I know everyone loves a bargain but I really love a bargain. I have tried many different ways to save this household money particularly on baby things. I know lots of mums who try to do the same including getting stuff second hand via:
- Local mum Facebook groups
- Local mum forums
- Car boot sales
- eBay
- Gumtree
- Other mums
My son has had a few hand-me-downs from family like his activity table and walker (he can't really eat either of those) and my friend has kindly let us share other things like his Jumperoo and Bumbo seat which we will pass back and forth till neither of us has more children/the stuff gets worn out. The things I have bought brand new, let's just say none of which I have paid full price. Our travel system and the only one we wanted I may add, was bought with a voucher code and also on promotion so we got a car seat, car seat isofix base, pushchair attachment, adapters, frame, raincover and footmuff for less than half the price (a saving of £500). Our boxes of nappies were bought on promotion while I was still pregnant so we ended up getting boxes of size 1s, 2s and 3s for around £6 a box if we paid for them as I generally used vouchers which I will get back to in a moment. The high chair was an extravagant gift - hindsight is a wonderful thing and we should have gone with a cheap one but that is another post for another time. I could go on and on. I hope you don't think I'm bragging but I'm proud of how much I have managed to save us so far. This was mostly with the help of online surveys.
If you have a look online there are many online survey sites you could join but I had carefully chosen two based on their reward schemes when I was pregnant - I am now a member of four. Of the two, I had been a member of one of them for years but didn't get the full benefit of it till I realised I was expected and made sure I did as many surveys as I physically could. I'm not going to lie, some of these surveys are tedious and long but if you really just need 50p more to be able to redeem your next £10 gift voucher, you endure it. Giving your opinion is definitely more in need than you would think and we ended up getting endless batches of Amazon £10 gift vouchers from all of the surveys. Many of our boxes of nappies were free, as were the majority of my son's toys and books. Our biggest saving had to be off of our baby monitor. We have a Withings Smart Baby which retails for around £200, and we ended up paying £75 thanks to all of the vouchers we accumulated. What I would say is, Amazon sell absolutely everything. Some of it is amazing value for money, some of it is equal to or sometimes slightly more than other places but if you're getting it for free what's an extra £2 here and there.
If you are expecting and you have a lot of time on your hands in the evenings or even if you need to save money, please consider this as an option as it has worked wonders for us it also means you have more money for other things that you can't get for free, like food (although one site does offer Sainsburys vouchers as a reward, so maybe not true).
On a separate note, don't forget to sign up to all of the baby brand mailing lists like Cow & Gate, Aptamil, HiPP, Heinz, Ella's Kitchen, Pampers, Bounty and Emma's Diary. They send useful information about your baby's development month on month, discounts, advanced notice about sales and usually money off vouchers. They also send you free samples from time to time and charts to help you with your baby's development and the food ones have great recipes for when you're weaning.
I hope this helps you and please let me know how you have saved money and what you managed to get on the cheap.
~AB~
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