I can't ever imagine being so financially well off that...

[DontBiteTheBoobThatFeedsYou]

... I would pay £49 for a toddler puddle suit from Mountain Warehouse when I could buy a second hand MW one on eBay or fb for £3.

There's a few of these like this.

Same goes for buying things such as Bumbos brand new. Jumperoos or vtech walkers.

Who actually buys these brand new when they can constantly be found for a fraction of the price in immaculate condition elsewhere.

We have loads of handmedowns, our pushchairs have all been secondhand and a lot of equipment--we don't buy much in the way of toys either, but sometimes you just need something and I can usually get it online with a code or reduced somewhere.

We try and buy ethically and it all gets handed down multiple times.

We don't have a car either. Buying stuff off Facebook often involves a massive trek somewhere with no public transport. It's economics - I can earn more in that half day. It would be something of a false economy to get a car for Facebook purchases.

Just don't buy loads of crap. Babies survived before jumperoos. They're not compulsory.

It is often time. When we had our first child in the 80s and people genuinely were a lot worse off than now (i knkow those today with not much money will not believe me but it was definitely so for many) we certainly bought just abhout all the baby stuff second hand or it was handed down in the famly even if partly broken or torn.

Later in the 90s when I had the twins and had been working as a lawyer full time for 15 years withou a single break even a maternity leave I earned more and I remember getting everything within about 30 minutes through one on line mothercare order and thinking how different it was from the 1980s driving or cycling to someone's home to buy a second hand highchair that was torn and dirty (never mind the seocnd hand cloth nappies my daughter says she had - disposables too expensive)....

The difference was we earned more and secondly time - if you are earn a fair bit then shopping around will cost you more (I charge clients now £360 per hour plus VAT so you can see the sums easily - eg I was going to help my son move house this coming Monday, hiring a huge van etc but paid for a remover for him this week who will be better at the van driving than I am ( I did it with h im lsst time and drove the huge van but it was not fun to drive such a big vehicle for me) and that cost which someone not very well off would not pay in a month of Sundays if they could for half the price do it themselves with a van hire is clearly less than I will earn on Monday staying at work all day instead of doing the moving.

What a ridiculous thread! Why would ANYONE buy brand new stuff when it can all be bought second hand at a fraction of the price? Well, the thing is, if we all did that...

Same goes for selling stuff. It's not worth my while to sell on facebook or ebay- the endless back and forth, waiting in for people who don't turn up, going to the post office. It gets handed on to friends or neighbours or donated. Time. Very precious commodity.

My sons grandparents are like this. Loaded but only buy second hand. He can never figure out why they won't spend a tenner on him to get him something that works/isn't broken/can be returned/has a warranty.

I used to think like that, and I do think second hand is the best thing to do from an environmental perspective. However, from a money perspective, some things I've bought new I've actually made money on. Eg, buying a Jumperoo on special super duper cheap offer on Amazon and it selling for more than I paid for it second hand on eBay. Many of the clothing brands I buy new have sold for more than I paid for them second hand on eBay, when it has been sought after prints. Some children's clothing brands are guaranteed to sell so well that you would only have paid very cheap supermarket prices for once you are done with them. However, you take the risk with them getting ruined before outgrown, which happens often.

As for waterproofs, I had some second hand Regatta ones that weren't waterproof at all. If the previous owner has washed them incorrectly you take that risk and that is then a big waste of money. I bought some expensive Polarn O Pyret waterproofs 8 years ago that are still as good as new and have now been through 5 children. Having said that, I've also found Lidl waterproofs to be faultless, and our forest school reccommend them, and they are less than £5 a pair. In the case of waterproofs, I would advise buying the Lidl waterproofs at under £5 rather than take the risk with second hand ones.

Who actually buys these brand new when they can constantly be found for a fraction of the price in immaculate condition elsewhere

Where can they be found, how long am I going to have to spend trawling through ebay looking for stuff the right size/colour/not in really bad condition, and how long am I going to have to spend arguing backwards and forwards with the seller about whether it's arrived or not?

If I want any old raincoat, fine FB marketplace will probably do. And I've bought plenty of stuff off specialist FB buying/selling pages before (cloth nappies, mostly). We've also rescued toys from the nursery trash pile (one of those old school Fisher Price parking garages with the ramps and lift, with a little crack that meant nursery couldn't keep it for H&S reasons but that we could easily fix with some gaffer tape), so not snobby about secondhand AT ALL.

But if I want a specific yellow M&S raincoat in size 2-3, in unworn condition, I'm much quicker just buying it from the shop than wasting my life trying to source it on ebay.

This thread has made me giggle with everyone getting so offended. I'm with you op. It's so wasteful to spend vast amounts of money on things you could get second hand. It wastes money and it damages the environment. However if you want a specific thing it's not always that easy to get exactly what you want a online.

I have made a vow this year to buy all my clothes from stores with an ethical policy I am reasonably happy with or secondhand and to try and get plastic toy secondhand wherever possible. I wanted a specific thing for DdS birthday and just wasn't able to get it secondhand. However I agree that if you can buy secondhand you should.

I don't even have children, but if I had chosen to have a baby I would try my best to buy new, simply because I don't like the idea of my baby wearing clothes/playing with toys that other babies had pissed, pooed, vomited and stuck their bogeys on, or that still could have traces of norovirus or worms' eggs. Especially from people on facebook and eBay, who cannot even garantee they have washed and cleaned them properly.

But then, I am not British so I can say what I and everyone else is thinking and I don't have to obsess about class, snobbery, reverse-snobbery and all that nonsense that seems to be socially important in the UK.

I clicked YABU because you can get a brand new puddlesuit in mothercare for £20, no need to spend £49! I would never spend that amount on one item of clothing for a baby/toddler.

Also I work in retail so if people didn’t buy brand new I’d be out of a job

I pretty much only buy new clothes , though I do get sme ( probably 10% or less) from second hand shops . It.would never occur to me to look on eBay for.clothes, How could I return them if I don't like them on or they don't fit?

I have never used FB in my life and don't intend to start now really.

They are in the sale at the moment, op. Look lovely too!
www.mountainwarehouse.com/kids/toddler/puddle-suits/

They also sell them in Asda, Sainsbury's and M&S where they are cheaper.

Second hand stuff is never in immaculate condition though, and the stuff available is never the colour or size I want. Also people charge far too much - if I’m buying second hand I want it cheap. If I’m paying a fiver less than new then I might as well have new! (and be the person selling it on for a fiver less than I paid).

I have bought some things second hand for the baby, ie good quality wooden nursery furniture / blankets that I can just chuck on the ground and not worry about damaging. I will buy a lot of things brand new too. I think all parents should buy their children at least a few new things - I grew up poor and just buying a brand new outfit for us made our parents feel good.

I buy almost all my clothes new, although I get plenty of hand me downs for me and DD from my siblings. I don't need to buy that many children's clothes anyway, as we get so much from relatives, but when I do, it's always in sales or from discount websites, never full price. I don't like the thought of second hand clothes or other items from people that I don't know, especially for baby items, it just feels more hygienic and you get more choice.

We got our jumperoo and walker new, but using vouchers that needed using up anyway.

Luckily we're financially comfortable enough that choosing second hand over new wouldn't make a huge difference to our finances. We do choose to economise in other areas (we don't have a car, or have any paid TV, or tablets, never use taxis, we have a small flat with low running costs, and my desktop PC is about 12 years old).

Well myself and my sister were brought up wearing jumble sale clothes but our school uniform was from Harrods....our mother loved a bargain!!

I don't have the inclination to go second-hand bargain hunting all the bloody time.

It's so much quicker and easier just to google search what you need and buy it.

I'm not saying that's a noble or aspirational way to operate - at all - but constant bargain-hunting is tedious.

I buy everything new but I do sell my dc's clothing and things on and usually they are all being sold immaculate and like new 🙈 im happy someone else gets to use it and its not waste

I buy most things new because in some cases there are a lot of fake products around, and really just because I get more choice and a return guarantee on them. I wouldn't buy anything we couldn't afford and do like to make the most of sales within the companies I like to buy from. I really can't be bothered with the hassle of resales when we don't need something any more either so we donate anything unwanted/outgrown to charity shops or give them away on freecycle.

We normally fall into the " cash rich, time poor" category, though I am currently on long term sick leave which has altered that somewhat. But even when I am working we buy a lot of things second hand and always have done. We've had some great stuff from freecycle type groups over the years too, and I have a group of friends within which we pass on lots of things like school uniform, sports kit etc. The only things I won't consider second hand are shoes, underwear and safety related things like carseats, bike helmets and so on. Oh, and mattresses. Actually shoes are negotiable come to think of it. I wouldn't buy shoes that have been well worn but you do sometimes see shoes that look to have been barely worn, maybe because someone bought the wrong size or a child has had a growth spurt just after they were bought. In fact I've just bought my son a pair of cycling shoes for £50 that are £225 new - now that was a bargain that made us both smile. And he is a teenager, so the PP that said it all goes out of the window when you have teens is wrong as far as our family is concerned. All my children are pretty thrifty, and environmentally aware so have nothing against second hand things. My DH makes and/or mends lots of things too. Sometimes he gets a bit obsessed to be honest and probably spends more on fixing an something old than it would cost to replace it, but he actually enjoys fixing stuff and it has to be better for the environment to fix things rather than chuck them out. It is a standing joke in our family that if I want DH to get on with a job I just need to say " I don't think anyone could get that working again - its impossible!"
We don't buy everything second hand of course. We simply don't have time for that. Most of my clothes are from the high street just like everyone else's but I have a few really beautiful vintage items too. Generally we do try to reuse and recycle as much as we can, and to make things last as long as possible. Old things are, in my opinion, often nicer and better made than modern things anyway. Or piano, for example, is over 100 years old and it is gorgeous. I doubt a modern equivalent will still be going a hundred years from now.
Obviously it is entirely up to each individual how they spend their own money, and as has rightly been said, if nobody bought new there would be nothing second hand. But I do think that as a society we need to try harder to buy less stuff in general and make things last longer.

For me, it's not so much about thrift as about making positive environmental choices. If I have the choice of buying something new or second hand, I will chew your hand off to take the second hand option, as I just can't stand the idea of the ever-increasing mountain of manufactured goods. Gratuitous consumption.
And stuff lasts; in my circle of friends, items have been passed back and forth for the last 10 years; some baby items, including clothing, are on their 5th kid, and were second hand to start with.
I find eBay the most amazing place to shop for second hand items, there is always someone selling exactly what I want.
And I don't find other people, or other people's babies or children 'ick' as a rule.

Everyone has different priorities though. I don’t have kids so everything child related seems like a waste of money to me. I happily buy second hand branded clothes for myself, usually from ebay or similar, but will also buy high street. I’ve had second (third, fourth) hand cars, but my current car was bought brand new. I bought a 5 quid pair of earrings a couple of months ago; I bought a 2k watch the same day. My furniture is a mix of second hand, Ikea, high street and custom made. I don’t get manicures, facials and the like, whereas an acquaintance buys cheap food and walks everywhere she she can afford to spend a lot on personal care.

My point is that we all have things we choose to be frugal about, and we all have things we’re willing to splurge on. Each to their own.

Can we start a swap thread? Fed up of buying new. Fed up of selling online.

You would hate me. I don't buy anything second-hand. I'd rather go without than buy second-hand. I don't consider it a waste of money because it's worth it to me and is exactly what money is meant for- to spend. Also the time to find these wonderful buys is not the best use of my time as I am self-employed and I work on the go. Saving £50 on one item and it taking me an hour to do will cost me a few hundred pounds for that hour I spent doing it so not the best use of my time. I do save but not in that manner plus I think buying new means better quality, more use of said item and no hygiene concerns.

I'm with Xenia on this. Same reason we have a cleaner. My take home pay is £30-50 ph after pension contributions, tax and NI. I couldn't save £30 trawling 2nd hand shops or websites. My teens would hate not having the clothes they wanted and chose and I'd rather spend the time with them.