Thrifty pregnancy and new baby tips...

[PregnantGrrrl]

What thrifty tips do you have for during pregnancy / when you have a new bubba?- Share them here!

My tip- stuff overpriced maternity Tshirts. I bought a stack of Primark vest tops a size or two bigger. £1.50 each! And vest tops are handy for breastfeeding too.

Very True Mrs B

Have never got through that checkout for less than £200, when only popped in for a lightbulb

my record - in and out in 8min with the tables I wanted and nothing more [smug]

(top tip - if you only want furniture go in through the checkouts straight to the 'warehouse' bit)

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Don't buy any baby clothes except a cheapo mothercare starter-pack. You will soon be deluged in newborn stuff. Save your money for when they are 6 months and no-one cares any more!

Some local authorities do grants for reusable nappies - mine gives £50, all you need is proof of purchase. Bingo, that saves several hundred a year on disposables.

(Danae - my DD loved the wooden lemon reamer thingy so much she used to take it to bed with her!)

Ikea have online shooping for some areas now.

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ooo talking of Ikea, my best ever buy was a rubber mat for the bath for £1.50. We never needed a baby bath - no room to store it in our tiny flat anyway.

don't buy much in advance - see what you really need.

I bf & co-slept. Had a changing mat on the floor in the bathroom, bought clothes at h&m (excellent quality), borrowed clothes from family and used a baby bjorn sling.

The thing you will need is a car seat.

Talking of IKEA - top tip is their bags of white flannels (think it costs about £2 for 10 flannels). We bought LOADS - use them instead of baby wipes, muslins or even bibs (just tuck it is like a napkin). DD is now 2 and they are still going strong.

Use the library for books - if the baby is a member then their books can go back chewed / whatever and no fine,whereas fine if they were out on an adult ticket

DS joined the library at 4 days old. How sad was I?

And they don't pay overdue fines either iirc, so no worries about losing "that's not my train" under the sofa.

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We found that we could have basically skipped half clothes sizes in the first year (i.e. just got 0-3 & 6-9 & then on to 12-18, missing out NB, 3-6 & 9-12) as DD grew out of them so quickly - she was in 12-18 size by 9 months! (luckily we had borrowed loads of stuff from friends so it didn't matter)

Borrow all you can from friends, especially in the first year they will only wear things a handful of times before they are outgrown. We borrowed loads, it had already been through our friends 2 DDs & by the time we handed it back after our DD had used it, it still looked brand new....

If people are going to be buying presents for baby drop strong hints for them to buy in big sizes (at least 6-9) - they really don't get any wear out of the deluge of NB & 0-3 clothes you will receive.

Wait to see how you are before buying a sling - I had SPD & couldn't use mine, too painful (a friend had a similar problem with a dodgy back)

Ebay is great for bargains - keep a look out for some of the big sellers offering catalogue returns - we got DDs cot for £40, when it was £150 in mothercare (you could still see the name through where they had blocked it out with black marker on the label - it wasn't advertised at mothercare, but I knew it was from the picture as it was the one I had my heart set on...) It was brand new & it looked like only one piece of it had even been out the box as it was still wrapped up, I guess someone didn't like the wood colour!

Save your money for the things that matter, a new car seat (if you need one) a decent pushchair (some of the cheaper ones can be false economy as they don't last) and a new cot mattress.

Ebay gets my vote too.

I started early with a list of things (compiled from MN!) and studied histories and kept bids low. That way we've got eveything cheap and have eveyrhing we need in loads of time.

Also not buying maternity gear has been easy this season as all the normal ranges are selling stetchy empire line tops so you don't have to pay the maternity "premium".

Primark and Peacocks rock!

Ebay for me too!

You get loads of stuff brand new with tags for miles less than you would pay in the shops.

My biggest bargains were a top and some dungarees that cost 1p each (not including postage) and were my favourite clothes for DS.

If you are buying new shop around to find the best deals and use cashback websites such as Quidco and money off voucher sites.

We were bought far too many clothes so i took a lot of them back to places like mothercare and boots and swapped them for nappies instead and used the money we would have spent on nappies to buy new clothes off ebay instead. Bit cheeky i know, but he would never have worn all the clothes.

DON'T WASTE money on a big expensive pram* -You might only use it 6 months.

Buy the lightest and smallest one, I had a big expensive one bought for me which constantly got stuck in doorways and checkouts was too heavy, and I couldn't wait till baby was 6 months old and then got a cheap small stroller, much better.

• Baby food- make up a big amount of purified pumpkin, spinach, potato, etc and then put the left overs in ice trays, you can then just pop them out as needed, or store extras in freezer bags, saves so much time and money.

*Try Op shops, you can see what your buying and some stuff is like brand new.

• A samll dog makes a great vacum cleaner when baby starts dropping food everywhere, saves power and your back

*Cloth nappies are easy enough if you get into it straight away, even if you only do it half the time or for a couple of months, you will save some money.

• buy things in bulk when on special.

best tip i can give is WAIT! i know its tempting when you're 7/8 months pregnant to buy anything with a pooh bear/rabbit/smiley face on it, but the other posters are right, newborns really don't need much. My DS was born a year ago and it was such a warm summer, he spent the first three months in a nappy and a babysuit max. Took loads of 0-3 month clothes back for bigger sizes. We borrowed stuff from anyone we could, (and still do) used our bed as a changing table and bought a cheapo kitchen basin to use as first baby bath. Avoided all expensive baby washes etc, just cotton wool, warm water and then a massage with normal olive oil. Nearly new sales are great. Swap stuff with other mums. Totally agree with library for books and kitchen cupboards for toys.

If you're not an ebayer, in London there are lots of baby exchange shops where you can buy very good quality second hand stuff (which can be tried out, unlike ebay, so you can see which sling etc is the most comfortable for your back).

You can also sell through them as well. Terms vary but generally they take about 10-25% of the asking price as commission and you get the rest. I have seen those little leather baby shoes going for almost a tenner! DS got given about 4 pairs when he was new born so I am saving them for a rainy day

malaleche, just been on that tip site and its fantastic, been jotting down lots for when baby comes

uki- i agree re: the small dog. Unfortunately the vet told us our dog was getting a bit porky, so now i have to intercept bread / pasta / spuds before he does!

Gumtree is good as well as Ebay as no bidding and only adverts for sales in your local area so you can just go and pick up and look before you buy.

h&m have fab long vest tops that really do cover the bump until the end (I'm 38 weeks and best maternity things I bought).

Agree with what has been said....spend on mattresses and car seats. The rest can be secondhand or bporrowed.Leaving you money to buy something nice that you want to splurge on for the baby or for later purchases.

Oh. And if using reusables a meter of polar fleece from your haberdashery makes perfect nappy liners ...many more than you need for about £4!

Preganntgrrl- LOL my dog has put on weight too, but she also now has an adopted stray cat to compete with her, but the dog is the more efficient cleaner.

Beckmo - that's an excellent tip about the nappyliners, I had some given to me, but would be soo easy to make.

My final tip

*Steralizer unit- Just use a saucepan for bottles/dummies and boil for 3 mins, maybe buy one if you bottlefed though.

More frugal baby tips from MoneySavingExpert

I am expecting first baby, still early days yet, but need to be V V V thrifty, so can anyone give me a list of what i only really need please? Have a few colleagues who had babies in the last year so quite sure they're willing to donate some stuff. Going to be a single parent too so don't want to buy much stuff!
My mum says i HAVE to have pram so that the baby sleeps flat, do they make buggies that will go flat like a pram? I live up two flights of stairs with no lift and also won't have space for too much stuff.
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! V excited and inexperienced.
Oh and when should i buy a maternity bra? My breasts look brilliant as I am still flat stomach'd. Quite exciting to be nearly busty for once without a push up bra.
thanks