Anyone else buy most of their newborn stuff second hand?

@hysterical Yes!

We got our stroller (Doona) 2nd hand- bought it from a college classmate— make sure you check expiration dates on these things. Ours is exp 2025 so if we sell it in the next year or two, guaranteed to break even.

I’m ok with most things second hand (we got drying racks, changing table, etc) used. Most of the baby clothes too.

Stuff id still buy new would include pregnancy pillow
 
@hysterical We bought our sons nursery pretty much entirely secondhand, except for clothes items and diapers/wipes; dresser, vanity that acted as a changing table, recliner, small bookcase, and crib. We saved so much money and his stuff was cute and a bit retro. 👌🏼
 
@hysterical 33 weeks, first pregnancy here as well - congratulations!

Almost every item we've purchased has been second hand or on discount. We're also fairly minimalist - but I certainly don't think most baby gear we'll need to get by needs to be new or expensive. I want to say we've maybeeee spent like $500.00 in total on baby items so far, but we also had friends and family that have wanted to contribute so that has been incredibly helpful.
 
@hysterical We bought some things new, but only what we couldn't source used (except for safety items- the items others have noted, but also nipples for bottles and cleaning tools should be replaced every so often due to bacterial buildup). Otherwise, why would I buy the 12 onesies, per size, I needed to handle the times they decided that middle of every feeding was the right time to spit up on their chest (and mine) when they size out in some randomly decided window of 2 weeks and 4 months?

The majority of the things we bought new (or were gifted by others) were largely things that we were very picky on and just couldn't find used (or, in the case of stroller #1, we found end of year model clearance sales that dropped the price to $20 more than new for that stroller, so why not?).

Across 2 kids for the first 2 years of each of their lives, this amounted to a number of car seats (actually got both infant seats for free from folks we knew and trusted, but we needed more bases and the older kid seats for 2 cars), a single crib mattress, some cloth diapers/covers (even if you use disposables, get the covers- so much easier to clean that after a blowout than the rest of the outfit), a stroller and some accessories for it (got a killer deal, then bought the second one used on almost as good of a deal), our video and audio monitors of choice (timing meant they weren't available used yet, since everybody who had bought them early and loved them were still using them), a ton of bottle nipples (kid #1 was in the NICU and strongly preferred the bottle, kid #2 was not in the NICU and strongly preferred straight from the taps, so we actually gifted onward a number of still in packaging nipples from the second kid), and a truly random smattering of items (sound machine, night light, a few one off items of clothes we couldn't find locally, etc.).

We still get used a lot, though as the oldest is growing into size 6 clothes some things are getting a bit more scarce (shoes and seasonally appropriate boots are the hardest, even with planning ahead and buying when we see them available) so we're having to buy new here and there.
 
@hysterical Yeah, we got everything as a gift or second hand. The only thing we specifically bought new were the cloth diapers. My mom insisted on a brand new crib and my wife's mom bought the car seat.
 
@hysterical The main thing you need to buy new is a carseat (they are only rated for less than 7 years usually, plus kids really make them gross). You might also want to get a new mattress for a crib if you buy a used one.

Everything else, as far as I know, you can get used. We got a bunch of cloth diapers used when our first kid was born, and we're still using them on our 3rd (and final) kid. Some of them fell apart and we stopped using them, but the majority were still fine. We used a lot of regular diapers with our kids over the years, but we also used cloth a lot of the time to save a lot of money.

We bought a couple nice jogging strollers used (since I go running with the kids / babies) and saved 50% or more on them. (BOB brand). And I imagine I can still re-sell them for at least 1/2 of the price I paid since they are still in good shape.

We bought small ikea wardrobes for our kids... one of them we bought at ikea for $200 or whatever. I had to put it together, it was really annoying. The other we bought off facebook marketplace for $100. And it was pre-assembled. So I paid 1/2 the price and had to do zero of the assembly, lol.
 
@hysterical Yep, best if you know people who have kids 1-3 years older than yours and cut out the second hand shops.

When your kids grow, be the people that cut other parents a nice deal. Raising a kid is hard enough on its own, pay it forward
 
@hysterical We bought a mix of new and used. My spouse loves to find stuff on market place. Legit bought bags and bags of clothes and it worked out to 25cents a piece. A ton of it was premium clothing with tags still on it.
 
@hysterical Yep there’s an awesome secondhand store in my city and we got almost everything for a fraction of the price, basically brand new. Insane. Plus when we are done with the stuff we can bring it back and when it sells again we get a portion of the proceeds.
 
@hysterical It was a mix of new and second hand, though mostly second hand. However, my wife has a big family (currently between my wife and her cousins, there are like eight or nine kids all under the age of five, with my wife and I expecting), so we didn’t buy a lot of the second hand items, things just kind of float around to whoever has the youngest kid at the time.
 
@hysterical I wish I had gotten more second hand. I mean some of it is safety, like carseat, and with Cribs you have to make sure to not buy one with outdated safety features, but, the rest so doesn't matter. Changing table, diaper Genie, diaper bag.. There are like used ones EVERYWHERE for cheap, and no one wants them. I have a High chair in my garage right now, and my daughter hasn't used it in 3 years, but no one wants to buy it, and I can't even trade it in. I am pretty much at the donate point. And we have like 4 huge tubs of baby clothes of varying sizes also in the garage. Even at yard sales people want to pay like 25 cents per piece. It's silly.
 
@hysterical 2nd hand is the way to go. Other than the things that we were given at the baby shower, practically everything we got is 2nd hand now.
Kids grow out of everything so fast, you're literally throwing money away if you buy everything new.
The only thing that we knew we were going to buy new no matter what, was crib mattresses.
 
@hysterical Buy used! It is not worth buying g so many things they grow out of in a matter of months new. Even Nursery furniture can be found on Facebook marketplace for a ridiculous low prices. I got my crib for $80, and it was retailed at over 500. I found almost everything secondhand, and it saved us a heck of a lot of money. I would also recommend seeing if your area has consignment stores, or look up “just between friends”. It is a pop-up consignment store that happens quarterly in different cities. I found so many things there and saved close to $1000 in total
 
@hysterical Our baby was born in the peak of the pandemic (may 2020) so we bought new but we’re not opposed to used stuff. Most of his clothes are hand me down from friends kids, friends loaned us a nice bassinet, thr breastpump was a hand me down and we just got replacement parts new etc.
 
@hysterical Yes, here in the US for my second child as well as when I lived abroad for my first child. I also pretty much sold everything for similar price as I bought and a few items for a profit. I’m about to sell out snoo, I grabbed it for $450 from a location about 2 hours from where I live. And could easily resell same one for $900 now in my area.
 
@hysterical Yes. And when we are finished with it there's a charity local to me who works directly with disadvantaged families so we give everything worth using to there so it can benefit the people who need it and can't even afford second hand.
 
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