Help with new baby budget please

Miss_Kitty_Fantastico

In the spirit of money saving and trying to manage on maternity pay i am trying to sort out a new budget starting March when the bump arrives

I wondered if anyone could tell me approx how many nappies and how many packets of wipes i will go through a week?

I know you can't tell me exactly - i'm just looking for a rough figure.

I have stockpiled 50 packs of wipes and wonder how long these will last - i have also been stockpiling several different sizes of nappies.

Thanks in advance as always

vetfred

Our little boy is 5 months now and for a couple of months we were changing him 10-15 times a day which may sound excessive - he's our first so any time he appeared wet, it was straight off with the nappy. I think they pee every 20 minutes or something when they're very young and he didn't like the cooling effect but as he's grown older he has about 5-7 changes a day. He's not had any nappy rash at all so it's been lucky in that respect. Thank you Vaseline!

We personally prefer boots nappies to pampers or huggies having tried them all and I think it's worth experimenting to see if there's a particular brand you prefer. Our boy was 7lbs 2 at birth and is now over 19lbs so he's on a 15lb-40lb size nappy and, as I say, we're pleased with the boots nappies.

Wipes, well if baby fills the nappy then you can wipe much of it away with the nappy itself and then maybe 3 or 4 wipes will do the trick so depends on how many wipes in the pack and how often they fill the nappy which can be a few times a day at the beginning to every 2 or 3 days as they get older.

If this is your first and you've not had too much experience with babies as was the case with us then you'll just pick up little techniques as you go which will mean that you can make that wipe go further!

If you use boots, you can go via quidco.com which pays you cashback on your purchases whilst you still earn advantage points at boots which can be used towards different products. The wipes there are £2 for 2 packs most of the time and they have 100 nappy bags for 49p as well at the moment which we've started using now he's getting a bit more stinky shall I say!

Congrats and hope it all goes well.

[Deleted User]

We use tesco nappies but have tried huggies, boots, pampers and sainsburys, again it what fits best and leaks least. We do use huggies at night though as after a while tesco started to leak. Depends on the size you buy but we get the biggest packs as they are more economical. We change between 4-6 a day depending on how many poos are presented with.

Wipes i reckon a pack a week, sometimes maybe a bit more, bit less, so average 1 a week for us. I do use a flannel for his face and hands after meals whereas some people use wipes.

A tip for a newborn, we found as their bots were small enough we could tear a wipe in half to make it stretch further, but I can't remember when we stopped doing that, but it worked for a while anyway.

50 packs of wipes.......i hope they were bogof's. Boots wipes are good, tesco used to be but I find them thin now, johnsons are good, huggies we found too thick, again its all personal taste. Just try to buy on half price of bogof's, extra points etc.

Miss_Kitty_Fantastico

thanks for the great advice

yes don't worry the wipes were very mse - either 2 for 1 - or the rest were Makro.

FIL has a card - they have a special deal at the moment which works out about 50p a pack for pampers sensitive wipes - so we stocked up.

thanks for the advice about the nappies - i would definately prefer to use own brand if possible - at the moment we have concentrated on stockpiling huggies and pampers when they have been on special offer.

but as soon as bump arrives we will investigate other brands.

thanks again

Js_Other_Half

Initially you'll be told not to use wipes on your newborn, and just use cotton wool and water. One of my neighbour still does this with her 9 month old.

I would agree with a pack of wipes a week. It does depend on who changes DS though - DH uses anything up to half a dozen for a dirty nappy! I on the other hand fold it after each wipe and only use 1 or 2 at most.

You can wash the wipes too, especially if they're only wet with urine. Put them in a lingerie bag with all of the baby's white clothes, and dry them on an airer. Wet them again when needed.

Generally I use washable wipes anyway - either cheap baby washclothes (6 or 8 for £1 ) or some offcuts of fleece. I wipe DS with some toilet roll if it's a dirty nappy, and then I then spray a washcloth with a soap mixture called 'baby bits' from http://www.babykind.co.uk/wipes.htm#babybits. I flush the toilet paper.

Elliesmum

To echo what has already been said, allow 10-15 nappies a day for a new born babies and a good price is less than 10p a nappy for the premium brands. Wipes - 2/3 packs a week, even less if you are more economical with them, paying no more than a £1 a pack. So 50p is a brilliant price :T

My no. 2 is due 3rd March and tbh I haven't stock piled nappies too much because experience with no. 1 child (and different sexes) showed some nappies were no good, when others were excellent. For example, for 4 of my friend huggies on boys got leaks, however my daughter, went through her first 2 years on huggies without any problems.

I too am going to look at the supermarket brands this time and see how things do.

EM Xx

Rikki

I never used wet wipes. Just cotton wool and baby lotion. So much cheaper and kinder to the babies skin.

freda

When the baby is a newborn, you are told not to use wipes, but to use cotton wool and water instead.

Cotton pads work SO much better than balls, I found. You can make them go further by pulling them apart, so you use both sides.

When you move on to wipes, I'd suggest not stockpiling one brand too much as we found that LO was allergic to anything except the most plain (and cheap ) own brand unfragranced wipes. 50 packs of wipes would last me ages! I get through about 1 pack a week.

We also get through a fair bit of sudocream - useful for any time that the baby's botty looks a little red. Metanium was great in the early days for nasty nappy rash.

As far as nappies are concerned - again, don't stock up too much till you know what fits your baby. We found that some brands (the free samples you get in bounty packs) had moisturiser impregnated in them, which irritated LO. Other brands didn't fit. We used Boots newborn size nappies, and went on to Tesco's 'essentials'. Other makes that we tried leaked, although some of our friends had babies that were fine in them. LO got through one nappy every 2-3 hours, 24 hours a day, when she was little (after every feed, basically) and now gets through 5-6 per day (11 months).

Have you thought about washable nappies?

I use flannels to wipe faces and hands, not wipes.

You'll need nappy bags too - basics own brand are fine for these. Also, you'll need a nappy bucket/bin.

keelykat

Ill be watching this thread with interest!

keely.

me_and_me_monkeys

I used fleece baby wipes - cost me £10 for 50 and I'm still using them now - done 3 kids over 8 years!!, lovely and soft, wash easily, dry fast - and you can make your own even cheaper (fleece doesn't need sewing!) -

narabanekeater

Sainsburys have some brill deals on wipes and toiletries for babies 1/2 price at the moment and usually 1/3 off nappies
It may be worth stockpiling some nappies from there when there on offer
There little ones range is just fine and weve had no leaks with my newborn
The offers are a permenant thing (shh dont tell anyone im in the know lol)
Plus if you know any Sainsburys staff drag them along to borrow their staff discount card.