Frugal dad of two here (oldest is turning three in a couple of weeks). Your 70 year-old mother is right. There really is so much useless shit for babies now,

Frugal dad of two here (oldest is turning three in a couple of weeks). Your 70 year-old mother is right. There really is so much useless shit for babies now, and very little of it actually solves a real problem that new parents have. The rules of thumb for us are: - Don't buy anything until you actually have an imminent need for it. Simplest way to avoid useless shit altogether! - Where possible, get used on FB Marketplace or Gumtree. It's generally 80% cheaper than new, and you can resell when you're done to get the money you spent on it back. (Or, just give away to friends) - Get products with less features, not more. When you're sleep deprived and stressed to the end of your tether, the last thing you want to do is work out how a whole lot of different attachments work. If you don't have a pram yet, the Baby Joggers are great at this. They do one thing (single-handed compact fold) and do it well.