Baby Neutral Challenge 2008

JoJoB

This is a great thread. So far the only new things I have bought for my impending baba are the pram and carseat. Everything else as far as possible I am aiming to get from charity shops, freecycle, coupons, vouchers and gifts! Doing well so far, have managed to get 3 packs of nappies (disposable) for free, and loads of wipes free from vouchers. Hospital bag was from charity, as are lots of sleepsuits and vests. Got a few boots vouchers from pigsback so will use those for bits and pieces too.

While I have a few packs of disposables I am intending to use the terry squares but haven't bought any yet. Would the 60cm x 60cm be the right size to get?

sarahmoon_2

Can I join, although my wee one is now just about 6 months old. He is growing at a rate of knots I cannot keep up with. I started selling his stuff on eBay last week and decided to sell a bundle as they seemed to go for more money. 16 outfits (all Next and M&S really nice stuff) went for the grand total of 99p. To make matters worse I completely misjudged the postage and ended up out of pocket by £2 :mad: . Anyway I am still listing things of his and intend to be baby neutral from now on.

I got off to a good start, got his cot and moses basket off freecycle, have already refreecycled the moses basket, pram was given by a neighbour, steriliser was given, loads of cot/pram bedding given.

Anyway I'm rambling, can I join... please??

Mazcabs

We got off to similar start to Sarahmoon. Got crib, cot, steriliser, bath, bedding and loads of clothes from my sister (crib was mine when I was a baby!!) Some of the clothes were second hand to her as well.

When we got gifts we collated them all, saw what we had and then changed some for bigger sizes ourselves..some people put gift receipts in with presents so that helped. Most shops were quite happy to change things for next size up

mum2one

Its all memories my dd is 5 1/2, but reading this thread makes it feel lile yesterday.......... not gd getting broody..........


Not quite money neutal as the challenge sense, but.
General thought, as we all have different family cicumstances, partner, no partner etc, but if anyone is on low income worth looking at applying for a maternity grant, its a 1 off payment of £500, can apply for it from 26 weeks pregnant, to when the baby is 3 mths old, when I was expecting dd, b4 I had her i was earning too much, but after I had her i was entitled to it, for more info try the DHSS website.
x

jessbrown100

oh dear- what a horrible set back!. Paul (my hubby)'s grandad died on wednesday. His funeral is next friday and when he tried his suit on for it it was about two sizes too small and had a weird hanger 'bulge' in the back. was determined that he would look smart so have used £160.00 of our baby fund to buy him a new suit and pair of shoes (went to a suit outlet and bought one on half-price sale so tried to be as frugal as possible!). i don't begrudge the money at all, in fact it was my idea to get him one (hubby would be quite content wandering around in overalls all day- even if he was at a funeral!) but it's definitely put a dent in my fund- oh dear, it's a bit disheartening. well, at least he'll do his grandad proud:o

Miss_Kitty_Fantastico

Thats a real shame Jess but as you say sometimes things are more important than money.

My daughter came 4 weeks early so now we are home from the hospital - the challenge can begin

Away today to pick up free nappies at sainsburys and free nappy wrapper from argos - so off to a flying start

Hope everyone is well.

izoomzoom

You're up and early !

Or is it that you haven't managed to get to bed yet ?:rotfl:

Congratulations

jak

What a fab idea! I think i'll give it a try. I'm not due until July16th but we've got loads of stuff already, mainly from an NCT sale and charity shop near us. BUT nearly all the stuff has got tags on, so it's brand new! ALso got an ELC baby gym for £5, it's lovely. We will sell as much as we can on ebay and set up a sep. account for baby clothes and try to just use that. I hope we can make it work as money is SO tight!
I hate having to shop on such a strict budget for our first baby, but at least our pram, crib and cotbed have been bought by doting Grandparents so we've done quite well.
By the way has anyone got any idea how much dipsosable nappies will cost approx. per week?

melt71

I've been doing this before I've even seen this thread!! :money:

This will be my second baby and I realised 2 things after the 1st one (born 10 1/2 years ago :eek: )

1) buying brand new is a complete waste of time and money as things last for weeks and sometimes you don't even use them at all.

2) Disposable nappies are expensive and no good for the environment. I read about reusables when my last daughter was just being potty trained and I decided then that if I ever had another baby I would definitely use resuable nappies. They've come a long way in that 10 year gap and there is now a good 2nd hand market where you can buy them really cheaply.

I've got pretty much everything I need for new bubs from Freecycle (kept the good stuff and gave the not so great stuff to charity/other freecyclers) my OH's sister has given us loads of clothes as she's just has 2 little girls. We have enough clothes until 12 months!! Most of the clothes we have are in virtually new condition.

I have all my nappies, fleece liners, disposable liners, wraps and a nappy bucket. Total cost was about £10 (most of it was from freecycle)

I've also got loads of other stuff 2nd hand or from freecycle including a 3 wheel pram, a crib (looks brand new and only cost £25) and pretty much everything else that we need.

I intend to sell on the good stuff to buy other stuff as I go on - for example cribs keep their value so I'll sell that and buy a 2nd hand cot/cotbed off ebay.

It's taken me ages to organise all this as I've had to do it completely from scratch and OH was no help at all :rolleyes: but it's been well worth it. I've hardly spent any money at all but our house is FULL to bursting with lovely stuff.

In fact, I may work out what I've spent/made and put it in my sig

izoomzoom

jak wrote: »

By the way has anyone got any idea how much dipsosable nappies will cost approx. per week?

Newborn nappies probably cost less than a £5 a week, but as you start going up the sizes they get more expensive, so will probalby be looking at about £8-9 later on. Thus on a conservative figure of £5 for the first 3 months and then £8 for the next 9 months you are looking at £380 for the first year !:eek:

You can kit yourself out with a pretty good brand new re-useable kit from ebay for less than half of that, and then of course you get the second year free too.:money: