$5000!? How much did you spend?

[MissWingBat]

Devon,
It is certainly amazing when you write down how much you spent on 'things' for the baby. From the other end of the scale, we did a $600 layby at Kmart for Cot, Car Seat and HighChair. Everything else, we were given, and whatever else we needed, we got from garage sales.
Baby rockers, porta cots all were under $20. We got our last baby-walker from the markets for $8. Our pram cost $8 from the Salvos, it is a nice (new) umbrella stroller.
I know that some parents have the ability to spend alot of money getting the things they really really desire, but we had our first bub before these payments came in. And when I think back now, at how much of the 'brand' new stuff went un-used for months, even never used, and if I could do it again, here is what I would do:
- Not buy a high-chair until they are 6 months or even older
- Not buy a vibrating rocker capsule thing - my bub grew out of it in 2 weeks
- Ask everyone to buy 'bigger' clothes - size 1 or 0. The amount of brand new 000's and 0000's we are still left with after 5 years...
- Never buy a jolly jumper if this ISN'T YOUR FIRST CHILD. The other children will try to use it as a bungee (with the baby inside!!)
- If people are getting you gifts, ask for things like nappies, and baby-wipes, instead of 'soft toys', toys, and weird vibrating rocker caspsule things. The nappies and stuff is going to be the stuff you'll need every week.
- If had been given a lump sum, I would set aside AT LEAST $60 a week in my shopping budget - because you stand at the start of the baby aisle, and that's how much it's gonna cost...

The best best best thing I have ever received in ALL my pregnancies, and that I will always remember were:
- My mum went halves with us in a brand new, huge, washing machine. It really is more worthwhile than 10x frilly dresses. It really helped with the added washing loads when bub came.
- My Sister In Law bought me about 6 months supply of wipes, nappies, baby bath, talc. It was so handy, and everytime I used any of it, it really made me smile. And it really saved us SOOO much money.

[amberj]

All up we spent about $850. I am total budget queen! We got just about everything second hand, a lot of it off ebay. A lot of people aren't comfortable with the idea of getting things for their baby second hand and that's fine, but if you are at all happy with it, I strongly recommend it- all the stuff we got is in really good condition and is safe and clean and nice. It was a LOT of running around picking stuff up, but way worth it. And I had fun!!

[~Trish~]

OK, we are a bit "tight" and managed to spend only a few hundred dollars with DS1 and maybe an extra hundred or so on DS2!

We bought most of our things second hand (at baby markets, garage sales, second hand stores, etc). We were fussy about what we bought and it had to be in great condition, but we saved an absolute fortune. I ended up starting a pre-loved baby goods business out of my passion to find ways to save money and also help the environment by recycling perfectly good baby items (this is not advertising for my business BTW LOL).

Look on eBay too, if you keep your eyes peeled long enough you can pick up some great bargains!

[MrsB26]

Good Lord! i hope it doesnt come to $5000

Havent bought our nursery stuff yet but we do plan to spend more on a new pram, car seat and cot as this is our first child and we would like the things we will use more to be new iykwim?
I also have started to buy cloth nappies but have estimated the cost of these to be around $700. Most other items like bassinet, bath, rocking chair, change table, capsule, bouncer, clothes etc will be handed down through to me from the family and things like linen and smaller items i will more than likely get at my baby shower or be given to me as gifts from family and friends.

[satya]

There is absolutely no need to spend anywhere near that kind of money unless you are concerned about buying everything new & everything with a flashy brand.

We've done it for around $1000.

Buy at stores like Target, Kmart & Big W & you will save heaps. Aldi also has baby things from time to time so watch out for their catalogues, they are by far the cheapest for nappies. Don't buy anything unless it's on sale. The chain stores have heaps of big baby sales with huge discounts.

Accept everything you get offered that's second hand & free. If you decide you don't want it you can pass it on to one of the grandparents to use. That's what we did. I was anti second hand clothes at first but then realised that most of them either hadn't been used or had been used once or twice and were like new - babies just grow so quick.

Cot - $189 - 50% off at Target.
Cot & cradle sheets & blankets $50.
Mattress - haven't bought yet but will be under $100.
Cradle - gift but was on sale at Target for $99 - one of those nice frilly ones 50% off again.
Change table/drawers/bath - second hand gift.
Clothes for bub $100 - body suits and singlets only as we got heaps of gifts.
Maternity clothes:
Big W mat jeans - $30
Kmart mat jeans $39
Big W mat tops 2 x $16 & 1 x $20
K Mart stetchy non mat tops 2 x $15 & one mat top $25
Mat bras from Big W $60 (3) & one from KMart $20.
The rest of my wardrobe fit through most of my pregnancy.
Pram - $80 at Kmart - Mothers choice shopping stroller - 50% off sale. Made by IGC who are experts in prams & car seats.
High chair - 2nd hand free.
Capsule - $100 from Big W when on sale - Zuzu - made by IGC who make most of the capsules available in Australia - perfectly safe but without all the bells and whistles. It was the only 100% Australian made capsule on the market when we bought it. These are available at Big W right now for around $120 - I saw them yesterday. We only had to add a thing to cushion bubs head when he was a newborn & it cost $20.
Sleeping bags - 1 x $10 1 x $3 (second hand like new).
Bottles & dummies etc under $100.
Fisher price rainforest bouncer thing $50 second hand (around $180 new).
Nappy bag $30 from Kmart.
Bottle bag $10 from Kmart.

Remember that you will get heaps of clothing, wraps, toys, bibs & blankets as gifts so you only need to have enough for hospital. My mother & MIL were constantly giving us gifts throughout the pregnancy so to be honest we wouldn't have even needed to buy any baby clothing.

[kristy J]

gosh we had twins got just over $8k and its all gone

all our baby stuff was just over the $4k and the rest was CC payments.
our basics were:

cradle $300
matress $60
pram $1400 (its a tripple with DS1 it cost $400)
room decos $200
clothing $200
car seat $499
rocking chair $300
change table $150
high chair got a crappy one for $200 but then got an awsome one for $30 one from ikea.
bottles, bibs, blankets, dummies, sheets, cloth and sposie nappies, etc etc.....$$$$$....it never stops.


I agree with satya. you don't need brand new we got heaps of second hand stuff the only thing i would recomend is to buy a new baby matress and car seat (unless you 100% know the car seat has not been in an accident it can be dangerous even with a hairline fracture in them. better safe than sorry.


you can hire stuff too

I got most maternity were from Kmart.



santa will be bringing a cot each this year.

[Lisa]

Having Harrison was like having #1 all over again... with a 9 year age gap between him and my DD, I no longer had any left over baby things.

We tried to keep the costs down as much as possible. These are all just very close estimates;

Basinette - $200
Change table/baby bath - $200
Cot & Mattress- $700
Bedding - $200
Room decorations - $50
Breast pump, bottles, sterliser etc - $500
Clothes - $600 (plus we got loads of hand-me-down's from my sister's 3 boys)
Nappies - $100
Pram - $300
Drawers - $100
Wardrobe - $200
Carseats - $700
Bouncers - $120
Highchair - $200
Baby carriers - $120
Bumbo Seat - $60
Toys etc - $300

Wow... putting it like that makes it look like we spent waaaaaaaaay too much!!! lol.

[Devon]

Thank you all so much for all that feedback.

I am really going to try not to spend $5000, and I only did a preliminary estimate last night (mostly using the Babyland catalogue and trying to remember other prices I've seen and from BB discussions), so I really need to decide what I actually want and then get real prices for it. I'm sure lots of my figures are overestimates, but then I'm also sure some are underestimates and I've forgotten some things too, so I figured it would probably even out.

I'm not set on buying everything new, but I'm a bit of a worryer and am starting to get fixated on safety. My mum has a cot from when my younger sister was born (1990) and has offered that to us, but then that was before the new Australian Standard came in so I'm not sure if I should use it. I think I might check it against the standard to see if it's OK, and then buy a new mattress.

Lis - $500 for cloth nappies!! I think I guessed about $300, and I thought that was generous, so I might need to bump that up a bit.

I'll post my list when I get home from work (don't have it here). I haven't even thought about what we might spend on decorating the nursery.

I know what I've done is to want brand new, expensive items for most things, and I will be able to revise my expectations downwards if needs be.

I do know that my mum is itching to buy us things for the baby, so I'm sure a couple of the big items will come from the grandparents-to-be. My PIL bought DH's brother a tumbledryer when they were having their baby, so I hope they might do the same for us (that's another cost that's not included on my list).

Thanks again, it's great to be able to see what everyone paid for each item and give me ideas how to cut it back a bit.

Devon
xxxx

[briggsy's girl]

It's no longer called the baby bonus, it is maternity payment, it will be paid in installment for everybody as of Jan 2009 and if you and your partner have a combined income of 75,000 in the six months after bub is born you will not be eligible to recieve it. Have a look in the finances sections there was quite a bit of debate about it around the time the new budget was handed down in government.

just want to correct this one - Ash - it is currently named the baby bonus, and has been for quite a while. the name is bound to change in January though

at this point, it's available to everyone who has a bub before Jan 1 2009, and is paid in a lump sum (unless you are under 18, or request installments). after Jan 1 2009, it will be means tested (so if you earn more than 75k in the six months after bub is born, you don't get it) and will be paid in 13 installments for everyone

[AnyDream]

I'm with Trish on this - no need to spend a fortune.

First time round things were very tight so we made do with whatever we could, ie $20 chest of drawers, $20 change mat (used it on the floor/kitchen bench/bed and therefore never needed a change table), did without the baby bath, were given an old cot which I checked against the Australian Standard and it was compliant. The most I paid was $150 for a safensound capsule, $60 for a tetra snuggle bed, $40 for an onkaparinga wool blanket (from the factory), $120 for a babyco pram (which was actually quite useful as it was light, yet had features like the longer handle that you could flip over so bub was facing me), and $30 for an ABA sling. Other things like a rocker, bouncinette, picked up for $10 here or there. They don't really need a high chair until they are sitting up and eating which is over 6 months old, we paid less than $100 for one that folds down for storage which was really useful even after DD1 outgrew it for all the little people who come and visit us for lunches/dinners!

This time round, we added a few more luxuries, namely a Boori Matilda cradle (which I loved because of the rocking action) which was $300 on ebay, and several hundred dollars for furniture (shelves, chest of drawers, toy/blanket box) from the pine warehouse place. We also bought a nearly-new Emmaljunga on eBAy for under $400. And I splurged on new slings too. Picked everything else up on ebay/at the baby & kid's markets, most of it was second hand and unused or nearly new. People buy/are given heaps of stuff that they barely even use so there's always masses of good stuff floating around on the second hand market. I'm very picky and everything we got was nice.

[lestyrox]

Wow we didn't spend anywhere near that much!
We bought just about everything second hand and saved a HEAP! My DS is now 2 and i think i would have only ever bought about 10 new things for him which included socks, a couple of tops on special and his birthdays presents. Its great because i have another little boy on the way and i have all the stuff i need. I don't know why more mums don't buy second hand- everything i bought for my son is in great condition and i was always very careful to make sure the major things were in excellent conditions eg pram,cot, car seat etc.
I shop at Vinnies,lifeline etc more than i do at the big retail shops like Big w etc.
Here's my list
Cot- $100 bought from a friend
Mattress $40- had clark rubber cut a peice of foam to size- just as good as a more expensive one.
Pram- The first one we got for $5 from a garage sale. We are currently using a 3wheel Valco that we picked up for $15 on ebay
Car seat- $50 Bought from a friend
Booster seat (for DS1)- $30 from garage sale
Bassinette- $130 on ebay- this is probably the most expensive thing we bought!
Clothes and shoes (from birth till now- 2yrs) Around $150 i guess. All from op shops or ebay
Sheets/curtains/doonas/nappy stackers/wraps/blankets- all up $100 from op shops
Breat pump and bottle steriliser- $40 off ebay
Toys- $250 (my son has too many toys!) Most from Vinnies. Recently i picked up a Fisher Price good vibrations rocker for $5!! They retail for around $60 new.

Have i missed anything?
Honestly you really don't need to spend more than a few hundred dollars on bub and you would never guess that the things i've bought are second hand- Honest!
I buy all my clothes (including all my maternity gear- except for underwear of course- although i have picked up a few good bras second hand) from op shops or ebay. I would honestly say that $80 of the content of our house is second hand- from furniture to cutlery- and yet all my friends complement me on how lovely my home is- if only they new

[~Trish~]

Ha ha Lestyrox, a woman after my own heart

[MissWingBat]

LestyRox,
Definitely a woman after my own heart. I 'do' the auctions and pick up cheap furniture.
Is there a thread where we can chat about our "Vintage" Finds and other Op-shopping Ideas & Designing tricks??

[*charmalea*]

after spending a heaps of cash on things i soooo did not need , i have gone basic for #2 ...

biggest croc was a high chair , it was sooo big and bulky and in the end ds worked out how to flip the tray off .... so when we went camping i bougt a $40 on sale at kmart and we ended up usuing that , much better that the exe one we asked my mil to buy and same with prams ... the bigger the pram , the more likely you are to want to downsize when bubs starts to get a bit bigger ...

we saw a 3 wheeler one we liked on special , and got mil to buy it , then a while later i got a pegperago ( brilliant wonderful stroller ) but still broght an even smalller one , and now have a phil and teds .... so really think about the pram situation ...

[~clover~]

Get into Big W now. They are having their big baby sale.
$198 Cradle
$198 Serenity Cot
$268 Balmoral Cot Bed
$114 up 0-4 Car Seats
$98 Tetra Snuggle Bed
$118 up Prams
$78 Baby Carrier
$118 Balmoral Change Table
$98 Swing
$37.43 Nappy wrapper bin
Plus rockers, play mats, bottles, sterilisers, toys etc
Heaps of maternity clothes & bra's.
Get the catalogue & have a look. There's everything you need & more.

[Cassius2]

hhmm think i have been one of the ones guilty of high spending.... Also we lived in canberra at the time and it was a desert of good baby store competition! LOL! (at least this is what i want to tell myself!)
we got our cot given to us (we checked it against the safety req's as it was a late 80s number...

chest of drawers: $120 (antique dealer)

pram: bugaboo $850 (bought when in italy...sooo much cheaper there!)

change-table: $189

cloth nappies: bum genius, full-time pack $599

mattress: $50 (made up at clark rubber)

manchester: all up I bought 4 sets (2 cotton and 2 flanelette) $18 each (target)

bouncer: $25 (one of the string ones)

wallart: $45 (stick on motifs)

mobile: $25 (markets)

nappy bag: oioi nappy bag $140

newborn disposable nappies x4: $100 (safeties nature nappies- 100% biodegradble...hence the steep price!)

clothes: estimate around $200. we had to buy EVERYTHING! no family and few friends as we were only new to town. so this includes singlets, mittens, socks etc. we bought up until 00 size. but when DD was born also had to buy 00000 for the first month.

nappy cream and massage oil and bath wash: $55 (innossential - aloe vera based) def splurge, but a year on and still have them all and using everyday so goes a loong way!

moses basket and stand: 'gertie and me' $399. loved it. used it for around 2 months. then never again. lots to spend for such a short time, but you do what ya gotta do to get through those early weeks LOL! (we bought this 5 days after she was born).

newborn toys (soft rattles and some black and white soft animal things): $20

playmat: playgro: $70 we shopped around for this post birth as we didnt put 2 and 2 together and realise how much time they are on the floor...especially when going to parent group.

baby bath and insert: $50 (baby chain store)

nappy bucket: $25 (baby chain store)

breast pump and steriliser: tommee tippee $85

high chair (we only bought this when she started to sit and eat solids...so maybe can be budgetted as a later expense ITH): stokke highchair $299 with baby insert. the beauty of this chair is that it doesn't take up too much room, is easy to clean and grows with the child. my niece has been using hers since she was six months old and is still using it at the dinner table at the age of six.

car seat: safe and sound (the skinny one for smaller cars...we have a honda civic and the others were too bulky) $349 from BabyCo

baby gate: lindam: $50 on special from babyco

baby sling: ellaroo ring sling (for me) $130

ergo baby carrier (for DH) $130

maternity bras: i bought 3 initially...one triumph, bonds and bendon (the last one was bought one size bigger for when my milk came in and they were busting out everywhere! LOL!): $120 (i went on to buy cheaper hestia ones once my BBs settled down around 6 months...i like the strong support of the triumph in the early months when everything is leaking and being silly!).

maternity clothes: 1 pair of work pants $45, 3 mat/nursing tops $180, 3 bonds maternity singlets (AMAZING AWESOME STUFF!!): @ $36 each, 1 skirt $35. then i bought 2 metalicus tops at $40 each. they are great as they are one size and stretch out and back again. wore them up until DD was born and still wear them now!

wowsers, we bought loads!! and have bought more since (ie clothes, accessories and toys!). i think we may have gone over that 5000...but we bought stuff before and after...so it has been a spread out cost.

good luck with the gathering!!

[Jas]

Hi!

Well I don't actually know how much we spent so I'll go through and see what i can remember...

Cot and Change table $400 on sale from $1100 (check out online toyrus catalogues and if you see a good sale get in immediately they sell out quick)
Mattress - $100 got as gift
Pram Stellcraft $180 on sale from $300
bookcase $10 on sale from $60 got as gift
toy box $60 got as gift
Qulit and sheets etc $100 got a lot of this on sale too
Clothes and shoes etc $250 approx goodness who knows probably spent even more
Carseat $200 on sale from $300 we have since bought another the same so we don't have to swap the car seat from car to car sounds lazy and unneccessary but once Noah was here we decided it was worth it
Baby Carrier $110didn't use it hardly at all
Baby bath $30 hardly used this either mainly showered Noah with us
Toys $200 Probably spent more than this
Highchair $300 We didn't buy this until Noah was 6months old and needed it
bottles etc $80
Breastpump $100
cot mobile $50
nursery decorations $150 approx
blankets $80
nappy bag $50

So only $2660 all up if I added properly there are probably more bits and pieces but if you buy it as you go and watch out for sales and pounce when you see them...take advantage of laybys a lot of baby shops have 9month laybys however the prieces can be more expensive

[*MRS M*]

even know im not pg yet (but hoping in the n/y)i was sitting down trying to work out what we need want and it came to 6ooo.oo