How much did you spend?

[TrueRomance28]

I'm 25 weeks pregnant with my first child & me & my partner have been arguing about how much the baby essentials are going to cost. The figure in his head is much lower than I think is realistic.
How much did you initially spend getting everything you needed for your baby?

Very little. We shopped at nct sales and were given various bits and pieces. Possibly a couple of hundred all up x

Off the top of my head I would say about 3 or 4k, but it was for our pfb and in our defence we are living abroad where everything cost a premium!

What figures do you have in mind?

Biggest expense was the pram/car seat which was about £500 and a complete , stinking, heavy waste of money! Stuck to a Max Cosi and a secondhand Pliko Pramette off Gumtree for next baby (came in at £150 for both).

Got the cot for £100, £30 on baby clothes, maybe? Nappies, cotton wool and all he hospital faff - maybe about another £30. That was it.

What else do you need?!

OK, will try and make a list...

Jane 3 wheeler with all the bits and bobs - £600
Cot bed £200
Mattress £100
Moses basket and stand £60
Bouncer chair £25
Breast pump £55
Bottles £20
Sling £40
Monitors £50
Bedding £45ish
Bath and towels £30
Basic baby gros and vests £30 (then shopped more when he was born)
Change mat £10
Change bag £30
Nappies and toiletries for the first few weeks £50

So.. £1345?

Seems a lot but we'll have saved on things here and there and spent more where we wanted to and, as I'm expecting number 2, it will (mostly) get used again. Obviously you can spend a lot more but you can spend less too. There's no right or wrong. We'll be stocking up on tesco nappies again soon (I found them to be better than the leading brands) and we'll spread the cost a bit that way.

Good luck with the pregnancy and happy shopping!

Mouse x

Got most off eBay, spent about £300 on travel system, cot, Moses basket, bedding, clothes, playmats,

Hth!

The boyfriend is convinced it can be done on £400-500 for everything, I think it'll be more like £800 as the pram/travel system I want is coming in around £400 and I want a bedside cot, which I will try to get second hand but if I can't is looking about £200.

I've been keeping an eye on gumtree although its not popular in this area, and ebay but so far the "bargains" have all been so far away it would work out cheaper for me to buy brand new instead of paying out for petrol to collect things!!

Not a lot really:

£50 for two second hand cots
£250 for ex-display double pram (best money we spent)
Maybe £50 for blankets/sheets and clothes (mix of NCT sale and tesco/matalan etc)
£5 changing mat
£40 for two bouncy chairs (essential with newborn twins!)

Over the next 6 months we bought more stuff as we needed it. I don't think you can really anticipate what you'll need until baby is here, so I'd start with the basics listed above and see how you go.

Good luck

We got our families to buy most of it :D

Grandparents (on both sides)= Pram (£400)
In-laws= Maxi Cosi car seat (£75)
My parents= cot/mattress (£140)

Then we bought the clothes and nappies etc which came to around £100.

I think it depends if you want all new or are happy with second hand.

I think all in all we spent £1500, although gparents chipped in aswell with big items.

If we ever had another I wouldn't get everything new like I did before, I am much more sensible now and realise that a baby does not need everything brand spanking new only to grow out of within a few years i think you could easily do it on £500 if you shop around and ask for practical gifts if you have friends/ family etc that want to but something.

Okay here goes (I might have to practice my breathing here)

Travel system Car Seat, pram carry cot, buggy attachment and nappy bag£150 (worth £600)
1st moses basket £10 & matching bedding and mobile £30 (now been rejected)
2nd moses basket, matching baby bath, top and tail bath, mobile, 3 sets of matching bedding £100
celular blankets x 3 £30
Play gym thing £10
Rocking cot
bottles x 6, £6 (down from £25)
Sterliser Micro £6 (down from £15)
Breast Pump £6 (down from £25)
Solid Pine Cot Bed £159
Solid Pine Wardrobe and chest of drawers £150
box of 240 nappies £20
Additional bedding £100
Muslin Squares £30
Wall Stickers £30
Paint £30
Changing mat £10
Sprung Matteress £60
Misc: £200

There will be more before 5 weeks is up.

xx

I have been VERY frugal. I have a spreadsheet.

RRP of items bought - £1000.
Actual spend - £176

Includes Silvercross Pram & Carseat, Moses Basket, and many many other things.

Have been an ebaying demon. My pram/Carseat alone should have cost over £750. I paid £100, and the carseat was brand new.

Only new stuff has been baby vests/baby grows and some sheets.

Have made sure, when people offer to buy thing, I've pointed them in the right direction for items that are actually useful/needed.

We're not 'poor' btw, I'd just rather have a holiday this summer, than spend a fortune on new things that the baby may only use for a matter of weeks.

Also, it's our second - and you're a but more realistic about what you actually NEED.

PRAM

Just bought this travel system supposed to be 465 got for 129 off ebay including postage

Other than that probably about 250 quid all together for baby 1. On baby 2 now and other than that pram as first one we got for free probably spent about 50 quid. You dont need much for a baby and they grow out of it and dont need it so quickly buying lots is a waste of time imo

With our first probably about £1,000 (16 yrs ago). By the time we got to our 5th we hardly spent anything. Not because we had everything but because we had worked out that you don't need three quarters of the stuff that magazines say that you do.

£260 travel system,
£30 nappies
£30 cot bed mattress
£25 duvet/bumper set
£30 bouncy chair (waste of money)

clothes/cot/highchair came from family, handed down from me, through sis, bro, cousin, back to DS.

Oh and stairgates,, but that came later.
I buy all his clothes now on Ebay, bundles of about 4-5 items are cheapest wrt postage etc. I aim for about £1.50 an item total. (I.e. 4 t-shirts, 2 jeans max £9). It's easy to spend over this, but we don't. (even though we have money to spare etc, just don't think it's neccesary).
I expect these items to last through several more DC to come.

You really don't need much. A bathmat is just as good as a baby bath (which you use about 2 months tops).
No need to spend £500 on pushchair.
Only 10 vests/outfits/sleepsuits in each of first few sizes, will be plenty.

Best of luck x
P.S. Kiddicare.com is great for pushchairs/cots etc

Just saw your list OP, £30 for muslins is a bit OTT. I bought 2 packs of tesco (cheapest, I looked everywhere (summer 2010)) http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=263787201

sorry for repeated posting..

No need for wardrobe, just chest of drawers is plenty, even now approching 2yo I've never hung stuff up in it... Just a decent size c-o-d.
Chest of Drawers

Cotbed - loaned from a friend, bought mattress (new, sprung) £80
Moses basket and stand - gift from SIL, bought two sheets to use £5
Baby Monitor - gift from auntie
Pram - Maclaren lie flat stroller, carrycot insert, car seat which also fits into stroller, bought new £210 (tip, if Tesco sell the pram you want, it will be cheaper than anywhere else)
Selection of newbaby vests and gro's - £20
COuple of 'couldnt resist' outfits - £20
Muslins - £10
Toys - bought a playmat and a bouncer chair (both lifesavers) new from Mothercare - £50 total
Nappies, wipes, smellies etc - £30

Oh, and I agree with ItWasThePenguins re: wardrobe - not needed until they have school uniform. I bought a chest of drawers and a nice bookshelf (IKEA) £90 total

We spent about £400 inc £200 for secondhand Bugaboo. Cot was £18 from charity shop, car seat from ebay, clothes from charity shops, cot top changer from NCT sale, a few bits from netmums local and freecycle. Free nappies from my MIL- the same ones DH wore as a baby! I love a bargain though, even for my PFB .

My sister did even better, I got her a M&P buggy in really good nick from freecycle, and baby clothes, and she got a cot for £5.

NCT sales, freecycle and charity shops are the way to go if you want to keep the cost down.

We have probably spent about £2000, but we didn't need to spend that much. If necessary we could have got everything for much less, the only things you really need to be new are the car seat and mattresses. Preloved is a very good site for getting second hand bargains.

If money's an issue try your local freecycle group, as well as checking on ebay/preloved.

So far from freecycle alone (and therefore no money spent!) we have gotten:

• a cot
• travel cot
• baby bath
• baby rocker
• buggy
• breast bump and accessories
• suitable blankets
• soft toys
• stairgate

Ok I think my list will be disgusting and shock me to see it on paper! This is what I brought with our first, bearing in mind I always new we wanted 4 children so I knew it would all beta lot of use.

£850 - bugaboo chameleon with maxi-cosi car seat and isofix, footmuff, extra covers
£600 - stokke cotbed
£280 - stokke change table - the best last minute thing we've ever brought, used constantly for past 4 years now expecting dc3
£100 - bedding
£45 - bouncy chair
£50 - playmat, complete waste of money both dc's have hated it
£60 - change bag, cath kidston, it fell apart within 6 months
£20 - bottles
£30 - steriliser
£20 - tummy tub bath, do not buy she hated it. Both preferred being held in big bath
£300+ - clothes, didn't need half as much most still have labels on as dc2 was a boy!
Grobags - £40
Mobiles, toys - £100

I think that's about it! Some of the big purchases were expensive but will be worth it, DC3 will use it all soon and DC2 is still using cotbed and change table. Things I would get again are playmat, baby bath, cath kidston change bag.

We spent very little on dd2. Maybe £200 ish.
Cot came from a family friend, so did moses basket (not that either ever got used as baby slept with us)
Pram/car seat came from sister, we gave her about £50 as that's what she thought she'd get on ebay.
Washable nappies, job lot second hand £60 (still sving us money after 2 years)
Breast pump £25 from ebay
Sling £20 from ebay
Bottles and steriliser £20 on offer in Asda (again not used much as baby didn't like bottles)
Almost everything else was given as pesents.

Just saw this... if it helps www.mumsnet.com/Talk/for_free/1436193-0-3-months-baby-boy-clothes-and-bedding

Gah.. sorry.. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/for_free/1436193-0-3-months-baby-boy-clothes-and-bedding