When we found out that
I was pregnant, The Grumpy Egyptian and I began planning what we
were going to buy for our little one, but not once did the idea of buying
second-hand come up. That was until we found out how much things for babies
cost! It seems like shops take a cheap item, add the word baby to it
and an extra couple of pounds. Where we were living in Oman, there was quite an
active group on Facebook that allowed parents to sell baby/children items
they no longer needed rather cheaply. However once we moved back to the UK I
struggled to find a similar group in my hometown.
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| Some of my fave second-hand buys: (L-R) never used sleeping bag from Mama's & Papas, Stacking cubes and Animal Spinner |
A Google search found
me a group called Little Pickles Markets who organise markets for parents to sell their good-quality used items. I went along to one
of these a couple of weeks ago in Winchester and despite only taking
£17
ended up with numerous bags of toys, clothes, a musical mobile and
books. To get across how good value this all was, I saw the same musical mobile for sale in a shop for £35… I paid £4 for this one and it looks as good as new.
Aside from the usual stuff, people were also selling
cots, pregnancy pillows, pushchairs, walkers and maternity clothes.
On my local NCT
website, I found out about its Nearly New Sale that takes place twice a year so
have put November 9 in my diary ready for that one.There are also a few websites I keep an eye out on and these include Preloved, Gumtree, Emmaus and Baby Swap or Shop.
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| Wooden Noah's Ark with a load of animals hidden away inside |
I am certainly going
to be a lot less prudish about buying second-hand now and if anything quite
enjoy searching through stuff for little hidden gems. What has been your best
second-hand find? Any suggestions for other sites to keep an eye out for?
The Egyptian Mummy
