Budget Tips

Kat writes…

The Nearly New season is upon us and here is a guide to getting your money’s worth on a budget.

The NCT Nearly New Sale is a bi-annual event usually held in Spring and Autumn each year. It gives local parents the opportunity to sell items in good condition and buy bagfuls more. The NCT take an approximately 30% cut of the sale price which, with the door money, supports their excellent charity work. If you are a member you will be given priority entrance over other shoppers (in my view this is worth the membership fee alone!). Find out about your nearest sales here.

In my experience these sales are a brilliant event where you can stock up on essentials at bargain prices. They are also a total bun fight so be prepared for a crush and use your elbows to get to the bargains. Here are a few handy dos and don’ts of shopping the sale:

• Do volunteer - not only are you helping a local charity but you generally get first dibs!
• Do get there early - if you are a member you get priority entrance and the early bird catches the worm.
• Do make a list - know what you are looking for so you can shop efficiently after all you are not there to browse.
• Do take a shopping buddy - you can double team and work different sections at the same time (heading towards the large items first can pay off).
• Do take a bag - an Ikea bag (or three) is perfect. Often the ones they give out are hard to lug round the sale and never big enough.
• Do have a budget in mind - it is very easy to go crazy so set a limit! If you want to be strict, only take that amount of cash.
• Do check out prices on Ebay - if you are looking for a big item check the prices on Ebay and in the paper to give you an idea of what’s out there.
• Do think about the next six months - that is how long it is until the next sale. If you’re buying toys think about how old they will be in six months time, ditto clothes. Also, think about the season, it may not be cold yet but in another month it will be so some warm clothes will be handy.
• Do go through your bag before you pay - make sure you’re happy with your picks and the prices. Ask yourself twice if the item is worth the price and put back what isn’t.
• Do sell - make some money from things you no longer need!
• Do go to more than one sale - if there are several in your area maximise your chances of getting everything you need by working them all.
• Don’t take a baby - like a bear pit it is no place for a child and they will only get in the way of your shopping. You can always leave them outside with Papa if you don’t want to be far away.
• Don’t get stuff for the sake of it - you will only end up with a bag of unused clutter.

You can expect to find some great gems and generally the stuff there falls into these categories: Baby / Children’s Clothes, Toys, Maternity Wear, Children’s Books, Pregnancy & Parenting Books, Large Equipment and General Accessories. I’ve not seen any electricals and I think this is because of laws surrounding second hand electrical goods. Prams seem to be traded on a notice board from what I’ve experienced. Most of what you find lives up to the nearly new title but do check your choices as people can be cheeky with what they send and the price they put on it.

The NCT Nearly New Sale goes on my calendar as soon as I know when it is as by saving on the basics I can afford to splurge an a few extras. Most importantly, you are supporting a worthwhile charity which has changed the way women are treated during childbirth and provides essential support to new mothers with services like their Breastfeeding Counselors. Find out more about the organisation on the NCT website.

Natalie writes…

For a start, it’s a good idea to set an overall realistic budget in mind. Whilst having a baby can be as expensive or cheap as you want it to be, the only way you know how to set a budget is to:

1) Understand what your buying motivations are. I like style and function and break out around too much neutral, baby pink and baby blue, and dodgy plastic. Some people don’t give a monkey’s about trendy and will probably save a fortune. You need to work out who your are.
2) Get an idea of pricing. My friends husband said (without any evidence to back it up) that he expected that she could get everything, new, for under a grand. Now that is actually possible, but when you’re planning to buy a Bugaboo or a Stokke Xplory, you’ll need to rethink this unless you’re planning for your baby to be naked and sleeping in with you.

Just so you know…

A decent, lightweight pushchair with weather accessories is around £60. You can buy for less, but make sure you get a decent quality one because lightweight pushchairs take a knocking. I own the Mamas and Papas Nipi which is highly rated by Which?. Maclarens are around £65 to close to £200. Travel systems tend to be upwards of £200, more like £300, and last week I featured the Micralite Fastfold. The Mothercare Trenton, whilst not may tastes, is also highly rated by Which? and is a bit of a steal at £230 instead of it’s RRP of £280 and includes the car seat and soft carry cot. Following trends and lusting after the likes of Bugaboos, Quinny’s or Stokkes will be around £500-£800. Breathe in and out with me.

Cots (not cot beds) can be really cheap, especially if you go down the Ikea route. I am a huge fan of the Ikea Gulliver Cot and the Ikea Hermelin which are £69 and £75 respectively. A cot bed though will last and you’re probably looking at a minimum of £150 although quality makes a difference to price. I would steer clear of kitsch, commercial cots with cartoon figures or whatever on them, and go plain. Trust me, you’ll thank me when you’ve got sick of Winnie the Pooh, especially if you have it on a cot bed.

Car seats - the only one I recommend is the Maxi-Cosi 0+ Cabriofix which is circa £90 with a RRP of around £110 and also highly rated by the likes of Which? and many others. If you’re having a girl, we featured a recent Maxi-Cosi bargain for £59.99. You can purchase Maxi-Cosi widely on and offline. Shop around.

They are the biggies and these are the prices for them when you buy brand new. You obviously can buy second hand, which is something I will be covering over various posts, but the one thing I would steer clear of buying second hand is a car seat as you just don’t know its history. Better to buy new, and pass it down to future babies…should you go down that road again.

Remember: If you buy well now, not only do you save money on future babies, but if you don’t even want to hand down and want to get new again, if you buy well and treat well, you can sell them on again.

Natalie writes…

Gas and electric are high, property prices are doom and gloom, everywhere you look there’s someone bleating about the credit crunch, and now you’re pregnant, looking forward to your new arrival, but wondering if you’re going to end up bankrupting yourselves. Whilst I won’t lie and tell you that it’s cheap as chips to have a baby, it actually can be as expensive or as budget conscious as you want it to be. Being a blog about budget baby products, it’s only fair that we show you as many ways as possible to help you budget and to save, from the joys of ebay, to Freecycle, to NCT sales, to knowing how to track bargains, to compromising (try not to shudder), to understanding where you can make quick dents into your budget. And remember, the more you save, the more you can spread the money elsewhere…

The first thing I did when it came to working out what to buy was to do some research into baby essentials list, whittle it down, and put it into a spreadsheet. Don’t laugh!

Anal retentive as it may sound, I quite enjoyed doing up a list in Excel of what I needed, what my budget was, what the RRP (recommended retail price) and what my cheapest find was. Not only is it a great way to keep track of everything you need and have purchased, but you can pat yourself on the back each time you make a saving. Trust me, they all add up! RRP’s are all available online. If you want to get a good idea of what pushchairs are available, a visit to both Mothercare and John Lewis should give you a pretty good view of everything, and I also find local speciality baby stores can be really good.

If you already have a fairly good knowledge of Excel (all you need to do is know how to add up, subtract, and multiply) then you’ll be able to get cracking straight away. You can get fancier by linking your formulas and all that jazz but I won’t bore you. If there are enough of you interested in learning, I could also do a post. Failing that, ask someone to set up the basics for you (it’ll take them a few minutes) or I found that there is a free ebook which you may want to download if you’re actually quite keen to do budgeting in Excel. If you don’t have Excel or are fairly techy and want to share with say, your partner, get a Google account and use Google Docs. It’s brilliant, everything is stored safely and privately online, and you can discuss changes on it with your ‘collaborator’.

Mothercare have a handy checklists section online and it’s also on the back of their catalogues. Mamas and Papas also do a checklist in their catalogue, as do Toys r Us - but be prepared, no two lists say the same thing! You’re going to have to use either your own judgement or ask others who have already been through the same process.

Look out for our checklist coming super soon!

Natalie writes…

When you’re having a baby and have specific tastes or just want to get only the best, it is difficult to utter the c-word, ‘compromise’, but if you are looking to make some savings during your credit crunch pregnancy, it’s time to sit down and think about what needs to be super stylish or the hot brand, and what actually just needs to be basic and does what it says on the tin. You’d be surprised; that covers a lot of things!

I’ll be damned if I don’t have a stylish pushchair or cot, but really, for things like baby baths, sterilisers etc, buy stuff that does exactly what you need, and cheaply. They don’t do them in black or stainless steel (trust me I’ve checked) and really, they all do the same thing…

You don’t need bells and whistles where the steriliser practically speaks to you when it’s done. You need something quick, efficient, and effective. Microwave sterilisers were surprisingly popular with many of my friends and about half the price of a typical steriliser. Kiddicare have the Phillips Avent Microwave Steriliser for £21.27 instead of the RRP of £43.98 and it also includes a fab thermometer set which will actually knock another item off your essentials list. If don’t own a microwave or just prefer the normal steriliser route (some people don’t like idea of the steriliser taking up residence in something they use really frequently), you can try Tommee Tippee’s Closer to Nature Electric Steam Steriliser (pictured), which is £32.99 instead of £47.98 also at Kiddicare or Blue Fish have the Avent Express Steam Steriliser for £34.95 instead of £49.95.

Other compromising suggestions, don’t buy a baby bath and just bathe your baby in your normal bath or get the fab blue one from Ikea which is £4.49.

Even though you may want everything stylish, vibrant, and even loud, if you’re genuinely on a budget, you’ll have to inject some white in there, although I don’t blame you for skipping over the baby blues and pinks…

Buy basics that no-one else is going to see (or you just don’t care about) in plain white because they are cheaper. However, make sure you buy decent quality because if they don’t wash well, you’ll be buying more, which will actually cancel out the savings you made. I highly recommend John Lewis baby basics, where for instance you get a pack of 7 high quality body suits for £8, but H&M also do some handy bits, and surprisingly (or not surprisingly considering they have their finger in every pie, you can get some really good baby basics with a cute print on them (ours were a gift and they had dinosaurs), from every little helps, Tesco. I have never seen them at my local Tesco and I live near the biggest one in England so this is a bargain you need to dig for. And no, they don’t sell them online. John Lewis are also very well priced for sheets and cellular blankets, as long as you’re heading into neutral territory.

I also purchased muslins from John Lewis, £6.99 for 6, because again, they’re excellent quality and still look like new 15 months later, but if you want some that you don’t give a monkey’s about, Ebay is the place to go. I used my ones from there for soaking up big brown accidents and mopping up stuff like jam, and save the nice ones for sweet breast feeding moments and baby burping. Trust me, there is a difference in quality. Best4Baby seems to be the one where I and my mates have all ended up on ebay, where you can get as many as 12 for £6.99 plus P&P. Note though, you have to decide how essential these are. When I first heard about them, I didn’t ‘get’ them, but on the advice of others I brought some and they were brilliant. Impromptu cover for the changing mat, spreading over surfaces you’re not sure about when you’re out, oversized bib, mop up duty, vomit barrier…

A big area where you can make compromises on is on the big stuff - pushchair/pram and cot. Even if you want stylish, on trend, and functional, you don’t need to go all Bugaboo or Stokke. Difference to your budget? Depending on what you ‘downgraded’ to, around £200 to £400 on a pushchair alone. Or buy amazing pushchair, cheap, but nice looking cot. You could save a few hundred there too.

Ultimately, only you can decide where you want to compromise, but if you’re on a budget, I’d start with the easy choices first.

Brenda writes…

Here are a few of the high street shops that stock all your baby essentials from baby basics to bedding you will find it all here at very competitive prices, so proving that having a baby does not mean you have to go bankrupt in the process.

John Lewis

Offer a vast range of baby products in their baby department, whether you go to the store where the trained advisors can help you through the maze or whether you order it online, delivery is free and the quality is second to none.

Marks & Spencer

Offer you a well priced range of baby through to kids clothing as well as toys and books.  Quality of the baby essentials is very good.  Made from 100% cotton.  Visit the shops or order online orders over £30 are delivered free of charge.

Mothercare
This is your one stop shop in the high street, everybody who has a baby will at one stage either enter a Mothercare store or visit it online.  They offer a complete range of babycare products that are value for money.  Very often they do specials online that you can not get in the shop.

Natalie writes…

If there is one way to shop guilt free, it’s shopping knowing that you’ve made some money from unwanted stuff that would have gone to waste or gathered dust. Baby clothing, pushchairs, various equipment, in fact, pretty much most things have a resale value, so here are 5 quick tips for selling on ebay.

Time your auction well

If you want to make sure your items get noticed, make sure you put them up for about 3 days. Unless it is something seriously hot, a day might be too short. Remember, if you start it at 11pm at night for 3 days…it will finish at 11pm. Will your buyers be awake?

Choose your wording carefully

Your primary job is to sell the product. No porkies, keep it factual, but it is better to say ‘excellent condition’ than ‘worn five times’. Always say whether it came from a pet free or smoke free home, tagged, not tagged etc. I find it’s quite useful to suggest how it could be worn. If you know that it comes up small or big, say so. Say what it comes with or whether something is missing.

Don’t price too low or too high

If you’re new to ebay, practice with items that you won’t lose sleep over rather than going gung ho on your pushchair and kicking yourself for pricing it incorrectly. Remember if you start an item of clothing at £1, unless it is unbelievably good and causes a frenzy, it will take ages to get a decent value.

Don’t try to clean up on postage

You’ll just wind up buyers if you do this. You can use the Royal Mail website to check what the price is although if in doubt, get it weighed at the post office before you list the item. I have learnt my lesson and strongly advise that you don’t use a kitchen scale to weigh large items… Also if you paid for whatever you intend to dispatch the item in, you need to include that in your price.

Communicate with buyers or potential buyers

Answer questions promptly and make sure that if there is any delay with dispatching that you advise your buyer.

Brenda writes…

So now I only buy my boys 2 types of socks - white or black, plain no pattern. Usually I buy them from Marks & Spencer , where you can get a pack of 10 pairs of black short socks for as little as £3.50. I feel they last longer and wash up well. But all the supermarkets sell them as do places like TK Maxx.

This way by buying plain, same colour, if one gets lost it does not matter, you can still pair them up with the others, unless of course you are like my middle one who likes to wear odd socks!!!.

Don’t forget when the socks have had it, you can use them as dusters or cleaning rags.

Brenda writes…

When taking your kids out for the day, take your own picnic and snacks.  As the mark up in theme parks, cinemas, and other kiddie places of interest are so high that you are often paying more than double the cost of a drink or snack in these places compared to if you had bought it in the supermarket and brought it yourself.

Get the kids involved make each of them responsible for preparing one section for everybody, somebody to be responsible for drinks, sandwiches, fruit and you will find that they enjoy it even more.

If you put things like drinks and yoghurts in the freezer the night before you will find they will keep cooler and fresher for the day.

When the school holidays are on us it can be hard trying to find things to do without costing the earth as many of the various groups that you might normally attend are closed. Kids sometimes do not understand the value of things, so here are our top 5 tips for budget ideas for keeping the kids occupied:

1 If you have a garden, turn a space into the kids area, get them digging it up and buy some plant seeds, which you can pick up from a supermarket or your local garden centre. Then encourage them to water it and go there everyday to look after it.

2 Take the kids out on a mystery walk. Get them interested in their local surroundings. Many kids nowadays do not walk enough and it is amazing what the kiddies will spot and find to talk about while on the walk. Create a list of things to find but watch out as they may get really competitive! If you have a really young child, they’ll enjoy the ride in their pushchair, or you can let them roam around on their harness. We love the Little Life Daysacks.

3 Get the arts and crafts out including any old fabrics that you do not want and get them creating masterpieces of their own. Kiddies love nothing more making and creating and then showing it off to all and sundry.

4 Check out days out websites, as a lot of them highlight special offers and also showcase free days out events. TIME OUT always does great specials on kids days outs, Junior Magazine often includes similar sections (at least for London they do anyway), plus try Mummy I’m Bored, Days Out With the Kids, and The Independent have a great feature on kids days out. The zoo and any local farms that let kids visit are timeless activities that you could do every week if you feel like it.

5 Organise playdates. Get together with a group of friends and arrange to meet up each week, with each bringing something to eat or drink so that it does not end up costing mega money.

Brenda writes…

When you have a child you automatically qualify for child benefit, whatever your financial circumstances are. The rates for this year (2008/09) are £18.80 a week for the eldest child and 12.55 for each younger child. You should receive an application form with your Bounty pack of goodies or your can apply online at HM Revenue & Customs.

Once registered for child benefit, your child will also receive a Child Trust Fund (CTF) voucher worth £250 or £500 dependant on your financial status. This is to be invested in a tax-free CTF until they reach 18. You can top it up by 1,200 per each year tax free. At seven the state sends out another voucher worth 250 or 500 dependant on your financial status. A while back we featured on our sister site Bambino Goodies details of MyEggNest. They do all of the grunt work, helping you decide how to invest your CTF with their handy comparison feature. With more than 25% of parents forgetting to invest their CTF, this is an invaluable service and removes a lot of the hassle.