Buying a pram in England: Whose wheels are we replacing?

While the pregnancy check-ups were carrying on, we also started looking at prams. Around the same time I was researching cars, to replace Elvin’s car.

Elvin was sending me pram listings, I was sending her listings for actual cars.

After a while we started mixing the listings up. The prices were so close to each other that I felt like checking, “Does this one need a number plate?” One has a boot, the other has a basket underneath. Both have four wheels. But one of them you push yourself, and that one’s a bit more expensive. :)

First we tried to work out what we needed

At first they all looked the same. Then, the more we looked into it, the more parts came into the picture: carrycot, seat unit, car seat, adaptors, base…

We went in to look at a pram and found ourselves choosing an options pack.

For us, what stood out was how suitable and comfortable the lie-flat part for the first months was. And then the business of fitting it into the car and taking it out again. With a baby in one arm, you don’t want to be sitting a geometry exam with your other hand.

Does it fold, does it fit in the boot, does your back/lower back still work while you’re lifting it? Can you close it without trapping your finger? It matters that the thing that looks so elegant in the photo doesn’t turn into the cause of a family row in the car park.

The more we researched, the more we realised that most of the features offered for use after the first six months weren’t as decisive in our eyes as they had been at the start. Once there was a solid main frame, practical use and the parts we needed, the way we looked at the remaining details changed a bit.

The thing you said “It has to be this colour” about on day one, by day three you’re asking “Is it washable?” Priorities settle fast.

From £1,500 to Facebook Marketplace

The price of the one we liked online was about £1,500.

Meanwhile I was working out what the same money could do in Elvin’s car budget. A direct budget battle had begun between Deniz’s wheels and his mother’s wheels.

Let’s have a look at second-hand too, we said. We searched on Facebook Marketplace and found it: £250.

When you see the listing you’re pleased at first, then you read the description again thinking “Are they only selling the wheels?”

We messaged the seller. There was just one small problem: we were on holiday. We asked the lady, and bless her, she held it for us for a week.

We went, we saw, we bought

When we got back we went to see it. The lady talked us through it; she showed us the parts, how it’s used, how it clips on and comes off.

The thing that had grown so big in our minds while we wandered between tabs online was opening and closing in front of us in a few moves.

We looked, we liked it and we bought it on the spot.

And so we’d found, second-hand for £250, the pram we had seen online for £1,500. Deniz’s transport question was solved. And in my head I had long since transferred the difference to Elvin’s car budget.

“Now we can get Elvin a car that’s five years newer,”

She didn’t get one, hahaha. :)