Soon to be Mum

Bluemeanie_2

Hello,

agree with peachyprice. I have a 10 week old and resisted the urge to buy loads of gadgets and useless stuff! In my quest for moneysaving I did a lot of bargain hunting and NCT sales (great for playgyms and toys) and I'll give you my experience/opinion of what I think is a waste of time and what is worth getting brand new/spending money on:

2nd hand:

cot
bouncy chair
play gyms
pushchair
Moses basket (she outgrew it in 6 weeks, would have been a complete waste of money to buy a new one for £80+!)
Mobiles
toys
Monitors

Brand new:

Bedding
cot mattress
changing mats
clothes

Unsure if you are going to try breastfeeding or bottle feed, but the best piece of advice I can give you is, get Dr Brown's or Playtex airvent ones from the start (even if your baby doesn't have issues/colic etc). Me and my friend (her baby is 9 days older than mine), started off with Tommy Tippee ones (that claim to be anti colic etc) because they were cheap in Aldi.
Both have now swapped to Dr Brown's and they are a million times better at reducing wind etc and we have much happier babies overall now. I hadn't done any research at all until I had issues and just assumed Tommy's would be ok and ended up binning £20 worth of bottles. The Dr brown's on amazon are £20 for 4 and are more than worth the money. Don't buy their special bottle brush though. Really not needed,. The ordinary ones (available from pound shops) are fine.
This is also just my opinion but I couldn't get on with microwave sterilising. What a faff! I got a tall tupperware with a lid from a hardware shop and drew a line for 5 litres and 7.5 litres in black pen, for £3.99 and use Milton tablets, can keep it for 24 hours and keep adding and removing stuff. Microwave used loads of electric and once you removed the lid it was no longer sterile! But that is just my preference you may feel different but I wouldn't waste my money on that.
If you are planning to breast feed, planning being the operative word, don't buy a pump until you see if you can get on with it (not looking for a debate on it, just trying to offer money saving advice). I bought one that now has virtually no resale value and was a complete waste of money. If I'd have just waited a few weeks until after she was born I wouldn't have wasted the money. Can always send Husband out or use John Lewis's click and collect (they were the cheapest breast pump sellers I could find).

I hardly needed to buy any clothes for my daughter. She was truly spoiled by everyone as a result I've bought a few bits that's it. I don't rate second hand clothes. Despite descriptions and people claiming they've only been worn once etc, I find them bobbly every single time, but you will have to make up you own mind.

Sainsbury's baby clothes are good quality and reasonable. If you time it right for the 25% events they are even better. I love their sleepsuits as they have built in scratch mitt. Pack of 3 for £11 only £8.25 on the event.

Sudocream I don't rate either. Much better with Drapoline. I don't rate baby oil either, pure olive oil (buy from pharmacy section not cooking section) was much better for my baby's skin.

I also don't buy pampers. Can't beat Aldi's nappies! They are half the price and are really no different. I made the mistake of stocking up too much on one size but was able to give them away.

My other best tip is, don;t get a ginormous travel system. My experience is, soon as the baby is big enough people get fed up and just get a stroller. I got a bugaboo bee so didn't have the faff and need to store/transport a carrycot. It's tiny and compact. They are a bit dearer than than other pushchairs but worth it to save the space I think.

Again you'll have to make your own mind up!

These are just my experiences and opinions, especially about the pushchair etc. Of course research research research! Lol.

Best of luck with the pregnancy!

Gillybean103

Congratulations!

Firstly I wouldn't sign up with bounty, the hassel you get from phone calls from sales people is ridiculous as bounty sell your information on.

If you are on Facebook I would find the local childrens things for sale page and join, people sell just about new things for silly prices.

Also have a look on ebay for clothing bundles as you can really get some bargains.

Bluemeanie_2

Gillybean103 wrote: »

Congratulations!

Firstly I wouldn't sign up with bounty, the hassel you get from phone calls from sales people is ridiculous as bounty sell your information on.
.

I second this. The hassle isn't worth it as the bag with "samples" is just a load of tat I found!

continualdiamond

We did the mothercare price plan like someone else mentioned, found our pram in April which gave us 5 months to pay it off.

Our moses basket is second hand, it cost us £10 and we just bought a new mattress for £10 from mothercare. My little girl is just over 7 weeks old and is still happily using it. We did get moses basket mattress covers, but just got a pack of 2 as we use pillow cases if both covers end up being in the wash. Pillow cases work just as well.

We got our furniture second hand, £90 all up for a cot bed, changing unit that has 3 shelves underneath with storage baskets and a tiny hanging wardrobe. We found that on our local fb selling site. Again like the moses basket we'll buy a new mattress for it when the time comes.

I picked up a lot of freebies off freecycle. Size 2 and 3 nappies, unisex and gender clothes, a baby bath and a play mat.

In terms of clothes don't go mad. Our families were buying clothes throughout my whole pregnancy but they ended up buying stuff that was wayyy too big for her as she was only 6lb 8oz, even now she is still in her newborn outfits as is now 9lb 3.5oz.

I can recommend a nappy bin though. I always said I'd use cloth nappies after the initial settling in period but to be honest with living in a flat disposable is a lot better for us due to our lack of space and the nappy bin is fantastic.

I'm yet to try them but I know a few people who say aldi nappies are good. We've been purchasing morrisons or asdas own and they've done their job as they should.

Finally congratulations and wishing you well with your pregnancy.

melancholicscrub

i agree..i also did that i have a 2 yr old daughter and it saved me a fortune..baby now a days grows so quickly so why buy expensive items they dont gonna use it for a long period of time..

tiny_courageous

Gillybean103 wrote: »

Congratulations!

Firstly I wouldn't sign up with bounty, the hassel you get from phone calls from sales people is ridiculous as bounty sell your information on.

If you are on Facebook I would find the local childrens things for sale page and join, people sell just about new things for silly prices.

Also have a look on ebay for clothing bundles as you can really get some bargains.

Rather than not signing up with bounty/emma's diary etc, sign up but set up a separate email for baby related stuff and give them a fake phone number.

Buy second hand, it saves a fortune on things like buggies, moses baskets and clothes.

One thing I would recommend getting (although it isn't necessarily moneysaving) is a tumble dryer. Considering how quickly babies go through their clothes, having a tumble dryer is a godsend.

Don't stock up on nappies/wipes, as you can't guarantee they will suit your baby, and there are always special offers on somewhere.

rachel6188

I'm subscribing I found out 2 weeks ago I was pregnant and I'm 17 weeks today so alot of these tips are fab thanks x and huge congrats x

flitter

Something that seems to be a big thing at the moment with new babies is having them in 'proper' clothes all the time. By the time you've changed baby for the 4th or 5th time that day, if you haven't bought a load of clothes, you're back to baby-grows. Save the money and buy a couple of proper outfits for special occasions and make do with sleep-suits or baby-grows for while at home, you can get some really pretty ones for girls and some with characters or animals for boys. Also don't be too proud to buy second hand baby clothes at car boot sales or ebay, most have only been worn a few times before the baby has grown out of them, they grow so quick over the first year it's not worth buying loads of clothes.

A friend of ours has just sold about £200 worth of baby clothes that have never been worn, she got about £20 for them.

I also agree that a tumble dryer is almost an essential item, you'll probably end up doing washing every other day, if not every day, and unless you have plenty of radiators you'll have wet clothes and bedding everywhere.