Baby toys on a very tight budget - ideas please

[haloflo]

My DD is nearly 6 mo and I am feeling the pinch on maternity pay. What might she like to do at home which is free? If I do buy her some (cheap) toys what will last and last?

[sarahtigh]

instead of stcking cups go to picnic section where 6 stacking beakers/bowls/plates can be used for teaset later on will be 99p not £3 for toys

car boot sales , NCT do nearly new sales too all children prefer mummy and daddy's stuff anyhow DD was about 9 months when she realised that real stuff is black/ chrome not pink/ green / blue/red plastic

[lechatnoir]

I'll second Freecycle - you can't get better than free IMO! I've given away stacks of baby clothes, toys, bottles, breast pumps, cot - basically anything I need to get rid of & can't/didn't sell on ebay.

In return I've had form people: one of the plastic ELC slides & red/yellow house for the garden, a play cooker, play food plus a little table & 3 chairs - didn't cost me a penny bar a few pounds petrol to collect them locally.

[sunshinewanted]

my kids favourite was a home made posting box. just a circle cut in the lid of a shoe box and then they could post something in it then take lid off and get it out and so on.

Had far more use than shop bought posting boxes as ic can be used at much younger age when they find it interesting to take lid off and find the object and much easier to get something in the hole

[Jesusgirl]

My dd loved playing with plastic spoons and cups. I got a few from ikea then. A pack of brightly coloured cutlery set (of 18) for £1. Wooden spoons and plastic bowls, make knots in old scarves. Put some grains of rice or pasta in a small container for her to shake.

My guideline then for toys was anything that'll help develop her senses - bright colours to see, different textures to feel, jeans, wool, suede, leather etc, different sounds to hear.

I made the mistake with my ds1 by splashing out on expensive toys which he'd play with once and abandon but dd was very content with cheap and cheerful!

[Mibby]

Ebay toys?

We got a set of stacking rings on a stick from Asda for 90p and theyve been played with pretty much every day since (DD is 10 months now)

[ZeroMinusZero]

Definitely don't need to spend any money on a 6 month old. Large empty tissue boxes; plastic spoons; screwed up balls of paper; anything plastic that can't be swallowed - all of these could be free toys.

Also walking to a park and letting her lie/roll/crawl about on the grass. Or just walking around the park and letting her look at the green things.

A park with a sandpit: you can at the least hold her so her bare feet touch the sand.

Dancing with her to music on the radio.

Visiting friends and relatives so that she can spend time with people who aren't you and get used to strangers.

[salvadory]

Asda do brilliant stacking cups and so cheap too, I can really recommend, they also have wind up frog and duck toys that are great in the bath, usually on an offer where you get 3 x toys for a fiver, well worth a trip to asda (it's not my favourite supermarket by a longshot but I've not found better, cheaper basic toys.

[mousesma]

You can always try Ikea Express on ebay. It's slightly more expensive then ikea (to cover the cost of the seller picking the item up) but you can get most small ikea stuff there.

[weneedabiggerboat]

Also meant to say Tescos/Asda do their own plastic teasets, I have 2 older girls (6 & 3), and have therefore got about 100 teasets but the baby loves playing with the teacups, she also thinks its really funny if you put something in the teacup like a figure or a random jigsaw piece and rattle it around.

If you are looking to spend a little bit more money, my elder two love the Happyland stuff from ELC, dd3 also can now hold and swap the figures in her hand. You can get a box of figures for about £6, the sets which will be great when she's a little older are from about £15 but they do put them on sale quite often (usually around Halloweenish, and then about the two weeks before Christmas)

[Tyr]

At that age, anything becomes a toy. Freegle is useful and charity shops are great. Anything brightly coloured that makes a noise will go down a treat.

[haloflo]

Ikea is an hours drive, I wish they delivered their cheap stuff. Might see if my sister is going to her local one soon though. It seems very popular on these boards but its a bit of a trek for me (i've not driven DD more than 20 minutes out of town)

There is a B&M and Poundland though. I think I might try the toy library and household stuff first and see what is popular.

[wearymum200]

Emptying a shoebox full of pine cones, cotton reels etc can keep them endlessly amused. I would invest in a set of stacking cups, they last and are very cheap and can be used in bath/ paddling pool etc as well as tower building.
Cheap board books which can be chewed
Empty bottles with dried lentils etc inside make a great noise
But you are probably her best toy of all!

[haloflo]

Her nanna has got her some lovely books which she loves to look at/grab/eat. Well they are lovely now but I guess in time they may not be so nice...

I will keep my eye out in charity shops too thank you. I'm in NW England in my local city centre the charity shops are often pretty rubbish but you never know and I wonder round town often enough.

I've never heard of Fara petuluma I will look into it though (might just be a London thing though?)

Thank you haberdashery I will print this thread I think to save the ideas for older babies/toddlers. (Not that my baby will ever grow up! I cannot imagine her walking.)

I have some links, DD already likes to wave those around and gum them. I wanted to get some stacking cups today but ELC and Boots had sold out! I'll try the supermarket next time I'm there.

[fluffywhitekittens]

If you have an ikea near you they have some good cheap toys, there is a set of plastic stacking cups for £1.50 that is a real favourite.

[weneedabiggerboat]

I have a 7 month old, her favourite toy is wooden spoons or my handbag. I got great stacking cup in Ikea for £1.50, I also got some buggy books in what used to be Bargain Books, I can't remember what its call now for 99p. She likes to play with teethers, Poundland does good ones. Have a nosy in the likes of B&M - there was a thread I think in Chat a few weeks ago about what toys your child had the most use of, several of the toys mentioned are £4.99 in B&M.

[GoingForABlog]

Keep your eye out on FreeCycle, I got a big bag of baby toys from there and I put them all through the dishwasher and they survived and have been used by both of mine now, all for £0!

[Iggly]

Be careful with dried pasta - she'll probably try to eat it!

Charity shops are great - could get some books. DS didn't have much attention for toys - don't know why I bothered!

[petaluma]

Fara not Farah

[CharlotteBronteSaurus]

let her bash all your saucepans with a wooden spoon.

half-fill an empty water bottle with lentils/macaroni and you have a rattle.

[Haberdashery]

I think the only things worth spending actual money on at this age are baby links (about £4 from ELC, I think, and actually useful for you as well as nice for the baby) and some stacking cups (I got ours from Sainsburys for about £5). If your budget runs to it, some squeezy plastic animals for the bath might be nice in a few months (would def buy these new as they tend to go a bit mouldy inside after a while no matter how carefully you clean them). I bought some for about a fiver and my DD is still playing with them at five so that is more than four years of continual use! She also still uses the baby links as bracelets and the stacking cups in the bath.

At about a year old, I used to sit my daughter in a large cardboard box with a load of torn up newspaper and let her throw it around and bury herself to her heart's content. She absolutely loved it. Other ideas for that age that are really nice and also cheap would be things like a bowl of water with soap/washing up liquid and a whisk (outside or on kitchen/bathroom floor), clear plastic bottle half filled with water/food colouring/glitter and a drop of something that will bubble, plastic bottles containing a couple of tablespoons of rice/beans/lentils/salt (they all make different noises), 'painting' on outside floors or walls with water and a big brush or chalk drawings outside, buy really cheap big bag of lentils or rice from eg Indian shop and put in a big washing up bowl and let her bury things and dig in it.

Later on, next year, when she's starting to walk, it's definitely worth getting a cheap toy pushchair or pram or maybe a trolley with bricks as that's another thing that will be played with for absolutely years. I think ELC do really cheap toy buggies. Toy plastic food will be a lot of fun later on, too, and a cheap plastic tea set.

A lot of these are for older children, but it might give you some ideas for later on. I think the improvised toys have always been my daughter's favourites.

[petaluma]

Toy libraries are the business!

I don't know if they have any in your area but the charity Farah do a few branches dedicated to children's stuff - some of the best toys, not to mention some pretty pucker second hand clothes (John Lewis, JoJoMamanBebe and Petit Bateau clothes really do last!) I've got come from there. Seriously cheap - I've never paid much more than £2 for a toy, and more like 50p for most others.

The branches I know of are in Earlsfield, SW London and Fulham Road.

:)

[haloflo]

Wow they do have a toy library! This is amazing! I will ring the children's centre tomorrow. Thank you all so much. I am feeling so much better about tomorrows entertainment.

[mousesma]

Why don't you contact your local children's centre and see if they have a toy library you can borrow from?

At 6 months DD still wasn't that interested in most toys but she liked her stacking cups and playing with my costume jewellery e.g. plastic bangles etc.

[PotteringAlong]

play dough

A bit young at the moment but always a winner for later on!

[haloflo]

Oooh ok. I had noticed she was always more interested in grabbing the wipes/nappy cream/nappys than the lovely friendly elephant toy on her change mat but it never really occurred to me that I could let her play with normal stuff around the house

I am going to start having a look now.