Hey team!
We are expecting our first kid later in the year - starting to buy stuff now, and all the big stuff adds up fast.
Any suggestions of good deals or promos or discount codes for buying 'start up' stuff?
Thanks heaps!
Aaron
First Time Parents - Where Are The Good Deals and Any Discounts or Schemes Any Parents Can Suggest?!
Lmrtron on 26/04/2017 - 19:16
Comments
Keep an eye out at farmers. They do half price nursery maybe 4 times a year
Farmers will probably have a half price nursery sale in mid May, mid August, mid November and mid February (or at least they did so last year). These sale days are usually madness, stock sells out very fast and they won't order in at the sale price, so you should go as early as possible in the morning, or order online as soon as possible from 6pm the previous day.
The pregnancy bounty pack (which you'll get from the midwife) has some vouchers, eg. $50 off for $500+ spend at Baby on The Move, $5 off a Treasure nappy box, $5 off a Huggies nappy box, 1 free haircut for new mum and 1 for bub (up to 2 yrs old) at Just Cuts, 30% off nursery products at Farmers etc.
For safety reason I think you should buy a new, good car seat. I recommend a bassinet. Babies sleep much better in a bassinet than in a cot because it's so much cosier. A bassinet is cheaper than a Moses basket and lasts much longer (9 months for my baby who measures around the 75th percentile in weight and height). I know this is extra expense on top of a cot, but it can save you lots of sleep consultant fees later. There are times when one might feel one'd pay anything to get the baby to sleep a few more hours.
Do buy lots of woollen clothes and blankets, otherwise the midwives and your baby won't be happy. Cotton is almost useless for newborns, especially in winter. Merino can be used pretty much 11 months a year in NZ.
Buy a large baby bath instead of a medium one. Babies probably outgrow a medium bath in 3 months. A large one would last a year. Until your baby can walk, it's a bit hard to wash them in an adult bath.
Don't buy swaddles. Plunket is passionately against swaddling, and your baby will probably hate it too.
Don't buy a change table — expensive and dangerous to use. A change mat is much cheaper and more useful.
Don't buy polyester or other non-natural clothes and blankets, or at least don't put your baby to sleep in anything other than woollen and cotton (clothes and blankets).
Countdown has sale on (your favourite brands of) formula, nappies and wipes every 4-6 weeks, so plan ahead to avoid paying the (ridiculously high) full prices.
Anything that has the word "baby" on it somehow gives it the right to charge a premium, so try using regular substitutes where possible. For example, when your baby starts solids, buy regular ice trays to freeze food instead of baby freezer trays, use regular BPA free plastic bowls and plates instead of "baby" ones. If you can sew, buying merino fabrics to sew blankets will be much cheaper than buying ready made baby merino blankets.
Happy to answer any specific question you might have re shopping.
Second hand as many clothes as you can, they go thru them QUICK.
Boob feed, Formula is extremely expensive and not as good for the Bubba.
Buy nappies from Countdown when they have their 2 day specials, Huggies > Everything else IMHO. They have a nice part at the back which stops "poo explosions" that no other brand does.
Cheapest place for decent anything is Baby Factory when they have sales.
Buy the largest baby bath you can.
Don't spend a fortune on a Bassinet, our baby was only in it for about 4 weeks and is now in a cot sleeping 10 hours a night. (3ish months old)
Only ever buy things from Farmers if they have 50% off or more. They sell a lot of the same things as the baby-factory yet their RRP's are significantly more.
We bought heaps of bulk lots of baby clothes off Trademe, as others have said there's not much point buying new. When the kids get a bit older join the local toy library, when they get bored of the toys just head back to the library and get out something else - it's especially great for things like Cosy Coupes and other big bulky stuff that you don't really want to store.
For your car seat try to rear face them for as long as possible, in the event of an accident a rear facing child is a lot more likely to survive or have fewer injuries than a forward facing child. We've kept out rear facing until they're about 4, in Sweden they do it until they're about 7. We use Diono Radians, there are much cheaper seats but the Radians can do from 2.3kg right up to 54kg, with rear facing up to 20kg - although I'd strongly suggest a capsule for the first 6-9 months, especially one with a base so they you don't have to wake them up getting in and out of the car.
Playcentre is awesome for meeting other parents and just getting support in general, it's a lot more involvement than something like a kindy but we've just had our third kid and we've got a whole network of people cooking us meals, looking after our other kids and just supporting us in general.
I've got twins, so I buy in bulk. Here are where I get my main consumable:
Nappies = babyonline.co.nz - buy dryups european made. Good quality and lowest price point per nappy you can find. Highly recommend.
Wipes = wait for the Tendersoft wipes sales (regular, there is one on now) at the warehouse then buy in bulk. 1$ pack. Way cheaper than supermarket. Use a free shpiping code. If you time it right with a 10% off online sale you'll do even better.
http://www.thewarehouse.co.nz/p/tendersoft-baby-wipes-unscen…
We just bought a large box of european dryups size 2, comparing them to huggies ultimate size 2 they seem pretty thin. We haven't tried them out yet on the baby. They are significantly cheaper around half the price of the huggies ultimate.
What you guys recommend for Car seat? Should I buy car seat with capsule or separately buy one car seat and one capsule?
My friend told me that capsule is compulsory to buy. I don't have much knowledge.For all 3 kids we've rented a capsule from Baby on the Move, Plunket used to do rentals too but I think they've stopped. We rent the Graco Logicos, they're great solid capsules and are easy to get in and out. If you're having less than 3 kids it's not worth buying one but if we'd decided early on that we were having 3 it would have worked out cheaper for us to buy. You're only going to use the capsule for less than 12 months and then move them into a car seat, and then a booster later on unless the seat converts to a booster.
See my previous post for recommendations on a car seat. The other good thing about the Radians that I forgot to mention is they're narrow enough to fit 3 across the back seat of most cars.
Radians are fantastic. They go from birth to age 8 so you avoid having to buy carseats every couple of years (hubby's pet hate). I didn't use a capsule very much with either of mine - big babies, so them + capsule were very heavy; and they transitioned from carseat to cot while asleep pretty well because they were used to it (rather than staying in the capsule). I used a frontpack and the buggy a lot. Having said that, I did hire them from Baby Factory for both kids - not worth buying unless you're pretty sure you're going to have several children.
Thank you for yout reply. We have bought capsule from baby city. It is going to cheaper for us to buy rather than renting as my brother who lives with me is also planing to have baby next year.
Capsules… we bought a good second hand one on trademe for about $80, it was only a year old
Used it for both of our kids over 3-4 years, then passed it onto my sister who used it for both of her kids, and then sold it for $100 (it still hadn't expired). The reason we got $100 for it after all that time is we had acquired a second base for it so it could easily be used in two cars.
Hire the capsules. You'll only use them for six months, so it's not worth buying them. You can hire them from Baby Factory etc.
Car seats are not worth buying second hand, as they have a limited lifespan (http://www.childrestraints.co.nz/manufacture-expiry.php). However, if you do find one with a decent expiry, then by all means do. I'd personally just buy one half price from Farmers.
In terms of clothes and toys, if you're in a large city school fairs are definitely worth checking out. Clothes are usually a couple of dollars a piece, and toys are cheap as chips.
Avoid any toys that make noise - babies make enough noise without them ;)
Congrats, should be fun!
Mates have used TradeMe and Facebook swap groups a lot, for larger items.
Family and friends could also probably have some old stuff they'd love to get rid of. Baths, highchairs, clothes, etc. If they did, you could pass them on once you are done with them.
Second hand stores would be another place to look. I buy some of my clothes from them, a good wash and good as new. Could never justify buying new baby clothes that they only wear for a few weeks or months. Shoes are the biggest waste, when they can't even walk!
Not using disposable nappies is another huge cost and environment saver. Cloth nappies are a bit of a shitty job, I've heard, but a great way to save.
Others will probably have more specific advice, but just what I've seen to work.
Good luck!