The expense of a baby
August 4th, 2010 | 
Author: One of the biggest stress factors of a newly pregnant couple is how are they going to afford all the ‘things’ babies need.
Do babies really need all the things that as new parents we get caught up in the stress of buying and affording? Are they really as expensive as we make them out to be or is it more a case of wants than needs?
Part of my original motivation of Earth Babies, was to try share with others a simpler, less stressful approach to parenting and lessen (for those open to it) that consumer push for more and more gadgets that babies ‘need’ (this makes me a very bad sales person as I am always trying to find a way to save someone money even when they are not concerned about this 
).
Our baby start was very affordable as we got practically everything we needed pre-loved and gifted. The first time we needed to buy clothes for our son was after his 3rd birthday. The only baby item we needed to buy was a cot mattress.
What for you is a must have with babies?
What was your least used baby gadget that you bought?
How do you feel about using pre-loved items?
♥ BABYLOVE ♥
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The way i looked at shopping for stuff when was pregnant with shae was: Did my mom have this when i was born?
If not, then why do i need it? i survived didn’t i? don’t millions of farm workers and poor folk manage to get kids past the treacherous baby stage in one piece?
so i never had breathing monitors, temperature monitors, baby monitors or anything like that. The baby was sleeping either in bed with me or in a cot next to me… if i want to check the temperature of the room i could stick my foot out from under the blanket
I dont have a problem with pre loved stuff. We didnt exactly plan nr 4. So I gave away most of my baby stuff. Will have to get a new/pre loved campcot, luckily I still have the pram and a car seat. Clothes I will have from about 12 months, still have some clothes of that age. I gave alot of my baby clothes for my one friend who also had a girl and she is going to past it back to me.
I am not big on gadgets, as long as my baby has a place to sleep, enough nappies, a car seat and clothes I am ready to go. Luckily my kids have great grandparents that loves to buy stuff, so I barely have to buy clothes for them.
I am all for pre-loved and a lot of what we got was just that…
The only thing I insisted on being new is a car seat, I just did not feel it was safe to use a pre-loved one. We bought very little of the gadgets and other baby “essentials” all the baby shops advertise. To me the biggest essential was a good carrier – sling in the begining and ABC carrier when baby was a bit bigger.
The least used item was the pram, only bought it when expecting #3 so that I could take #2 when going somewhere without hubby, after the 2nd time using it, it spent a year standing in our entrance hall before I sold it on…