Any good baby basics for leftover Boots and Argos vouchers ?

[jennymalone]

hi!

FTM prepping for our imminent arrival in mid-June.

A family member has given us a couple of random store cards to use up to help with baby basics, £14 for Boots and £9.50 on the Argos one... and i've had them a couple of weeks.. but every time i think of something we should buy, i check boots and argos online and they're a rip off!

examples: today i was looking at cellular blankets, i'm sure i've seen them in asda for about £3.50-£4, and online proves me right. Boots are £9 each and Argos has one at (i shit you not) £26.99, although it is a big one.

even if i did get the store cards for "free" i need to make sure every penny counts.

can anyone recommend any good value baby basics from either store? i can buy online and go into shops easily for both.. but don't want to get ripped off at the same time!

Maybe batteries for the Argos one? I know my swing and floor mat take strange sizes, not the standard double/triple a ones that appear and disappear at will .

Not sure about Boots but they do good sales occasionally and the reduced bits in our local one is fab.

At Boots, nipple cream, Sudocrem, cotton wool, water wipes, etc. Not sure on Argos. Is there a time limit on the cards? I would save them for sale times and for towards the end of maternity leave when money's a bit of a squeeze – I've got all my Advantage Card and Nectar Card points saved to make things go further in the future.

Boots to be honest I would probably buy vitamins for baby. You won't necessarily need them at first if you're formula feeding but you will eventually (straight away if breastfeeding although nobody thought to mention this to me until a couple of weeks in) and they often have 3 for 2 on those sorts of things.

Argos, can you put it towards something bigger you might need? To be honest I think the only thing we ended up getting from there was a baby monitor that happened to be cheap. If nothing you need, how about batteries? You'll always need them and if there's nothing else you need, even if they're expensive at least it's still something useful for nothing if you see what I mean.

Oops sorry, clearly need to type faster!

Nappies/wipes/breast pads/maternity pads from boots.

Put towards a cot mobile or bigger purchase (bouncy chair, play gym, baby monitors) with the argos ones.

oh i didn't know that about the vitamins, i've looked at the NHS guidelines and you're right. NO ONE has mentioned this for breastfed babies, at all - none of my family (recently had babies), friends nor the midwives.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/vitamins-for-children/

i'll definitely be able to get that from the Boots card, £9.99 apparently. that's the bulk of that card sorted!

Thanks for all the other ideas too, argos batteries sound like a good last resort.

(the cards don't have a known expiry date, i'd have to check in-store, but i think they were from Xmas 2017 so probably expire in Dec 2019, or 2 yrs from a unknown last use date)