Baby on a budget, advice appreciated!

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I am pregnant with first child who is due in march. My husband's contract is due to end at this time ( job contract that is, not 'husband' contract!). He is applying for various funding to continue his job but it is very competitive and in the current economic climate it's pretty likely he will be unemployed in march. If this happens the thought of him being at home with us is LOVELY! However, the money situation sucks so we are saving as much as we can. If anyone has any advice on the following I would be very grateful,

1. what is the minimum one needs to buy for a baby and the cheapest way to get this stuff?
2. what is the minimum winter maternity wear one needs and cheapest way to get it?
3. any tips on how to keep warm in a winter pregnancy? It is bloody freezing where I live a nd I really feel the cold anyway. I never wear women's fashion clothes in winter as they are so thin, instead buying hill walking gear. But they don't make maternity hill walking gear so I'm a bit stuck as to how to keep warm!
4. any other budgeting tips gratefully received.

Thanks for any advice anyone can give!

Have you got friends/relatives who have had a baby? I got Loads of stuff handed down to me, also charity shops are full of lovely stuff. Try free-cycle/ebay/jumble sales/newspaper ads etc. I don't think we bought anything new for our baby - remember that marketing for new parents is very, very persuasive and your baby doesn't need new stuff.

I just bought one pair of maternity jeans and used big sloppy jumpers on top .

Thanks ragwort. I have one friend who is having a baby four months ahead of me so I'll ask her if she is willing to pass on hand me downs. Hopefully she won' t be feeling too sentimental about keeping the baby clothes : ).

You've prompted me to think that it may be worth asking friends with older Holden if they have any stuff stuck away in attics that they want to get rid of, so thanks!

Freecycle, charity shops, MN selling pages. A lot of people are very pfb (I was!) and will only accept new yet there are lovely clothes and baby things out there barely or never worn. My dc3 had a lovely 2nd hand clothes from Ebay.

Babygrows and vests for baby as long as possible is more cost effective than lots of different 'outfits'. Imo worth buying from M&S, John Lewis, Next as they will wash and wash, not shrink, not bobble.

As the thread attests, when you need a highchair get the Antilop from Ikea.

If you think people are going to buy you baby stuff and you know them well don't be afraid to ask for practical gifts.

You don't need things like a baby bath (sink or bath will do), a cot changer (towel on floor) etc.

www.analyticalarmadillo.co.uk/2012/02/20-essential-baby-items-that-arent.html?m=1

Freegle and charity shops are great.

Where are you? I only ask as I've some stuff that will be going free very soon from mr third and final child. Our first was on a budget and I like to repay kindness :)

For maternity, my first 2 were winter babies so I was huge in winter. I had 2 pairs maternity jeans and a couple of big hoodies (non mat) that I wore constantly. Dh's jumpers were also borrowed . I found it best often to have a pack of cheap maternity vest tops which were long and then normal long sleeved tops etc that could be got cheaper than maternity ones then layer them up. I have a big comfy wool duffel coat that fits over a full term bump and then over a baby in a sling.

For the baby it is really easy to do it on the cheap. You don't need a cot at all if you choose to co-sleep althoughif you are going to co-sleep please research how to do it safely. There is plenty of infor on here if you do a search. Otherwise teh cheapy ikea cot is fine or get a second hand one and a new matress. You don't need a crib, moses basket etc so if you get given one, great but if not don't bother. Nappies are expensive, cloth is much cheaper after the initial spend so see what you can get second hand (and see above for where are you as I will have a pile of nappies going cheap). Clothes, well people will buy you outfits etc and anyway outfits are a pain. Sleepsuits are the way to go and can be got very cheaply in supermarkets (sainsbo's wash and wear very well). Charity shops are great for clothes too. Most of my clothes came from the 5 items for £1 bin at the salvos and have lasted 3 of my dcs plus been handed around friends in between.

You really don't need much- somewhere to sleep, clothes and ameans of transport so eaither pram or sling. Prams keep an eye open on gumtree etc and for a sling try to find a sling meet and see if there is a sling library near you so you can try a few and see what suits you.

Will you get the surestart maternity grant? That is £500 and will be more than enough to buy everything you need. Even if you don't get it now you have 3 months after birth to claim so if you don't get the right benefits now once oyu have the baby register him, and apply for your child benefit. Once you have the child benefit number you can apply for the child tax credits. Once you are getting child tax credits you can get the surestart grant.

You'll probably be warm with a baby bump.

Can you get a cheap men's waterproof cost? Then your DH can use it once you're done. I wear a men's one which was handy when pregnant.

Get long tops from tall sections of clothes ships as they'll cover a bump although maternity wear is quite cheap now if you look online at places like next, new look etc.

Get some maternity wear bundles off eBay. I managed to get jeans and a few tops for about £5. Same for baby clothes.

Can you ask for baby bits from your family as Xmas presents?

Join freecycle.

Check charity shops although I find stuff isn't great in them I suspect the workers nab the good stuff

As the others have said look for second hand stuff on ebay, gumtree etc. Loads of people want to sell stuff thats perfectly fine (me included!) and that includes maternity wear so if I were you I would work out what you need by looking around the shops, reading up, asking friends etc then trawling the internet. A baby bath is a waste of time, and if you did desperately want one I reckon you could pick one up at a car boot, antibac it and youre off! we have one of the pastic seats that stick in the bath and find it great, baby cant move and you have 2 hands free! The only think I would say is if you can afford to, buy a car seat new. Unless you are buying from a friend who you know hasnt had an accident etc. if you buy a cot second hand, I would always invest in a new mattress.

Thanks so much everyone. Indith I live in Edinburgh ( hence why it's bloody freezing!). I'll look into the cloth nappy thing too. I don't think our bed is really big enough to cosleep but dh is planning to make a cot to go alongside the bed. Charity shops are a good idea I hadn't thought of so will check them out. I don't think we will get a sure start grant as I work full time.
Iggly thanks for the tip re. Men's clothes, will try raiding dh's wardrobe first!
Olympic/ mama thanks for advice on baby bath, will give this a miss and use our sink instead or track down a plastic seat. And it's good to get advice on the durable clothes.
One thing we don't need is a car seat as we don't have a car. Now that's a way to save some cash in a city!

Hi o agree with the others i am pg with number 3 and brought everything new first time round only to give most of it away within a few months as didnt anticipate how quickly a new baby grows and there needs change!this time round my cousin is saving everything from her newborn and i will give her some cash and save loads!x

Hi o agree with the others i am pg with number 3 and brought everything new first time round only to give most of it away within a few months as didnt anticipate how quickly a new baby grows and there needs change!this time round my cousin is saving everything from her newborn and i will give her some cash and save loads!x

dd2 was a winter pregnancy, I bought a huge pair of velour trackie bottoms from primark, they were warm and comfy, great big mans hoody, which I still wear sometimes as a comfort thing when I am poorly.

Moses basket is absolutly not needed. sling, cloth nappies (cost more outlay but I worked out saved me about 2 thousand over 2 dds), breastfeeding, vest and babygrows from asda or similar, you dont get cuter than a baby in a white babygrow anyway, outfits are a total waste of money and a real faff to deal with.

oh and ikea do really cute cots, sleeping bags and high chairs for very little £££

Random...I have a silvercross pramette in jet black which is in ex find.
I don't want much for it but it would need collecting...
I also have 2 lindam bed guards (which you won't need for a while!) that you can have too.

Yy to kiea stuff..it's cheap and functional but also designed well and very bright and cheerful.

We got lots of hand me downs, lots of neighbours passing over their baby stuff (including baby's cot which we sanded down and re-painted and has lasted us all three DCs), NCT sales for other stuff.

Don't bother buying too many clothes for baby (minimum things needed would be IMO a set of long sleeve vests and a set of long sleeved sleepsuits). Mothercare does a great baby starter set for less than £20 if I recall correctly, and you'll be surprised just how much stuff you get given as presents, especially with the first.

Freecycle is great too for all sorts of baby hand-me-down if you're not concerned with things being new (although DO get a new mattress and a new car seat - kiddicare.com is great for cheapies for these).

I got a fab Zara military-style coat (double fronted thing) for a winter coat from a charity shop for less than a fiver, and because it was double-fronted, I just moved the buttons out further and further as the bump grew - it made the rounds round all my pregnant friends too and is now ready to be readjusted back to a non-pregnant coat (although my post-baby bulge is still huge 19m on! ) :o

You really can do things on the cheap.

Congratulations btw :)

Certainly worth trying on men's coats and sweat shirts often very cheap.

Befriend anyone with an older child. I bought hardly any clothes because DF has a baby a year older. She lent me a crib too. I used them again for DD3 and she used them for her DD2 and those that weren't pink for DS 1. Many of the clothes and the crib have done 5 DCs.

You really don't need new.

Honestly the only thing it's worth spending money or lots of legwork on finding cheap is a pushchair.

They are very personal and an utter pain if they don't fit your life style.

If you walk miles and it's got tiny swivel wheels you'll swear at it. If it won't fold to go on the bus or train (as you don't have a car) you'll swear at it. If its too heavy and blocks your hall you'll swear at it.

What clothes size are you? I have a few bits and bobs I'd gladly pass on if you would pay postage!

Congratulations :)

Freecycle/Breastfeed/Cook from fresh when weaning/Aldi nappies/water and facecloth instead of wipes/don't bother with lotions and potions, all you need is bubblebath, vaseline and sudocreme/Sling instead of pram then straight into MaClaren (assuming you will travel by bus and this will make it easier anyway, I did this in Edinburgh as it was my second and all I remembered about having a pram was tripping over the bloody thing on the way out the door with my baby in a sling)/I got my cot and a changing table in the JL clearance shop in St James Centre already built :)

Congratulations!!

For clothes, get a pack of supermarket sleepsuits and a pack of supermarket vests. And a couple of cardies/hats. Then you need nappies: Lidl/Aldi make good ones which are cheaper than brands.

Cot: check the price of wood because a standard pine Ikea job might be cheaper. If it isn't then you want to make certain that its standard cot mattress size: non-standard mattresses cost more. If you can sew I saved a fortune by buying cotton sheeting and hemming it against the cost of "proper" fitted sheets. You will probably need to buy blankets though.

Get a pram and/or sling second hand, then a new carseat unless you can get a trusted handmedown (ie friend's old one).

Maternity wear: I wore normal leggings most of the way through with long maternity tops over them. Still wearing the same leggings now!

And the car boot at Greenside on a Sunday morning is full of baby stuff. Get there early (8am)!

Ebay. Borrow. Car boot. These are the way forward.

You can get nice baby clothes second hand on ebay - often they are sold in "bundles" with 20 or so items in the same size. Babygrow and vest plus cardigan as required is cheaper than outfits and people will buy you outfits in size 0-3 as gifts anyway. vests are cheap in supermarkets and so are babygrows, although the Next/M&S are better quality. Don't waste money on pricey John lewis babywear. Second hand baby clothes tend to be in excellent condition as they have barely been worn.

Kiddicare nappies are great and cheap - it is only costing us £5 a week. You order a box online, it gets delivered next day and lasts you for a month. We used huggies size 1 until the cord fell off and then went straight into kiddicare size 2.

No need to waste money on a super pricey fancy pram system - a more basic one will do and buying second hand is also a good idea - have a look on Ebay.

My cot is from a charity shop, I got my sister a pram and several bags of clothes from freecycle. I don't buy anything new ifI can help it! Secondhand cloth nappies will save you a fortune. We had a car seat on loan from friends. My mum found me cot sheets in Oxfam for 20p!

You can really keep the cost right down. Good luck!

Random You don't need an all singing all dancing pram, I bought a Quinny originally and it was a horror. Get something like a Maclaren Techno or a Baby Jogger City Mini. You can pick both of these up second hand for less than a hundred pounds. Otherwise, they're not very expensive new (about £200). You can make them very comfy with a second hand cocoon or a snuggly footmuff.

Also, baby can wear babygrows for the first six months. These are cheaper and less faffy than outfits.

If you have an Asda, I rate their nappies. If you are going down the reusables route, it doesn't have to be full time. Even if you only use three reusables a day you will still be saving yourself a pack of nappies every two and a bit weeks (this is based on the asda 50 pack and my crappy calculations).

I use cloth part time, if you are on a budget something like the thirsties prefold and wrap system would be relatively cheap. Their prefolds are hemp and very absorbant. Otherwise the flip system is good as well, as are the bumgenius pockets. I have used a lot of nappies and time and time again I come back to my bumgenius pockets and my flip inserts with a variety of covers.

Thanks so much everyone for all the great advice! I can't tell you how helpful it is for a know nothing novice like me! Fizzy laces, I will be checking out Green side!

Indith, badvoc and spammer time, I have sent you an email in response to your questions.

Thanks so much to everyone again. Some really fantastic tips and advice!

Belly Bump Bands - brilliant invention, they'll keep you going for ages when you hit that stage of nothing fits.

I have 1 pair of maternity dungarees and I love them, I've found I just can't wear normal large trousers, they either set off ligament pain or fall down :( I bought some XL tops from my local market at about £1.99 each - if they are too short for the dungarees then I wear the belly bump band. Don't be tempted to wear your prepregancy tops for too long - you could stretch them out of shape. Last pregnancy I also picked up a ski jacket from TK Maxx for about £20 XXL, dry warm and happy.

Coconut or olive oil works well on itchy stretch marks - I do find I need to moisturise with something, it just doesn't need to be bio oil.

I've been given loads of stuff too - some hand knitted cardi's and about 4 blankets. Secondhand cot - new mattress. If you totally know the history of a carseat you can use a secondhand one. We are talking it was your brothers/Best friends and implicitly trust you know it's never been in an accident.

Surestart Maternity grant can be claimed after you have given birth once you are on Mat leave, if your income drops significantly on maternity pay you might be entitled at that point even if you weren't beforehand.

We decided to try cloth because it will save so much money but we arn't sure if we will cope with it. So as you can use muslins as a first nappy we have 24 muslins, some boosters and about 5 ebayed motherease outer covers (apparently best for folded nappys). All together I think they cost £30 if we get the hang of it we'll grab some terry's, if we don't the boosters can be used as wipes, the wraps ebayed and you can never have enough muslins apparently.