Setting up for a new baby can be really expensive, especially if you want everything new. The NCT shop are offering PlayPennies readers an exclusive 10% off purchases made from their online store.

Support the NCT while saving yourself a few pennies

• Discount: 10% off £20+
• Expires: 30 April 2012
• Exclusions: Hire Services
• Discount Code: NCTPLAY

I reviewed the Caboo carrier we received from the NCT shop last week and the lovely people at the nations biggest Childbirth charity have been kind enough to give our readers 10% off the price of both the Caboo carrier and everything else in the shop.

That means 10% off all things pregnancy and birth, maternity and nursing, baby clothing, nursery items and bedding, bathing and safety equipment, nappies, feeding and weaning, traveling equipment, toys and even gifts for new parents. The only thing that seems to not be included in the offer is the Hire Services, so for example the TENS machine for use during labour.

Even so, there’s plenty to choose from and knowing the profits go to a charity certainly leaves me with a bit of a feel good buzz too.

Use this PlayPennies exclusive NCT promotional code to get 10% off your order when you spend £20 or more. It does not work on items already reduced in the sale, unfortunately. Most mums are familiar with the NCT from their classes and groups, as well as their pre-owned sales held in church and community halls. The website also sells just about everything new mums might need, just like most other baby and mummy online retailers.

Click here to use your PlayPennies exclusive NCT promotional code

• Discount: 10%
• Minimum spend: £20
• Promotional code: PENNYNCT
• Expires: 29th February 2012

To use this code, go to the View Basket page and enter it in the Promotional Code box. The discount is shown in a slightly odd way. On the page there is the price of the item, which is the amount before, VAT, then it will say that your 10% code has been applied, and you'll see this in the totals column. However this is where it is slightly confusing as the totals column shows the total with VAT included.

I tested it out on this absolutely gorgeous Cocooi Swaddling Babywrap, priced at £35 excluding VAT. Once the 10% discount was applied and VAT added the total came to £31.50. Delivery in mainland UK costs £3.95, or if you spend £50 or more, it is free.

One thing about baby clothes and equipment is that they are about the best thing to buy second hand. Quite often they've had no more than about three months use.

So equipment is often in pristine conditqion. And, it is unlikely that a two month old baby is going to wear out clothes in the same way that an 18 month old will.

With a bit of shopping around, online and also schlepping about second hand sales, you can probably get everything you need. You'll have somewhere between six and nine months to get ready. I hope. There's always the exceptions, no matter what your age. After two children a friend of mine was still caught out when the doctor told her she was seven months pregnant with number three.

I would keep two things in mind though, if you're thinking you can get all your baby stuff second hand either for free or for a fraction of the original price. First, you may not find it all. Items at baby sales in particular, such as those run by the NCT, can go very quickly. Some sales offer a 'bump the queue' option for mums who are pregnant, so it is well worth checking this out. Otherwise, get there early!

Second, the nesting hormones that set in take a very different form in everyone. You may think you're fine about it now, but may have a very different response to using used items later on. I'm only cautioning on this because I know people that this has happened to, who were simply had to have everything brand new even though they'd always laughed at those parents before.

And something similar caught me by surprise too. I was OK with anything second hand, but until my son was a year old I couldn't go to any of those soft play places. The thought of all those plastic balls that had been drooled over by goodness knows how many little mouths actually made me physically gag.

And then when he was a year old, or thereabouts, it was like someone flicked a switch. And I thought, oooh good way to build up the immune system!

1 The Obvious

First off, I'm just going to point out a few places that, if you're a canny PlayPennies parent you'll already know about. But, you never know, sometimes we just don't think of the obvious answers, and we don't all know everything!

Keep an eye out on freebie sites like Freecycle or Freegle. For buying cheap used stuff, there is of course eBay and Gumtree. And car boot sales, of which there seems to be one in just about every spare carpark or field these days.

2 Nearly New Baby And Mother Sales

The NCT, a leading UK charity for parents, runs nearly new sales and other events around the country. You can find out where and when sales are taking place on their website.

You might be like me though and discover that hey, your area is covered by the NCT. The nearest one to me was, on public transport, two bus rides and a good walk away.

However, other groups may do something instead. One mum in my area started her own version, and in fact there's one this coming weekend. Even though I don't have a baby anymore I go along to the Sell It Mama events for the cake and to pick up toy bargains for my son. But mostly for the cake.

There isn't an easy way to find out when events like this are happening in your area. Search online, and check out noticeboards in cafes and the library. Also ask other mums. Best of all, ask at your local SureStart Centre. These often arrange their own sales too.

3 Charity Shops And Table Top Sales

My best mate called me up one day absolutely thrilled to bits with having just got 30 brand new items of clothing for a 0 to 3 month old, for the princely sum of £5. She found them all on the rack in a charity shop.

Is it just me or does it seem to be pretty slim pickings these days in charity shops? I have picked up some fabulous toy bargains in the last few years, but there's never much in the way of clothes.

Is there a trick to this that someone can let me in on, or is it just that stuff is being snapped up really quickly? Perhaps trying a charity that specialises in children might help, like The Children's Society.

Here's something that never occurred to me before having kids, because these things are simply off your radar when you're child free. Many primary schools and nurseries run table top sales aka jumble sales throughout the year.

4 Parent Forums

We've all heard of Mumsnet, even if we don't have kids. It seemed to get almost as much attention during the last election as the politicians did. It is the biggest of all the Parent Forums. But not the only one.

Nappy Valley is a site dedicated to getting parents together so you can buy, sell and exchange baby items locally. NetMums has a nearly new section, where you can trade second-hand equipment and clothes.

5 Classifieds

You can browse the classifieds of most newspapers online these days, and there are dedicated classified sites. Celebrating the joy of second-hand is Preloved.

Both AdTrader and Loot have sections for children's items. Friday Ads is a national classified newspaper that you can also search online. The advantage here is that you can search locally, or cast your net further afield if you're willing to travel.

Unless you're really good, or child-free, keeping the clutter down in the house is pretty much a losing battle. Here's 5 ideas for your clutter, to minimise, make good use of it, and make money out of it.

Clutter falls roughly into three categories. Memory clutter, I might need it clutter, and I paid a lot of money for it clutter. In my house we've pretty much got all three. Clogging up the loft, the garage, the under stairs cupboard. Even my precious office space, which is needed as I work from home, is turning into a store room.

It is, quite frankly, ridiculous. Part of the problem comes when one of you is a hoarder. This is not me. I come from a family of people who not only don't hoard, but are so unsentimental that nothing is ever saved.

There has to be a sensible middle way surely? Looking for ideas on what to do to tackle the problem sensibly, I came across these five ideas that seem particularly good.

Box it

I have tried scrap books before. For some people they're immense fun, and there's an entire industry dedicated to it. There's even specialist magazines on the topic. For me it was a total failure. I just could never keep up with it. All those bits and bobs. Before I knew it, I had two years worth of the stuff in the backlog, no idea of dates and in some instances only a hazy idea of what something was about or a souvenir from.

Now I have a few boxes of stuff from when the step kids were little, and it is all lumped together.

When my son was born, I bought a keepsake box. I can't seem to find the specific one I bought, and now I can't remember where I got it from. But I am so glad I did. It is a bit like this box here, the Blue Baby Keepsake Box (£16.99).

I popped all the little important bits in there, the stuff you REALLY want to keep, from when he was born. My friends sent the most wonderful gift, which was the front pages of their local newspapers from the day he was born.

And putting it in a really nice box, means you can display the box. And having that out makes it so much easier to use the keepsake box, another stumbling block for me.

Sell it

How many near-pristine items have you got around the house sitting largely unused? It is a bit scary really to think how often I get sucked into buying something I think I really need and then only use it once. The thing is, if you've spent a lot of money on something, it is rather hard to let it go.

There's a guide to the basics of selling on eBay here. Another option, car boot sales, aren't quite as lucrative as they used to be. Ask around your local area to find ones that are still doing a good trade. If you don't know anyone who has tried car boot sales, take a look online for blogs in your area. For example, I came across this description of a few in the Wee Birdy blog.

Sale events can also be a good way to sell items, especially if you still have a lot of baby stuff. You can set up a table at an NCT Nearly New sale, for example. Click here to find one in your area.

The NCT don't cover everywhere though. They don't do my locality for instance, even though I'm in London. However, more local organisers might be doing something similar. Around here, for example, we have Sell It Mama.

Frame it

Another mum gave me some good advice. Shiree suggests that you "pick one or two pieces of your child's artwork and put them in the frame. Everything else goes. You will go insane if you try to keep it all, and most of it will lose meaning anyway. This way you've got something nice to put on the wall too. And your child will feel pretty chuffed to have their picture nicely framed." For some great ideas on doing this, take a look at the Blissfully Domestic blog.

Larger frames can contain a collage of items. Or you could do what a friend of mine does and paste tickets and similar items as wallpaper in the toilet. Not possibly the best idea if you think you'll move anytime soon though.

Picture it

One mum puts her children's momentos into a photobook each year. Special artwork, events they go to, school projects all get photographed. Then once a year she puts them into a photobook to keep. A good idea as some of those school projects are quite big! Keep an eye out on here. There's frequently discount codes and offers for the companies that sell these, and you can get them for half price or less.

In researching this article, I came across this blog from Photobox. It would seem that the company has a new 'easy make' feature on its website. The software will recognise the order the photos were taken in (I assume by the time and date stamp on them) and order the photos in the album automatically. I have no idea if this works or is available yet. But it definitely sounds pretty cool.

Donate or throw it

At some point you have to realise you can't keep everything. If you can't sell it you can give it away. And if you can't give it away, then throw it. Sometimes you just have to be ruthless.

You can't keep every single pair of shoes they have owned, no matter how cute they are (as I keep trying to explain to my husband, Mr Pack Rat). These can be recycled, so take them to a shoe shop near you that collects for charities. Some have the shoes made into other items, while others deliver the shoes for use in the developing world.

If clothes aren't good enough to donate to charity, take them to your local recycling depot. To find a recycle bank or centre that will take clothes, try the Recycle Now site. You can enter your postcode, and you'll get your closest recycling points on a map. I'm not sure how up to date it is though. It told me my closest recycling point was at my local supermarket, which is actually true. But it said that it was a Somerfield, a chain bought (and swallowed) by Morrison's about five years ago (I think).

So, what do you do? How do you keep your clutter down. Tips please! Especially if, like me, you live with a hoarder.

Here's a voucher code I received from the NCT (National Childbirth Trust) Shop that's exclusive for PlayPennies readers. Use this code to get 10% off all items in the shop, excluding most sale items.

Click here to use your exclusive PlayPennies voucher at the NCT Shop

• Discount: 10%
• Promotional code: Pennies10
• Expires: 31st March 2011

To use this code, go to Checkout and enter the code in the relevant box. You'll find that it will say whether the code has been accepted on your order itself, but it won't apply the discount. This doesn't appear on your order until you get to the order confirmation part of the checkout process. One thing that is a bit strange is the way the pricing is displayed. In the main part of the invoice you get the price excluding VAT, and then on the totals column you get the price including VAT. I didn't realise this at first and was wondering why my discount code had appeared to increase the price and not decrease it! Standard delivery is  £3.36.

The NCT Shop is a fabulous site if you're pregnant, a new mum or shopping for one. I spent ages browsing through the Eco-friendly section alone. In fact it seems to have just about everything new parents might want including car seats, travel cots and baby slings. The pregnancy PJs look exceptionally comfy!

Bumps & babies is a fabulous magazine that’s packed with lots of useful articles and advice for mums and dads expecting their first baby. It’s also wonderfully free! Just click on the link below to order your free copy and you’ll also get a free NCT DVD called Mums’ The Word that helps new mums cope with life as a parent.

• Go here to get your free copy today

The magazine is sponsored by Persil and Comfort Pure so expect a little advertising to find its way into your room while you read. The only other down side is that it is only available to those in the UK as they are unable to send it overseas.

In the latest issue they look at the foods you shouldn’t be eating while pregnant, give you a week by week pregnancy guide and talk you through the different antenatal tests you may be offered. There are plenty of other features to get your teeth into including maternity entitlements and sex in pregnancy.

This magazine is a really good read for parents and does have a lot of great advice included. Certainly I found that joining the NCT gave me plenty of benefits and the mag was a jolly good read.