How much can we expect to spend on things for first baby?

[1990shopefulftm]

We should have about £1300 saved by the end of the month which originally I thought might be enough.
We'd like to get a new pram/travel system and new car seat, furniture and blankets and things, I'm happy to get some second-hand clothes but I'm starting to wonder if it will be enough?

We managed to get a full travel system online which also came with a rocker and Moses basket , reduced form £980 to £230-brand new just on sale! We got our cot bed (suitable up to age 5) from wayfair for £170, got a chest of drawers to also use as a changing table , and a bedside table to go by the cot off wayfair and they cost £90 in total. Bedding was £20 from Asda, and also the cot bed came with a mattress. Hope that helps x

Also we were unsure about how much money we needed as this is our first, but we decided it’s best to get furniture that will last and also furniture that will double up as other things so the chest of drawers that will also be a changing table was something I read on Emma’s diary tips for first time mums. It also saves space. We also have a build in wardrobe so don’t need to buy one of those but wayfair or Ikea do wardrobes at a good price Xx

It varies massively.....for example, some people spend £1300 on a travel system alone where others would be able to get pretty much everything they need for that amount!
Your money will go further if you're prepared to shop around and look for bargains. Shop in the sales where possible, don't rule out second hand, don't get too hung up on labels etc.
Oh, and make a list of what you actually need as opposed to getting carried away on what you want

Following as also interested in how much we need to save!

Everything can be purchased second hand except the car seat and mattress.
Car seats are about £100+ it's probably worth it to get one that can rear face for longer and then forward face (they last 2/3 stages) rather than just a baby seat! Those can cost up to 250
Cot- IKEA do a nice affordable one or second hand would be great but ALWAYS buy a new mattress

Imo you don't need a changing table just a changing mat (one downstairs and one upstairs) they can cost anything from £5+

Also baby baths are a waste of money and take up too much space- I wouldn't bother

Pram-anywhere from 300-1300 new depending on what you want. Or you could get a second hand one.

Blankets- again they can range from less than £10 to £100s

It depends on which brands you want really. If you were hoping for a Bugaboo pram almost all of your money would be gone just on that.

You want new rather than second hand so will inevitably pay a lot more.

We are accepting anything that anyone wants to give us! Have been given a cot, bouncer, rocker, clothes, sleepyhead, and loads of other people have said they have stuff for us too.

My parents are buying the car seat and travel system.

I have budgeted £600 for the rest (including things I will need such as nursing bras, maternity pads etc).

The bulk of my money saved will be for when I'm on maternity leave.

As people have said depends on brand of pram etc you want my pram alone cost this so totally depends what you want maybe get some 2nd hand stuff look on ebay and Facebook you can get cheap enough nursery furniture IKEA and aldi both do good sets just shop around x

We expected to spend a small fortune however so many people offered us bits and bobs. We ended up with a silver cross pram/buggy plus a McLaren one for when he was older. A swinging crib, a cot bed. We bought a Moses basket relatively cheap and new mattresses for the cot bed and crib, car seat, sling, we got so many clothes in 0-3 months gifted to us when he was born too. I know they say babies are expensive but I'm surprised how little we actually spent.

If you are a bit short of money I would look on gumtree, loads of good second hand nursery furniture. Only thing that you should always buy new is a mattresses. As for clothes and bedding some wear like George ASDA baby stuff is just great. Also have you asked the grandparents if they would like to help buy the travel system, or car seats.
I paid half of the money for my grandchild’s travel system and the other nana paid the rest.

Do not buy nursery furniture. It's all small and you will end up replacing it when the baby is older. Just buy a normal wardrobe, chest of drawers etc...

As others have said a changing table is a waste of money. Just get a couple of cheap mats.

As for the pushchair/travel system, ours was about £300 ish from mamas and papas. That included pushchair, carrycot, 1st stage car seat. After 6 months we did purchase an umbrella pushchair as travel systems are bulky when in the boot of the car.

Your budget is fine if you don't want top of the range everything. I shudder when I see people spending 1k+ on a pushchair! My first car didn't cost that much.

We got a Haick travel system which included the buggy and car seat but no pram attachment for £75 from amazon, combed was about £100 new, normal sized chest of drawers and wardrobe from Argos were under £200.

Moses basket with stand was really handy for the first 3 months, stand stayed next to our bed the Moses basket moved around the house for naps.

You can easily get everything you need for £1300 or you could blow the lot on the pram, it's entirely up to the choices you make.

@GaaaaarlicBread of course, we can't be certain what the future will hold but we would if all went well like to have a second child in 2-3 years so stuff that lasts that we can use for a 2nd child would be great. Did you use the Moses basket much? I was thinking of getting a non branded bedside crib and using that downstairs instead of getting a Moses basket as well.
When the lockdown is over, we'll go take a look at the IKEA furniture for a wardrobe.

I got a few bits from an nct sale, hopefully there may be one before you have baby?

I spend £900 on my pushchair and car seat and i dread to think how much else, but i could afford it. As everyone else said you can easily do it to your budget

@sel2223 I couldn't imagine spending that much on a travel system. I love a good bargain hunt and generally, I would only ever buy something branded if it was reduced, hoping as I'm due in October maybe there could be summer sales.

@nowaitaminute DH is really set on us needing a changing table in their nursery, I don't mind so much. I've been wondering which stage car seat to go for, we've got I think the right type of isofix clips built into the car seats so I know we won't need a base.

Our bath is a slightly strange shape so I don't know if a divider is cheaper than a baby bath or if we have to go with the kitchen sink for a while.

I had no idea blankets could cost that much.

We never used a changing table, had a couple of foldable changing mats, one for upstairs one for downstairs, a Storage box up and down with wipes, sudacrem and nappies so we could just change her where we were.

Didn't use a baby bath either, we used the kitchen sink as perfect height and size and then when she was a bit bigger she came in the bath with me.

Everything can be purchased second hand except the car seat and mattress.

This is exactly what I was going to say. A lot things purchased for babies get very little use, so there are plenty of nearly new / hardly used bargains to be found.

Totally depends.

My pram alone (no car seat) cost £1300 with the car seat another £400.

But you can get everything for well under 1k if you need

Ask youself for every item do I really need this? What would happen if I could have this? You will be amazed. Marketting has done a bloody good job on the must haves. My must haves were a secind hand pram, a second hand cot and a pack of terry towelling nappies. 4 babies survived fine

Oh and a changing table isn't worth it. We just got the table part that hooks over the top of the cot.
Moses baskets also don't last long.

Oh and the second hand mattress thing is complet rubbish an scientifically discredited.

Changing mat on the middle of the bed or even better the floor is far safer than a changing table at a fraction of the price. We kept one upstairs and one downstairs with a wicker basket with all the nappies etc next to them.

In this current climate I would invest in reusable nappies, both for environmental reasons and also because we don't know have Covid-19 will impact manufacturing of disposable ones.

I bought a £1800 Quinny Buzz travel system (11 years ago) from ebay for £250 it was in perfect shape.

I would look to the future, although proper nursery sets are lovely most people sell them at considerable loss whereas if you started with an IKEA kallax set to begin with it is much more adaptable, it has so many accessories it can be clothes storage and toy storage both in boxes to hide it away or on shelves.

It's easy to get carried away with clothes etc, it's far more practical to buy plain white vests and baby grows as it's easier to get stains out and babies grow so quickly. But the colourful ones are very tempting, tiny versions of adult clothes are cute but probably quite uncomfortable for a non mobile baby.

Our cot was an ex-display model. The only thing 'wrong' with it was a few scratches. Did our two for 5 years (babies were 20 months apart) now is onto DHs cousin, who is planning her second... And will then probably move onto another family member. It cost around £200, including a brand new mattress, with the extras like cot top changing unit and under cot storage drawer. Was on sale for £600 I believe!

@UrsulaSings With the tricky situation finances wise that people we know are in due to being furloughed etc at the moment, we've said to people that they really don't need to/ shouldn't be buying us anything if they can't afford it so of course, we'll be grateful of anything but it's not likely.

@Umnoway definitely won't be getting a bugaboo pram unless there's one very reduced on eBay in very good condition.

@KHall84 I had no idea Aldi did baby things, I ll have a look at their website :)

@Nanalisa60 will definitely get a mattress new. We live near an asda with a decent George section so will certainly get what we can from there. Grandparents have offered to get something but I know they can't afford to be getting anything expensive so we would refuse an offer of a pram or anything like that.

@Eeyoresstickhouse that sounds like a great price for a travel system. No I don't want to be getting top of the range of anything, just something that lasts as long as we need it for.

@TorysSuckRevokeArticle50 I'll look into getting a Moses basket as well :)

@mrsed1987 I'm just over 12 weeks so hopefully there could be an NCT sale on in the time before October. There's loads of lovely charity shops in our city but they don't have the biggest baby sections.

@OP Just get a chest of drawers and put the changing mat on top.