Great 'pregnancy MoneySaving' Hunt

clairmelville

I have a 10 month old now and some things I would recomend to buy again others now so.

I would recomend buying maternity clothes as you need them. and seeing waht in your pre pregnancy wardrobe will fit/be ok early and late pregnancy. I found that lots of cardies especially the ones with long tail fronts were breat as I could wear them with little pregnancy vests (not a lot to buy either) and they are GREAT for covering up with that post pregnancy belly plus when breastfeeding in public. Also don't scrimp on maternity bras (the only non money saving piece of advice I would give).
Only need about 5-6 vests and babygrows to start with. The shops do not close when you give birth, and people will want to buy nice clothes for baby, the may even ask what you need and saying babygows etc is simple. Plus you don't really know how big baby will be. I bought some newborn stuff which never fitted my daughter.

To buy a pram etc, go to a local stockist as they may be cheaper (ours in Leith were 10% cheaper than Mothercare for my Oyster travel system including a pram and carseat with isofix base). Consider a sling if you live in an area where buggies are not simple to use (I even like mines for the buses in the city as I am never not allowed on due to space as I would be with the buggy). Never buy a sling from a high street store though, go to someone who will show you a variety of slings. A comfy one can last for ages and although abour £70 or so ae very much cheaper than a buggy. I have a Meikaj from a specialist company I found at a baby show, and love it, costing £69. I also bought a £40 black straps a clips one from Jojo and find it very uncomfortable (although I have friends who love the baby bjorn but I find it can't take babies over 22lbs or so).
I would buy a tummy tub instead of a baby bath again, can be used as a bucket after baby is done with it.
I would not buy a moses basket again as I found the cracking noise woke my LO up. I would buy a swinging small crib for beside the bed instead.
I would advocate using your boobs for milk if they work as that has saved me so much money, and if you are planning on expressing milk to just fork out and buy a medela swing breast pump (I bought a new one for £120, but loads of people buy second hand as often only used once) as I bought others first and found them terrible. With bottles buy them one at a time to see what your baby prefers, don't spend loads on expensive bottes to find they don't work with your baby.

Finally the thing I am most proud of is using reusable nappies. These have saved me SOOOOOO much money. I recon it costs £10 a week in disposable nappies, and even though my lady is very big for her age she grew out of her size one nappies ( you can get napies that gorw with baby) at 14 weeks adn it cost us £140 for the nappies and all the paraphenalia. The size two's cost us around £90 and we are still using them 30 weeks later. I reckon we could have saved even more if we had bought nappies that grow with the baby. They are so easy to wash, and nothing like terry towel nappies my mum used to use. Even she is very impressed. Check then out.

Hope that helps. Having a baby is more expensive than you think but it is so rewading.

ozblackcat

For pregnancy moneysaving, my ultimate advice is don't waste your money on expensive stretch mark cream. Unfortunately getting stretch marks is entirely genetic therefore if you're going to get them no cream can help! If you get itchy skin rub on olive oil at night which really helps.

eBay is great for maternity clothes - I buy bundles from people which usually covers you for several eventualities.

emuratty

Re-usable nappies worked fantastically well for us, bought second hand off ebay, saved us a fortune compared to disposables, and sold on when we finished with them. As an added bonus our daughter was potty trained well before she was 2 and dry through the night not long after.

babyshoes

I would second freecycle / freegle. There are often baby / maternity clothes etc as well as equipment, toys etc on ours. Start looking as early as you can and build up a stash of free / cheap things so that when baby arrives you only need to buy the bits you need as you need them.

beccy53

For baby equipment, nct nearly new sales have been amazing & I've started to sell items I've now finished with. So much second hand stuff, a fraction of the price & in the main great quality. Also, a lot of items get very little use so see if you can justify the spend.
Mothercare app currently offers £10 off a £50 spend, so see if you can get friends & family to get an app and buy on your behalf, 20% saving for each person who wants to help out.

janineo

If you can't handle the idea of re-usable nappies, you can still save money by using washable wipes. They are much easier to get out of the box than disposable wipes, and you usually only need one per nappy change!
Most cloth nappy websites will stock them.

Check out group 0+/1 'combination' car seats - they can last from birth until your little one is approx 4 years old. You can't put them on stroller bases like the group 0, but I only did that a handful of times with mine anyway. And don't rush to turn them forward facing either. They don't know any different and are much safer rear facing.

Join the baby clubs - Bounty, Emma's Diary, Boots, Pampers, Huggies, supermarket clubs, etc. Just don't use your main email address to do it as you will get spam, especially from Emma's Diary. The vouchers and free gifts you can get are worth it though. We ended up with about 4 packs of free newborn nappies, and several packets of wipes, washing powder, cream, even a towel.

Check out the own brand nappies. We have been using own brand since the free packs ran out, and they have been great. Just as good as the name brands for cheaper.

HTH

mum2one

start adding small things to the shopping trolley, packet of wipes, some baby shampoo.

I found Argos to be good value - I brought, moses basket, and cot from there,

Maternity clothes, I didnt really bother, just got a few bigger sizes.

Agree re the baby grows / vests / there so much easier to change than trying to get jeans etc.

As others have said try and join all baby clubs - get free samples.

Nappies - I personally ended up using Huggies I couldn't get on with store brands, but times change,

When I had DD
Cot, (sold on)moses basket (kept)new
Furniture and 1 pram - brought from a friend - resold on when she needed more room
travel system - brought from another friend

I had a travel cot for the front room, but that lasted 2 hrs - DD started crying the dog run up to the cot - pawed the net trying to make sure she was ok.

Shop sales -

1st Xmas, 1st bday - ur be surpirsed at how many presents turn up

xx

TTC40

I joined Boots parenting club & got a voucher for £10 eye test & half price glasses.

Should have paid £230 for the glasses & they were £115 - half price on thin lenses as well.

suzplustwo

janineo wrote: »

If you can't handle the idea of re-usable nappies, you can still save money by using washable wipes. They are much easier to get out of the box than disposable wipes, and you usually only need one per nappy change!
Most cloth nappy websites will stock them.
HTH

Def agree with this! You can also make your own wipes. Cut up an old towel and store the squares in a plastic box. (I used the free pampers plastic box but you could also use a Tupperware or icecream tub). I pre-wet them with a solution using honey and camomile teabags, which does not sting and is mildly antiseptic (don't use real honey though).

BAGGY

You can use a fleece blanket, cut in squares for bum wipes. Cut in triangles for face wipes.
We washed our boys in a garden bucket with the handles on either side. Just put a towel in the bottom - much cheaper than a tummy tub.