Baby clothes first few months - How much to spend

[LaMadrilena]

Morning! First-time mum here. We're just starting to seriously prepare the practical baby stuff (clothes, pram, cot...) and I wanted to get the basic clothing in, thinking that'd be a nice sterss-free thing to do. Turns out it isn't.

I've looked at guides on how much you really need the first few months in terms of body suits, pijamas, the odd outfit etc. I'm looking at normal-priced shops like H&M, and seem to have run up around 250 pounds on the basics for the first 6 months, even taking into account that I'm sure people will buy us a few things. I really don't think I've gone overboard in terms of quantity.

Does that budget sound reasonable? The money isn't a problem, I'm just haven't got a clue what I'm doing! Tell me quick before I hit pay...

What does that include?

I’m buying most things on eBay second hand - they’re that little for such a short time that lots of second hand stuff has barely been worn. I’m not sure how much it would all have cost new but I have definitely saved / been able to buy ‘nicer’ brands than had I been buying new.

Another thing I’m doing is not buying everything in advance to avoid me going overboard - most places offer next day delivery so not hard to get extras if you find you need them once baby is here.

Get it all second hand. They seriously barely wear it. In preparation for DS2 in late June, I'm currently sorting things from DS1 that we received/bought that won't suit the summer. I'll be basically giving it away it'll be that cheap -npoint being, loads of people do what I do. I've washed three winter pram suits in newborn size today which were all worn once!

You can get so much lovely stuff second hand
Don't rule it out.

That seems like a lot to me. How many of each item are you planning to buy? We went for the minimum necessary as we were between houses at the time when we had our first child. We went for 8 sleepsuits, 8 vests, socks, scratch mitts, we were made some cardigans, hats and boottees. If you find you don't have enough when baby arrives, buy more then. We brought only 0-3 and ended up buying a few first size once baby arrived.
They're in them for such a short time that you could see if you can get some bundles Preloved from eBay, Facebook marketplace or your local Facebook baby group (ours has loads of sales).
But how much to spend is like asking how long is a piece of string. You could be buying supermarket multipacks which are much cheaper than (for example) John Lewis/Boden/joules/frugi brands.
The amount of secondhand yet excellent condition baby clothes available is incredible.
As they wear them for such a short space of time, I've had two children in the same baby grows and will happily use them all again for a third or pass them on.

I'd avoid outfits for the first few months at least. Get one nice one for photos/going home in and get some short sleeve vests and lots of baby grows so you can layer. Dressing a new baby is not easy, I've just had my third and remember quite clearly how scarey it is trying to get little arms down sleeves without dislocating their arms or snapping their fingers off... Especially when you're sleep deprived and only changed them 5 minutes before only to have them spit up some milk or leak!
Envelope necks for vests are good because you can wiggle them downwards to remove them if a dirty nappy leaks.
Get a couple of picks of 7 baby grows in size from newborn up to maybe 0-3 months (which are huge) and keep them in bags with the recipts until you know how bag baby is. My 3 were born at 7lb 3, 7lb 6 and 7lb 15 and didn't go into 0-3 until 4 months but they're all different. The biggest was in the smallest size for a month, the smallest out grew the same size in 10 days, lol.

Following with interest. Also a FTM and DH and I were trying to work out a clothes budget this morning.

Problem is, I'm in Spain and second hand just isn't a thing here. Firstly, my DH won't even contemplate it. And also, when people sell on eBay, Wallapop etc, they try to recover their original spend, so it's not even much cheaper 🙄

Also, baby is due end of May, so will barely need any clothes over summer as it'll be over 35 degrees here (and that's a whole other stress - how on earth do I keep her cool???)

Seems a lot. You may need tiny baby stuff, or race through the 0-3 size, depending on birth weight, so leave a bit of money spare in case. I buy basic cotton vests, babygros, knitted cardigans (make sure they are stretchy), snowsuit, cellular blankets, 2 sleeping bags for when the baby is a bit bigger, muslins, bibs, hats. Those mittens never stay on!

Sainsburys and Tesco can be good for basics- you only need plain white vests really as you won’t see them.

People tend to gift outfits which can be really faffy if your baby spits up a lot and goes through 3-4 outfits a day, so maybe choose one yourself that you love but don’t get many.

Just read the update- i thought winter baby! Much cheaper then! You’ll basically need vests and Bahygros, and summer hats. Ask locals how they keep babies cool, but babies adapt to their environment. Just keep her out of the sun and never go out midday unless covered/in the shade. If you’re covering the pram, make sure it has ventilation and is breathable.

Thanks everyone! I've probably gone overboard (I swear I was really trying not to...). I'll go back and edit my shopping baskets!

I have 5 week old DS. We had 8 vests and 8 sleep suits and 2 cardigans in first size/up to 1 month. He grew out of them by 2.5 weeks. Now we're in 0-3 size and again I bought 8 vests and 8 sleep suits and I don't think he'll more than another 2 weeks out of them as his feet are already too big for them 😂 I was given lots of gifts of outfits all in 3-6 months and luckily he'll be in them really soon!

I think if we weren't in lockdown I'd have got him a couple of outfits he could have worn but we're not going anywhere so sleepsuits are fine.

My DD was a December baby and she lived in vests and sleepsuits for the first 5-6 months, with the odd cute dress for a special occasion.
For her first summer she was in vest and shorts, or just a nappy on super hot days

£250 is a lot. We spent well under £100 on clothes for our summer baby, just the basics (short sleeved vests and sleepsuits) in sizes tiny, newborn and 0-3m. Got a few pairs of scratch mitts and hats and that really was it, didn't bother at all with 'the odd outfit' or buying up to 6 months. Try to not buy so much and I promise everything will be ok. Good luck

We spent about that amount too!

Spend on a a couple of special sleepsuits and save on the rest. You don’t know what gifts you’ll get, and in the heat DC won’t need to wear much.
If you’re in Spain try Vinted, I’m in Italy (where second hand is not really a thing either) and bought (then sold) lots of new or as new stuff from French sellers for peanuts.

Buy supermarket clothes for baby, much cheaper and last pretty well. We've got stuff from them that have been used for multiple babies. Our lived in bodysuits/sleepsuits for the 1st few months. About 14 per baby is a good enough supply at 1st so you don't have to wash too often. We have 5 other kids so it's not easy getting stuff dry, I cycle round wash baskets to keep on top of all the washing that needs doing.
More expensive shops are fine if you can get stuff on sale but otherwise very expensive in the long run. I do like next sleepsuits but they are more than double the price of the ones I can get from asda, a no brained if you're on a tight budget. If you are keeping for future babies they are worth investing or they can be sold on at a fair price too if you are willing to faff with posting etc.

Hahaha! I sat down this morning thinking this would be a nice thing to do, and ended up getting in a right stress! It just feels like there are so many unknowns (birthweight, presents...). I'm going to go back to the drawing board.

I can see you predicament if you have the heat and no local tesco etc

We got a lot of presents but mainly needed

6 baby gros
6 vests and stock up on napisan or Vanish

Plenty of things like sunhats

Really and truly I would only get one or two sweet outfits for now. I love h & m and just bought an outfit white with little hearts for a friends new baby. It looks comfy and that's important I think. Soft tops and bottoms are so handy

I'd get an eBay bundle from here and then have it posted over, or if you have friends and family here, get some second hand stuff sent to them and then send as a big parcel. My boy was in newborn for 1 week, 0-3 for less than a month, 3-6 for about a month. I had 2 'fancy' outfits per age group, the rest was just comfy baby gros. They can just live in baby gros, no need to change them every day into 'real' clothes - a faff for you and uncomfortable for them

Not to add to your stress but I wouldn’t buy so far ahead if you live somewhere where the temperature varies dramatically from season to season, as you don’t know what age your baby will be when they’re in different sizes. A lot of gifts were useless because DS had outgrown them by the time it was hot or cold enough to wear them.

Sunhat, vests, babygros, mittens potentially. You will get given lots of outfits as gifts but I found people tend to give larger sizes as presents as they assume you have the basics. My dd was a tiny baby so she really did get a lot of wear out of those early stages.My ds on the other hand was a big boy and wore newborn for a day, couldn't stretch properly so I moved him into 0-3 months.

I think we started with 7 babygro's, 10 vests, 5 tshirts and 5 leggings, this meant i only had to do a load of washing once a week for dd as i had enough clothes.

She wasn't overly sicky and we never had a nappy leak so she would normally only go through 1 outfit a day

Sorry for jumping on the thread, but would anyone recommend also buying a couple of preemie bodysuits/sleepsuits in case the baby comes early?

Update. This is what I've gone for:

7x short-sleeve babygros 0-3m
2x long-sleeve babygros 0-3m
3x slightly more "dressy" short-sleeve babygros (ie they've got pictures on)
1x summer dress 0-3m
2x 3-6m outfits (because they were on offer and I couldn't resist)

Still not sure about sleepwear, as it stays so warm at night here, so probably just a couple more babygros or very light sleepsuits.

Already received a couple of newborn outfits as gifts. With the Madrid heat and no end in sight to lockdown, I'm going to hold off on the rest. Plenty of time to have another think!

Buy what you like and keep the tags on so you can exchange . I’m pregnant with my first and have bought everything new . You can get things cheap enough so if you don’t want to buy second hand then don’t . I’ve bought sleepsuits , vests, hats, mittens and a few soft outfits in varied sizes. Just leggings and tops or soft cotton dungarees for seeing family or days out