Budgeting: what do I really need for my newborn?!

[trippingoverrainbows]

I'm just over 16 weeks pregnant and beginning to make a list of all the things I'll need for the baby. I'm feeling quite overwhelmed and not sure where to start.

I'm looking to make a list of 'must haves' if anyone can help?!

There's also a thread atm called "baby stuff you couldn't live without". That might help you too. Or give you more ideas!

@CassandraLamontaigne wow thanks for all of your advice. I'd like to try to breastfeed so didn't know whether to bother buying any bottles/pump or just pick up as the need arises. I'd heard similar from friends re:changing tables also so I've scratched that one off the 'necessities' list too.

If you want to keep costs down then buy second hand for everything except car seats and mattresses. I would definitely buy a second hand pram. Look at local Facebook selling sites. Aldi baby events are also worth looking out for?

I had an EMCS so a changing table would have been handy but I was too well to get one organised so I changed Dd on the sinning table.

If I were to do it again I would buy:

Moses basket ( I bought one from Asda for £25 for DS and it did the job wonderfully)

Vests and babygros

Cellular blankets

Nappies and wipes

Infacol

1 bottle of child's farm newborn wash

Car seat

Sling

Video monitor

That is enough for the start to see how you go. If you must have a travel system Mothercare do a fairly cheap one but they're awful heavy things and total rip offs. I got rid of mine and got a lightweight buggy (Joie Nitro, £50) as soon as he could sit up - which happens a lot sooner than you think.

Don't get sucked into buying designer Muslins, newborn grobags, nappy bins, lambskins, dream sheep, Frugi snugglesuits or any other non essentials that people tell you that you must have to be a good mum. You may wish to buy those items further down the line but they're non essential, they take up room and cost a fortune. The cosy marketing is done by people who want to sell you stuff you don't need- don't get sucked in.

Pram-depends what you want to use it for really. I couldn't live without mine. Walk to the shop most days and I use the basket underneath. I do have a stretchy sling that I used around the house a lot. A funki flamingo from amazon. It's £25. I wouldn't spend anymore than that until you know baby likes sling and that you will use it. Definitely look for second hand travel systems if you can. I did buy mine new but I bought the ex display model in the shop
so it was a good deal.

Sign up to amazon prime. If you need breast pump, nipple shields, bottles etc you can order and have it delivered the next day.

My son is six months and the only baby clothes I've bought him were his first pack of newborn vests and baby gros from
Tesco. He came out a teeny 6 pounder and a friend who had had a premmie baby gave me bags of clothes. Oh I forgot I also bought jo jo maman Bebe newborn sleeping bags second hand from eBay. They have sleeves. Can be used until baby is big enough for normal sleeping bags.

Shnuggle baby bath is a godsend. I struggled to bath DS. Best £20 I've spent. Still using it.

Morrck travel hoody blanket. Definitely makes getting out a lot easier.

I love next to me crib. I've seen lots of these on Facebook marketplace secondhand. I had to borrow a Moses basket from a friend as baby wouldn't sleep in it in the beginning as next to me was so big.

Try soundsleeper app for white noise before buying anything.

If you have a old iPhone/smart phone or else an iPad you can download baby monitor 3G. Use old phone as baby unit and your own phone as the parent unit. Wish I'd known about this before forking out for
a monitor.

Lots of Muslins. Amazon "muslinz" are excellent quality and great value for money.

Don't buy lots of water wipes. My baby screamed when we used them as they were so wet and cold. Don't stock up on any nappys, wipes. Try the cheaper brands. You could save a fortune if they suit baby. Pampers leak on my DS. Asda and Lidl are great. You can buy a big box of
Asda sensitive wipes for £5.70. Everyone I know uses them.

Baby nails - great for doing newborn baby's nails. No worrying about cutting baby.

Nosefrida snot sucker plus saline drops/spray. You will be glad of it some night.

I bought a purflo nest. Cheap
Version of sleepyhead. I liked it and used it
Lots but DH didn't as the middle of mesh and he felt baby was practically lying on the floor with little support. Would think about a sleepyhead if I was to have another.

For you plenty of dark big knickers. I got mine from primark and just binned them instead of washing. Fill the freezer full of meals if you can.

Remember that baby's actually need very little. It's very easy to buy lots of stuff you don't need. Of course, lots of it makes life a bit easier lol our house is full of baby stuff.
It has taken over. And I don't think I've went mad buying stuff.

HTH. I've just realised this morning that this time last year I was going for my 12 week scan. Excited for you.

God that was a long post

Forgot to say I love our changing table. love all he storage underneath too and everything to hand. You either love them or hate them I suppose

For the pram, consider how you will use it before deciding what you want. if you'll be doing lots of walks in the woods with dogs or similar you will have very different needs to if you live in a city and will be spending lots of times travelling on public transport. A big travel system on a bus is quite frankly a nightmare!! I agree on not spending a fortune - I wish someone had told me. We bought an ICandy, which is a lovely pram, and will be getting it's second use soon but at 12 months we bought a Mamas and Papas armadillo city stroller, which was so much easier to use. If I needed to buy for this baby, I would go for the Armadillo flip or Oyster Max in hindsight.

We bought a lot of things from charity shops (Fara in London, don't know if they're everywhere), and also look out for NCT nearly new sales. People tend to get given a lot of baby stuff so a lot is barely used. Especially pramsuits (for outdoors).

I was another who stocked up on muslins then barely used them - I would buy one pack of 3 giant ones, to use as bf-ing cover/sleep shade/swaddling/general wiper-uppers, but wait and see if you need lots of small ones for spit up. You may not.

Also another cheeky wipes fan here - saves money in the long run, and much better than wet wipes for cleaning up poo explosions. Wait for a sale/offers on the website, they are usually frequent.

Clothes-wise, I'd avoid buying loads of 'outfits' - honestly sleepsuits and vests rule! (see 'barely used' comment above! we had so many outfits that I discovered only once my little girl was far too big for them!)

Just don’t buy too much to begin with. What you need very much depends on your baby and your lifestyle. Everyone told me I couldn’t have enough muslins but I barely used them. I love our (brand new) travel system, got loads of use out of it and will miss the convenience of it as DD will soon need a second stage car seat that will stay in the car. Change table is really useful for storage and DH can’t change on floor after achilles injury. I wanted a Snuzpod but bought a Next2Me as DD had reflux and Snuzpod didn’t tilt (think new model does though). I had a tiny baby which means what we need is different to most, and we can often use things for longer.

Point is that essentials for one person are not essentials for another. Amazon prime and local shops mean you can just get what you need when you need it without wasting too much money or having a lot of clutter.

dd is now 9 weeks old and things we've found useful are
Moses basket with fitted sheets and blankets (gifted by my mum but was only £30 from asda)
travel system (Hauck shopper slx bought for £186 brand new from online4baby.com)
vests and babygrows
dummys! dd likes the tommee tippee ortho ones
bottles and steriliser as ff
Muslins

we were given lots of outfits which I have put her in but only because if feel bad if they weren't worn but not essential at newborn stage. we've got a play gym etc but dd not really interested atm, she is literally more than happy just laying on her changing mat on the floor. Was also given a changing unit which has only been used for storage, never changed her on it

Steriliser bottle brush and bottles.
Dummies if using. I thought I wouldn't use a dummy with my 1st but he kept sucking everything so we caved and gave him the dummy to go sleep and when upset.

Buy a second-hand travel system they are usually at least a third cheaper than new but often even lower. Ours cost one fifth of what it would have cost brand new.

It came with some scratches and scuffs but nothing too bad and buying second-hand meant we didn't have the "OMG our brand new £1,300 travel system just got a scratch!!!" experience.

A carry cot can double as a moses basket.

I would only buy a carseat second-hand from someone you know and trust because it can't have been in a car accident before or it's useless.

If you decide to breastfeed I would hold off on buying a pumping system, nursing clothes, and bras. Breastfeeding doesn't always workout and you'll be kicking yourself if you went overboard on the accessories and only use them for a month...like I did.

I'd also only buy a co-sleeping cot used and just put a new mattress in it, most of the time they're only used for 6 months and sometimes co-sleeping doesn't work out.

If you're bottle feeding I'd avoid aptamil simply because it smells vile, like chemicals, so how good could it taste and it smells ten times worse if it comes back up. It's just disgusting.

Check if there are any “pass it on” Facebook groups (or freecycle/freegle) in your area - I’ve managed to get most of the basic clothing items free from people who wanted to give theirs away. Also getting a second hand travel system not only saved us lots of money but also meant it came with accessories that can be extra. And we avoided a trip to Mothercare or similar, where we would have looked like a pair of rabbits in the headlights with far too much choice and no clue what was what! Good luck, it’s all a bit bamboozling!

My baby is 14 weeks and I EBF for 6 weeks and mixed fed til 12 weeks (unfortunately breastfeeding was a huge nightmare for me from start to end as DD couldn't latch properly for no reason that any professional could ascertain). Here is a list of things that I didn't buy in advance but turned out to be really useful, or things that I needed more of than I realised:

• Bouncy chair - this is a real saviour with DD, she loves watching telly in it for awhile and then falls asleep, it's the only time I can leave her alone awake for 20/30 mins while I eat lunch or do a job. DD actually uses the one that me, my brother and sister all used as my DParents still had it in the loft!
• Muslins. We got bought a few and got given a few as hand-me-downs but ended up buying at least 2 more packs. I use them to wipe up milk/sick from DD, wipe her mouth after a feed, as a bib if I don't have one handy, I put one on her pram and bed as an extra protection layer for poo/sick spillages, always lay her on one of if she's on our bed or sofa as protection, used them as thin cover sheets when the weather was very hot, used them to help cover me when I was breastfeeding and help mop up milk spraying everywhere ...
• Medela manual breast pump, although with hindsight I wish I had bought myself an electric one, I would have pumped more sooner and mixed fed for longer that way but they are very expensive and obv before baby was born I didn't know if I'd use one. I got good use out of the manual pump though and it was easy and convenient to use and inexpensive.
• Bedding - we underestimated how many sheets and mattress protectors a baby would need. Quickly ordered a load more! These boring things are the kind of things that nobody buys you as gifts either.
• Needed more socks and scratch mitts than we thought although we got bought a fair few packs as gifts.
• Dummies - needed more than we anticipated! We use Phillips Avent and DD took to it straight away when we first introduced it around 2 weeks old. She pretty much always needs it to sleep now but we much prefer that as a habit than thumb sucking.
• Shnuggle baby bath - it's much easier to bath a baby in this than laying flat on their back in something and DD much prefers to be upright.
• Cosatto Wow travel system - making good use of it so far although DD is very tall and will very soon be too long for the carrycot.
• Nappy sacks and nappy bin - to be honest when I was still EBF the poo wasn't too bad but once she was mostly on formula these were definitely a neccesity! We use the original Nappy Sacks or Tesco's ones, and have an Angelcare nappy bin.
• Changing table - DH took 3 weeks paternity leave and for at least the first fortnight I physically couldn't get up and down to the floor to change nappies after I had an assisted delivery with episiotomy. It was still painful and difficult for weeks after that and then my back pain was getting worse and worse, finally got Ikea's cheapest changing table when DD was about 8 or 9 weeks old and it has been a lifesaver.

Forgot to include our must haves.

• White Noise Machine
• MAM Soothers, particularly the glow in the dark ones. Also soother clip for clothes.
• Large Muslin Cloths
• Bjorn Carrier
• Baby Swing
• Mattress Protectors
• Packs of Cheap Microfiber Cloths
• A Touchless Thermometer, that can check the temp of objects as well as people. Handy for checking the temperature of bath water, water for formula, and room temperature.
• Electric Bottle Warmer
• Sun Bonnets
• Nail Clippers

Swaddle blankets

I'd defo get as much 2nd hand as you can. We got most things 2nd hand this time, only things we bought new; car seat, moses basket mattress, cotbed mattress & bottles. Everything else was 2nd hand or bought for us.

Re the planning to breastfeed, i would still suggest having access to bottle & formula, even if you buy 2 self sterilising bottles & a couple of ready made cartons. I say that because i was desperate to bf this time but DS had severe tongue tie which meant he struggled massively. It was quite traumatic for us both tbh as he just couldn't latch properly so got upset, & it bloody hurt every time he tried. If you don't ever use them it will be amazing but after our experience i always recommend even minimal supplies.

I didn’t buy too much when I was expecting. After my twins were born I requested basic baby stuff. On breastfeeding I told everyone that minimal supplies were best to start with. I just used hospital equipment. DS stayed for a while in the NICU. Most of my stuff was bought cheap as I often compared prices. I’m still buying stuff two years later. I always compare costs.

@sabrinathethirtysomethingwitch I've had a look at the chicco next to me too, quite a few for sale near me also.

@Pissedoffdotcom I think I'll take your advice and buy a couple of bottles then so I don't end up stressing too much if BF doesn't work out or issues like tongue tie making things difficult.

A few posters have also mentioned a baby rocker/bouncer/chair. I've seen a few of the mamaroo ones 2nd hand for sale and wondered if anyone had tried one of these? I think the covers are washable so might be good but quite an expensive item so wasn't sure if it was more of a gimmick.

I'm in Scotland too so I will get the 'baby box' which come to think about it might contain some items that have been suggested above 🙌🏻

Thank you so much everyone, this thread has be really useful.

If for any reason you don’t breastfeed as planned, literally the only item I couldn’t have lived without is the tommee tippee perfect prep machine. It makes a bottle to drinking temperature in 2 minutes. Without it will take a good 10/15 mins every time you need a bottle following the guidelines. When you are making 8+ bottles per day and especially at night it is definitely worth every penny.

OMG yes if you do go down the ff route a tommee tippee prep machine is worth every penny. It has made all the difference for night feeds here; DS is an impatient little wotsit at the best of times. Invest in the night/day one tho...the other one us bloody noisy!

Don't buy too much OP.

I never used muslins, nor a cot, in fact no pram either!

Another YY for the perfect prep. Best £70 I ever spent.

The only things that you're advised to buy brand new are cot mattresses and car seats. Anything else can be bought second hand.

My advice is if you want to give expressed breast milk or formula feeds avoid 'starter kits' of bottles, particularly Tommy Tippee - they look like great value but they're no better than the super cheap single bottles you can buy in places like Wilkinsons and TT trays tend to be too firm for newborns to use in my experience.

Go for a second hand pram but buy car seat new. Most mums get rid of the pram after a few months because they're to bulky and heavy. Have a think about whether you really need a pram - will you be walking a lot or could you get away with car seat and sling?

You can hire breast pumps from NCT so don't rush out to buy one.. hand pumps are cheap but just won't cut it if you're expressing 2-3 hourly for 20-30 minutes a time. You'll need electric and they're expensive to buy. So definitely look at hiring if you want to express.

If you're planning to bottle feed then you will need a steriliser, but you may be able to get one second hand.

Check out Facebook mum and baby groups in your area - they often advertise baby jumble sales in the area.

Safe sleep space is essential, so crib, cot or Moses basket (with new mattress) and blankets and cot sheets only. Babies do not need bumpers, pillows, quilts or soft toys in their sleep space. Expensive tat that could cause them harm. Also buy lots of cellular or knit blankets instead of fleece ones - safer due to increased air circulation.

Don't be caught up in buying for the sake of buying - baby baths aren't essential - a towel in a washing up bowl will do far better than a bulky bath for the first couple of months, if get in the bath with baby yourself.

Clothing wise look at charity shops, ask if anyone has clothes they no longer use (most will offer) and also check your local children's centre - they often have tons of donated clothes which are free for anyone to take.