The best baby freebies!

Having a baby is an expensive thing to do, so make the most of these great freebies!

We’re just over halfway through my wife’s pregnancy now, and inevitably, my mind has started turning towards the financial side.

I can’t wait to be a dad, but I want to make sure it doesn’t bankrupt me! Thankfully there’s loads of stuff you can get for free when a baby is on the way.

Government help

It’s fair to say that our timing in starting our family could have been somewhat better, since the Coalition Government are set to cut some of the financial assistance previously available to new parents. As a result, a lot of the leaflets and handouts we've be given are already out of date, so I’ll try to round up what’s changing, and what help is still available.

Health in Pregnancy Grant

Healthy eating is massively important during pregnancy – our spend on our weekly shop has seen a marked increase since we found out we were expecting, since we are buying an awful lot more fruit and vegetables (as well as tablets expectant mothers need to take once a day to ensure they get the right mix of vitamins).

Thankfully, financial assistance is available in the form of the Health in Pregnancy Grant, a one-off tax-free payment of £190, so long as you are a British resident, are at least 25 weeks pregnant, and have received health advice from a midwife or doctor on how to keep you and baby healthy during pregnancy.

This grant is being scrapped in January however – so as long as you reach the 25th week of pregnancy before 1 January, you’ll qualify for the cash, otherwise you’ll have to pay for the added expense on your own.

Child Trust Funds

In order to help your kids build up some decent savings for later in life, the Government used to hand over a £250 voucher once the child was born to open a Child Trust Fund, a long-term tax-free savings account which cannot be accessed until the child reaches the age of 18.

However, this has now been slashed right down to £50.

Child benefit

Child benefit is a tax-free payment paid on a four-week basis. It is available to all parents of children under the age of 16, or 19 if they are still in full-time education.

Child benefit comes in two amounts. You get £20.30 a week for your eldest child and £13.40 a week for each of your other children.

Child tax credit

When you have a baby, you may be able to claim tax credits. However, there are plenty of changes on the way here.

How much of a credit you can claim obviously depends on your circumstances, and it’s worth having a little play with the HMRC tax credit tool to see if you qualify, and how much for.

So what’s changing?  From next April, these tax credits will not be available to families earning more than £40,000. What’s more, the baby element of the tax credit will be removed, so the amount you can claim in year one is reduced.

Keeping healthy

There are other Government-associated freebies that expectant parents can take advantage of before the baby arrives, that have so far escaped George Osborne’s axe.

Free prescriptions

While pregnant, and for a year after birth, women can take advantage of free NHS prescriptions.

Free dental care

As with prescriptions, for up to a year after birth dental care is completely free. In order to take advantage of both, you’ll need to get a maternity exemption card – your midwife or doctor should be able to help you get that sorted.

Free vitamins, fruit and veg

If you’re on certain benefits, you can take advantage of the Government’s Healthy Start scheme. This entitles you to free milk, fruit, vegetables and vitamins.

Get clubbing!

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No, I’m not suggesting that you’ll get some child-related goodies from falling out of Ministry of Sound at three in the morning. However, once you have a child on the way all sorts of baby clubs fall over themselves to get you to sign up, and you get a whole bunch of goodies for doing so.

The one group you’ll definitely hear from is the Bounty Club. They’ve been going for years (even my mum got packs from them when she was pregnant with me!), and you’ll get packs from them at different stages along the pregnancy – your first visit to the midwife, once the baby is born, and then  once the baby reaches six months. And these packs will tend to contain some cracking things, like discounted vouchers for ‘Mum-to-be essentials’ packs which contain things such as newborn nappies and washing powder.

There’s also plenty of useful information in the packs and on the website, so be sure to sign up.

Another essential club to sign up for is Emma’s Diary. As the name suggests, there is a diary involved – a fictional account of a lady called Emma and her pregnancy. It’s a great read (particularly for blokes as it helps us prepare for the emotional changes that come with each stage of the pregnancy). And if you register with the club, you’ll also get £40 of Argos money-off vouchers.

Some other clubs to consider include:

• The Tesco Baby & Toddler Group. Members are sent tailored magazines, including money-off coupons, £5 off your first £50 shop at Tesco.com and up to 50% off a Haven holiday.
• Heinz Baby Club. Members get five mail packs with product samples and money-off vouchers, as well as monthly emails filled with offers.
• Cow and Gate Club. Again, plenty of money-off vouchers, a free pregnancy diary and best of all, a free cuddly cow!
• If you join the Boots Parenting Club, not only do you benefit from additional loyalty points on your baby shopping in the store, but you’ll also qualify for free gifts.
• Sainsbury’s Little Ones. When you sign up, you get a free Huggies Mum & Baby Bundle, as well as quarterly magazines filled with coupons.

Keeping it Freegle

It’s a battle, but I’m doing my best to convince my other half that there are plenty of things that we can get for the baby second-hand. And that doesn’t mean scrolling through pages of deals on auction sites such as eBay – I mean getting them absolutely gratis!

The main way to do this is to sign up to your local Freegle or Freecycle groups. There’s all sorts of bits and bobs that you can nab from your neighbours that are still in great condition, but won’t cost you a penny. Recently, groups in my area have advertised everything from Moses baskets and cots to babygrows and bibs. Be sure to give it a try!

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