Best value places for baby stuff?

BitterAndTwisted

My advice? Budget for high-value items and things you won't want previously-used but absolutely nothing for clothes and bed-linens and things like that. You will be inundated with gifts if it's your first baby once people know you are expecting, and you'll also be inundated with offers of barely-used things as well. Most especially if you put the word out that you would be grateful for things passed on. Once you are preggo you're going to meet dozens of other parent who all have their own networks too so things could come your way with almost no effort on your part at all.

Newborns can be very cheap to provide for. It's when they get a bit older and the novelty has worn off slightly with family and friends when you might need to start spending good money. That's where places like ebay and car-boots can come into their own.

dizziblonde

lozza1985 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your help so far. Were lucky in that the furniture we have in the (currently) spare room will be fine for baby, just need a cot.

One thing we've looked at and can't get our heads round is the travel system/buggies - we always drive places so would only use when we get to where going, so I guess a smaller easier to pack in the car system is best?

Definitely planning on getting at least some second hand baby clothes, seem lots of lovely looking bundles on the selling groups on Facebook.

We aren't bothered about brand really, so long it does the job and looks alright without costing a fortune were happy!

What sort of bottle sterilisers/bottles and things are best?

With the travel system other things can come into play - ease of it folding down for example - we definitely didn't want one we had to take the seat off to fold. Depends what car you have at the time about how small-folding you need it to be.

Bottles are such an individual thing - what works with one baby might not work with another. We use Avent - they've worked ok with us from the start - other people can't get on with them. Sterliser-wise - we had an Avent microwave job, it barely fit in our microwave and after a day of using it we found it so utterly inconvenient we went out and got an old fashioned cold-water Milton type one which works much better for us... other people find the microwave ones fine (just check they fit in your microwave).

Nappies are similarly a very individual choice - some babies really get on with one brand, but another baby may get leaks and poo explosions everywhere depending on how they're built - and sometimes one size won't work at all in a particular brand but the next size up and they suddenly become awesome (Tesco's size 0 premature ones were AWFUL for us, but I really like them now she's in size 1).

And no one bought us newborn clothes - all 0-3 months so we had to buy tonnes of our own stuff for the first sizes... especially considering she was in early baby > tiny baby > newborn and only hit 0-3 months in the last week (aged 2 months)! I didn't return and swap stuff - I had drawers on the go for the next three clothes sizes and bought stuff in sales, got given stuff and just put it in the appropriate drawer - we're sorted till 6 month-size clothes now (and since she's so small and looks nearly 2 months younger than she is - probably nearer 8 months really) and I'm now grabbing stuff in 6-9 months when I see bargains ready for then!

Lots of our short-term stuff (things like moses baskets that they're not generally in for long) came to us on loan from a family member - when we're finished with it it'll go into storage till they have their second one.

borokat

To help you decide which pram to get I recommend looking at the mumsnet forum, the people on there are really helpful if you put on details about your lifestyle, space you have etc they will come up with some ideas. You have to go and try the prams really though and see what you like. I also recommend signing up for a which? trial so you can read the full reviews on there, and be reassured that pram/car seat etc is safe and durable.
The travel system is ideal if you are a car user as you can attach the car seat to the chassis and wheel around without waking baby up. They also come with carrycots (sometimes you pay more for these) so baby can be all snuggled up when they are newborn. Carrycots can also double as first bed - and again you can remove from the chassis and bring indoors without disturbing the baby.
I'm awaiting the arrival of my first and have only done a little shopping so far but know which pram I'm going to get. I would advise you to save up as much as possible, you will always find something to spend the money on!!!

lozza1985

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

My advice? Budget for high-value items and things you won't want previously-used but absolutely nothing for clothes and bed-linens and things like that. You will be inundated with gifts if it's your first baby once people know you are expecting, and you'll also be inundated with offers of barely-used things as well. Most especially if you put the word out that you would be grateful for things passed on. Once you are preggo you're going to meet dozens of other parent who all have their own networks too so things could come your way with almost no effort on your part at all.

Newborns can be very cheap to provide for. It's when they get a bit older and the novelty has worn off slightly with family and friends when you might need to start spending good money. That's where places like ebay and car-boots can come into their own.

Thanks yeah we're saving towards the big things mainly, though I'm not sure how much we would be bought/given by friends (only "friends" are my work colleagues lol), and family (close family most definitely, but not extended. I might be surprised, but I highly doubt it ). But we figure between second hand / primark / sales / saving our tesco vouchers for when they have a double up event, we should be fine for clothes And my husband prides himself on finding freebies & vouchers online so he'll be in his element trying to get lots of free samples etc :T

I think our main problem at the moment is not knowing where to begin :rotfl:

lozza1985

dizziblonde wrote: »

Nappies are similarly a very individual choice - some babies really get on with one brand, but another baby may get leaks and poo explosions everywhere depending on how they're built - and sometimes one size won't work at all in a particular brand but the next size up and they suddenly become awesome (Tesco's size 0 premature ones were AWFUL for us, but I really like them now she's in size 1).

And no one bought us newborn clothes - all 0-3 months so we had to buy tonnes of our own stuff for the first sizes... especially considering she was in early baby > tiny baby > newborn and only hit 0-3 months in the last week (aged 2 months)! I didn't return and swap stuff - I had drawers on the go for the next three clothes sizes and bought stuff in sales, got given stuff and just put it in the appropriate drawer - we're sorted till 6 month-size clothes now (and since she's so small and looks nearly 2 months younger than she is - probably nearer 8 months really) and I'm now grabbing stuff in 6-9 months when I see bargains ready for then!

Lots of our short-term stuff (things like moses baskets that they're not generally in for long) came to us on loan from a family member - when we're finished with it it'll go into storage till they have their second one.

Thanks, not something I'd thought of for the nappies not necessarily fitting, I guess it's like all the clothes shops having different sizes/shapes instead of a standard one!

And being very blonde (even though I'd brunette!), hadn't even realised that newborns have a different size from 0-3 month so that's something we'll have to remember when getting clothes :rotfl:

dizziblonde

The clothes thing is a flipping nightmare as it's hard to predict what size they'll be when they come out - you could end up with a whopper who goes straight into 0-3 clothes, or you could end up like I did with a little 4lb premature girlie and having to dispatch the grandmothers to rake all the shops for early baby sized stuff on a crisis run. Likewise - you might end up with a child that burns through one age-range of clothes really fast, or one that lingers for a really long time in one size (we spent a good 2 months in or below newborn - can't see us being in 0-3 anywhere near as long) depending on how a growth spurt hits.

Shops have different fits as well - Primark I've noticed seem to go for the long arms and legs on their babygros... which is brilliant if you end up with my daughter who is all arms and legs, but less good if you end up with a baby with a chunky body needing to go up a size for that, but with shorter limbs!

Shops like Mamas and Papas (beautiful stuff but gawd the prices make me want to sob) have outlet stores in some of the factory shopping places (I know there's one in the outlet centre in Mansfield for example), likewise Next have clearance places and my mum is forever picking us stuff up in the Matalan clearance near her work... and I heard the other day that there's even a Tommy Tippee outlet shop at their factory in Northumberland that I never knew about before (have never been in there though so no idea what the pickings are like).

Our local charity shops occasionally seem to get some really good baby stuff in - they had a whole travel system in for £60 the other week - obviously second hand car seats are dicey ground, but the buggy and pram setups looked in really really good condition.

When we bought our pram (although I now have severe buyer's remorse about the colour of it) we made a trip down to kiddicare to try loads of ones out there. Having the time to check how things folded, steered and changed modes (and the staff to show you this) really helped a load more than any forums agonising over which model and colour pack ever did. Checking that the folded up pram fits in your car boot as well is a must-do... and the one that caught us out a bit - checking the car seat fits with however you have the front seats set up in your car (my husband has to have his seat right back because of his height, thankfully we discovered before the baby arrived that it meant that the car seat didn't fit comfortably behind him wihtout being on a ridiculous tilt).

I've had some lovely clothes reduced to like £1 for a dress out of Tesco sales when I've gone in at the right time by the way - one of my current favourite dresses to put her in was a £1 special jobbie.

onlyroz

The only new things you need are the car seat and the mattress. Everything else can be bought second-hand from ebay, charity shops, car boots etc.

My advice is to not buy too much - there is very little that you need *immediately* upon birth and a lot of things you can wait and see if you're actually going to need them.

lozza1985

Brill thanks everyone for your help didn't realise mamas & papas had outlet stores, have looked into it and there's one not far so when the time comes I can see us going there for some stuff will try and make sure we get some clothes from different shops to help with the size problems too

choccielover

Look on the NCT (national childbirth trust) website to find your local group. not only will they do lots of baby groups but they have nearly new sales a couple of times a year where you can buy lots of fab baby stuff for a fraction of the price.

Choccie

dizziblonde

lozza1985 wrote: »

Brill thanks everyone for your help didn't realise mamas & papas had outlet stores, have looked into it and there's one not far so when the time comes I can see us going there for some stuff will try and make sure we get some clothes from different shops to help with the size problems too

I see you're Midlands on your location - dunno if you're East or West - but there's one at the outlet place near Mansfield just off the M1 (think it's junction 27 or 28 or thereabouts).