It won’t be me if I didn’t go crazy shopping when I was expecting. Although I always do my research and try to avoid impulse buying, things happened. Impulse buy is unavoidable especially when I was desperate and sleep-deprived, I would give anything to get more sleep or time for myself, thus buying stuffs I could probably live without.

This list hopefully helps other expecting/new moms to make better judgement (which isn’t always easy when you don’t have enough sleep) and avoid spending funds that could have been spent for something else more useful.

The things I list here by no means a low quality useless products. It’s the other way around, they’re expensive and very high quality products. It’s just that I could have used something else better without spending so much money.

1. Baby Bjorn Carrier

I wish I knew about better baby carrier when I first needed one. Actually, I had a traditional Indonesian sling (selendang) but didn’t know how to use it comfortably. I wished I had researched more and use that instead of buying an expensive Baby Bjorn Carrier. Now I have Manduca, which I love, and a couple of woven wraps. I wish I bought Manduca, or even Ergo, instead of the uncomfortable Baby Bjorn. But I was desperate then, I needed to be hands free and bub was very unsettle. It was the best thing I could find in the shop. It was very expensive and uncomfortable. A soft structured carrier like Manduca and Ergo last longer, better ergonomically for both mom and bub.

2. Baby Swing

It was cute, and I loved swing as a little girl, so I couldn’t resist. I also thought, maybe my newborn would sleep in it instead of needing me to hold him all the time. I was so wrong. He was mesmerised by it for a little while (especially the handle!) but didn’t keep him happy long enough. He did sleep in it a couple of time, but it’s really something I could do without. Or at least buy it second hand. He grew out of it in 4 months. The swing was pretty expensive to buy. Not worth it for the amount of time he spent in it.

3.Portable Cot

I bought a portacot thinking my baby would happily stay in there while I do thing around the house. Of course he didn’t like it. He rather be on the floor. Then as he grew mobile, I thought it will confine him while I go to the bathroom, etc. But he would scream when I put him in there. I ended up toddler-proofing my house instead. Now the portacot isn’t used anymore. I could have gone by without one.

4. Way too many newborn nappies

I ended up giving away a box of them. We were gifted a bit too many, and bought a bit too many, and bub grew out of it a bit too quickly.

5. Way too many breastpads

Seeing firsthand my sister’s explosive breastfeeding experience, I thought I would be the same. So I stocked up plenty of breastpads. Little did I know my supply settled down and I don’t need them. I’m left with a box of unused breastpads now. Well, I guess I can use them when bub starts weaning.

While I had fun receiving surprise box every month, I’ve decided to cancel my glossybox subscription. I’ve gotten bored of it and wants to try a different box. There are so many out there!

Glossybox tends to vary from person to person which sometimes make it unfair, while I understand their argument, I stil don’t like feeling dissapointed and wishing I get what others get. it doesn’t help that they have a beauty profile but not exactly following it. may as well get rid of it all together so people don’t have expectations.

Now the cancelling process is ridiculous. After being asked multiple times on the site if you really want to cancel, you still need to wait for an email before you can actually cancel it. In my case the email stil hasn’t arrived after 15 minutes. I find this really unprofessional, you should be able to cancel just by logging into your account. This gives me an impression of trying to make customer forgets that they wanted to cancel. Not everyone has the time to wait around for an email. What if you forget and the email gets lost and the subscription runs for another month. Whose fault is this then?

I understand they want to keep customer and try to change your mind, but the multiple comfirmations on the site is enough.

Glossybox has so much to improve. Too many hiccups in their processes and the customer services can’t handle the many complaints and give out a lot of excuses.

I’m glad I’ve decided to cancel, well that is if I can. I still haven’t received that email.

/edit/

When I checked my email the next day, it’s finally there so I have successfully cancel my subscription. I have since subsribed to ilovethisbox but yet to receive the first box.

Products: Harvest Box weekly snack box subscription
Price: $6.95/week
Shop: Harvest Box
Rating:  *****

Comments

I just received my first Harvest Box! Sum up in one word: YUM.

Harvest Box is a subscription to a weekly snack box which consits mainly nuts and dried fruit. It may sound ordinary but trust me, it’s not.

They mix nuts, dried fruit, seeds, and sometimes little bits of chocolates and spices to create a whole new experience of eating them. I love nuts and dried fruit but when you buy them from supermarket, they’re either too salty or too sweet. Harvest Box products are nothing like that. It’s perfect. It leaves a nice aftertaste in your mouth. They make use of the natural flavour of the ingredients to create different feels and flavours.

When you subscribe, you get to rate their mixes, so be sure to do this to avoid disspointment! They have everything ranging from conventional mixes to adventureous (there’s one with coffee beans in it!). Everyone has individual taste, there’s no way they can guess what you like/dislike unless you tell them.

For my first box I get HB Power Mix, Mont Blanc, Spiced Up, and Souk. Honestly, when I first received it, I didn’t expect much. The box actually was smaller than I imagined (it fits into my mailbox easily) but I was probably excan’t even pick which ones are my favourites! They’re all so different yet equally good.

You know the sick feeling after you eat too much of something? I usually get that after I eat a lot of nuts or dried fruit. But Harvest Box contains just right amount to eat in one go, leaving you satisfied, not sick, and looking forward to the next box next week.

On top of all of these, it’s actually healthy and full of nourishments!

If you’re interested to try, they’re offering first box free using this code: 42BSE8LL. You have nothing to loose by trying. You do need to provide credit card details, although, it looks like it’s simple enough to cancel. You can even pause your subscription whenever you like and resume at later date.

Bought myself a rice cube yesterday from http://ricecube.net/

I’m excited to try it. I hate rolling sushi, I’m too clumsy for it. My little one loves his rice and loves feeding himself, so hopefully this rice cube will help!

I may be biased, but it was an amazing album. Every single song can well be a title song.
I don’t really see the point of the pop up thing on the box, but eh, it’s kpop.

I wish the poster would be more on the cute side than sexy side so I can paste it on my walls. I have a little toddler, don’t want him to be exposed to sexy girls pictures too early. So the poster will just sit in its tube. I thought of giving it away, but I can’t part with it just yet.

The shirt was pretty cool. I love black and white and the size is pretty generous, too! I’m a size 12, it fits perfectly. Would probably fit up to size 14. That’s pretty good considering Korean sizes are usually tiny.

After so much contemplation, I finally decided to subscribe to Glossy Box. I heard about these beauty boxes for awhile and has been trying to stop myself from subscribing. I failed obviously. I don’t put make up much, I don’t do my nails, I barely even have time to put lotion on my hands, I must be crazy to subscribe to this. But I love getting packages and trying different stuffs, I used to have a day where I wash my hair and pamper myself with nice smellng stuffs.

I thought, what the heck, I think I deserve to spoil myself with this, it will ‘force’ me to pay attention to myself and take care of my skin. So after checking all the different boxes, I went for glossy box for the sole reason that they have clinique in their brand list. The only thing that I’ve been using religiously in the past, at present, and still going strong is my clinique products. I’d love to try their other products but they’re always so expensive which put me off so I stick with the basics.

To my delight, the first box I receive contains just what I need from clinique! I’ve be searching for a night cream, my usually oily skin gets really dry with the heater on at night! My clinique day moisturizer just doesn’t help because it’s designed for oily skin. My wish came true.

The box contains sample of Clinique Turnaround Radiant moisturizer, or in a simpler term, cream that you use at night aka night cream. I tried it on tonight and loving it already. If this works I will definitely get the full product. Here’s hoping it won’t be too expensive but chance is it will be. It’s Clinique

Anyway, the rest of the contents didn’t really register in my brain (I’m beauty products challenged!) so I’m not even going to attempt to talk about them. I don’t even know how to use them so I’ll be giving them away to my more beauty product aware friends, There’s this nail thing, hair thing, lip pencil thing, and oh a candy cane! I know what to do with that last one.

And oh, I love the box, it’s so pretty!

I’m taking my baby overseas and has been stressing out on how to carry the stroller on the plane. I’m not keen of carrying my heavy 4 month old around while we’re overseas. I have a Peg Perego Pliko P3 and after searching around, I found that the travel bag specially for it is not available in Australia. After more searching, I found Bebe Care stroller bag which has the perfect measurement. I checked with Baby Kingdom and thank goodness they have it in stock for $49.95 plus $14 delivery. Quite reasonable price I say. I think babyzonedirect has it for much cheaper,  but they’re famous for having items out of stock without telling you  so I wasn’t willing to chance it. I couldn’t be bothered checking with their offline store either. I just wanted it now. I’ve had good experience with Baby Kingdom so I gave my business to them.

It just arrived today and it’s a perfect fit! The bag looks quite tough and has boarded part to protect the wheels. I’m happy now!

Shop: Baby Kingdom
Products: Baby items
Pro: Fast and reliable, great customer service, reasonable shipping cost, wide range of products
Cons: may not be the cheapest out there
Payment Methods accepted:  credit cards

Comments:

While baby kingdom may not have the cheapest price out there, but if you need certain items in a rush, it’s a good shop to go to. I usually would email them to ask if the items I’m after is in stock. I usually get a reply within the same day, even during weekends. Once my order has been posted, I also receive a personal email from their staff saying it has been mailed. The goods are posted within the same day or at the latest the next day.  It arrives very quickly. At the maximum two working days.

When I need baby items, I usually look around at other online shops to check the price but I always end up buying from baby kingdom because I know it will arrive when I need it. The price may not be the cheapest but the difference is minimal. They also have great range of products. I can almost find what I need there.

Overall, it’s a shop you would go for a fast, reliable, and hassle-free experience.

Shop: Doubleday
Products: Books, CDs and DVDs
Pro: Fast and reliable, stock newly released titles
Cons: limited range, more expensive compared to other online bookstore
Payment Methods accepted:  credit cards

Comments:

I only bought from doubleday because I bought a coupon from cudo.com.au that gave me $50 worth of purchase for $19. I wanted to buy a particular book then and when I checked the price on doubleday, it’s so much more expensive compared to other online shop but because of the coupon, I can buy another book so I decided it was worth it. Without the coupon, I definitely wouldn’t buy it because the book I was after was priced $28.95 there while in bigw.com.au the same book only costed $18.74. That’s $10 difference!

The range of books they’re offering is also quite limited to newly released title. Although this also means, they’re very fast in shipping because they only sell what they stock. Although if you buy in-stock items from other shops, it will also be as fast.

So in my opinion, double check with other online bookstores such as Big W, Borders, or Booktopia before buying. Although doubleday seems to be cheaper than your local bookstore because they sell below RRP, most of other online stores sell even cheaper with the same quality of service.

Coupon Code:  CM2010NOV

Condition: place an order of $50 or more, enter the coupon code  at the order review page.

Validity:  December 1, 2010,  midnight, GMT – 8

Comments: Good discount if you’re thinking of buying from yesstyle.