Budgeting as a disabled parent.

                                                          

No one is immune from the difficult times we are all in as a nation, well perhaps the CEOs of banks, Dave Cams millionaire mates and the professional footballers, they seem to be doing fine. The normal folk are pulling in their purses.

When every one feels poor every one looks for a scale goat,the disabled seem to be one of those targets but these times will flow on and good times will be abound once more for every one but disabled people will still be left with no choice but to budget hard. This is the reality of disability, our DLA, which is a benefit received whether working or not,is there to purchase equipment needed to be as independent. For any able bodied parents ,baby equipment doesn't come cheap but imagine if you can only physically manage to work one out of hundreds of high chairs available in the high street baby stores, you can bet it will be the most expensive model! So rather than moaning about annoying expenses,why are the accessible models of car seats,high chairs etc the most expensive, we have to accept that is just how it is and allocate DLA to the need, after all this is why the government part with DLA, to cover extra expenses due to disability. I am sure my well friend ,due to have her baby in the next year ,would love the Maxi Cosi Axis car seat (£300) that swivels on its base to face the car door because it makes every parents life easier but it is the most expensive model on the market at the moment and why spend that when you can manage with a cheaper model? To disabled parents this seat is possibly the only option for being able to get a child out independently.

So we budget to allow for such costly purchases, we never know what physical need will be next up but I will surely be searching the shops for reigns in no time. Oddly enough, my possible solution to the child running off issue came from a John Lewis sales person in combination with advice from the "special need parent" section of Mumsnet. The suggestion being a dog lead!!! I kid you not!! A dog lead (no not for child to wear) and a "Scuttle Bug" plastic, fold up, lightweight trike for a toddler that  folds down to fit in a shopping bag. This will be in a future blog and all will be explained and probably re thought when my son actually walks!



The trike costs £30 ,the dog lead costs £8. More about how this will work in a near future blog, trust me this will not be something my well peer will require,she may love the scatter bug but again it isn't a need to manage a physical difficulty.

My friend will be able to use normal reigns, if I used reigns I would dislocate my elbow trying to restrain my child.

As part of budgeting,we sold some large baby items ,that my son no longer needed, on Preloved. We sold baby monitors, a baby bath seat that swivelled any way making washing baby hair easier or getting to child's back etc, a baby activity gym and the amazing and vital bit of disabled parent kit THE BUMBO. All in all we didn't do badly and it allowed us to buy our son a lightweight easy unfoldable buggy that I could actually work completely on my own and the left over money went towards the car seat!

Preloved in my experience is easier for selling on items for disabled parents that eBay. With Preloved there is no commission taken from sales and you can specify pick uponly and advertise specifically in your area or spread your net further if you are prepared to ship.I can not get to the Post office easily so all my sales were based locally and people came to pick up item in person. 


I recommend the book "How to have a baby on eBay" , a must for any parent who wants to purchase designer or lovely baby items that would cost a fortune new, on eBay for a fraction of the price and hardly used! We got our sons activity gym, brand new ,for five pounds,in the high street it would have cost thirty pounds, a new with tags John Lewis baby boy cord dungarees and striped jumper that were the latest range being sold on eBay for half the price.Baby's clothes wash badly and shrink so you are often lucky to get two wears out of any outfit plus your baby grows rapidly.I have always brought my son the age range of clothes above his actual age to allow for shrinkage of clothes in the wash. Next clothes wash well in my opinion ,as do Tescos and when I buy new outfits these are the shops I visit. 


Join every baby club going for vouchers and money off clothes,nappies,milk:

Tesco baby and toddler club

Sainsbury's little ones club


Asda baby and toddler club

Aptaclub Aptamil baby milk

Boots Parenting Club

Pampers Village

Huggies club

Bounty mother and baby cub


For free samples of all baby related items from the following websites, well worth your time looking through and applying for freebies.


Baby samples
Baby free stuff


Cow and gate where you can get a cuddly free cow.



 Freebieholics loads of free samples for men and women and child



Hipp join the club for vouchers off baby food.

Latest free stuff

Latest stuff free my favourite free place for all the family, I have had make up, chocolate,moisturisers,cereal bars and nappies and loads more from here.

ABSOLUTE MUST VISIT FOR UK PARENTS AND RECOMMENDED BY WHICH MAGAZINE AND MONEYSAVINGEXPERT:

APPROVED FOOD amazing groceries deals on food and drink at 80% cheaper.

I did what every mother does and brought pointless items, a baby cot mobile, why oh why!!! I couldn't reach it to turn the wind up wheel, he was interested in it for four weeks but would have equally enjoyed a few sparkly mirror disks hang over his cot which would have cost me three pounds from Hobbycraft as opposed to £20 for a mobile. 


 We did the nursery/ his room up in plain white walls so as to not get into expensive or painful re decorating when he starts to enjoy Ben 10! I brought ,from ebay, decal purple and lime green spots to stick on one wall. We got a huge IKEA wardrobe with drawers and shelves in it and chose cheapest white doors for the front and stuck more decal spots all over it. We had an old 60s wooden kitchen shelved unit which we painted white and put some bright colour toys on display. We have to have a normal bed in his room as our changing space and a place to play and read to our son. Fortunately my old single bed from my parents house was available but this is a needed piece of equipment for most physically disabled parents so this is an extra need due to your disability. 


My best budgeting advice is use the local library.All babies love cuddles and being read to. Librarys  stock all baby and toddler books from touch and feel books to black and white pattern baby first books through to my sons top reads, "Penguin" by Polly Dunbar to "Pants" by Nick Sharatt. Best all it is all free as is the library parent and child music and rhyme groups, come to think of it our library offers one of the few accessible baby groups in Gloucestershire!


Every one is struggling at the moment, really this blog is applicable to every parent at the moment and I hope it helps some because if I had found a blog page like this I would have found it useful. Most of it is obvious stuff I know but finding those baby clubs is not as easy as you would think, my son is 17 months and in writing this blog I realise how few clubs we knew about and will see if he is still young enough to sign up to some I have mentioned.