To plan on buying dcs christmas gifts second hand?

[TulipsInBloom1]

By christmas they will be just turned 4 and 7. One is into Transformers and Playmobil, the other Polly Pocket and Playmobil. Visiting a market the other day one of the stalls was chocked full of all of this, nearly new, and all cheap. Plus the bonus of no hideous mounds of packaging.

Having already planned to get a used Wii bundle with games as a main "family" gift for them; would it be a step too far to plan in a return visit to the toy stall and pretty much buy exclusively second hand?

They will be getting new pjs; outfit and a book each but doing this would save probably 150 quid overall.

YANBU. I have bought plenty of good quality second hand stuff and saved a huge amount of money, which then gets spent on other things they benefit from. I also like your point about less plastic packaging an it's better for the environment. I'm not sure if it's something you have near you but we have a toy library locally. It's £30 a year to join and you can 'take' up to 3 things for a period of six weeks. This includes garden equipment and all sorts. It's a great way of finding out what your children will actually play with before buying one yourself.

Yanbu. When my ds turned 3 I was brassic.

I got his gifts off eBay in great condition. I paid £7 for a micro scooter off eBay and £15 for a little tykes kitchen. He's 5 now and both are still well used.

We bought lots of my ds's present second hand. Nothing wrong with it, it's better we have more money to spend on other stuff.
We bought huge boxes of train sets, legos, kinex, etc when he was younger. We had so much, he never run out of pieces to use.
We still buy things second hand, some of his requests are only available second hand.

Deffo do it
Good for the environment
Good for the bank account

I buy a lot second hand for dds. They have never noticed or cared. Just meant they could play straight away without having to wait for me to wrestle it out of packaging.

They are going to be 10 and 6 at christmas. I've already started collecting books, for the price of one in whsmiths I've bought 10 books from their wishlists.

Dd2's birthday I bought the massive shopkins mall with 3 dolls for £39 posted, in Argos would have cost me at least £130. She also had a build a bear my little pony with shoes, skates, 2 outfits for £8.99, would have cost at least £50 in-store. She loves them but i was able to get her some more things within the budget whereas new I wouldn't have been able to.

I think the key is only buy what is on the list and not to overbuy just because it's a bargain. Something I am still trying not to do! I just avoid the charity shops when I'm done 😂

My “kids” are 26 and 24 and I still get them second hand gifts at Christmas, they always had them growing up and were glad of anything they received. (With exception to a dance mat I once got my 10 year old daughter, but that is another story!!). I always liked to see a massive pile of gifts on Christmas morning and second hand was THE ONLY way we could have achieved that.

Go for it! So much better than dealing with taking things out of the packaging on the day and you will save yourself a fortune!

We buy loads second hand and sell loads on too once they are finished playing with it, my eldest is 10 and she understands that some of her stuff isn't new but I think it's a good thing to teach kids not to be so throw away all the time, once they're finished playing we gumtree it and the kids get the money to pick something else or save it for something good bigger. Go ahead and it's always worth checking charity shops too found some amazing bargains in recent years, got an elc dolls house fully furnished for £25 2 years ago!

Most of my DC's presents will be second hand. Last year they were 1 and 3, they got a sack full of toys for £30 each. We're not struggling, but I can't bear to pay hundreds when they don't know the difference. I'm saving the money for when they're older and want specific things that have only just been released.

Dd is getting some “vintage” carebear srudd for her 4th birthday next week.

I’ve bought bat caves for ds and fireman Sam stuff in the past on eBay and a fab brio train track

Def do it. Better than buying more plastic tat!