Re: Money. how much of it did/will you PERSONALLY spend on the "must haves" for jr.?

DD's furniture bought by my parents
Highchair bought by his mom
bedding bought by his mom
PNP & Swing bought by his sister
Stroller bought by DD's god mother
lightweight stroller bought by DD's godfather
Carseats infant and Brtiax good friends at the shower
got lots of gift cards that covered me up until the other day bought pampers and other things from babies r us with them.

I received a lot of clothes but bought a lot as well as I am chronic shopper a holic

Re: Money. how much of it did/will you PERSONALLY spend on the "must haves" for jr.?

we also fall into the $250-$499 category. we purchased a dresser and some other small essentials.

Re: Money. how much of it did/will you PERSONALLY spend on the "must haves" for jr.?

I picked the last one... didn't have my shower yet just wanted to see the results.

Re: Money. how much of it did/will you PERSONALLY spend on the "must haves" for jr.?

we received most of our big ticket items from our Very generous Friends and family but there are still alot of little things i need to pick up so i figured a couple hundred would do it Like 2-3

Re: Money. how much of it did/will you PERSONALLY spend on the "must haves" for jr.?

My family and friends were amazing to us. My grandmother bought our nursery set-crib, changing table and dresser. My jumper, swing, crib mattress, travel system & extra base, bouncer seats were all bough by my family as well as MANY extras.

I also got a ton of 2nd hand stuff from my family. The only thing I didn't get was a PNP but my aunt gave me hers. My parents bought us anything else we didn't get from my shower. DH's family on the other hand gave us nothing. We did however get some clothes from my in-laws at Christmas.

As far as what DH and I spent, under $400 and that basically was me buying clothes with bottles, binkys and little extras thrown in.

Re: Money. how much of it did/will you PERSONALLY spend on the "must haves" for jr.?

I put we are blessed with love rather than gifts


If I'm being honest, we really didn't get much at the shower. As far as big ticket items went, we got the infant car seat, snap and go stroller, bouncy seat, travel pnp, playmat, most of my bedding set and exersaucer.

we had to borrow a swing and bassinet, which we've since returned and I ended up finding the same swing on craigslist for $30 for this time around

my cousin gave me her custom made crib

we used MY old dresser and made a table into a changing station.

we bought a 2nd bassinet on craigslist

got a rocking chair, breast pump, and pack-n-play from my best friends sister who wasn't using them anymore (bought new hardware for the pump and cushions for the wood rocker)

a friend with an older daughter gave me her highchair, 2nd stroller, a toddler bed frame for when we're ready, an extra exersaucer for grandmas house, and some toys

we got a bjorn, hip hammock, and a ton of clothes that my girlfriend handed down to us from her sons

I had 2 girls give me their maternity cloths to borrow and 1 girl very generously just gave hers to me

we bought 2nd car seats from a neighbor's garage sale that assured us there had never been any accidents (I know and trust her) along with some yard toys.

The only big things we bought brand new at full price were the jumperoo and our maclaren stroller. Finances were/are a bit tight around here so we did the best we could. I am very grateful and fortunate to have had so many people hand us down things. They were all well kept and I washed the heck out of everything.

I don't really know what we would've done with all the help we got. Would I have loved everything to be brand new? Sure, but that wasn't realistic for us in our situation.

Looking back...we were very lucky

Re: Money. how much of it did/will you PERSONALLY spend on the "must haves" for jr.?

So far the only big things left on my registry are the monitor and the 2nd convertible carseat(which I don't see as an immediate necessity-I can always buy it when I actually need it). 2 things that I didn't register for that I plan on buying for myself(unless I get a lot of gift cards) were the breast pump and the glider. I am holding off on the breast pump until I see if I can breast feed. Otherwise we are extremely lucky our parents split the furniture and other big items were bought by closer family and friends.

Re: Money. how much of it did/will you PERSONALLY spend on the "must haves" for jr.?

I said other. I got pretty much everything we registered for, But I didn't register for the furniture. We bought it ourselves. I also bought the pack and play because I got a great deal.

Re: Money. how much of it did/will you PERSONALLY spend on the "must haves" for jr.?

We were very lucky that we got almost everything off of our registry. The only big ticket items we had to shell out for was the convertible car seat (bought on clearance from Target for $70..Evenflo Triumph) and my Bugaboo..I have a serioius stroller addiction thought so I don't count that. Our bedding furniture/glider was handed down from my sister so we didn't have to worry about that.

I can tell you that I spend lots of money on unecessary stuff and trying out different bottles, strollers, etc. Honestly looking back now I want to kick myself because it was money that didn't have to be spent.

You live and you learn....for the next one I know what is needed and what is a waste however I think as a first time parent you are going to want to "test" stuff and come to your own conclusions.

Also those trips to BRU for diapers get you......you go in to buy diapers and end up spending $150 on stuff LOL.

Re: Money. how much of it did/will you PERSONALLY spend on the "must haves" for jr.?

I'm not sure yet - haven't yet had my shower. However a lot of the items have been purchased off the registry. I will probably end up buying my stroller and maybe one or two other bigger items, but hopefully I'll receive some giftcards to defray the cost.

My parents and in-laws have been very generous in buying the furniture and paying for the shower. I chipped in and bought the expensive glider/ottoman that I wanted because I felt guilty. I'm sure we'll spend over $1K when it's done, but that's by my choice.

Re: Money. how much of it did/will you PERSONALLY spend on the "must haves" for jr.?

Re: Money. how much of it did/will you PERSONALLY spend on the "must haves" for jr.?

We lucked out and got almost all of the big items at my shower.

My ILs bought us the crib and the changing table/dresser.

The only thing we bought was the glider (about $250) and a lightweight stroller when Kaydyn got bigger ($60)

We got the stroller, two car seats, high chair, portable high chair, bouncer, activity mat, baby glider thing, bedding set, PNP, monitors (we got 2 video ones...and we returned one), bottles, some diapers, lots of clothes, bathtubs (2 of them)

A coworker of mine gave us the Snap and Go, an infant seat and two bases for the car.

We lucked out big time!!!!

Re: Money. how much of it did/will you PERSONALLY spend on the "must haves" for jr.?

I got everything that I actually registered for but I either didn't realize I needed and/or I bought these items myself already.

Diapers/Wipes $50
Wash Cloths $10
Portable Change Paid $20
Medela Freestyle Pump $300
Pump Accessories (storage bags, storage bottles, extra pump parts) $100
Snap Shirts $20
No Scratch Mittens $20
Sleep Sacks $100 (I only registered for 1 but I ended up buying a bunch more)

We didn't register for our strollers. We bought them on our own.

Orbit Stroller (car seat + stroller) $900
City Mini Stroller $200

Re: Money. how much of it did/will you PERSONALLY spend on the "must haves" for jr.?

i voted for the $500 and up, but only because DH and I were the ones who bought the crib and dresser and that put us over the $500.00 but other than that, we haven't bought a blessed thing. our friends, family and co-workers were so beyond generous. our registery is just about all completed ( save a few unnecessary items like toys that i thought were "cute) and this child has gotten more clothes from people in the past 10 days, it's crazy! people have been so good to us.

Re: Money. how much of it did/will you PERSONALLY spend on the "must haves" for jr.?

After two showers, very generous family and friends, I think we spent around $1-2K, and we were living in a 1 bedroom at the time! You'll see how quickly things add up...and you need 2 of everything And then my son started growing so fast, that the majority of the clothes I got, even the 6-9 months, he outgrew by the time he was 4 months...so we had to get all new clothes (even with Christmas right around the corner). And then once I went back to work, I had to make sure that my mom and SIL had everything they needed when they were watching him. So my advice is be prepared for a big #.

Re: Money. how much of it did/will you PERSONALLY spend on the "must haves" for jr.?

I did not want a shower (although some work friends had a small one for us anyway) so with that said, we pretty much bought most of the big ticket items except for the furniture and the pack and play. I also had used hand me down clothes from my Nephew until Baby boy started growing like a beast.

Message edited 7/18/2009 8:13:51 AM.