Coupon Code:  PAYPALFREESHIPPING

Condition: place an order of $50 (AU$60) or more, enter the coupon code  at the order review page, and then pay with PayPal.

Validity:  September 27 until October 03 (HKT).
Comments: This is a pretty good deal considering usually you have to order above $150 to get free shipping!

Shop name: Baby Zone
Address:  398 Keira Street, Wollongong NSW 2500
Open: Mon-Wed,Fri 9am-5:30pm; Thu 9am-6pm; Sat 9:30am-5pm; Sun 10am-4pm (yes, they open weekend!)
Products: one stop shop for baby needs.
Pros: great price, excellent customer service
Cons: only stocks popular brands, only local to wollongong.

Comments:

I was looking for a local baby shop and came across babyzonedirect.com.au which has warehouse in Wollongong. The website stated that they only open monday to friday so I took a couple of hours one friday and went there. To my delight they told me they do open weekend!

If you look here, the online shop itself doesn’t have good reviews especially in terms of customer service so when I went there, I didn’t expect much out of their customer service. To my surprise, as soon as I walked into the store and looked at a few cots,  I was approached by someone. We were approached by a couple of staff who readily answered all our questions and showed us how things work. One of them is this young lady called Angela. She was impressive. Although she was young, she was obviously knowledgable about the products and passionate about what she does. We came to the store clueless about carseats and prams but she enthusiastically and tiredlessly explained to us everything we need to know about them and showed us how they work. She was also very honest about the pros and cons of different brands and styles. She also told us other customers’ feedbacks regarding the products, good and bad. She encouraged us to not rush into decision and think more about what we want. She didn’t pressure us into making any purchase on the spot.

The shop itself is not overly big but not small either. They stock nursery furnitures (mainly cots, change table, drawers) of popular brands (Boori, Kingparrot), prams and strollers, carseats (mainly safe n sound), baby bath, baby walkers, etc etc.

I was told that the online shop and the physical store are two different departments that’s why on the website it was written that they don’t open weekend (also probably explains the difference in customer service).

As for the price, they will give you whatever the price on the website so if you live locally or not too far from Wollongong, it’s worth going there to check out the product if you see something you like on the website. The price on the website is the cheapest around (I’ve checked). So I wouldn’t even bother checking other shops.

Also, you will know for sure if something is in stock or not when you go to the store and how long you need to wait. You can also lay buy the item so you don’t need to pay until you actually get your item. A lot of people say that if you buy from the online shop, you will still get charged first eventhough the item is not in stock and they don’t really tell you when it’s going to be available.

While I cannot say the same for the online store, I definitely recommend the offline store just for its customer service especially if you’re a newbie like me. It’s going to be my new hangout place over the weekend : P

Okay so these are not online purchases but I did a great deal of online research before I bought them.

Boori Country Classic Cot

in white from Baby Zone Wollongong for $552 + Boori breathable mattress $136

I won’t be getting them for another 5-6 weeks so this is the picture of the display cot in the shop.

I looked around online, this is the cheapest one around and also the shop is local so I decided to go for it. I didn’t want to get a Boori cot initially because the price is more expensive than other brands and also a lot of people say Kingparrot is made by the same company and it’s as good. But when my husband and I browsed the shop, we really liked this style so we went for it. The price is not too bad compared to some other Boori models and it’s $150 more expensive compared to Kingparrot model I wanted. It’s not bad considering Boori is bigger and feels smoother and well, we like the style.

LG 42″ LCD TV 42LD560

We went for LG because it’s  a lot cheaper compared to other brand for the same thing. Most of our electronics are LG so we’re happy with it.

We got it for $1160 + Wi-Fi dongle for $70 from The Good Guys Warrawong. We went to Bing Lee first and the best price they could give us was $1200 for the TV unless we can get a better quote from somewhere else. I never liked how Bing Lee works, it just feels insincere. We indicated we would like to get it today but that was the best they could give us.  We read in some forum that someone bought it for $1159 from The Good Guys so we felt Bing Lee wasn’t really giving us the best price. Also, they didn’t have one in stock in the shop so we couldn’t get it on the spot. So we went to The Good Guys which has been our favourite electronic shop and we were given $1170. After saying we seriously wanted it today they gave it to us for $1160. We were happy with that price and decided to give our business to them for giving us good price. They had it in stock so we can straightaway went home with it which is another plus point.

We have set the TV up and so far very happy with everything. It was easy to assemble and setup. We had old fashioned TV before so this is a HUGE upgrade. It can connect directly to YouTube (once the Wi-Fi was setup), I can connect my netbook to it,  it can stream media files straight from external HD, and of course HD movies look HD in it XD

It has 100Hz refresh rate which is a lot better than the cheaper model but not much difference from the more expensive model which refresh rate is  200 Hz (the guy in the shop showed us the difference).

So far we’re very happy with this TV.

Product: Maternity Pillow
Price: AU$89
Shop: https://www.bellybean.com.au/
Rating:  * * * * *
Comments:

Since the beginning of my pregnancy I started to feel some strain on my back when I sleep on my side. It’s like my stomach is pulling my back so I had to put a plushie behind my back to lean on. It became annoying after awhile because I have to move the pillow when I swap side.  So I started looking for a pregnancy pillow.

The ones in the market look really bulky. With me getting bulkier by the day, my poor husband will have no space to sleep on. I searched pregnancy forums for recommendation and came across Bellybean. It’s very pricey and the only place you can get it from is this website. I really like the look of the pillow and it seems to have glowing reviews. So I decided to go for it for the sole reason that it has the same support on both sides (tummy and back) which eliminate the need of swapping the pillow around when I sleep.

When I first received it, I loved the colour and the feel of it. It feels soft and cuddly. Like a good quality plushie. When I first tried it on, I wished the cushions were a little bigger because I was used to my fat plushie to lean on and they’re not so further apart (I had to fold the middle part so they’re closer together). But as my tummy grow bigger, I started to appreciate the size and the distance between the two cushion. I guess at the beginning I didn’t have much tummy to ‘fill’ the gap between the cushions but now, it’s perfect.

I cannot live without it now. It’s so simple yet so effective. Even my husband loves it! He even suggested getting another one to support other parts of my body which are also getting bigger : P And once  I caught him hugging it to sleep  ; )

I also love the portability of it. I can easily take it with me when I decide to lie down somewhere else (like the recliner or the couch)

I recommend going to the website to read more about it. It does everything it claims to do.

Postage takes several days for within Australia because it comes from a regional area in WA.

It will make an excellent gift for someone who’s pregnant or something to spoil yourself with if you’re pregnant.

I should never be left alone at home. In the past I’ve successfully restrained myself from buying clothes from YesStyle or any site for that matter. I don’t usually like to take risk that comes with buying clothes online (sizing issue, deceiving pictures, etc). But being pregnant and frustrated with my wardrobe and disappointed with local shops that sell maternity clothes (they’re either expensive or boring), I decided to buy some clothes from YesStyle.

The maternity collection is rather expensive and generally too small for me so I opted for the plus size collection. I tried to choose something that looks lose around the tummy. There were quite a bit that I liked but I couldn’t justify spending so much money on clothes I’m unsure will fit well.

I first had 5 or 6 tops in my cart but after so much deliberation, I reduced it to 3 (and kept the rest in my wishlist for future use : P)! But I still spent a little over $100 >_<

Let’s hope they’re worth it!

They’re so cute, so hard to resist! And the price isn’t that expensive  compared to normal maternity clothes locally although I’m not sure about the quality. I guess we’ll find out soon.