Just curious how others approach purchasing new vs used items in terms of your personal philosophy and what you have purchased.
This applies to clothes, furniture, toys and other items for your baby and/or children.
Please feel free to post photos of great finds as well!
Re: New vs Used Items: What's your preference?
DH prefers new for some things, but when I explained the clothing situation and short use, he was on board. Also, all the clothes I got from Once Upon a Child looked like new since they were hardly worn. He sometimes says we have the money to buy new, which is true....but I don't see the point for some things
My mother used to work at a daycare and she recommended buying plastic toys used and then washing with a water/bleach solution. It is essentially the same type of set up our daughter will play with in daycare. We bought some plastic Fisher price and Little Tikes toys yesterday at Once Upon a Child for $1 each and most were $10-$20 brand new. It saved a ton of money.
For car seats, the crib and other items that expire or could be dangerous if not cared for properly, we bought new for safety reasons.
ETA: obligatory photo of the toys we purchased. I plan to wash then this afternoon with the water/bleach solution. We got Vtech, Leap Frog, Little Tikes and Fisher Price for $1 each and they work great!
But I have bought SO MUCH great stuff secondhand. We live near a military community so people are moving all the time and just purging things because they don't want to pack them. I got boxes of gently used clothes for DD for next to nothing, and they were all name brand. We got a swing that was on our registry for about a quarter of its retail price and it looked like it hadn't even been used.
Most stuff can be washed and cleaned up to make you feel better about it too. Kids use things for such a small amount of time, it's hard for me to justify spending a ton of cash on the them.
I also have bought some toys, games and books secondhand as well.
Furniture on the other hand (especially for the nursery) I buy brand new just because safety regulations.
My mom volunteers for a couple resale shops in her town and she got me a bag of baby clothes, bibs, and blankets. We also have a friend who is giving us their old baby monitor now that their kids are bigger.
We bought our furniture second hand, but checked the regulations and condition of the furniture first and I'll be using the same set we bought with #3 as we did with #1. Including the mattress. I got my breast pump second hand from my cousin, but I replaced all the parts for sanitary reasons. It is the motor and whatnot that is the expensive part, the tubing and flanges and all are much cheaper to replace. Baby swing and walker were second hand from Craigslist. High chair, toddler bed and mattress were on a long term loan from a friend of ours (4 years) and we just gave them back last week.
We don't really buy toys, our families buy them for us. We did buy new "special" stuffed animals for each boy and will with this little girl too, but general play toys are all either purchased by family or purchased second hand by family. Our kids are our families only grandchildren, so they get spoiled. Books are a mix of second hand and new. I recently discovered Usborne books and some ladies in my area are sellers, so I've recently gotten many new books for the boys, but I personally feel you can't have too many books.
Pretty much the only things we bought new were the car seats and bottles, and the only reason the bottles were new is because my cousin didn't have her's anymore. Unless the rubber has milk rot, a quick run through the dishwasher and they are clean and sanitary. We are cheap and not particularly paranoid, so car seats were the only things we planned on purchasing new, and for this little girl, she will be using her oldest brother's convertible as he is moving to a convertible booster and his "old" seat is still well within the expiration date and it is in good shape.
Sorry, that turned into a novel. TL:DR Almost everything is used except the car seats and some special items.
I will also get them from resale shops a lot because the money goes to a good cause, and I get books for way cheaper than new. I ended up getting my copy of What to Expect for 12 cents!
In my area there are TONS of consignment shops and Facebook children's sales along with a few annual kids sales. We live in a pretty affluent city in our state and you can find TONS of nice things that have very little to no use! Even this weekend I scored a few nice things at our goodwill (no where near my favorite thrift store) for the baby with tags on!
As for bottles, those too would only be used from very close friends. I have two with toddlers who nursed and only used bottles part time. They have the Avents I love ad gave them to me. I will buy new nipples and viola!
This go around I have found most of my cloth diapers used. I came upon one lady who had 75 unused BumGenius inserts for sale. I went to examine them and sure enough, she had like to use charcoal and bamboo inserts so I got them all for $10. I have found many other barely used or unused covers from people who were deciding what they liked. I have stripped them all and they are perfect!
TTC 9/2016 BFP 12/9/16 EDD 8/21/17 NMC 1/8/16 at 7w6d
TTC 2/2017 BFP 3/6/17 EDD 11/17/17 DS born 11/25/17 via ECS
TTC 12/2018 BFP 6/2/19 EDD 2/12/20 NMC / BO at 7 weeks, low progesterone
TTC 7/2019 BFP 8/21/19 EDD 4/22/20 CP at 5 weeks
TTC 8/19 IUI #1 w/ Clomid + Ovidrel + progesterone BFN, IUI 2 and 3 w/ Letrozole + Ovidrel + progesterone,
IUI 4 Follistim + Ovidrel + progesterone BFP 1/9/20 EDD 9/18/20
AMA, ITP in pregnancy, vWD type II - low Factor VIII, unexplained RPL and secondary infertility
TTC 9/2016 BFP 12/9/16 EDD 8/21/17 NMC 1/8/16 at 7w6d
TTC 2/2017 BFP 3/6/17 EDD 11/17/17 DS born 11/25/17 via ECS
TTC 12/2018 BFP 6/2/19 EDD 2/12/20 NMC / BO at 7 weeks, low progesterone
TTC 7/2019 BFP 8/21/19 EDD 4/22/20 CP at 5 weeks
TTC 8/19 IUI #1 w/ Clomid + Ovidrel + progesterone BFN, IUI 2 and 3 w/ Letrozole + Ovidrel + progesterone,
IUI 4 Follistim + Ovidrel + progesterone BFP 1/9/20 EDD 9/18/20
AMA, ITP in pregnancy, vWD type II - low Factor VIII, unexplained RPL and secondary infertility
DS1 is 7. DD is 1. DS2 is coming in late April.
With my son we got SO MANY hand me downs. It was amazing!
@littlemissc17 I know the feeling you have. I am trying to be reasonable since there are three other kids with needs but this being our last AND the fact that we had NONE of our stuff left has me being a little more particular about the specific things I wanted. I refused everything with 1 and 2 and #3 had lots of hand-me-downs. A good example os our crib. Although I did not spend a fortune, I picked out the one I "wanted" vs. what was most practical which is what I did when buying for #1 and #2.
I only really worry about new with bottles, mattress, and carseats. Other than that I'm all about a bargain and buying used.
**Bonnie**
Married Sept 13, 2009
TTC since Jan 2010
Diagnosed w/ PCOS Oct 2010
1500mg metformin
SA 05/25/11 morphology @ 10%
HSG 06/02/11, tubes were clear, uterine septum discovered
06/30/11 Hysteroscopy, found a polyp blocking R fallopian tube
07/20/11 Successful surgery to remove polyp and uterine septum!
Sept/Oct cycle-Femara IUI turned into TI cycle= cancelled due to unresponsive follies
09/28/11: dx w/ MTHFR (cc)
10/22/11: IUI #1 w/ Femara + Menopur + trigger+ diluted hcg shots= BFN :-(
03/25/12: IUI #2 w/ Femara + Menopur + trigger+progesterone= BFN
Starting to pursue adoption