There would appear to be a trend at the moment moving towards a more Eco-friendly and recession-safe way of buying all the necessities for pregnancy and parenthood. Rather than being wasteful and spending large sums on new versions of everything, we're starting to look back at the examples set by our grandparents, and recycle or swap baby gear with others.
I recently wrote an article on NCT's Nearly New Sales, and the savings you can make by popping down to your local Nearly New Sale and browsing their large range of second hand but high quality items. Convenient for some, but what if NCT don't have any sales near you?
That's where Little Trader and Big Wardrobe come in.Little Trader and Big Wardrobe are two web communities that allow you to list the items you no longer have a use for, and buy the ones you need. It's free to list and they both offer the option of buying a product, offering a swap for something the seller might want or do a mixture of the two.
Little Trader offers a wider selection of products, including prams, baby chairs, maternity and baby clothing and toys. The site is still fairly new but there is something available in each category. The bath set above is only £10, and free to collect if you live in the London area.
Big Wardrobe is a bit more of a fashion lovers site, and it has some good collections of baby clothes, shoes, and maternity wear. Potentially you can pick up an entire wardrobe for a newborn here. The collection above contains several fleece jackets, t-shirts, socks, hair bands and trousers for a baby girl aged 0-3 months. The whole lot is £10 but the seller will accept a swap too, so if you have some clothing for older babies you can solve both of your buying requirements.
Have you ever used either of these sites? What do you think about them?