Rear-facing car seats on a budget?

[Nicknamegoeshere]

My daughter is 6 months and very tall for her age. However, I absolutely know that it is best to keep her in a rear-facing car seat as long as possible from a safety pov and not to change her at 9 months (as the recommendation was years ago with both of my boys).
However, OH and I on a budget both being relatively low earners and the extended rear-facing seats all seem expensive?
Any recommendations/advice most welcome

As she’s tall, a 25KG seat would be better. The britax two way elite is £160, MaxWay is slightly more expensive at £180. Axkid move is £225

I second the Britax Two Way Elite, my toddler (2yrs 8m) is currently rear facing in this seat.

I was also going to say the two way elite! Ours lasted 7 years, my youngest used it till he was nearly 5. It fits in most cars too.

If cost is an issue Joie do some less expensive rear facing seats. Joie Tilt goes up to age 4 (in theory, probably not for a tall child) and is only £60. Joie stages is about £100 but lasts until 25kg so a lot longer and rear faces until 18kg or around age 4.

Facebook marketplace is your friend

It depends how long you want to rear face for.

A seat like Joie stages will let you rear face up to 18kg, fits taller children than most group 1 seats, and often costs under £100. After 18kg, If you still need to harness you could look for a forward facing to 25kg seat,which are cheaper and convert to a booster seat. However it might be worth knowing all these seats use top tether, which is only in newer cars. (if you like the sound of this option, BabyAuto Dupla is worth a look).

Alternatively if you want something to rear face as long as possible, britax max way is usually the cheapest and costs about £180. I know that's still a lot of money, but it does last roughly twice as long. And at least it's not £300 +like a lot of the popular seats.

For an isofix seat up to 18kg, Joie 360 spin is good and sometimes goes down to £160 in sales. Again it tends to accommodate taller children than other group 1 seats.

Thanks so much all.
Another question...
How many car seats do you have? As in the same stage. My daughter travels with my OH a lot too and my mum will be doing childcare when I'm back at work too so will they need separate car seats? No way we can afford three expensive ones!!

We only had 1 car seat per stage for DC1 and swapped cars depending on who was dealing with the DC...

We have now ended up with 1 set per car but the only "extra" purchase was a 2nd booster seat.

We started with the Cybex Sirona (don't bother with a tall child as it won't last that long) after needing to upgrade from the baby carrier with a short and skinny 6mo who was consistently getting her arms out of the 3 point harness in the infant carrier. She was too short in the back to go to a true stage 1 RF seat like the 2 way elite at that point. Then she was getting tall for the Cybex so we upgraded to the Britax at just over 3 leaving the Cybex as a "spare" newborn seat. Once she got to 5 (and 15kg) we went to FF in a booster consistently (Grandparents' car wouldn't work with Britax because they have their passenger seat at a weird angle).

Main issue with 1 seat is that it's tough to do drop off and pick up with different people, especially with a seat that isn't Isofix and needs switching between cars. If the same person is dropping off/picking up or you can walk to/from childcare it's less of an issue.

I find the Britax frustrating to fit quickly but both my cars have annoying seatbelts that don't let you pull more belt out if you've had it all then let a little bit go because you have a moment of inattention/it slips. Other cars might induce less swearing and of course stuff like that gets easier as you do it regularly!

@randomsabreuse Thank you. I think in reality we'll need at least two car seats because my OH can't drive my car and I can't drive his (he has back problems so has an automatic with his chair specifically adjusted). We'd need to drive to childcare too, probably with OH taking her and me collecting her after work.
I'm hoping that we can afford two rear-facing seats depending on cost because I know they are the safest option 😊

The cheapest car seats in any case are the Joie ones, so you don't save any money by getting forward facing seats as they all start at £100+ unless you go for brands that are priced so cheap the quality is really in question.

You can get Joie Tilt or Steadi even cheaper than the Stages and these are good for less-frequent use. The only problem with these is they don't fit all cars, so it's best to check them in the car you want. They are also a bit smaller so outgrown sooner, but once they're outgrown you could get something like a 123 seat, which is harnessed until 18kg and then becomes a booster seat (all FF, but she'll be older by the time she outgrows a Joie seat.)

Another option is if you get a rear facing car seat for the main car that's a bit pricier but they still fit in the infant seat, is to use the infant seat as the seat in the other car/s until that's outgrown and then decide whether to look at RF or FF. Especially if you think the driver of that car is likely to get fed up with RF and use the seat FF as soon as possible, it can be better to get one that's better rated for FF, as the cheaper Joie seats don't really have any advanced features for safety when FF.

@Nicknamegoeshere

Thanks so much all. Another question... How many car seats do you have? As in the same stage. My daughter travels with my OH a lot too and my mum will be doing childcare when I'm back at work too so will they need separate car seats? No way we can afford three expensive ones!!

As grandma I bought my own car seat. DD has one and then her dh bought another as transferring the seats between cars all the time was really hard work - those seats can be heavy!! MY DDs car has scratches around the door from taking the seat in and out.

Conversely I think it's easy to swap a car seat back and forth. I have a set of the tether straps required for the minikid in the car of the people who transport DS (£20 each) then it's just 5 mins swapping the seat. I probably wouldn't ask a granny to carry it so do it myself