Parents and parents to be are an enormous target market for companies, who spend billions of pounds a year trying to convince us all that we need stupid things like a 'wipe warmer' or a bin that will twist used nappies into amusingly stinky balloon animals. This targeting begins right at the beginning of the process, with the nervously purchased pregancy test.

Over the last ten years I have gone through most brands of pregnancy test, from Clearblue, Clearblue Digital, First Response, supermarket and pharmacy own brands to these little cheapy tests which I picked up from Poundland. They all work on the same basic principle by indicating the presence of the pregnancy hormone HcG in your urine, differing only really in the method of applying the urine and the amount of packaging they come with.

With my daughter I fell for the Clearblue advertising hype and spent £10 on a test which came back positive immediately. Wanting to further check the result and being an impoverished student I bought 3 packets of these FirstVue tests and watched as the positives racked up. With my son I had a packet already in the house and watched the positive forming quickly and decisively. In both cases I was about 6 weeks pregnant and the tests performed extremely well and accurately as the levels of HcG were very high in my blood. However, with this pregnancy I tested much earlier, just after my period was due and I had to wait a little longer for a pale pink line to form. But it was definitely there and once again the tests performed well for me.

The tests come in a simple cardboard box with no shrinkwrapped plastic or seals. Inside are two sealed foil packets and a paper instruction leaflet which has a lot of information on it about accuracy, contra-indications and a paragraph in science speak about how the tests actually work. This is obviously for nervous women and partners to read to postpone slightly the actual scary bit- the weeing and the result. Unlike fancier tests which come encased in plastic with these cheap ones you have to do more of the work yourself. First, rather than being able to wee straight onto the test, with these ones you have to collect the wee in a pot- you had better just get used to it though, I seemed to spend most of my pregnancy collecting my wee for people. Once you have a lovely sample you hold the top and immerse the bottom half of the test into it, making sure you don't go higher than the MAX line drawn on the stick. Then lie the test down and watch. Two pink lines= baby. One pink line = a triple vodka and coke please!

These tests won't tell you how far along you are, who the baby's father is or give you a nice cup of tea and a sit down but they will tell you what you want to know- are you pregnant or not. Which is after all the essential function of a pregnancy test and at £1 for 2 you can't go wrong really. Don't forget that if you test too early then any test can be less accurate, its worth waiting for at least two or three days after your period is due, however hard it might feel!