Regular readers will know I love a charity shop bargain. This Christmas I’ve upped my game, I’ve bought loads of gifts for the boys from charity shops, local Facebook selling groups, and eBay.
Continue reading “Would you give your children second-hand gifts for Christmas?”
As W gets closer to turning 2, he’s starting to outgrow a lot of his 18-24 month clothes. And his little brother is due in about 8 weeks time, we still need to get his newborn stuff down from the loft but every newborn needs some new clothes right?
So… I’ve never bought anything from La Redoute before but a few weeks ago they had 40% everything so the perfect time to try them out!
I’m loving that cacti are in this season… So damn cool! I got these for baby bean, in size 3 months so hopefully he can wear them on a sunny day 🙂 these cost £7.80 (full price £13)
And for his big brother W… Not just cacti t-shirts (paid £7.20, full price £12) but cactus leggings paid £6.60, full price: £11) too!
I’d honestly not really thought about it before but now I can’t wait to get them some proper matching outfits too 🙂
And back to W, he really needs some spring/lightweight jumpers, couldn’t resist this one and a bargain at £6! (Full price £10)
You’ll know that my favourites for W when he was a baby was H&M so I couldn’t resist getting baby bean a couple of newborn size outfits from there… I’m thinking one of these could be his coming home outfit? (£7.99 each set)
And for W, again more leggings/joggers covered in bicycles! (£6.99) And some cute roll-up lightweight summer trousers with boats on them (£6.99) I got both of these in his current size (18-24 months) as he’s usually a few months behind in his bottoms compared to tops!
And staying with W, I noticed Zara had a sale on so obviously I couldn’t resist! The only thing we got in the sale was this quirky crocodile/animals hoodie for £6.49.
Finally, in McArthur Glen designer outlet last week, I picked up another anchor jumper for W, couldn’t resist… It was only £6.90 (originally £10)
When we were expecting first time around, we were given and lent quite a bit of stuff but still feels like we bought a lot. This time around it feels like we hardly need to buy anything…. So I got to daydreaming about all the things we would buy if money was no object 😀
We have a perfectly decent Bugaboo Chameleon which we bought second-hand and is now probably about 7 years old. As much as I love it and the bargain price we paid for it (£350) I’ve always fancied trying the Cosatto range, I love their vibrant fabrics and bright colours and this one is my fave…
So far I’ve ruled out buying a double stroller, I’m hoping I can carry baby in a sling while W’s in his pushchair (he loves walking/running most of the time anyway) but if we do need to get one I’d love the iCandy version. Quite a few of the other ones I’ve seen have the baby carrycot very low down, close to the floor, which I don’t like the idea of, whereas this one looks great!
Last time around I really regretted not having a rocking chair for all those night feeds. Alas, we have no space for one but if we did, I would go for the IKEA one as I think it does a fab job of being comfy, functional AND stylish!
The one thing we do actually need this time around is a Moses basket as we borrowed one last time. We’ll probably go for a relatively cheap, basic one but if money was no object I’d love to try one of the co-sleepers like the Snuzpod, Bednest or the Chicco next-to-me (the latter of which seems the most affordable, and I love this ‘circles’ print you can buy it in. I’ve heard they’re really handy for nightfeeds, and saving your back!
W took a while (8 months or so) to sleep through and I came across this during one of many online research sessions when I was trying to discover the secret to sleeping through! This was mentioned in a few forums etc, and I haven’t heard anything bad about it. I did wonder why it costs so much more than the very popular Poddle pods (about £30-£40) but you can only use the Poddle pod for baby’s day naps whereas the Sleepyhead you would use in their cot at night.
And finally…. If money was no object I’d stock up on muslin sheets not from the local supermarket but from the very aspirational Aden & Anais. I have no idea why they cost so much, and whether they’re worth the extra money (to be fair I have heard they’re much bigger than standard muslins) but they look very cute 🙂
Just a quick one, W had been running out of clothes so I stocked up on a couple of bits in Zara this week…
You’ll know from previous posts that I love Zara for W’s clothes… I find them
Here’s what we bought:
Gorgeous baby blue light jumper, love the buttons and on the pocket it says ‘good times’ (excuse the banana on his top!!) paired with turtle-tastic leggings 🙂
And also bought this gorgeous jumper, a bit thicker than the rest so reflects the price (£15.99) and perfect for this winter weather… So cute! I think they had a similar one with a monkey on!
And lightweight jeans (£9.99)… Boys can never have too many leggings or jeans 🙂
Last weekend I had a few free hours while W and daddy went to watch some local rugby… So I thought I’d go for some retail therapy at McArthur glen which is just about 20 mins away.
It’s actually quite toddler-friendly… They have little tykes cars that they can drive round in, and there’s a play area.. I’m sure I will take W with me at some point but for this occasion is was nice to have some mummy time… And I ended up topping up his autumn/winter wardrobe with these beauties…. First off Gap where I got 2 long-sleeved vests, a long-sleeve top, lovely warm joggers and fleece-lined jeans for £40… A bargain for Gap 🙂
Then off to Next where I picked up this lovely waterproof, fleece-lined coat for £17
I bought a couple of other bits including my usual Yankee candle (lemon lavender mmmm) and treated myself to a couple of mummy pieces from Fat face… The skirt (£15) will have to wait till next summer but the jumper (£20) will be perfect for the next few months 🙂
So a successful albeit slightly more expensive than planned afternoon! So lucky to have a discount outlet on our doorstep!
W is nearly 16 months old and is still in 9-12 month bottoms, but 12-18 month tops…. we have a million T-shirts but as the weather is getting cooler it was time to get some new items for the next few months…
First off, Zara – I really love their clothes… some of their long-sleeved tops are £8.99 each but these 2 were only £2.99 each and are made of organic cotton…
I love Zara leggings, some we previously bought lasted really well so we bought these 2, I think they were £6.99 each… the ‘wolf’ ones are a much brighter yellow than they look here…
And I couldn’t resist this from Zara – a lightweight jumper which I think was about £11
Now some basic tops from Mothercare… these packs of 3 were £12 and the quality feels amazing for the price!
Some more bottoms…. the ones on the left are from Tesco and are speckled with colour, the ones on the right are from Mothercare (Jools’ Little Bird) – I love the way they look like yoga pants. Today he’s wearing those with the yellow Zara top and he looks well cool!
These are a bit boring, but you can’t go wrong with joggers – I picked these up as they were 2 for £8 in Boots – bargain!
And finally, I couldn’t do a haul post without showing off another Little bird top… I get one for him every few months….
So there we have our Autumn wardrobe sorted – for the cost of about £60? £70? Now all I need to get is some proper Wintery things like coats, jumpers and wellies, but these should keep him warm enough for now!
If you enjoyed this, you might enjoy our previous hauls!
As you know, Baby W has been walking properly for about 6 weeks now. Since he started moving around (crawling and pulling himself up) I never put any shoes or booties on him so that they didn’t get in the way of his development but now he’d been walking for a while it really was time to get him shoes… as walking outside in socks is a little dangerous 😉
So on my week off last week I had the chance to take him to Clarks… where else would you go for that special first pair?! They have such a good reputation for baby and children’s shoes – I remember going there for all my school shoes when I was a little girl.
The experience itself was a bit underwhelming – I was expecting all the sales assistants to be as excited as me about getting his first, proper, pair of shoes… but of course they deal with this day in, day out – it must get a bit boring 😉
But I was still excited…. he got measured while he sat in his pushchair.. and he’s a 4F!
Now, I hadn’t anticipated how expensive baby shoes were, but thankfully Clarks had a sale on… I picked the only pair of 4F’s they had in the sale which worked out well as I love them! And they were down from £26 to £8!
I put them on him straight away…. and straight away he learnt how to take them off. I didn’t think this was going to go well at all, but I took him straight up to the park so he could run around in them… and run around he did 🙂 It didn’t take him long to get used to them at all, they didn’t hinder his walking at all…
A week on and he still wears them when we’re out and about. Bonus points for being able to actually hear him walk about now – stomp, stomp, stomp! And he still tries to take them off when he’s sat in his pushchair or car seat!
As the sale was such a bargain, I got a couple of pairs in the next size up (4 1/2 F) – I don’t love these as much as his first pair but they are still cute…..
Not sure when he’ll wear those – it’s recommended they get measured around every 8-10 weeks. Hopefully the next shoe shop will co-incide with another sale – I do love a bargain!
My little baby is growing up fast!
Do you remember your baby’s first shoes?!
Small print: I wasn’t paid to, or asked to, write this by Clarks – just wanted to share our special first pair of shoes with you 🙂
I am very excited… we are taking baby W for his first foreign holiday soon…. and as if that wasn’t exciting enough, I went a bit mad buying a whole new wardrobe for him for the occasion… I know you love my haul posts so here we go…. starting with Tesco where the T-shirts were all £3-£4 (some of these are now in the sale!)
Love these from Tesco – the hooded towel was £7, the pirate swimsuit was £10…
I found some unworn shorts that either came from hand-me-downs or an NCT sale, they’re a bit snug on him but might come in handy… his daddy has very similar combat ones so I want to see them wearing them the same day 😉
As I started packing (never had to start packing so early, but needs must with a baby to pack for!!) I realised we had plenty of shorts (2 pairs per day!) but I needed some more T-shirts, so picked these up in Asda…
And treated him to some t-shirts from Next too…. these were £6 each but worth it 😉
I was back in Tesco today and they have a sale on so I couldn’t resist this bargain for £1.50…
And you’ll know from my last haul that I’m in love with the Jools Oliver Littlebird range at Mothercare so I *had* to get this T-shirt…
And Little bird brings me on to my 2 favourite items… I can not wait to dress him in these!!…
I’ve also bought him new packs of vests and sleepsuits, I’m sure I’ll write a post when we’re back on what we packed vs what you actually need to take! Hope you liked seeing his holiday clothes 🙂
Regular readers will know that I’ve been very tight when it comes to baby W’s clothes, if you read how much we spent in his first 6 months you’ll know that we’ve pretty much survived on gifts, hand-me-downs and bargains at NCT nearly new sales!
Now I’m changing him 2-3 times a day as mealtimes are so messy, it gave me a good excuse to go a little bit mad and get some new clothes (instead of increasing the amount of washing we do!!). Also, I’ve loved dressing him in jeans but now he’s crawling I wanted to get him some leggings to make it easier for him to move around…. So first up, some crazy leggings and matching top/hat from H&M – I think this was £3.99
Also stocked up on 3 for 2 leggings at H&M (£8 for 3)…. a mix of colours so they should go with anything…. I love the green ones, he looks like a little pixie in them!
So, tops to go with the leggings? Check out these bad boys….
The one on the left is from Zara and was about £8, the one on the right is from H&M (£6)… they both look great with these other zebra-print leggings I got, this time from Zara.. with some gorgeous blue ones as well (sorry, the photos don’t do them justice)
I think the leggings were about £6 each in Zara. I also picked up this cool T-shirt from Zara for about £6…
I saw this fab top in Tesco – I love the baby clothes in Tesco and they’re such good value – this one was only £2!
While in Tesco I also stocked up on some socks for him which were £4 a pack… I love the little sayings on them
Now, during this shopping spree I also discovered and fell head over heels in love with Jools Oliver’s little bird range in Mothercare so bought 3 T-shirts at £6-£8 each… I love how retro they are!
I can’t believe how much the stuff from this range goes for on eBay… I managed to snap up this top for £8.80 and it still had the tags on it 🙂 Here it is teamed up with the Zara leggings…
And finally, lucky baby W also gets to wear some of his Christmas presents now including his only outfit from Baby Boden (thank you aunty Ceri!)….
…and this gorgeous top and gilet from Next (thank you aunty Shell!)
So…. what do you think of his new wardrobe?!
We’re fast approaching baby W’s first Christmas. I’ve only bought him one present so far (a ‘Lostmyname’ personalised book) but we do have a few things for him to wear…
I picked this up in the Next sale months ago (£5 I think) – a cute little Santa top and hat – perfect for Christmas day itself. I fear the hat will be too small for him – his head is a bit big in proportion to the rest of him 🙂
My other half bought him this gorgeous reindeer outfit from Mothercare – it feels so cosy and I think he will look adorable in it! Perfect for Christmas Eve or Boxing day?
And a couple of jumpers for the run-up to Christmas – the one on the right is from M & Co (£15 – I was exchanging a gift that was too small) –  And my mum bought him the one on the left from Tesco (£8) – it’s a size too big at 9-12 months but Tesco sizes tend to be small so we might be ok 🙂
And this one is a gift from a cousin and it’s made by a company called ‘Santa’s little helpers’. Can’t wait to see him in these with his jeans on 🙂
What will your baby wear on Christmas day?!
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