cheapest place to buy newborn baby essentials?

JTormey

hiya
just wondering what shop is best value to go and stock up on all the newborn baby essentials - such as big bags of cotton wool , nAppies etc. will breast feed so don't need formula yet.
thanks!

bgrizzley

Congrats JTormey.
have a look at Amazon for stuff like baby wipes/nappies. free supersaver delivery to Ireland if you spend £25 and they usually work out a little cheaper. every little helps.....

Lola92

Around the first Tuesday of every month when Child Benefit is given out most of the supermarkets and boots do special offers on the likes of wipes, nappies etc. Boots also has some good deals when the do the 3 for 2 offer. I found the cotton wool pads best and I just bought them in my local pharmacy for around €2 per large bag so cannot comment on where is best value!

Just to add though if you have not had your baby then I would try not to buy too much in terms of nappies or wipes as you don't know if they will suit your baby. They do not last long in the newborn sizes of nappies either.

Lantus

look around for special offers but dont stockpile too much, as baby will grow out of nappies at an alarming rate and the 2nd hand value of nappies even new is zero.

sign up to pampers for the new born kit and tesco and other retailers who do such things.

you need a lot less than the so called 'experts' tell you.
Also, my wife BF and she needed a pump and some formula 'just in case'. You cannot say for 100% that BF will suit you or that you will do it for as long as you intend.

I can confirm that the least best time to buy a pump is when the milk comes in and baby is screaming and its 2am and you have to drive to a shop and buy a pump and then get back to a distraught wife and then read manual on said pump and sterilise it (now is a great time to learn about your new steriliser and take it out the box!) at least twice and then try to figure out how to use it to the soundtrack of a screaming newborn.
I will breastfeed it will be ok is a great sentiment and I think what my wife did was A++ but looking back we were really silly not to think there wouldn't be bumps in the road.

Great memories though! And I got 30 mins out the house on my own! (all be it bricking it!)

PS - delete the phrase manual pump, there is no such thing.

implausible

When Boots have the 3 for 2 offers on, you can pick up a lot of stuff. On the cotton wool, when you start looking, you'll see a huge variation in prices. Don't go buying the cotton wool balls, you can get a massive roll of cotton wool for half the price and there's way more in it. The only difference is you have to tear the pieces off, but it lasts forever.

Tesco are good for muslin cloths, sheets and blankets.

Lantus wrote: »

you need a lot less than the so called 'experts' tell you.
Also, my wife BF and she needed a pump and some formula 'just in case'. You cannot say for 100% that BF will suit you or that you will do it for as long as you intend.

PS - delete the phrase manual pump, there is no such thing.

+1. I'd recommend buying a few cartons of ready-made formula. That way if there is an emergency, you don't have to faff around with making it up or running to a shop. I had 10 cartons sitting in the press and didn't use them until he was weaned and it keeps a long time anyway.

What do you mean about the manual pump? I used a cheap one at the start until I knew I'd manage it. There's no point in forking out for an expensive electric one if you're not sure you'll use it.

Bear in mind that people will give you lots of clothes, toys, blankets etc as presents, so don't go mad!

christmas2012

they have baby stuff in the pound shop and superdrug fairly cheap

bubski

Super markets always have offers on nappies & wipes

For Newborn i found tesco own brand nappies great, best fit, now i use aldi ones so cheap and 10 times better than the expensive brands.

Cotton wool - Supermarket own brand

For bigger items like steralisers, pumps etc look out for adds on adverts etc you can pick up second hand ones, sometimes never been used. I got mine on adverts - they were used but TBH i didnt really use them all that much so didnt mind & would be sickened buying them brand new & not using them.

Also if your not fussy, you should check out charity shops for new born clothes that are practically brand new, you can buy boy & girl stuff for a few euro. All they need is a bit of a wash.
You can also get good blankets in charity shops as well - or if there is one local you can ask them to hold stuff for you if it gets handed in. I got a moses basket (perfect) for €10

Loads of ways to cut down on expenditure for a baby, just gotta keep your eyes open.

Sparks

Lantus wrote: »

Also, my wife BF and she needed a pump and some formula 'just in case'. You cannot say for 100% that BF will suit you or that you will do it for as long as you intend.

Amen to that; though I definitely bought too much formula - one box of the SMA bottles (the pre-made, sterilised ones that come with a sterilised teat for the bottle) would have been enough; it buys you the time you need to go buy more if/when you need it (Dunnes Stores carry them, though they sell out fast; so does the shop in Holles St.).

Though we have found that junior thinks those sterilised teats shouldn't be anywhere near his mouth, so when we use them, we heat the bottle in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes, then pour the contents into the sterilised bottles that we normally use with him (we BF about 90% of the time, but some feeds are breastmilk in a bottle and about one feed every five or six days has been formula, usually if we're not at home or if its three am and I don't want to wake up herself because she's exhausted).

I also bought a tray of the cartons of pre-made formula, they've been handy as well (less chance of a cardboard carton smashing into glass shards in a nappy bag, so I keep one in there along with a sterilised bottle that I'll cap and throw into a zip-top bag when we go to the grandparents house as the backup feeding plan), and they have a longer expiration date; I'm not sure I'd call them a waste of money just yet because there's a reasonable chance we'll get through them before the expiry date; but the powder tubs haven't been touched yet, and I don't think they were worth it

Sparks

BTW, I'm surprised nobody's mentioned TK Maxx yet - though I didn't think of them myself until I'd spent way too much in mothercare TK Maxx are great for outfits, though it's a case of going there more than once as the stock changes regularly. But it's not cheap clothing, it's the same clothing you'll pay three times the price for in other shops; it's just the tail end of runs, stuff that's now out of fashion and so on. I've not seen the really useful 5-packs of plain white bodysuits and onesies that are the things we most use from our mothercare shopping (the plain white cotton stuff is marvellous because you can scald the daylights out of it in a 90 degree wash to get rid of the poop stains from the small of their backs from when they poop mid-burping ), but for the other stuff, they're great.

Also, Marks&Spencer do nice multi-packs of onesies and the like that are good quality and not horrendously expensive.

How Strange

We got long sleeve vests from tescos and the quality is great. They've been washed loads and loads and are still in great condition. I love m&s for baby clothes. They have a kind of kit with a onesie, little jacket, hat and other stuff for around €20. I found them great up to 3 months and you can mix and match between sets. They're really good quality too.

I got muslin cloths in ikea and they're great. They're huge so can be used as a cover if you're breastfeeding in public (kind of necessary once they get passed 4 months and are nosy so you run the risk of flashing your boob!). They were definitely my essential for everything in the first few months. I used to put one under my son when I was feeding in our bed so he wouldn't get sick on the sheet.

Don't buy too much cotton wool etc as you won't use as much as you think. I bought talc which I never used, baby bath wash which I didn't use and lots of other baby products which you think you need but you don't.

I find the huggies wipes in the cream pack the best and I buy them in bulk when they're on special. I've been using aldi nappies since 5 months and am sorry I didn't start sooner because they're great.

These are what I'd consider essential to have; thermometer (Braun ear monitor which is much cheaper from amazon), calpol, saline spray, gripe water (you get it up the north or buy online at pharmacy4u.co.uk), bepanthen, if you're breastfeeding a microwave sterilizer (mothercare have one for €10).

After that you can buy as you need.

Moonbeam

Tesco baby grows and vests are brilliant as are Next but Tesco is a lot cheaper.
Boots and tesco combined usually works out cheapest depending on their special offers.

uck51js9zml2yt

we find lidl nappies are great and better than aldi.

We did use reusable cloth nappies for the first few months which saved us a fortune. All we needed to do was use a liner and wash the cloth insert.

There is a whole market in "pre-loved" (hate that term ! ) nappies.

There's also irish parenting sites were people have bought them and never used them. We got €300 worth for €50 and they were still in the bag

We moved to disposables after about 6 months.

There is also a whole market for resale of baby items. If you need the link feel free to ask.

frankie1

I definitely would say that tesco is best value/quality for vests, babygro, bibs and muslin. Wouldn't go near mothercare far too expensive. I certainly don't believe in spending more on a t shirt for babs than I would on myself!!!

ted1

The most important thing is actually deciding what is an essential, the media and shops will have you believe its a massive list.