• Save when buying for baby
• The bassinet: necessity or not
• At the rear
• Best Art and Craft Recipes
• Don’t Blow the Baby Budget!

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Save when buying for baby

You can purchase good quality baby furniture, a pram, toys and accessories from garage sales, on eBay, through community shops and or a number of on line stores

www.eBay.com.au
www.tradingpost.com.au
www.egaragesalesaustralia.com.au
www.247babyads.com.au
www.babykidsmarket.com.au

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Some councils even hire car seats, which saves a heap of money. However, it’s best to book early. You could also enquire to your local council to see if they have “council clear outs”.

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Free Cycle is also a great source of free baby furniture and accessories. Free Cycle encourages people to give freely with no strings attached. The idea behind Free Cycle is to instill a sense of generosity of spirit, strengthen local community ties, and promote environmental sustainability and reuse. People from all walks of life have joined together to turn trash into treasure. Members donate their unwanted goods, and if you are lucky, you can pick up anything from baby gates to play pens without spending a cent.  www.freecycle.org

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Another useful site is Baby Exchange, which has been designed so you don’t need to find a particular person with whom to directly exchange. You simply list your items in the appropriate category, and once your items have been chosen, you may choose the items you would like in return. Just pick from whichever category you wish. For example, you may exchange clothes for toys, books for accessories, and so forth. If you don't have anything to exchange, then you may buy your way into the exchange process by paying for items. www.babyexchange.com.au.

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Hiring what you need for baby has much to recommend it; not least the fact that babies grow out of everything as fast as you can buy. Hire for Baby is Australia's largest baby equipment hire service, and is certainly worth a look or two. They’ve been in business now for 18 years and have grown into a network of 50 franchises in that time. Have a look on www.hireforbaby.com, and compare the cost of hiring to the cost of purchasing

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There are a couple of other ways to save when purchasing baby furniture and accessories. One way is to buy  last year’s model. You’ll find that most stores discount the previous year's models. You’ll need to do your research to be able to identify the new and outdated models, but a few phone enquires should do the trick.

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Offer to purchase floor stock. I saved $100 on the purchase of a cot by offering to buy the floor stock and coincidentally last year’s model. In fact, you’ll be surprised, if you just make a reasonable offer on what you want, how often the retailer will sell for less. After all, a sale with some profit is better than no sale at all. It pays to bargin.

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Be innovative and consider how else you could fulfill a need. Consider the multiple uses of furniture; how can you use one item of furniture for dual purposes. For example a chest of drawers at hip height can double as a change table. Personally, I found a change table a waste of time. I had walk-in robes in the nursery, so I was able to store the change table neatly away. However, every time I needed to change Jer’tarme, I had to toddle off to the bedroom, stinky baby in hand. In the end I succumbed to changing her wherever I was in the house, on whatever was handy: the bed, the carpet, whatever.
 

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A little secret. Visit Ikea.  Surprisingly, they have a range of very affordable baby furniture.

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You can also save good money by purchasing furniture for the nursery in its raw state, unpainted, and flat packed. There are many pine shops scattered across Australia. Either visit one close to you or surf the Internet to find one that sells and freights flat pack nursery furniture. Painting and decorating your baby’s furniture brings an immense feeling of parental pride. In addition there are many cute little knicks and knacks at the craft section of Bunning's hardware store. These are a fantastically cost effective way to dress up a tired or worn piece of furniture. You will be surprised to find what an improvement fancy drawer handles can have on a plain item of furniture. Some opportunity shops also sell baby furniture for a great price. Just add a little TLC, and they are made as good as new.

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You can also save on the installation of baby accessories like car seats. Our local baby supplier was going to charge us $15 to install the baby seat into the car. My husband had a crack at it himself with great success. “It wasn’t that difficult,” he said. To help us even more, our discharge nurse inspected our car to make certain the car seat was correctly fitted. She made a few suggestions how my daughter would be even more comfortable and we saved $15.00.

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When pregnant, it is not uncommon to feel compelled to rush out and shop for your unborn. I believe it is a natural feathering of the nest . However, you will save if you strategically shop for what you need when you need it. Some items you won’t need until bub starts to grow, so limit what you buy to immediate need. For instance, you will not need a potty until your child is at least two, even then you may find you have a child who prefers to go straight on the toilet. Remember, also, you will receive gifts and vouchers from friends, family and work colleagues, so wait a bit before you rush out and buy.

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Second-hand furniture is often covered in sticky stickers. To save damaging the furniture, rub a little eucalyptus oil on the sticker and it should come off without any trace of residue. Do not be tempted to use a scourer on a metal surface; you will certainly scratch the metal. Likewise, be careful using products such as WD40 or nail polish remover with acetone as these can melt some plastics. If the sticker is not adhered to plastic, you could prepare removal by warming the sticker with a hair dryer first.

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If you are buying anything second-hand, make sure it is safe, sturdy, and most of all complies with the Australian Safety Standards. www.babysafety.com.au, www.standards.org.au, www.kidsafe.com.au or  www.choice.com.au.

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And don’t buy second-hand products without inspecting their physical condition. In fact, don’t buy anything without making sure it will stand up to the rigours of being used by children. Unlike a car, the item won’t come with a service history. Therefore, it is important to check for signs of, wear and tear, possible damage or mistreatment.  I had a cot I used for both my children. By the time I had finished with it, the side rail failed to slide up and down easily. We dismantled it and made our daughter a cot for her dolls. Not all parents are this conscious of impending risks, and they will happily sell their unwanted goods. Be aware.

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Get a copy of “The Choice Guide to Baby Products: The buying guide for parents, 11th Edition.” This is an excellent resource to help identify the best and worst products available on the market. Best of all, it provides the results of rigorous product testing, conducted on a wide range of products.

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When buying a second hand product, check whether you will need instructions to operate and maintain the product.  If there are no instructions, ask yourself, will this be a problem at a later stage? Could you download instructions off the Internet?

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