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95% of my LO's clothes & toys come from his older cousins. I've been very lucky with my sister's generosity because she's saved us thousands of dollars and continues to do so.

Nope, have not gotten one thing! None of my friends had kids yet and our only relatives around here had their #2 at the exact same time as our #1. I will definitely give all our stuff away once we are done with it, though.

I agree with buying second hand though if no one has hand me downs for you. We have gotten quite a few things for more than half off what they would have cost new.

I would have loved hand-me-downs but none of our friends had young children. I've been giving most of my LO' s clothes to my SIL who has a little girl who's 4 months younger than mine.

I have only bought one new outfit for my LO. My brother and SIL gave us everything that they had from their kids...crib, change table, clothes and everything else we got as gifts at my shower. There is also a woman in our building who's been giving us clothes her LO has grown out of.

i got some maternity clothes from my cousins and SIL, but so far, no baby stuff. they all have newborns or less than 2 year olds, so don't think i'll be getting any from them. same with most of my friends. either no kids, or kids are all young.

No one passed anything down to us, but I do give away my son's clothes that I don't need any longer. I save the best stuff for his baby clothes quilt, though.

@Mrs. D: I can always send you stuff too. Us P.A-ers gotta stick together

@torontomommy: thanks, but wouldn't the shipping from Ontario to home override the cost savings?

Almost everything came from my coworkers, friends or the showers. I've only bought 2 pieces of clothing. It was totally the trash bag thing...only it was designer, barely worn, cute clothes, blankets etc. I am so grateful. I've passed on much of it already and baby is only 9 months. I really hope to be able to pass it forward.

@Mrs. D: It's actually not that bad shipping stuff from T.O. down there. We do it every Christmas.

There's a 'family bassinet' that's been passed around in my husband's mother's side of the fam that we're looking forward to using. Our LO will be the 20th baby to use it! I've never heard of anything like this before and completely delighted for our baby to be a part of it. It means a lot to me because regardless of the cultural differences, I feel like our baby will be accepted and loved.

But other than that, we're buying everything ourselves (my Mom's bought a ton of it, first grandchild). I live abroad, all my friends and family live far away, so no baby shower. And although I've gotten a few things already when we last visited, I'm not expecting anything more (though we'd really appreciate it).

As for borrowing ... to be honest, I'm not much of a borrower. I just feel uneasy doing it. I've had bad experiences in the past with people borrowing things from me and either not returning it or not taking care of it. I know baby things are different, but I wouldn't feel comfortable about anyone borrowing my baby items since I'd want to use them for our next baby.

I know I sound super stingy but it's a whole other story if I knew I didn't need them - in that case, I'd be happy to give them away to anyone that wants them. But if it's things I've been taking care of in hopes to use again, then I wouldn't feel right lending it out.

As for secondhands, people where we live seem to be REALLY good at recycling. The majority of the people that's lived here stay in the same place throughout their lives and whenever they get something new, they'd actually take the time out to put whatever it is they no longer need on a Craigslist-type of site. It's not uncommon to see people giving things away, just as long as the buyer comes and picks it up. It's not unusual to find a bag of baby clothes for $15 or even a leather sofa for $20.

So there's definitely that option for us.