow so quickly, there's no point spending a fortune on clothing. My OH made a crib out of an old wooden drawer (took the handles off!). I made sheets for it out of old bed sheets.

When baby outgrew drawer, we bought a travel cot instead of a normal one. Used as a static cot, travel cot and later on, playpen, then toybox. I could probably write a book about the things we did... but money was tight.

It's true that necessity is the mother of invention. You will find ways of being thrifty and actually, it's rather fun to do!

Congrats!

Snowy_Owl

[QUOTE=lally666young;52074269And_when_it_comes_let_it_be_a_baby_.[/QUOTE]

And don't forget to let it be a child when it gets to school!!!!!As a teacher, they are not "babies" for long and it became very important for me to include styructured play in my infant classroom ,especially for my bright pupils who were going to be pushed no matter what.

Congratulations and wishing you all the best !!! xxxxx

Snowy

lally666young

We use washable nappies, they are great and we have saved a load. Also we pured little ladies veggies and that saved us a fortune also. Shop for second hand clothes. I know new ones are nice, but they grow so fast. I make the little lady pinafores and trousers. The only things I buy new are shoes and vests as I am pretty picky about those.
Little lady is getting homeschooled as both my sons got badly bullied. But that is another hurdle to cross when the little one gets older. And yes she has plenty of friends and loves going to playgroup and tumble tots.

narabanekeater

Morning ive done it 3 times now and id do it again if I couldnt. Newborns need very little. Lots of love and cuddles, somewhere to sleep and a nappy and sleepsuit. Checkout your local council as many give cashback for buying nappies (ours did £30) my DD2 is child 3 and shes almost 10 months and still in 3-6 clothes and the very most shes a little dot. Please dont get caught up in the baby should be doing this at his age cause my HV said so game. It reduced me to tears many times.
Enjoy this time with your partner. I can still remember the moment DD1 was born and you couldnt see his face for tears. Unlike DD2 who came a bit to quick and I thought he was going to pass out.
Theres lots of freebie clubs like Tesco, Asda and Bounty and Boots which are worth joining. With Boots you get a free changing bag when you buy nappies which youll need while in hospital even if you intened to cloth bum. A massive congratulations.

roxiegriff

congratulations!:j
im 37+5 and we have kept this baby much more low cost than dd

online at tesco they are selling a 3 pack of white sleepsuits for £3

keep an eye out for baby items on facebook groups as things as baby items are often gifted or sold very cheaply

i was gifted my moses basket, stand and bedding from a fb group then i bought a brand new mattress from ebay for £4.20 including delivery

babies dont need a moses basket though as they out grow them sooo quick ,

also keep and eye out on ebay for things in your area that are pick up only, you can get some great bargains, i got a tomy baby carrier for 99p that has hardly been used , if it was even used lol

we arent buying a cot, as baby will co sleep with us, as il be breast feeding, so it makes night feeds much easier, so i wont even have to sit up lol

remember to sign up for all the baby groups to get sent out freebies and vouchers

if you use the boots vouchers during their baby 3 for 2 event, it works out that you get extra things for free lol :money:


remember to claim the free huggies starter kit from asda , but do that during the baby event as the voucher is for £5 but during the baby event its only £3 and it comes with more vouchers in it, £2 off huggies newborn nappies and £1 off pure wipes. use the wipes voucher in boots when they are on offer for £1 so then you will get paid 10p of boots points to take away the wipes. use the £2 off huggies newborn nappies to get another starter set costing you just £1

but reusable nappies will be much cheaper in the long run
(i wanted to use reusables but OH is really set against it even though his mum used them on him)

dont buy mothercare maternity bras, just buy normal non wired support bras, a fraction of the cost but exactly the same

i dont know how tall you are but if you are tall maternity tshirts wont fit for long and your bump will poke out, your much better off using bump bands or getting a few cheap long stretchy vest tops from primark

maternity jeans dont fit all bump shapes and at different stages of your pregnancy you may favour different styles, which will ed up very expensivve, so stick to leggings

dont reley on the lists that you get in baby catalogues, babies dont need much , they dont need a baby bath, or bath seat, or a fancy cot mobile, or a nappy bin etc

we bought our buggy in the 25% off babies r us discount event, so keep an out out for sales and remember to take advantage of price match garentees

you can get a car seat that suits from newborn till age 4 or 11, this works out much better value than buying an infant carrier then having to buy a new car seat again at 9 months

optimistic-mummy

£300-£600

hi everyone, i was just wondering how much you think you could equip a baby for on a shoe string budget. im asking this question after a family member spent more than £2000 on their baby and the baby is only 3 weeks old :eek: most of this was funded by debt
this got me and my partner thinking how much could we equip a baby for to get us through the first few weeks with no help from friends or family we reckon by buying off ebay, facebook sales pages, second hand shops ect we could do it for less than £400 for everything we would need for the first few weeks.
broken down this is what we came up with :

pram,carrycot(second hand) and carseat(new)=£150 max

cot & bedding (secondhand) and new mattress=£100 max

0-3 baby clothes=£30 max (black bags full locally sell for around £15)

nappies and wipes=£40

breastfeed=free

total £320.00

obv this is the bare essentials but i remember when i had my son the first few weeks all he did was sleep, eat want cuddles,love ect and fill his nappy. so if you were only buying to get you through the first month what would you buy ...and is there anything ive missed ??? if there has already been a thread for this id be interested to read it but had a quick look and couldn't find anything xxx

Pink.

Have a read through this thread for ideas of what others spend:

Having a baby Old Style???

I'll add this thread to that one later to keep the advice and suggestions together.

Pink

Uniscots97

£100-£300

I was talking with my Mum the other night regarding this. OH and I would love to start a family but it seems every time we think about it yet another spanner gets thrown in the works. What my Mum said was babies don't cost much, its their car that does. She and Dad had me in their early twenties (I'm mid 30's) and she said she wouldn't have coped without both my Gran's. Both didn't work (that was the norm in that generation once you were married), my cot was bought from an ad in the local paper and a lot of clothes were given from other families who's babies had outgrown them. I did get an eye-opener a few years ago when a friend announced she was expecting and within 2 weeks both her and her husband were made redundant (they didn't know it was going to happen). They were panicking (sp?) as their families didn't have much money either. We all rallied round and put an SOS out on freecycle. Between myself and her sister we managed to get the following from freecycle:-

travel system (signs of wear but still loads of use)
buggy
cosy toes
moses basket and stand
cot & unused cot mattress (bought by an older couple in case their granchild came to stay, but was never used as the family moved abroad for work)
pram blankets
cot bedding
toys
.... and bin bags full of clothes

there are a lot of good people out there. This made a big difference to my friend.

Going4TheDream

I suppose you can spend as much or as little as you wish (can afford) really

I see loads and loads of baby stuff at the car boot sale I go to, a lot of clothes admittedly but also baby equipment , high chairs, baby chairs and the like, nearly all in excellent condition, my baby days are long over now but I don't think I would ever buy new things like that if they weren't, except a cot mattress or maybe safety stuff.

Free cycle is a great UnixgirlUk, not everyone ebays their stuff or sells it. I know I have gifted some great things that I no longer need rather than sell them, often just to clear space.

Butterfly_Brain

£100-£300

My DD was born in the 80's when we had just bought our house, and interest rates were 15%.:eek:
You don't need a baby bath I used a washing up bowl in the sink for the first 3 months. I cut down an old double sized flannelette sheet to make a pair of fitted cot sheets and top sheets, then I dyed them lemon which was nice and neutral. I knitted the cot and pram blankets, I only bought 3 each of newborn vests and baby-grows because they grow out of them so quickly and I asked friends and family to buy 6 to 9 month vests and baby-grows when the baby was born instead. Babies spend most of the first couple of months in babygrows, so I didn't see the need of buying anything else at the time. I knitted all the cardigans, hats, mitts, booties. I took advantage of all the freebies on offer so toiletries wise I was pretty much set for a month. The pram was a leaving gift from work and the cot and mattress was bought by the in-laws. We bought a new car seat for safety though.