Nesting Begins! - Baby Clothes

It's so easy to overspend on baby clothes.
Every outfit looks so adorable and sometimes we forget that babies grow fast. Really fast.

Fortunately, I'm think I'm still pretty rational when it comes to the purchase of baby clothes.
After all, we are living on a single-income now. And the hubby doesn't earn big bucks. To give our little one(s) the lives and the holidays we want, I guess it's better to spend wisely now. So, other than preparing for the arrival of our little one, I'm prepared to spend wisely, and make fun out of frugal living. :)


We needed to get some kimono tops for Baby to wear during the first month. I do have some onesies but newborns are so delicate, we figured it'll be easier to dress Baby in kimono tops.

We found out about Shen Kwong Trading on a blog, and decided to check it out since we were going to Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple (Bugis) to pray. The shop is located at 269 Queen Street. That is just directly opposite the temple where the sundry shops are located. We've walked past the shops along the same stretch so many times but have never once come across the shop because it's nicely tucked in the left corner near to the public toilets.

Shen Kwong Trading is a local distributor of baby clothes so you can imagine how overwhelmed I was when I stepped into the shop. I chucked thoughts about Carter's, Oshkosh and Moo Moo Kow aside and decided to raise Baby the same way I was - old school neighbourhood style.

I'm pretty picky about the prints on baby clothes so I probably wouldn't have gotten these if I was still working. But the clothes were pretty comfy and they are really cheap, so we left the shop with these:

- 6 short-sleeved kimono tops, as day wear ($12)
- 6 long-sleeved kimono tops, for sleeping ($13)
- 6 pairs of pj pants ($13)
- 12 pieces of old-school square cloth nappies* ($16)
- 4 large bath towels ($11 x 2 = $22)
- 12 pieces of wash cloth/little hanky ($4)
- 2 nappy covers ($4 x 2 = $8)

Total damage: $88.


We went over to Mummy's to check out the stash Sweet Sis has collected from Primark over the one year. We had wanted to venture into a baby biz but I never got to it. So I made her buy and stash, and yet I did nothing to sell them. :(

Mummy selected a mini pile from the box and with Sweet Sis' current purchase, Baby now has these as well (these can last her till 3 months and CNY I hope) :

- 3 plain white onesies ( for me to customise her X'mas outfit, hopefully)
- 7 short-sleeved printed onesies
- 6 adorable looking sleepsuits
- 2 sets of pjs
- 2 pairs of sweet pink leggings (can't stand those.. incredibly adorable with diaper bums!)
- 2 incredibly adorable sleepsuit sets to be worn over CNY
- 1 pretty dress and cardigan for CNY
- 6 pairs of mittens
- a pink elephant security blanket
- a hooded towel
- a hooded blanket
- a thick plush baby blanket
- a pair of bear soft shoes
- a swaddling blanket
- a sleeping bag (6 - 18 months)

A bag of socks to choose from when Baby gets older.

WOW... That does sound like a lot.


* I wanted to go with cloth diapering because I was worried that baby might get nappy rashes like I did when I was little.
Mummy has assured me that cloth diapering is absolutely manageable and nappies are easy to wash and they dry fast. She also revealed that she toilet-trained me when I was a newborn (pre-empting when I will do the wee wee, and teaching me to indicate when I want to, which according to Daddy, I did make sounds when I needed the toilet.) Amazing.. Mummy proudly told me that I don't wet the nappies often and Daddy proudly announced to the husband that I barely used a packet of disposable diapers.

** I had wanted to take photos of the baby clothes we've gotten. But as we were going through the stash at Mummy's, it became andoverwhelming pile and I gave up. So once again, this is one text-loaded-no-pictures-post.

*** Just realised we have no booties for baby. Have to get those.