What to save?

Use cloth wipes instead of disposable ones. Much cheaper, not full of nasty chemicals, and super soft.

Do baby led weaning (BLW) instead of Purees- This is where you give them finger food rather than pureed mush- do a search on here and you will find some great threads about it. You will save tons of money not buying those silly little cans.

Use cloth nappies instead of disposables- you can get really cool funky prints/patterns now, pop into the nappyholics thread to ask questions. They do cost more to buy at the start however you can save thousands a year.

Other than that just make sure you have a general back up of cans, pasta, rice etc... Might pay to make some meals up and freeze them before bubs is born, very handy to have as a back up when you cant be bothered cooking.

With some things it's hard to know what to buy in advance anyway. With babyfood, for example, it's no use buying a lot of one they end up hating. And while baby-led weaning is great and lots of people love it, if cost is the only factor it's just as easy to make purees at home, I do all the time.

Even nappies, if you do go with disposable (and cloth does save a LOT), you won't know how long they'll be in each size.

I still use some wipes, but most of the time I use cloths (I actually find them a lot more efficiant at removing poo or grub off faces anyway). And if you chance on a baby with sensative skin, that could change the ones you want to buy if you still buy them.

I'd stock up on 'easy' big-people food that you know you like to fall back on when you've got no time for tea. It's a lifesaver to have some frozen fish fillets or fresh pasta in the freezer that you can whip up in the time it takes to boil water or put them in the oven.

I know its harder, but I reckon the best thing to do is stash money instead of things. Then you can use it for whatever it is it turns out you need lots of (I reckon I should have bought shares in lanisoh cream, for example, but some people use a tube and that's it)

Edited by Hopes

Stock up on boring things like laundry powder, toilet paper etc when cheap.

I mainly stocked up on things for myself. Creams & make up etc.

Also things like toilet paper, cleaning products, washing powder.

I got a few of the huggies wipes & huggies nappies for baby. But careful not to get too many you might not use.

Also from super market you can buy things in the baby area. Bibs, bottles, socks, baby face clothes (these can be used for wipes)

soooo much good advice!!

Two things I found really useful in the first couple of weeks was the big 5kg bag of persil sensitive washing powder and a jumbo roll of chux cloths which Dh got at Mitre 10. I use cotton wool and water to clean her when she was newborn.

I'm on to my second tube of lansinoh cream the first got used up pretty quickly in the first couple of weeks.

The weleda nappy cream is great I'm still using mine.

Loo roll for you and DH and maternity pads and/or regular sanitary pads.

Cranberry juice for you the unsweetened one. Drink diluted it will help prevent UTI's.

Edited by caliandjack

Instead of stocking up on stuff I just brought a $5 of a $10 grocery voucher each week (or put $5 or $10 into my supermarket christmas club). The things I thought I would go through heaps of I didn't and some things I hadn't thought about ended up suiting DD better anyway. That way I had a little stockpile of vouchers when DD was born to buy extras. Though I did put away a few things for me - shampoo & conditioner, deodourant etc plus a few cleaning products just to cut down on the expensive things when she was born.

We were dumb and stocked up on things like vaseline, baby powder and baby oil. Never used any of it. At all!!

DH is now using the vaseline for his ankle brace and I'm using the baby oil as makeup remover. The baby powder will keep until I'm an old granny. Grannies always use baby powder.

I couldn't face the drying times during winter so went this way. For our grocery shop we bought a pack of disposable (newborn) nappies, after first checking with my local supermarket that any unopened packs could be exchanged with the next size up (might have to pay the difference in price), and it helped me out as I was completely overwhelmed with my new baby.    

I bought and stockpiled a lot of adult dry food goods, froze the mil, stocked the freezer (you don't really want to be lingering in a supermarket with mummy brain) so that I was in and out of the freshfood section in double quicktime and that was my 'shop'.

I brought a jumbo roll of chux cloths too like cali said and i'm only half way through it and DS is 4 months, it was like $8.

Seriously though buy food for you, my son was born HUGE and only fitted NB naps for about a week and a half, and i'd brought over 300 nappies. Still have a huggies jumbo box of 100 under the change table actually. I'd pick up a couple of packs of nappies, a pack of breastpads (pigeon would be my recommendation), a tube of lanisoh (if you dont use it its good on dry skin) a roll of chux cloths (if you prewash a few times they get REALLY soft for NB skin) then wait and see what comes out

If you do want to use cloth don't get too crazy buying heaps of the same brand as they tend to work different for different babies.

Oh wait, maternity pads. Can never have too many maternity pads.