First-time Mum & Dad - any tips for money-saving?
Comments
-
I see some amazing bargains at car boot sales.Love living in a village in the country side0
-
Congratulations!!
A lot of useful tips already shared.
Check lullaby trust for what makes a cot or mattress safe. Old cots may not follow the most current regulations.
Boots parenting club gives you a 10% discount if you decide to buy baby stuff from boots. Combined with £10 off when £50 spent, is good.
I suggest that you do your research and decide what you want to buy, then look where you can find it cheaper. Especially when you are not in a rush, you can wait for a good price.
Baby shows may have some good offers, try to get free tickets for local ones.
I suggest that both you and your wife do your research about the benefits of breastfeeding, how a bottle can cause nipple confusion at the early days(even if just breast milk is given) and how you don't need to feed the baby to bond. There are so many other ways to bond, e.g. bathing, putting to sleep. Formula costs a lot. Join also breastfeeding support Facebook groups.
When baby is 6 months old, consider doing baby led weaning instead of traditional. It will save you a lot on buying ready food for baby. Again do your research on the benefits, join blw support Facebook pages, decide what's best for your family.
I used a lot charity shops, Facebook market and Freecycle to get things cheap/free, and Amazon prime to get things quickly when you have no time to go out.0 -
Don't skimp on a car seat. You can buy ones with swivel bases now which means no straining your back to twist and get the baby in the car seat!
Worth the little extra money0 -
Cloth nappies - there is a strong second hand market for them which help the savings even more. It also means you can try different types until you know which one suits your baby if you haven't got a library nearby. You can then sell them on again after.
Instead of buying a steriliser, you can buy bottles you can sterilise in the microwave (MAM), and the sterilising tablets or liquid and a bucket or tub are much more versatile for everything else (and cheaper).
A sling is so much easier than lugging a pram or pushchair everywhere and great for bonding with your child. Agree about the travel system - it's not good for the baby to constantly be in a car seat.
I didn't buy a baby bath, I used the kitchen sink or the normal bath.
You don't need half as much stuff as the baby stores tell you."If you can dream it, you can do it". Walt Disney0 -
Huge congratulations!
Please buy the cot from a charity shop - we got ours from Barnardos, and sanded & revarnished it to make it ours and apparently Brand New. Or just ask around, there are bound to be people whose children are graduating from cots often bought new who want to get rid but haven't quite grasped how.
Muslins - all sorts of colours, easily washed & a godsend for baby specific mopping, wrapping, nappies etc Also easily knotted into a portable washable toy.
The amount of Stuff held out for sales as vital is hair-raising & far too much of it is utter nonsense. That said what is one parent's lifesaver is a complete waste of time to another parent. (You will be issued with guilt along with the baby, this is normal. You will also be judged beyond all recognition by everyone from loving friends to absolute strangers - but your little one won't get round to that for several years. Probably.)
Car seat, cot mattress - yes buy new. After that, facebook, charity shops and other parents with slightly larger children & a shortage of space will all shunt bagfuls of stuff your way!0 -
I would recommend the Ikea high chair all day long. It's not the prettiest thing to look at but it's moulded plastic and it can go in the top rack of a dishwasher. Even if you don't put it in the dishwasher, it's much, much easier to clean than one with lots of folds of plastic material everywhere.
Car seat and mattress must be new. My son has an Ikea cot for when at my parents and it's been perfectly fine for him though he's only in it once every few weeks for a few nights. It was around £100.
You don't need everything that people tell you, you need. It's an exciting time, but try not to jump in and buy everything until you need it.
Buy mostly 0-3 vests and sleep suits. And a pack of smaller clothes closer to the time. If the baby is small, you can pick up more smaller clothes and, if not, you can return them. Asda is decent value for their vests and suits. They wash well and are quite cheap to start with.
Stock up on nappies when they're on offer. We have used the Aldi nappies almost exclusively (though the free nappies kept us going for around a fortnight! Pick up all the free packs your entitled to. The midwife should give you some, too).
Also, you don't need a nappy wrapper or bin, whatever they're called ��0 -
Just don't go mad buying everything at once. We didn't have much to start with, as we didn't know what we were doing!!!! Turns out we did OK and didn't end up with piles of unused stuff. Babies can grow ridiculously quickly and I am glad we didn't buy loads of clothes and nappies in advance.
Agree with the advice about possible crash damage and car seats.
Before the birth, get the absolute basics organised - cot, baby carrier/child seat, pushchair, bottles and steriliser (don't assume that you will be able to breastfeed, however much you might want to - I couldn't and the memories of the breastfeeding !!!!! still haunt me to this day (13 years on). Don't unpack the steriliser until you know whether you are breastfeeding or not. Keep the receipt!
Get some terry nappies and some disposable ones, again, not too many as you don't know what size of the latter. The hospital will probably send you home with a couple of days' worth anyway. Keep the receipts for the ones you buy!!
We were lucky in that we were able to borrow a cot from a friend who was between babies. Don't be too proud to accept second hand clothing, or other baby things. A hot wash, or a soak in some Milton, depending on what the items are, is all you need to do.
The baby really won't care what he/she looks like, and will grow out of things so fast. We had lovely neighbours who had a garage full of boys clothes up to age 4 that they were going to take to a boot sale, but they gave them to us for a donation so our son was well set up until he started school.
Buy just one one pack of each of three sizes of babygros from the nearest supermarket to the hospital or to your house, and keep the receipts, and then send your other half, who will be less exhausted than you, to return the ones which are too small, and get more of the right size!!
There is so much out there to tempt first time parents into over-buying, and when my mum told me what options were available when I was born in the late sixties it put things into perspective from a "what the baby needs" point of view, rather than what the friends and neighbours think of you with your second-hand push chair or whatever.
If you think babies are expensive, wait till your baby starts secondary school!!!!!!!!!
Wishing you happy rest-of-pregnancy and an easy birth. Hope all goes well.0 -
Having had 2 babies in the space of 15 months I have had a lot of experience recently lol. My number 1 best buy would without a doubt be cheeky wipes. I absolutely hated the packs of baby wipes that you get from the shops. Im so glad I made the investment with my first child as when baby no 2 came along I just ordered a few more extra wipes. They are still going strong and my youngest is now 1. I reckon I've saved a few hundred quid in wipes alone for the 2 of them. Plus they are so much more user friendly then the horrid packet ones.
Unfortunately for me I struggled to produce enough milk so had to switch to formula. I used aptamil with my first but then with my second I tried the aldi mamia and there was no discernible difference (except for the price).0 -
Half of what you buy won't really be necessary. The difficulty is deciding which half...
Make friends with people who have kids about 6 months to a year older than your child - good for an endless supply of cast-offs. If they then conveniently have another child, you can pass them back. And ideally you would then have another child...
Sell anything that is unused/underused/not totally destroyed on ebay and recoup some of your outlay.
And have a list ready when people ask what you would like them to buy for the baby - there's a limit to how many cuddly toys any child needs, so it's much better to make good use of their willingness to spend money on your child!!No longer a spouse, or trailing, but MSE won't allow me to change my username...0 -
At this stage buy the absolute bare minimum. You will likely be offered a lot, plus unless you live in the sticks and it's 10pm on a Sunday evening you can pop out to the supermarket to grab whatever it is you need.
Baby needs nappies, clothes, food, somewhere to sleep, some way of getting home.
Mum needs post partum pads, breast pads and a lot of support.
There are so many ways of bonding with a baby that don't involve feeding. If mum intends to breastfeed, then she will have to pump for every feed that you give in order to maintain her supply. That's a whole lot of extra work for her. Instead why not do bath time, or swimming lessons, or reading bedtime story (Mr Imp did this from day one), or taking for a walk and chatting to them about anything and everything. Baby wants to hear your voice, see your face, and smell you. That's how they bond. If mum is on maternity leave then baby needs to see them as main caregiver. I had a couple of unfortunate weeks where my youngest wanted Mr Imp rather than me, and he was at work. Youngest cried a LOT until he got home from work. It's soul destroying.
Avoid perfect prep machine. The 'hot shot' of water is not hot enough for long enough to sterilise the milk powder, and the insides have been known to collect mildew. Not a risk you want to take with a newborn.
No cot bumpers or cute cot pillows/duvets etc (that'll save some money).
Avoid Emma's diary and Bounty, as they will sell on your details (been there, done that, got the enormous amounts of junk mail, spam, etc).0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 343.2K Banking & Borrowing
- 250.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 449.7K Spending & Discounts
- 235.3K Work, Benefits & Business
- 608K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 173.1K Life & Family
- 247.9K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards