Constant need to buy stuff is getting me down

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I seem to need an endless stream of stuff and it’s starting to get me down.

Just a few examples of things I’ve bought this week:

• Tent to take baby on beach for our upcoming holiday to protect him from the sun (£30)
• Five colourful plant pots for plants that a friend dropped off unexpectedly (£15)
• Cool bag, again for upcoming holiday (£15)
• Decorations for baby’s upcoming 1st birthday (£15)
• New chopping board for kitchen as old one finally broke (£10)

I know these things sound like one offs, but it seems to be every week that I need something unexpected like this. Does anyone else find the same?

I’m also trying to sell some old baby stuff including a carrycot, but have had no takers on FB or Schpock. Not sure where else to try?

It just feels like we slave away to make enough money and then spend it on an endless stream of stuff... and on and on it goes!

Parasol, hat and blanket

I don’t have a parasol either! Beach tent is still eligible for return so I could do that and get a parasol. I just thought the tent would be easier with the baby?

The plants were in small pots but will grow rapidly so needed repotting.

YANBU that it is endless (especially with DC). However a lot of those things could be purchased at Poundland. Wren kitchens did free cool bags for a while in store.

Have two pots of funds, one for essential repairs and another for nonessentials. That way you have funds ready. Start saving towards these funds regularly.

You are pissing money away. The baby won't stay in the tent. Cost per use will be about £5. Then you will be trying to sell it on Facebook!

Other than the chopping board the purchases are unnecessary.

If you wanted a thick wooden board thats fine but you could easily have spent less on it. I'm not cheap but actually my chopping boards are all Ikea or supermarket or dunelm and cost little.

Send the lot back and start thinking about how you save monèy.

I don't think that sounds that bad. Would love to know what you're supposed to make decorations out of 🤣, notay people have glue and card and pens just lying around unless they have older children, even then I would struggle to scrape that stuff together, and let's face it, who's got the time or patience for that?
Of course you want tobsecorate for your babies first birthday. Do people really not do that?
Chopping board, pretty essential if you don't want your worktops wrecked ( could have been cheaper but if you have the money 🤷‍♀️)
Pots will do for more plants for years. Who keeps them in the horrible plastic pots?
Tent and cool bag will also last for years, and you can use the tent in the garden etc. Sure you will get more than one use out of them.

No you wont ever have all you need as you have a baby. They grow and what the need changes...

Also, god some posters on here! You ask a perfectly reasonable question and you’re told you’re wrong, wrong, wrong and made to feel bad.

Yes a chopping board can break!
Yes a beach tent is a good idea
Yes you’ll get more use out of it (doesn’t mean you didn’t have to shell out for it)

Im ina glass- not really beyond balloons and maybe a banner. A few quid? What do you do?

(Not sure how you can break one?)

Wooden ones do come apart eventually and plastic ones get scratched and unhygienic. We recently replaced ours - got a nice one for £5 from B&M Bargains.

The same bday banner gets reused for every bday in this house. While the kids were little, a bag of balloons would last several years, they only needed 5-6 up.

I get the constant buying though, and it’s one advantage I guess of living a simpler life during the pandemic, we need less stuff as we’re not going anywhere!

Understand completely...

Went to find sunscreen yesterday and discovered we only had dregs left. Kids have to have it for nursery and ya know just general good sense... so some for them, some for me and stupid P20 for him indoors and that's £50!!!!!

Ok it lasts for ages but it's £50 I hadn't planned for!

"Tent to take baby on beach for our upcoming holiday to protect him from the sun (£30)"

The tent is essential, but the technically holiday isn't (though I am dying for a beach holiday!!). YAB a bit U to start a thread complaining about having to buy things for holidays and decorations for your baby's birthday: some people really struggle with money to buy things that they actually need, like food and clothes. The chopping board and the cool bag will last you, see it as an investment.

Enjoy your holiday and your baby's first birthday.

And depends on finances obviously. People without money worries probbaky wouldht give any of those things a second thought tbh. Theres nothing "wrong" with any of it. Its just if you're cutting back its not necessary.

Would love to know what you're supposed to make decorations out of 🤣, notay people have glue and card and pens just lying around

I don’t have glue or card so would have needed to buy those. I do have pens but only blue and black biros, so again would have needed to buy colourful pens. Add to that the time spent making the decorations which I absolutely don’t have - and the fact they’d probably look rubbish as I’m crap at that stuff - and that’s why I decided to buy readymade!

@Ylvamoon

My DC never had a pop up tent for the beach! Parasol, hat and blanket draped across the buggy was enough. £30.- saved.

Cool bag you might need, but it should last quite a few years!

Chopping board there are cheaper options on the market. (Not sure how you can break one?)

Surely the plants where already in pots...

No need for birthday decorations... or get less / cheaper ones.

All this....

except please just use a shade / parasol over the buggy - a blanket can trap heat and take temperatures too high. www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/warning-heat-blankets-buggies-prams-11376197

Chopping board was an old plastic folding one I’ve had for years, but it eventually split in two!

OP I know exactly where you are coming from. Every month I think right, I am not buying anything this month and something always comes up. I already have a list of things I need to get next month.

However, I did do a "no spend" thing end of 2019 which went to shit during the first Lockdown - I was so disciplined I paid off thousands in debt. I need to get back on the wagon! It is just so convenient to click a button on your phone and then it's here.

The tent is essential

Is it, though? I'm fairly sure such things didn't exist in my childhood and I don't remember mass outbreaks of sunstroke/sun burn. And my childhood included the 1976 heatwave!

except please just use a shade / parasol over the buggy

I’m not planning to take the buggy on the beach - it will get stuck in the sand!

I’ve never had a beach tent and I’ve had 3 kids and I’ve never spent £15 on a chopping board either. My cool bag is one of the ones to bring your frozen stuff in from a supermarket. It was a couple of quid. And decorations come from Poundland 🤷🏼‍♀️

If you want to spend less, you need to sacrifice convenience for cost. Things like baby tent
could likely be bought for much less on Gumtree or a local FB group. The other items from Poundland or Ikea.

It's a pain but Amazon is really not the place to shop if you're watching your money.

well, you don't really need a beach tent since I'm pretty sure you could rig something up with towels and liberal use of sun block.
Decorations - give over.
Chopping board - ok
plant pots? you mean outer pots? you don't need them.

so for the chopping board which was a tenner and will probably last at least 5 years, if you amortise that for daily use it's practically nothing.

I agree a cool bag is useful - but again you're not going to use it only once are you? (Because if so, you didn't need it)

Cool bag I will get a lot of use from in future years, that’s true.

I think part of the issue is that it is so easy to buy things now. A purchase on amazon takes one click and seconds whereas in the past when you had to trek around the shops and it made you question if you really needed the stuff in the first place.

Don't you know anyone else with a baby you can borrow a tent from?

Chopping board costs £1

Plant pots are much cheaper than £15

Decorations, fine just don't get numbered/gendered ones then they'll do every year

Cool bag, should last years so at least it's a one off you if you really need one. Imo sandwiches etc don't need to be in one, so if it's just for the sake of drinks, buy when you get there?