Second hand clothes

[elisadoeslittle]

I am 'friends' with another mums website on Facebook. Ive never actually posted on that website as I actually prefer you 'orrible lot.

Anyway, one of their burning questions was : Its estimated to cost £9k to raise a child in its first year of life. How much have you spent?

Que lots of women making their/there and they're mistakes describing how their child had only 'the best' and they spent that much easily and everything was brand new. The first few comments, I laughed. By comment 82 I was thinking, hang on, am I the only woman in the world who has only bought second hand clothes (vests are new or gifts) second hand toys and gets the majority of stuff off ebay?

By the end I started to feel a bit like Im in the poor house! (We arent poor, I just see no reason to spend shed loads of money on stuff that will be sicked or poo-ed on)

AIBU to not consider brand new to always be 'the best'?

I think mresdevere has a point.
When I had DC I was always over the moon the receive anything. We had plenty of money and it seemd like a bonus.

I recall handing on loads of kit to a friend on benefits and alhtough she wad pleased I knew she felt bad that there was no choice in it. She got what I gave her whether it was her taste or not...for birthdays and xmases I always gave her cash so she could splurge on stuff she could actually choose.

I love those women that spent an arm and a leg buying everything new and hardly used it enabling me to buy most things for my LO at a fraction of the original price. Don't knock it, if it weren't for them we couldn't buy second hand.

Are you referring to the Hilary Osborne article in the Guardian last week end OP?

Most of DS's clothes were hand me downs from friends and family then eBay, MN, charity shops and NCT nearly new sales. He is nearly 3 and the majority of his stuff is still second hand. As were his cloth nappies. Cot from friends (new mattress), bed from friends too. New is usually from Sainsbury's on 25% off days!

Have recently started accumulating stuff for DD, due in October.

Many of my clothes are 2nd hand too, and nealry all maternity clothes from eBay.

Until DS (and DD) are old enough to know or care better, I shall stick to 2nd hand. OTOH, DS gets his mum at home to nurture him 2 days a week on top of week ends. And we are all warm, dry and fed.

I bought a tonne of clothes for my first, all new, along with loads of baby things "incase we needed them". We moved quite quickly (within a year of his birth) onto getting second hand clothing as it made sense, with him growing out of things so fast. These days I do get new clothes for him a lot of the time, but I shop the sales and don't get anything that isn't half off most of the time. Saves a fortune!

My second is now due and I am going through all the baby things with a view to selling many of them before she's born, as I don't reckon they'll be a huge amount of use. Not sure quite what she'll end up wearing, but she's getting all his old trousers! :)

In any event I am hoping to save enough for my baby essentials list (monitor, cot mattress, car seat etc) this way, so it's well worth doing imo.

I'd always rather have quality brands 2nd or 3rd hand than new stuff from cheaper shops. They wash so much better & look fab for ages. My favourite things of my ds's have been the Gap baby outfits that have already clothed 2 or 3 of my friends' babies. The colours and designs are lovely, and they're fabulous quality. He had new basics because he is my first boy, but you can choose from such a wide range of quality second hand stuff on ebay, and it's just as much fun as choosing new.

We got most of our baby things from friends and family, I think after the first child you realise that they grow out of things so fast and it can be such an expense, if someone offers second hand things your happy to take them