have you bought anything that was a waste of money

[pud1]

i am now 23 weeks and am having to start to think of all the things i will need and the cost. has any one got any tips on things they thought they would need but didnt. i feelt hat there are so many things that you could be fooled into buying.

Thanks Jamila69 good plan!

That?s a really good idea about the coloured muslins Somertsetmum! not seen coloured ones, where do you get them?

My LO got given a baby chair when he was born. It's one that lasts till they're 2 and its been in constant use.

A lot depends of your baby. As loads of people have said, you can always buy stuff later. We got by with the minimal of everything thanks to people lending and giving us stuff. I got a bit pressganged into buying certain items (i.e change station with bath... like you bath a newborn often!

Although, you can never have enough cloths, my baby barfed over everything in sight!

I think whatever you buy there will always be things you wish you had bought and things that were a waste of money. Looking back I wish I had bought a baby seat thing (don't even know what they are called). I never knew where to put DD - sofa, cushion, baby gym, Grobag cushion -nothing ever seemed right. I should have bought a baby bouncer chair thing.

I also wish I had bought a lovely new soft pink blanket for the buggy. Blankets seemed ridiculously expensive so I just used a blue hand-me-down one from a friend which was absolutely fine but I now wish I had splashed out on this.

You just never know what you are going to wish you had bought so I try and have no regrets - it hardly matters, after all.

I don't think I bought enough to have any regrets about wasting money...

I know some people disagree but I love my proper carrycot / pushchair thing. My lo slept in it for day naps and during the night for months and now he is 15months I still use it and he still loves sitting in the proper pushchair. He finds most pushchairs force him to lie back whereas ours he can sit as if sitting on the floor. The best £400 we ever spent.

I also use the top and tail bowl still. He gets terrible nappy rash whatever baby wipes we use so this has been fantastic. I change him on the floor so have bowl with the cotton wool and water next to me.

I do agree though buy the barest minimum, borrow or 2nd hand everything you can, shop later!

Wine stopper to save half bottles of wine.

What a bloody waste!

Just to agree with what a lot of people have said - wait until you have got the baby! Things I never needed for DD1 have been invaluable for DD2, and vice versa!

Really all you need to start you off is a couple of babygrows & vests, some nappies, something for them to eat (boobs or bottles) and a carseat to get home from the hospital. Even the bedding can wait (we co-slept for the first couple of weeks). Borrow as much of the other stuff as you can - people are normally ecstatic to be able to circulate their old stuff.

Nappy bin
Hand breast pump (x2, both rubbish ended up with a brilliant electric one: Ameda Lactaline)
Cheap sling (shoulda got the good/more expensive one)
Amby nest - never used.

High chair - waste of time, took up too much space. I just used a bouncy chair and a booster seat instead.

LOL at wine bottle stopper to save half bottles...

Moses basket was wonderful. DD used it till 6 months old ..... I remember my mum commenting 'you'll stunt that child's growth' as I wedged DD into it.

Oh oh oh! Sorry, didn't see the pregnancy topic, obv a wine bottle stopper, whilst it might have been a waste of money, is not really relevant to a pregnancy site is it?

So when I was preggers or after I'd given birth, the most useless thing I had was ...................... .......................... perfumed lotions and those "eared" all-in-ones for the brat baby that make them look like a rabbit/bear/monkey/ferret.

If you get this far...

My DS arrived 2 months early with no warning whatsoever, so my top tip is anything you really think you'll need - GET IT NOW!!!!

Seriously, it proved to me you don't need much, not that I ever thought you did. I was lucky in that both my sisters had kids first, so I got given a moses basket, baby bath, blankets, sheets, clothes, breast pump, bottles, all of which you may need - I'd definitely recommend a moses basket unless you plan to co-sleep for months, as when DS came home from hospital after five weeks, I carried him from room to room for ages cos he was so wee, didn't feel comfortable leaving him in a room alone. He stayed in it next to my bed at night until he was nearly eight months (six months adjusted) old and his head was inches from the top! I didn't want to move him into his own room until then, no room in the bedroom for a cotbed.

We also got given a cotbed from friends, and could have had one from my sister too. If you don't have people around like this, an invaluable source of free stuff is freecycle.co.uk (or .com, not sure). It's a recycling service, and you can request things as well as search for them.

DON'T bother buying clothes apart from a few bodies and babygros - unless you are a complete hermit and know no-one, you will get given more clothes than your baby will be able to wear for the first three months, maybe longer! And as other posters have said, there is no point trying to force a tiny baby into proper clothes, which are almost always stitched too tightly in inconvenient places anyway, particularly if you have a clothes change-hating baby like mine . Babygros are the only thing you need in the beginning.

Sling was invaluable cos I didn't get a pram for three months or longer, preferred carrying him anyway. I have to confess I did buy an expensive pram/pushchair, or rather DP's dad did, but it was what I wanted and would have paid for it myself anyway if necessary cos I love it for numerous reasons (Bugaboo Cameleon) - you have to decide what is important to you. That's the only thing that cost lots of money. I also found a changing table useful because it hurt my back changing him on a normal size table or the floor. Got a basic but perfectly useful one from Ikea for £15.

If you join Boots parenting club (free) and buy a pack of Huggies, you get a free changing bag with mat.

Once he was bigger, used a sleeping bag for him. Asda sometimes sell them for £10, and a cheaper and better alternative to Grobags is the Dreambag at thedreambag.com

Waste of time:
Bottle warmer
Top and tail bowl - used two plastic Christmas pudding bowls we had in the house.
Was given but have never used nappy bin - just bag them (or use reuseables if you're more organised than me!) and put them out with the rubbish.
Baby towel - stupid shape and not big enough - a normal towel is fine.

Wow, long post, sorry for running on...

NOt read all post but frightened at the thought of cats round babies. When my dad was a child he had a baby brother who was smothered while asleep outside in his pram by a neighbours cat!!

Def get a towelling bath support - get them from Mothercare for about £8. Also a battery operated swing - best buy ever with dd1 though borrowed it out between dd1 and dd2 and it came back broken! Was my saviour with dd1. Also dont buy a moses basket - waste of money - they are not tiny for very long. We have a swinging crib (not that expensive from Babiesrus) and got ages out of it both times. I have heard of people just putting them straight into big cot though.

Would recommend-

changing unit or chest of drawers at right height and size for changing mat, it totally saves your aching, post partum back.

muslins ++++++
avent manual breast pump
lanihol (wrong spelling)
sleepsuits for day and night time in 1st 4-6 weeks
swaddling blankets, and later grobags (i had DD 1 in one tll she was 3! You can buy ones up till 6 years!)
formula dispenser

Waste of time/space/money -

bottle warmer, - microwave {shock] or hot water in plastic jug
nappy bin twisting smelling thing that tommy tipee do
bibs when not on solids, use muslins
top and tail bowl

Borrow what you can and don't buy any clothes apart from enough sleepsuits to do a few days, as you will be given loads.

Good luck.

waste of money:
cotbed,ds went into proper bed at 19 mths partly because the thing you put on the side of bed to stop them falling out wouldnt fit without dp making some adjustments,which then ment we couldnt use the cotbed has a cot when dd was born. we spent £250 on cotbed for ds,for dd we bought a white cot from ikea for £60 including matress and its perfect!

play gym: mum bought it,even though i said i dont think we would use it.

best buys:
babybath,cost £2.50 from asda and we used it lots with ds and are using it now for dd.

bibs,couldnt have managed without them,but only because iv had two babies with bad reflux

like everyone keeps saying borrow has much has you can and dont be afraid to ask! iv borrowed loads second time around.
good luck and enjoy being pregnant!

I actually like moses baskets. From a sleeping point of view they don't last very long, and aren't really necessary, (no reason why you can't use a cot, and though they will fit into very small spaces if your bedroom isn't massive, they won't last 6 months), BUT, they are great for storing toys and make great carpet boats.

everyone differs but for us there was no point in...

• special purpose-shaped swaddling blankets that he kicked his way free of in seconds. use normal blanket, truss him up like a chicken
• scratch mitt, baby comb (who says baby will even hyave hair?)
• baby wipes for first month (you should use cottonwool and plain water: those jumbo rolls of cottonwool cheaper than cottonwool puffs) and special lotions.
• we did use it but next time wouldnt buy superduper expensive threewheeler pram capable of going up mountains etc which i only used for the three months it took before ds could sit up in mclaren stroller at quarter of the price. buy cheapest lieflat pram possible then a good lightweight stroller from 3 months.
• baby massaging classes. ds hated it and i could've learnt the strokes from a library book. dont rush to join baby up to lots of classes before finding out what's free (local surestart, libraries do music sessions etc)
• cute baby towels. use, er, a towel.
• loads of clothes. everyone gives you them. ditto stuffed animalswhich small babies cant play with anyway. cute nappy bin. use plastic bin from poundshop. as a general rule anything cute and covered in bunnies for which there exists a perfectly serviceable non-baby alternative at half the price (flannels, plastic feeding bowls, baby bath when you could have w ashingup bowl, babyfood freezing trays when you can use ordinary icecube trays) aint worth it.

invaluable and cheap

• baby nail scissors. cut nails and they dont need mitts.
• cheap olive oil for massaging, dry skin.
• BORROWED moses basket. he refused to sleep in cot til much bigger and basket can be taken to friends/on holiday.
• infacol. you might be lucky and baby never have bad wind/colic but if it does will invariably be in middle of night when chemists shut. ditto calpol.
• join baby to library as soon as old enough for books (3 months), also some have toys.
• baby bath support, the sort like a plastic throne.
• piece of fleece blanket for rolling around on floor on.take with you to friends to protect carpet if they're sicky.
• opinions on this vary but reusable nappies. upfront cost but some councils do grants towartds it and over time save a bomb compared to disposables.
• 'what to expect: the first year' book was our reference for everything. dont buy any other parenting books, just get em out of the library and read while pregnant (you wont have time once you're actually parenting....)

invaluable but sadly not cheap

• baby gym, but they wont really be interested in it for a couple of months. try to borrow. ditto try to borrow baby rocker/bouncer seat.
• grobags. didnt bother with blankets except for pram
• baby monitor. pref type with nightlight and temp reading as you will worry at first about baby too hot/cold.
• tumbledryer if using reusable nappies. sorry not v green but if its gonna rain all summer....
• photo printer, if someone wants to give you an expensive present. upfront cost but saves squillions getting all the photos you'll be taking printed.
• a decent haircut about a week before your due date. you wont be going to the hairdressers for a while.....
• a freezerfull of ready meals, either made by yourself when in nesting frenzy or bought. and a large bottle each of gin and tonic for when baby finally in bed

borrow everything you can, dont be shy to suggest specifics to friends who ask if there's anything you want for a present, join boots parenting club for freebies (i think there is also a tesco one). and good luck!

Remember that each baby is different and what one loves another will hate. DS was very colicky and wouldn't go back to sleep so it was suggested that I get a sling (on here). I got a ring sling and he hated it!!! The only effect it had was that after being put in it he'd get so upset that once I took him out (10 secs - 1 min later) he'd be ready to be consoled having forgotten what his original grievance was.

We got a wrap sling towards the end of the colic and he loved that. Would happily go anywhere in it and sleep on one of us.

We borrowed from friends and got a lot of presents because ds is our first.

McSpooky I have been washing own nappies for 2 1/2 years now and def recommend no soaking. is more smelly and far harder to deal with when it comes to putting in machine. i wash only every other day and storing dry is great. no need to soak ime.....
i echo no point in moses baskets as you are then just storing up potenetial probs for transfer into cot but just my view....

Haven't read all of this but IMO baby monitors are a waste of time unless you live in Windsor Castle. I live in a large split level flat and there is nowhere in it where I can't hear the baby when he yells.

p.s. anyone need a Tigex baby monitor, never used except to test it?

Haven't read this whole thread but if you don't know sex of baby I wouldn't spend too much on neutral clothes - tempting as that might be. Once baby is born you'll probably want to dress them in lovely pink/blue outfits - and the yellow/beige outfits won't get much wear. Also bear in mind that you might get quite a few gifts of clothes from people.

Thanks nowwearefour

note: EVERYTHING CAN BE BOUGHT SECOND HAND.

From Mumsnet, from ebay, from gumtree, from your friends! Lots of the posts contradict each other, so if you buy things second hand you don't mind so much if they don't work for you. And it's good for the environment too. I did this and it makes you much more relaxed about stuff.

Also buy this book: baby bliss and a swaddling blanket.

had five kids and loved and needed and searched high and low for top and tail bowl - contrary to what a lot of you say!

When you get a fleecy blanket for the pram/pushchair think about getting a dark coloured / stripy one, rather than pink or white. They don't look immediately dirty from food, snacks, sick, mud from when the corner slips and gets dragged under the pushchair wheel.
Coloured muslins - my friend just bought dye (mulberry coloured I think) and bunged a load in the washing machine with the dye.