There are so many lessons we learn along the way of our parenting journey. So many eye-opening moments where we look back and and see how we could’ve done things differently or approached a situation with a different outlook.
I think as new moms we are so overwhelmed with everything we are told we need by the “baby experts” and with new products constantly popping up in our news feeds, it can be hard for new moms to make informed choices, to know what’s worth spending money on and what’s not. As new moms we feel the pressure to give our children the very best of everything, even if that means breaking the bank and taking money out of savings where money should in fact be kept for far more important things. Things like education!
You see, if I’ve learnt two things on this journey when it comes to baby products it’s this : 1. We don’t need half the stuff we are told we do. 2. New doesn’t necessarily mean better.
Just because I have been blessed with some amazing baby products over the years (through my blog and family) does not mean that I don’t see the value in buying second-hand. Quite the opposite! Often second-hand means better quality for your buck. Buying something brand new with a set budget, can often mean we are forced to skimp on quality. And buying something previously-owned (and hopefully loved) can offer us the chance of buying something of greater quality within our budget.
CASE IN POINT :
Noah has recently taken up golf and we decided we wanted to buy him some kid’s golf clubs for his 7th Birthday. Now buying a brand new set of golf clubs for a 7-year old (as much as we love him) seemed a bit exorbitant. With the help of my dad (an avid golfer) we went straight to Gumtree to see if there were any for sale and, to our surprise found three people selling children’s clubs in our area.
We eventually found a set that were perfect for him (from a guy about 2 kilometres away!) , far less than we anticipated paying and certainly half the price of what we would have spent on a new set. A set that would have easily cost R1200, we paid R400.
Because of this, we were able to spend the rest of our budget having the clubs professionally cut down to size and polished. This cost us an additional R300, but we were able to present our kid with an amazing set of clubs which look brand spanking new and, which are going to last him all the way to his early teenage years. Something tells me if we had bought new ones with our budget, they wouldn’t see him through longer than a season or two.
I’m seeing more and more how wisdom in this area of buying, can really help us prioritise the important things and offer us financial freedom by not going into debt and spending money unnecessarily.
Over the next 9 months I’m going to be presenting you with some tips and inspiration, opening up discussions and sharing our journey as we adopt a more mindful approach to spending money in our home – be that for children’s toys and necessities, home decor pieces or appliances.
I have partnered with Gumtree South Africa to hopefully inspire you to rethink how you buy and sell things you no longer find a need for. I hope you will stick around for the journey as we tackle topics such as – Family budgeting, Smart Education, Smart Birthday Parties , Out With The Old & In With The New, Money Smart Kids and SO much more.
This post was written in collaboration with Gumtree South Africa

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