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.