Friday, April 19, 2013

Some days are surprising

David and I had "the talk" recently. We sat down and took stock of our plans for baby. Although we had given most of our baby gear to charity (10 years is a long time between pregnancies) there were a few remnants laying around the house. Both of us had been avoiding "the talk" however, because it meant knuckling down and meeting new objectives, which neither of us felt we had the time/funds for.

Yet in as little as 6 weeks, we're looking at a wonderful bundle of baby coming home and what will we have prepared for it? Bits and pieces are nice, but we had to bight the bullet on some bigger items. This is where my day of surprises began.


Waiting for baby


I did a Google search on baby bassinets, to see what brand new ones would cost. We weren't planning on buying new, I just wanted the ball-park figure to start from. At least when I did the rounds of the second-hand shops, I would know what is a realistic amount to pay for second hand. They were going for around $120-150 brand new. Here is the exact same one advertised for sale at Target.

So imagine my surprise, when the search on baby bassinets, also turned up a result on Gumtree. Gumtree is like an Australian version of Ebay, only without the auction side. There was a brand new bassinet, going for $50, about a twenty minute drive away from here!

I thought surely it would have been sold by now, as it was listed over a month ago? I tossed my hat into the ring anyway, and received a quick reply. Before I knew it, I was organising to come and take a look - then I was driving home with it. The previous owners, even gave us a new baby breathing monitor they didn't use, along with the bassinet. Apparently, they had planned to use both, but their baby ended up co-sleeping with them instead. It was also meant to have sold about a month ago, but the buyers were no-shows.


Bed for the first 3 months of baby's life


So yesterday, I rearranged our bedroom and set the new baby bassinet up! We planned to have the baby in our room, to share the heater with us during winter. Otherwise we'll be paying for 3 heaters to run, as Sarah's room has one too. Much happier to only pay for 2 heaters instead. Plus it's easier to collect them from beside the bed, than walk to the nearest room. We did that when Sarah was a baby, and you get chilly feet walking between rooms - even when they're just a few meters away!

All in all though, WOW, I was shocked to find such a lovely, never used item, at a price we could afford. Imagine my good fortune, to still have it listed when it was supposed to have sold a month ago too. WOW! Some days are just so surprising, and I'm glad we finally had "the talk".

If you're an Australian, have you ever used Gumtree?


8 comments:

  1. what a bargin.. i have never used gumtree

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    1. I've seen Gumtree in passing before, I've just never used them. I was surprised to find what I was looking for in our area.

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  2. What a great piece of luck! It's a lovely basinette too. In reality there's not much a baby needs.....a cot, a buggy, a car seat.....you are almost there! I hope you have even more luck! .

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    1. We were given a pram when we first discovered we were expecting again, so all we need now is the car seat! We're almost there in so many ways. I can't believe we've got about another month until D-day. Or should that be B-day? ;)

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    2. B- day:)
      Do your hospitals give car seats away? Ours did but these were just the tiny ones. We bought the larger ones eventually. The hospitals were trying to encourage car seat use I think. It's a big purchase in the fact that it requires lots of research. The gift bought us time to really hop for what we wanted.

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    3. We don't have such a scheme through our hospitals, but we do have the ability to hire a baby capsule from the State Ambulance Service (under $80 for six months).

      A new car seat will cost anywhere between $200 and $500, but I've noticed there are two main designs (newborn to 4 years or 6 months to 4 years). If we hire the capsule for 6 months, it will give us time to consider the 6 months to 4 years design later.

      There are some designs which can suit from 6 months up to 8 years, but they certainly wouldn't be suitable for a newborn. They take car safety pretty seriously in Australia, so they have limited designs for age appropriateness. It's not just enough to buy a car seat apparently, you have to have one that fits the age of your baby/infant/child.

      You're not even allowed to leave the hospital, unless you have an appropriate baby capsule fitted to your car. It's not optional here in Australia, our laws are pretty strict.

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  3. Oh, what a blessing! So glad things are going well. What an exciting time in your lives.

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    1. Exciting, absolutely, but also a little scary. Thanks for dropping by, and I hope Ziggy drops her bundles for you soon too! We're two big mamas, who would like to have our bodies back now, lol. I look at poor Ziggy and think how can I complain???

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