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...

Agree with all these people saying buy second hand and also keeping clothes simple for 0 to 3 months. If you have friends with slightly older kids ask if they have stashes of baby stuff in the attic. It might sounds cheeky but you’ll find as they get older the accumulation of baby / toddler stuff gets overwhelming and having someone take it off you can be a big favour. Obviously if you don’t have pals with kids it’ll need to be eBay, gumtree, maybe local facebook groups.

The one thing I found can be harder to get 2nd hand is vests, esp for slightly bigger babies. Suspect they get stained more than other clothes. Can get bulk packs for not that much tho.

I had summer babies (very hot region) and even in a place with air conditioning, they would never have worn anything with long sleeves at 0-3 months. Not once. They lived in vests, vest onesies and tshirt onesies. We always swaddled so I used a lot of muslin wraps.

Once the baby is here and you can see what you need more of, you can order more online very easily.

Your just sounds perfect

I wouldn't bother with the dress, cute as it may be (unless she is getting christened or similar?). Loads of time to buy dresses between birth and the time they start to chose their own clothes and little outfits are typically given as gifts.

I would scout out friends with babies and older children. Offer money and you'll probably be given it for free.

@LaMadrilena that sounds more like it.

I’m due soon and we don’t know what we’re having. I’ve bought about 15 items of clothing mixture of 0-3 and new born and all white/grey) hats, mits and muslins. Once it’s born I’ll ask my mum to buy more clothes to suit either a boy or a girl, but as a pp said as you can get everything pretty much next day now I’m only going to buy things when I need them. Saves ££ and we are limited on space too. We know so many people who bought clothes which were never worn and I have told Myself I won’t be that person!

Think about ease of access. Some items look cute but when you're going in for the nappy umpteen times a day it's a different matter. Poppers are a mum's best friend. Also are you using cloth nappies? Babies have bigger bottoms with cloth nappies but some brands like little green radicals and frugi cut with more space to allow for it.

I was lucky as my cousin had a baby a year before me so I have got all her old clothes.

You might need some vests and sleepsuits in newborn size as well OP? I know lots of people on here say their child was in 0-3 straightaway but equally for mine (without being early or particularly small) even newborn size was quite loose fitting at first.

My summer baby just wore short sleeved baby grows in the day. At night depending on the temp he'd wear that, or a sleepsuit along with a very light cotton muslin sleeping bag.

We bought 12 short sleeved vests, 5-6 sleepsuits in first size and 5 short sleeved vests in 0-3 months. We were then gifted a bunch of second hand 0-3months clothes and most of our gifts were in 0-3 month size or bigger.

I picked up a 2nd hand bundle of a few t shirts and leggings in first size and bought a few long sleeved vests in

I’m due July and my plan is to only buy some basics 0-3 as you don’t know how big they’ll be or how fast they’ll grow and I wouldn’t buy anything for 3 months plus as by then you’ll (a) have learnt a lot about what works best for you and baby (b) have been given a lot of stuff. Mine is also a summer baby so I’m planning lots of vests, a few babygros, couple of cardigans and a couple of pretty outfits (smocked dress for girl, not sure about what a cute baby boy wears in summer... heading off to Pinterest now...)

For our first we bought 2x5 packs of bodysuits & 7 sleep suits in Newborn. Mine were biggish babies and only stayed into here for about a month. It was plenty. We also had a snowsuits and a couple of cardigans for the oldest, as he was born in the middle of winter. I progressively bought more from 0-3, once I knew what other people had gifted us, and what we would actually use. Didn’t really dress them at all until 3-6, when they had a couple of jersey dungaree sets for ‘best’. We really did my spend a lot! (I saved that for when they were slightly older and made up for my frugality!).