House & Home Baby shopping

We are currently in the market for some baby stuff e.g. baby suits and stroller. Since its our first one we are not very experienced in this field. Baby clothes are easy since we have found some good deals on H&M and target however the larger stuff like stroller and cot are quite expensive. We have been told by friends that stroller + baby seat will cost somewhere around 1K in total. So we are looking for opinions from more experienced fellows if they know any tricks or better deals.

I have looked over at Amazon and found some good options. It seems like I can get a good solid stroller for <150 + shipment. If you have ordered a stroller from Amazon before please share your experience.

 

Congratulations!

On the stroller front we spared no expense. We got one of the baby jogger summit X3 and havent regretted it for a second. We travel a lot (and I mean a lot) and this sucker goes everywhere.
Up stairs, down stairs, along the beach, through the snow everywhere. My mrs can even pull it up stairs if need be.
The only down side to it is that it is big. Even when folded. So you need a proper car. If you have one of those girly ****** tin boxes you may struggle.
Even though its big its easy to drive/manage.

All my family have the baby joggers and they seem to last. Not sure about the $150 budget though.

Blacky

 

Baby stuff just seems to be expensive - especially if you have a wife like mine.
We have been given a tonne of basics from siblings and whatnot,
We managed to get our pram for 1k down from 1600.
Second hand and clearance are the way to go. Got $1k worth of cot/change Table for 400,
Etc.

Good luck, when is the Bub due? Ours is due Jan.

 

My tip is to not go overboard with this stuff.

It's easy to get carried away with your first - and spend a lot of money. There's so many cute clothes, etc.

In reality - kids don't need a whole lot. Grab a second hand stroller - no need to spend big bucks here (we got a $1500 double stroller for $400 second hand - we'll on-sell it for the same price). By the time your kid is 12-18 months one of those cheap ones from kmart will do the trick (and super portable!).

For the car seat - fair enough, you need to get something decent but shop around. You'll need a decent mattress for the cot too.

For clothes - grab hand me downs from friends/family or shop at big w/target.

Our first kid got the royal treatment - all the cute, expensive brand clothes - etc. Our second one....well that was a different story. Pretty sure she's been wearing the same onesie for a week now

Cheers

Jamie

 

Thats also a very good point. Kids pretty much only need a cot, a stroller and some clothes.

Women (esspecially) seem to enjoy going way over the top. Clothes really only last a few months anyway because the kids grow so quick. Once summer comes around (in oz) they will be comfortable in a nappy (or nothing at all).
Change tables? really? just put a towel on the floor.
Those bassinet strollers are also pointless. They will last about 3months because the kids will grow out of it.

Blacky

 

Baby stuff is the biggest rort out there, along with weddings.

Buy a good second hand cot. I'd buy the mattress new but it doesn't have to be special - our foam one did our three kids just fine and was like new by the time we were done with it.

We also bought a jogger for the pram, it was used to death and lasted us 3 kids. Make sure whatever you buy can convert to a double if you're having your kids close together. Ours wasn't super expensive. I also bought a second hand mountain buggy as our first one died before kid 3 was finished needing one - that was also excellent and on sold it for the same price I bought it. Most important things to look for are pump up tyres, adjustable height handle bars and that you don't kick the back when you're walking. Also easy to fold up and chuck in the car, and not too wide - you want to be able to get through the checkout at Woolies

Agree re change table, the floor is good - it's very difficult for babies to roll off the floor

 

If you have a small car, get yourself a Maclaren stroller which folds down to nothing otherwise you're pushing it to fit a jogger in the boot if a car as they're massive.

Gumtree or the roadside is your friend.

I bought a mountain buggy for 1/5 of the new price off Gumtree.

Aldi make some of the better disposable nappies (surprisingly).

Don't buy second hand baby seats for the car. Get something that converts fron newborn to whatever age.

 

Do not be afraid to take hand me downs.... me and my wife were against it initially - then we realised how quickly they go through the clothes, i picked up the phone and called EVERYONE who had extra clothes

We also stopped buying expensive clothing - swapped over to Target jump suits @ $5 a pop
Everything now is bought from Target.

For the pram, we bought a massive Jane pram with the bassinet / seat combo (very much like the Bugaboos), damn heavy and took up a lot of space. Once we didn't need the bassinet anymore, we switched over to a BabyZen Yoyo ($600 now), but personally it's been one of the best purchases I've made.

Takes seconds to fold up and its super compact as well as super light at 5kg.

I use it on a regular basis, taking my daughter to and from the day care on peak hour trains. I wouldn't be able to do that with any of the other prams I've seen, they simply take up too much room.

If you can, borrow someone's stroller with bassinet for the first 6 months, then get a more compact one afterwards.

 

due in feb. around valentines

 

+1 on Baby Jogger. We got the City model ordered from the US back when the dollar was ok, along with a few other bits and pieces. Safe N Sound make a good car seat. Our daughter came home from hospital in hers and is still in the same seat almost 6 years later (though she's a small kid).
We found pretty much everything else at Ikea. They have some excellent quality gear for not a whole lot of cost. Just be sure to go the latex cot mattress for extra zzzzzz.
All up we went to about $3k fully decked out.

 

Amazon or direct from the store?

Was that aussie standard?

 

Definitely second hand! We bought our first one brand new, 300-400 I think. When he out-grew it, we just got second hand.

As Jamie said, its easy to go overboard and not always required.

 

Congratulations!
You wont require much in the way of clothes or bedding until it gets cooler, by then Bub will be at the stage where she doesn't grow as quickly as they do in the first three months. Any higher-end equipment (cot, highchair and pram/stroller) we either bought second-hand or were given as gifts were great value over the length of time we had them. Almost everything got used again by No2.

 

Yeah it almost seems like we need to pop out another one to justify all that cost.

 

Congratulations!

We bought most things off eBay or second hand.

We got cot, change table, mattress for about $600 off eBay - just made sure it had all the Aus Standards.

Pram was second hand, I think I paid <$300 for a Steelcraft Strider.

Main thing I would never buy second hand - car seat. Absolutely no way. Look online at reviews of different ones, you don't have to spend a fortune but I'd always pay a little more for one with better reviews when tested. I regret not getting one of the carrier ones as it would've made life soooo much easier, but otherwise most are convertible and will last for years providing you're not in an accident.

 

If I were buying a stroller now, I'd get the Baby Jogger City Mini GT. We had the Baby Jogger City Mini Double (we have twins) from a few years back and it is awesome - at the time I thought it would benefit from slightly larger wheels, and LO! the GT variant came out! We bought our stroller online from O/S, but it looks like that shop has shut down. I needed some spare parts later and bought them from the Australian distributor without any problems.

Having said that, I buy strollers like I buy bikes - no single stroller will satisfy all requirements! Additionally, we used baby carriers a lot (my preference was for a Jazz sling when they were little, then an Ergo Sport when they got big enough to go on my back - these also made grocery shopping easier).

For car seats, we rented capsules for 6 months for the twins, then went to convertible baby seats that lasted until they were 4.

Cheers,
Inertia

 

Direct from the store. The problem was at the time they weren't shipping direct to Oz. Soooo we had to get all the stuff we ordered from the US sent to a US postal company who simply boxed it all up and sent it all over together. Bit of mucking around, but the exchange rate at the time made up for the hassle. Baby Jogger City Elite. I don't know it's green has 3 pump up tyres and holds lots of stuff!

 

Baby shopping?

I hear you can get one in China for 10,000USD.

 

Another Baby Jogger lover. It is one of the few prams where the second seat is the same size as the main one. And when pulled apart I could easily fit the double pram in the boot of my Kia Rio. Cost me just under 1k 5 years ago and the thing is now falling apart as I used it every day. If you mostly drive, I don't see the need for an expensive pram. When the kids were tiny I lived in a new estate with great footpaths and a small shopping centre down the street. It was easier for me to strap the kids in the pram than in the car. Mine got used to sleeping in the pram so they spent many a day sleeping in the pram in the loungeroom. And I enjoyed many a quiet coffee after a walk around the block to get them to sleep.
As for other stuff, I got a target cot (most sales are mid jan) and carseat. The rest you can buy well on eBay/gumtree as people spend way too much on baby furniture.
Clothing, mine were both happy chuckers and lived in onesies and bibs. So many nice clothes never worn.
And buy a few packs of cloth nappies. Great for putting on the floor at people's houses

 

I tell my wife that's a great baby gift because no one else will get them and they have so many uses!

We got heaps of stuff through local Facebook groups with number 2....we learnt our money wasting ways for number one were not necessary! Its also a great way to try stuff and if it doesn't work you can just sell it again - usually at the same price.

Prams are ridiculous! And so are baby shops! But more so are the people that actually
buy the crap and also pay the prices! Some of the stuff has to be dog toys they've just rebranded!
We've had 2 valco snap type ones and found them great. Good size, light, easy fold and reasonably priced