Our Weird Budegting

Hello all!
So, budgeting at our stage in life right now is more like budget training. Since we're in med school that means we're poor and simultaneously awesome as we borrow thousands of dollars from the government. We're still on medicaid (at least, me and the girls are. Colin has insurance through the school so it comes directly out of the loan) and on top of that we're on food stamps (we figure we're going to pay it back and then some to the government in the first year of taxes being a doctor). This means we know exactly how much money we're going to receive down to the penny for a 10 month period. However, we get it in 2 lumps for a school year. So, every 5 months.
Here's what we do:
1. Subtract how much we're going to pay in rent for 5 months
2. Subtract 5 months worth of utilities (we pay electric and gas. We've kept track of it and know a basic average but we still have to be flexible).
3. Subtract 5 months worth of renter's/auto insurance
4. Subtract internet and Netflix (our replacement for cable)
5. Subtract other set monthly costs [my Proactiv, girl's diapers (it's pretty predictable how many they're going to go through and we get them through Amazon), holidays, and fast offering (no income. no tithing), gas for the car (we consistently get 2 tanks a month. We don't drive much)].
6. Decide how much we want to put in savings, if anything, and put it there
7. See what's left!

This is where I take over. We reassess our finances every first Monday of the month (yay FHE!) and make a new budget for the month. This is basically where we adjust for any prices that have changed from what we projected and we come up with a small budget for me to work with. This is where I challenge myself to remain within that budget as I buy toiletries, clothes for the girls, things for the home, paper towels, toilet paper, and whatnot. This is where I look for sales, online coupons, and the will to resist temptation. :) And then we do everything again the next month! So, it's strange not working with an income and seeing that the money's in the bank but I can't touch it because we'll need it in 5 months, but it's good training. It's teaching me self-restraint, priorities, and just like Melissa said "wants vs needs."

Budgeting

This is a duh post, but I thought it was important to note.  And I want to include two things here:

1) Keeping a budget
2) wants vs. needs

I don't even know if I need to say anything else.

We have saved loads of money by creating a budget and keeping an intricate diary of where our money comes from and where it goes.  I know that if I'm not paying attention, then I'll spend more.  Not to mention that it's quite empowering to know that you have control over your finances and your life and that they are commanded at your will and you don't have to be a slave to unnecessary debt.

As far as wants vs. needs, sometimes you just have to go without things.  I think this is especially true when you decide to be a stay-at-home mom.  I don't think in the long run (or even the short sometimes) that this brings grief or disappointment, if anything, it teaches selflessness and self-control.

As far as kids things are concerned, go ahead and fill in blanks.  This is a simply said, simply understood, a little harder to implement idea.

Shopping Consignment Sales

Nothing groundbreaking here, but since we're talking about saving money on kid stuff this month, I thought it would be appropriate: The way I've saved the most money on clothes for Luke is by shopping consignment sales. Have you ever been to one? They're kind of like a thrift store, except the stuff is cleaner and in much better condition and higher-quality in the first place and cheaper.

Here's my St. Louis example: Every 6 months there's an ENORMOUS consignment sale called The Stork Lady Sale. They have it at empty buildings they rent out (like an empty department store, etc.) for a week. The sellers price and tag their own items with personalized barcodes, bring them in the weekend before, and then get a check mailed to them with the money they made after the sale is over (they make 60% of the price tag; the sale organizers keep the other 40%). The sale is staffed almost exclusively by volunteers, because the more shifts you volunteer, the earlier you can shop (so the better the stuff you find and the better the deals you get). The sale will only accept baby & kids stuff (clothes, toys, etc.) in new or like-new condition (so no stains, stretching, holes, visible wear, missing buttons, etc.), and they basically only take brand-name stuff (or high-quality store brands like Walmart or Target if they're in excellent condition). The last day of the sale, almost everything left is 50% off. Most of the stuff not bought by the end is donated to women's & children's charities.

I love the Stork Lady Sale, seriously. Last fall I went and spent $63 and here's what I got: Almost all of Luke's 9 & 12 month and some 18 month clothes (everything except the gifts we'd gotten at his shower and three sets of Carter's onesies) including a coat, a pair of darling baby Nike shoes, about a bajillion onesies/pants/shirts, pajamas, etc. etc. etc.; an adorable jungle-themed crib bumper set for $5; two church outfits; Christmas morning jammies; some random board books; a Halloween pumpkin hoodie costume; and a few other random things like bibs. For $63! It was crazy--especially since almost all of the clothes are super adorable sets from good-quality brands like Children's Place and Baby Gap, and even expensive boutique brands like Piper and Posie. Luke scoots around looking like a little model. I could never have afforded to dress him like that new...or would never have chosen to, anyway. Because the clothes are sturdy and made from good-quality fabrics and manufacturing, I'll be able to hand them down through more kids, too. The next sale is the third week in March and I'm actually signed up as a seller this year. I don't have much to sell since we're obviously planning on having more kids, but I did find some gifts we'd been given that we really don't need (extra stuffed animals, double copies of some used kid's books, an extra diaper bag, etc.). The advantage to selling stuff is that you get an early pass to shop before the general public--not as early as the volunteers for the regular sale days, but just as early for the 50% off day. I'm planning on buying the rest of Luke's 18 month clothes (summer clothes this time) and as many 24 month & 2T things as I think we'll need until this fall.

There are consignment sales in every state, but sometimes they're hard to find. Consignment Mommies is a good place to start looking, and KCS is another (not as current, but more detailed). I heard about the Stork Lady Sale just by word-of-mouth, so it helps to ask around, too.

If it's not the season for a consignment sale near you and you're looking for something specific, even consignment stores like Once Upon a Child or Kid to Kid can be useful. I've found that they're just not the best place to go for clothes (unless you need something really specific, like a formal dress in a certain color for a wedding or something like that) because you can find equally good and much less expensive options at seasonal consignment sales--or even thrift stores, if you're lucky. (I have found a couple of shirts and pants for Luke at Goodwill before, and I think I got a couple of okay things at D.I. before we moved, but it's never very consistent and the quality is a lot more hit-and-miss.) But for other things like strollers or big toys, it's a great place to start looking. Luke has really needed a walker of some kind for the last couple of weeks (I don't have time to finger-walk him around the house all day, despite what he thinks!), but I didn't want to fork over the cash for a new one since it's the kind of thing he'll only use for a month or so. We went to Once Upon a Child and bought this...

...a very gently-used Little Tikes ride-on walker for $8.50. Normally they're about $25 new. He loves it, and I love that I spent something like 65% less than I would have at a toy store (is that math even close to right, Melissa??).

I guess all in all, I've found that if you're willing to buy used (but demand quality used!), hunt around a little, and wait for the right moment, you really can pay a third the price or less for kids' stuff. It doesn't seem like much at the moment, but over the course of a couple of years you can save hundreds and hundreds of dollars. I have to mention the caveat that I'd never buy a used car seat or crib (they're the two things it's safe to leave a baby unattended in, and they just get recalled too often!), but other than that, I see few compelling reasons to always buy new. Buying used is better for our bank account, better for the environment (less waste!), better for our community (keep jobs & sales local, and help stay-at-home-moms earn a little income), and I feel like it's a good attitude and habit to teach my kids the value of things.

What do you guys think? Have you shopped consignment sales before? Does the idea of getting used stuff gross you out? What things would you never buy used?

Make Your Own Baby Food

I'm sure this idea is pretty self-explanatory and I bet you guys did this anyway, but I figured I'd post it anyway just because it's something I was getting pretty good at by the time Luke was eating table foods. We didn't buy any baby food jars with Luke, which ended up saving us somewhere between $150 and $250, based on what I can estimate. Well, actually, I did buy like 6 jars of it in Texas and like 4 in Utah when we were traveling to visit family...the one downside to making your own baby food is that it's not shelf-stable (you have to keep it in the fridge or freezer). You technically could make your own shelf-stable batches, but you'd need to use researched recipes and a pressure canner. Obviously not worth the work...

Anyway, making your own purees ("baby food") is so easy: You decide some food that would be good for a baby to eat, cook it until it's mushy, blend it until it's smooth, and store it. I swear that it takes even less time and brainpower than shopping for jars of baby food. (A few more dishes to wash, though.)

Let's see, how can I make this helpful...Here's a list of foods we made & how we made them:

• Peaches: I just used canned peaches because peaches are pretty expensive to buy fresh and the quality of the kind you get at the grocery store is just crummy anyway (picked way too green so they don't bruise in shipping). The upside to using canned food to make baby food is that it's already soft; there's no other cooking necessary. The downside is that you can't control as well how much salt, sugar, & preservatives are going in to the food. The peaches I bought were packed in heavy syrup, and I figured the last thing a 6-month-old needs is extra sugar. I got around this by draining the peaches, rinsing them in a colander, and then letting them soak in a bowl of fresh water for an hour or so--this leaches out the syrup that the peaches have soaked up. It leaves them tasting a little tart (processed fruits & vegetables are picked before they're fully ripe because it helps them not bruise or turn to mush when they're packed; food companies get around this by adding extra sugar or salt when they pack them to hide the unripe flavor), but Luke likes sour things anyway so he didn't even notice. If you want to keep them a little sweeter, just don't soak them or don't soak them for as long.
• Pears: The batches I made came from canned pears, just like the peaches, but fresh would work too. Note that with soft, ripe fruits (as compared to vegetables or hard fruits like apples), you don't have to cook the food before blending it, which retains even more of the natural vitamins.
• Plums: I made a batch of plums puree from a can of plums I randomly saw at the store in the hopes that plums would have the same magic effect on backed-up bellies as prunes, but no such luck. Prunes are strange and wonderful things. Luke didn't like the plums puree anyway; I wouldn't recommend it. When he got a little backed up and pears & peaches weren't helping enough (or we had run out), I'd just mix a little prune juice in with his oatmeal or the water in his sippy and it would do the trick.
• Green beans: I made these from canned (just rinsed & soaked to get some of the salt out), but I really should have used fresh--would have been just about as easy and not much more expensive.
• Butternut squash: I took a whole butternut squash, cut it in half, scooped out the seeds, stuck it on a baking sheet, cooked it in the oven for like an hour at 350, scooped out the gunk, and threw it in the blender. Super easy, made a TON, and was probably Luke's favorite vegetable.
• Carrots: I tried cooking these a bunch of different ways (in the microwave, boiling on the stove, whole, chopped, etc.), and I can tell you now that the absolute easiest way to cook these is in a rice cooker. Seriously. Just splash in enough water to cover the bottom, throw in the carrots (chop 'em down a little if they're much bigger than baby carrots), set it to cook (however you would for white rice), and when it dings they're ready. If they're still too firm, set it to cook one more time. If you don't have a rice cooker, I think boiling them on the stove would be second easiest. Just don't throw out the cooking water--use that water as you're blending them down if you need the puree a little thinner (the cooking water has a lot of the vitamins from the carrots in it). Luke loved carrots.
• Zucchini & summer squash: Same story as the carrots, but they cook a lot faster--easiest to cook in a rice cooker or steamer (chop into thumb-sized pieces), but boiled on the stove is easy too. Don't even bother to peel them. You can even just slice them thin & saute them with a little oil...yum. These may actually have been Luke's favorite, even more than the butternut squash.
• Sweet potatoes: Poke with a fork, microwave for about 10 minutes, slice in half, scoop out the gunk, & throw it in the blender. Another big hit.
• Spinach: Yes, I actually did make spinach baby food. There's a reason they don't sell it in the store. Luke would only eat it when we tricked him into it, and I never could get it to puree down very smoothly. Next go-round I think I'll just throw a little cooked spinach in with another batch (like green beans or something).
• Peas: Just used frozen peas cooked in the microwave. Luke never really liked the peas, although I know a lot of babies do.
• Pinto beans: Soaked in water, cooked in the crockpot on low overnight (something like 12 hours), drained (save the water for blending!) & threw in the blender. Basically refried beans without the fried part. Luke actually really liked them, & it's a super healthy (& cheap) source of protein that's pretty easy on tummies. Lots of fiber so it helps when they're a little constipated, too.
• Anyway, you get the idea, right? I had plans to make a bunch more kinds (broccoli, black beans, lentils, tofu, asparagus, tomatoes, bell peppers, cantaloupe, etc. etc.), but Luke was suddenly too old for baby food. It really took me by surprise--I still had like 6 ziploc bags full or nearly full of purees when he decided he was only going to eat grownup food.

A note on blending foods down: I keep saying "throw it in the blender," but holy cow, if you have a food processor, use that instead! Blenders have a hard time getting rid of all the chunks without you having to make it too watery. With most veggies you'll have to add a little bit water to get it to blend smooth (sweet potatoes, incidentally, need a LOT of water), but most of the purees I made ended up being thinner than I would have liked just because my stupid old blender needed a lot of encouragement to actually blend instead of just spinning the blades in an air pocket at the bottom. The thing that worked best for me was putting in about half the food, blending it as smooth as I could, adding enough water to get it tornado-ing around the jar, and then adding the rest of the food to thicken it up again. 

A note on storage: I tried a couple of different ways of storing the purees (plastic pitchers in the fridge, individual containers, etc.), but the best way to do it really is what everyone tells you: Pour the puree into ice cube trays, freeze, & then keep the cubes in ziploc bags in the freezer. Don't forget to label the bags (peas look a lot like zucchini!). And don't be surprised by how much it makes--a batch of green beans, for example, was I think 3 or 4 cans that blended down to fill 3 ice cube trays, which in turn filled two quart-sized bags. A good rule of thumb to remember is that each cube is about an ounce. Oh, and we have 5 ice cube trays for some reason, which makes the whole process SO much easier than if you're just using the two that come with the freezer. Do yourself a favor and grab a few extra trays at the dollar store before you start. 

In addition to the purees, by about 6 1/2 months Luke was also eating things like applesauce*, bananas (mushed up with a fork), yogurt, hummus, spaghetti sauce, cottage cheese, oatmeal, cream of wheat, etc. etc. etc.--basically anything the consistency of baby food. I know that it probably makes me a bad mom to give him such "grown-up" food so soon, but we introduced them slowly and he never seemed to have any trouble. We also don't have a family history of any allergies on either side. 

* You can totally make your own applesauce really easily, but I decided buying it was worth the work saved of not peeling the apples myself! Just look for "no sugar added" on the label--the ingredients list should say just apples, water, and maybe some ascorbic acid (vitamin C) to protect the color. There's absolutely no reason to add sugar to applesauce, unless the company is picking the apples so green that the apples don't have enough of their own natural sugars & vitamins developed yet. That's a clue that it's poor-quality food anyway, besides all the added sugar. No-sugar-added applesauce is never more than 10 or 20 cents more a jar than the regular kind, in my experience. Tastes exactly the same (better--more like apples!).

A note on rice cereal, etc.: Our pediatrician (and basically everywhere I've read anymore) recommended that we wait until 6 months to introduce solids; we made it to a little after 5. (Luke had started screaming any time we ate in front of him, grabbing food off our plates, and he kept acting hungry after I'd nursed him 8 or 9 times a day; he had really good fine motor skills to boot, so I just decided he was ready even though we jumped the gun by about 3 weeks.) His first foods were yogurt, bananas, smashed peaches, green bean puree, and hummus. However, I know that some pediatricians recommend introducing solids by 4 months or so, and when that's the case you traditionally start with rice cereal (watered down with formula or breast milk). I just thought I'd throw it out there that you really don't have to do that: If you're going to introduce solids early, you can use any cereal you want. White rice cereal is actually really unhealthy; it's nothing but pure refined sugars and starches. If you look at the history of feeding babies, it's actually the cereal companies that introduced the idea of starting with rice cereal. It's not something that other countries do, either (almost every culture starts infants eating solids around 6 months and they just start by feeding them mushy versions of traditional grown-up food). If you're going to do the cereal thing, it's just as easy to start with something whole grain (barley cereal, cracked wheat cereal, finely-ground oatmeal, etc.)--it's infinitely healthier for baby and it starts a habit of them preferring whole grains right from the start. The exception, of course, is if you have reasons to go gluten-free...in that case, brown rice cereal is still a better bet than regular rice cereal. It's more expensive, but since baby's only eating a tablespoon or so at a time, it's pretty unlikely you'll need to buy more than one box. Anyway, sorry! Just some interesting info (at least, I find it interesting). End soapbox. :-)

A note on baby-led weaning: Allie, you'll obviously have to pitch in more on this one, but I know the opposite idea of the rice cereal thing is baby-led weaning, where you don't even bother with purees at all and you just give kids grownup foods and let them figure things out when they're ready. The mantra there is "food is just for fun until age 1," which is a truism that's been really helpful to me this year with Luke. I really wanted to do baby-led weaning with Luke for lots of reasons: It seemed more natural, it's much less work for moms, etc. We gave it a shot, but it wasn't what Luke wanted or what I think he needed. Here's what I mean: The first solid food he ever got was a banana. He was excited and curious, but it kind of ended up a fiasco because he got really frustrated that he couldn't feed himself fast enough (those chubby little fingers just weren't coordinated enough!). Same story every time I tried to let him self-feed for the first little while. The kid was chomping at the bit to eat "real" food (anything but breastmilk), but he just wasn't old enough to have the fine motor skills to be really successful at it yet. He was feeding himself table foods by around 9 months (just like average babies), but between about 6 and 9 months we had to feed him. Fans of baby-led weaning will tell you that it's ok the kids are bad at feeding themselves at first, that they get better with practice, that there's no need to do purees because they can figure out how to feed themselves if you let them. All true--for a lot of babies. It just didn't work with Luke because he was too impatient, and I got the sense that to some extent he really did need some good, solid calories from "real" food to supplement his nursing by the time he was about 6 months old (if for no other reason than he was so big for his age and growing so fast). It also helped that Luke LOVED purees. He never spit them back out or anything**, unless he was full and trying to be funny (or unless we fed him peas, which took him months to come around to for some reason). What I plan to do with future babies & what I'd recommend to new moms is to start with baby-led weaning if that's something you want to try and to keep offering age-appropriate finger foods all along the way, but to supplement with purees until baby really has the fine motor skills (about 9 months) to be successful completely self-feeding.

** For what it's worth, I have a theory that babies who give their parents grief about spitting all of their baby food back out all the time just aren't old enough for solids yet. They haven't outgrown the tongue-thrust reflex that makes them good nursers when they're born. I bet if mom & dad waited a month or two, baby would be a much better swallower. End second soapbox.

Okay. So maybe this make-your-own-baby-food business seems like a lot of work, but can I explain how much food this makes? I'll try to give you a sense: Luke ate purees from 5 months until about 9 months. I had about 10 or 12 different kinds of purees in rotation (which is about the same variety you'd find at the grocery store, actually), and I only made purees for him 3 times. Seriously, 3 batches of cooking, about an hour and a half of work each, was enough to feed the kid for 4 months straight. Saved us at least $150, but probably over $200. That's like making $40 an hour. And it's fun! And you can customize how thick you make them just by adding more or less water--so no standing there trying to decide between Stage 1 and Stage 2 carrots in the baby food aisle at the store. And it's healthy, because you get to decide exactly what your baby is eating--no extra salt or sugar that you didn't add, no crazy BHT or food coloring, no wondering about cross-contamination (as long as you keep your kitchen clean!) or product recalls. And it's so much less wasteful than throwing away dozens and dozens of glass jars (Did you know that there is no glass recycling plant anywhere in the state of Utah? Every piece of glass thrown away in Utah goes to a landfill and will never decompose.) or plastic bowls. And there's nothing quite like seeing the literal fruits of your labors lined up in a colorful rainbow in your freezer.

Note that this is NOT my picture, although it looks a lot like the
purees I made. (It's from a blog with another lady's story about
making her own food that you can see here.) I'm still kicking myself
 that I never took a picture of our freezer full of cubes of food!

What's your story? Did you guys ever make your own baby food? How long did your little ones take before they made the switch to table food?

Cloth Diapers Part II (Answering Cathryn's Questions)

Cleaning Diapers before you Wash Them
This is the gross part of cloth diapering that probably deters people the most.  As for types of diapers, there are also options here.  We do things the very gross way, which means I clean my diapers out in the toilet with my hand and then deposit them into the diaper pail.  (I would encourage rinsing out just peed diapers too, it will pretty much eliminate smells from the diaper pail, at least, it did for us.)

They also make sprayers for cleaning your diapers.

I keep wishing I could try one of those and know how well they work.  They run about $50.00, which isn't much if they are going to work well, but is a lot if it's going to be a flop.  That's why I don't use one.  

I've also seen a few other things, but I'm not sold on them making it so you hardly have to use your hands.  I could see this one working, if you get enough pressure.

The truth about this part:  You get used to it.  It's not so gross when it's your own kid anyway, but you may find you know more about their bowel movements than you ever ever cared about.A n

A note on covers

We have fewer covers than diapers.  This is how that works.  If we change her diaper and the cover is soiled, it is dirty and goes into the pail.  If we change her diaper and the cover is not soiled, we clean it with one of our wipes and leave it to dry and exchange diaper covers at the next diaper change.  The only exception to this is on washing day when I try to wash as many diapers that have been used at all as possible.

How I wash my diapers
First of all, I have washed our underwear with her diapers.  Everything gets clean.  You can think of it as washing his blow-out clothes with other clothes.  Washers are amazing!   We wash diapers twice a week.

Note:  Of course every washer is a little different, so I'll try to keep it general.  My washer is a HE front loader.  I don't know what my dryer is, someone gave it to us.  It's old and squeaky.  :)

• Cold Rinse Cycle, no soap or anything, just rinse in cold (I put everything dirty in the washer: diapers, wipes, covers, wet bags)
• Hot wash Cycle with soap and ecover fabric softener (not necessary to use fabric softener)
• Then I dry the diapers and wipes on the highest, hottest setting our dryer has and run it twice.
• I hang my diaper covers and wet bags.  Although I have dried my diaper covers with my diapers before, but I decided to try and make them last longer by following half the tag (They say to wash in cold and hang to dry.  I'm of the opinion that I can't be bothered to do too many extra things.)

A few times a year (every other month to every 3rd month, I use bleach as follows)

• Cold rinse cycle
• hot wash cycle with soap
• hang diaper covers, wet bag, and move anything that can't be bleached to dryer (fancy diapers)
• hot wash cycle with bleach
• hot wash cycle with soap (may not be necessary, but I'm paranoid about there being any bleach left on the diapers)
• 2 times through the dryer like normal

The diapers always look so bright after a bleach cleaning.  Makes me happy.

As far as utilities, we pay about $100/month for our gas + electric.  I've asked around and other people in my ward in a 2 bedroom apartment pay about the same, so I figure it has very little to no impact.

Absorbency

I wouldn't be surprised if the gel in Luke's diaper wicked the moisture away.  I think it's designed to do that to keep the baby's bottom as dry as possible.

That being said, absorbency can be a hard one and you sometimes have to experiment to figure out what works for your baby.  All babies are different.  Some wet so so much.  Some don't.  Some poop every diaper.  Some basically never do.  That being said, we have on occasion had absorbency issues, but we also have had absorbency issues with disposable.  I don't know what the deal is with this girl.  The good news though is that we fixed it.

About two months ago, it seemed like Vidalia was wetting through everything for about a week.  At first I thought, man these covers must be terrible, which really made no sense because I had been using the same covers for 8 months with no unusual problems.  I tried trying the size larger, which were way too huge, so that was not the issue.  I think she was just peeing more.  We took a flat diaper folded it up and put it inside the prefold as we put it on.  It was amazing the difference really. 

How often do I change diapers

4-6 times a day.  Usually 4.  Without any problems.  This will change depending on how absorbent you make the diapers and age and such.

The Nylon Pants I Use

First of all, these are not the best diaper covers available.  I pay $4/2 pairs.  They're about the best you can get for that price.  I think the next step up is going to run you at least $10/pair.  That's why I use these nylon ones.  And I haven't had leaking problems through the nylon.  Leaks usually occur at a leg hole or the waist line, but I don't usually have leaks.  (I did more when she was younger though.  Cloth diapering seems to be an adaptive process, changing with age and sizes.)

My dislikes of my diaper covers 

• You can't adjust how the waist fits
• You can't adjust how the legs fit (I'm actually not sure if this is a pro or con.)

Possible solutions

• buy better covers
• wool - I've recently become very curious about wool, but all the covers I found online run $30/cover, it seems.  So I will probably never try wool covers, but if anyone ever does, let me know what you think.
• Make your own better covers.  I don't think it would be too hard.
• Don't use prefolds with diaper covers.  Try a different kind of cloth diaper altogether.
• Etc. Because there are more, but this is all I thought of just now.

Night Diapers

We do not currently do anything different for night diapers.  She lasts 12+ hours at night with no leaks easy.  

Before we were putting flat diaper linings in all her diapers, we were putting them in for night only.

What sold Ryan

 Well, lets just say any of the following phrases sell Ryan on things.

• Less expensive
• Eco friendly and about the same price
• Eco friendly and less expensive (this super sells Ryan)
• Save money
• spend less money
• etc.

Good luck trying to sell Scott on the idea.  It wasn't hard for us here.

One-Time Costs

• We have 3 sizes of diapers.  24 of each size (you can get away with fewer).  For the life of a baby, you may want to add 2 more sizes, one bigger than what I have and 1 smaller. Buying 12 diapers at a time cost me just under $30. (You can get the small size of prefolds from Mandalay, where I got my flat diapers, for cheaper.  They're not quite as nice, but about the same as far as absorbency is concerned.  They only have the one size though.)  Total = $300
• lots of flat diapers, lets just say 24 @ $0.75/diaper = $18 (I actually didn't buy any of these though, they were a gift.)  Total = $18
• We have 8 of 5 different sizes of covers (NB, small, medium, large, toddler) and we're currently using medium.  40 covers @ $4/2.  Total = $80
• Wipes = cut up old things Total = $0
• Snappis 1 pack of 3 Total = $7.40 (I'm guessing here, but that price came up online.  I think you may need more if you use these for several kids.  They're bound to fail eventually.  We've been using ours for about 1 year so far and they are still fine.)
• Diaper Pail, depends on your choice Total = $10
• 1 bought babysitter diaper + 1 made Total = $25 (over estimating on the one I made)
• Micro fleece (it wicks moisture from the bottom.  I use it sometimes with rashes.  I can't believe I forgot to mention it before now)  Bought it at the fabric store and cut it into insert-size strips and then did not sew it.  It doesn't shred the edges like other materials.  I used maybe a quarter yard. Total = $5 (max)
• A washer ours cost $450
• A dryer, ours was free

Total One-Time Costs = $445.40

Total with washer = $895.40

Recurring costs

I will overestimate what I think I use and what I think the costs are.

• Baby soap, 2-3/year $2/bottle? Total = $6 (I use this same soap to wash her, so that's not just to diapers)
• Baby oil, 1-2/year $2/bottle? Total = $4
• Extra Laundry soap, I have no clue, maybe I use one container for diapers? (I don't even think that much)  Total = $10
• Lanolin (I use it instead of desitin because desitin will ruin cloth diapers) 1-2/year $10/tube Total = $20 (there are cheaper off brands, but I haven't tried them yet.  And by cheaper I mean you could get the same amount for $5 or less, I think)
• Baby Powder (1 that we got from our baby shower and are still using) less than 1/year $2/bottle? Total = $2 (don't worry, I know what they say about baby powder.  We don't use it often.)
• Utility cost, no clue, no different than other people's so I'll say Total = $0 (or in other words, negligible)
• Ecover fabric softener I use 32 oz./2-3 months A case of 6 bottles on Amazon/$20.  (Free shipping with subscribe and save) About 1 case/year Total = $20 (You can cut this cost, I choose not to.  How much you use will also depend on your washer though.)

Total Recurring Costs = $62 (I think you can easily make this less.  I haven't gotten to working on that much yet.)

Sorry about the forever long post.  I think I hit on all of the questions you asked.  Feel free to ask more if you have them.

Cloth Diapers

Disclaimer: I don't really think cloth diapers will save you any money if you don't have a washer and dryer.  They may actually cost you more if you have to use a laundromat.

We started using cloth diapers when Vidalia was 1 or 2 months old.  It wasn't a complete cold-turkey transition, so I don't remember.  It's really not hard to do, but I do think if you're really going to, you have to commit yourself to doing it (at least until it's habit).

Why People Use Cloth Diapers
There's lots of reasons to use cloth diapers.  Obviously one is to save money or I wouldn't be writing this in the first place.  It's said to be more environmentally friendly.  May or may not be true.  I suspect it is.  Some people have to because of allergies to disposable diapers.  Some people do it as a hobby.  And about a billion other reasons.  I'm sure you can find several.  A lot of the stuff I read when trying to decide what we were going to do was written by people who are very (read overly) passionate about cloth diapering.

Why I use Cloth Diapers
When Vidalia was born we had some nursing issues, actually strike that, we had almost no nursing issues, but I had milk production issues.  This was quite unexpected and landed on top of us a monthly formula bill we were not planning on.  We hadn't really considered cloth diapers, but had a few that were given to us as a gift, at my mother's request, to be what she called "food storage diapers".  I was curious and started looking into it.  It didn't take me long to decide that we could cut some baby costs out here, so we tried it.  Unfortunately, the money saved by cloth diapers was not equal to or greater than the money lost to formula.  At least, I don't think so.  I don't actually know because I never purchased disposable diapers.

Pros of Cloth Diapering

• ability to custom fit to your baby (both size and how absorbent)
• lower cost over time (if you have a washer and dryer)
• fewer blow-outs (this was definitely the case for us)
• decrease of diaper rash (I've heard this.  I haven't had much experience to really compare though.)
• baby doesn't destroy wipes or diapers by playing with them
• cute designs (I just use white stuff, but I've heard this listed as a pro before.  People really get into it.)

Cons of Cloth Diapering

• you have to rinse them out and wash them
• more expensive up front
• way way way too many choices (at least, this can be a little frustrating when you are trying to figure it all out)
• more bulky

Why I'm Completely Sold on Cloth Diapering Now
When I went to visit family in Utah last July, my Dad really didn't want me to use cloth diapers at his house.  (They did them when we were young and he apparently was disgusted and hated it so so much.)  So, they bought me a big box of pampers.  I think Vidalia may have been allergic to them because she had a terrible rash.  And that would be my only experience to compare rashes with the different types of cloth diapers.  Anyhow, it seemed like every time I changed her diaper, I was changing her clothes.  I know she is a baby, but she was 7 months old.  She was past the constant blow-out stage.  Pee is not so annoying, just wash the clothes, but poo blow-outs are super annoying.  Washing out clothes and often soaking them trying to get the stains out (by-the-way oxi-clean is amazing).  You may think, but what about the actual cloth diapers?  Well, mine are stained, but noone ever sees the diaper.  It's really not an issue.  And they are not as stained as you would think.  I occasionally wash them with bleach and that pulls out a lot.  So that's why I'm completely sold on cloth diapers.  I've had more blow-outs with disposable diapers, which we've used for a maximum of 3 months out of her whole life, than with the cloth, which account for her other 10+ months of life.  That's a big deal to me.

Ryan is 100% with me on the cloth diapering.  I don't know if I would do it otherwise.  Or at least, I wouldn't solely do it.

What I Use
Note: Not all of these things are necessary.  Feel free to ask me about any of these things.

I tried to think of every last thing we use.  Let me know if you have questions about any of these.

• Green Earth Prefold Diapers (I bought mine from a local baby boutique for $2.50/diaper.  There are different sizes.  No such thing as one prefold fit every baby for life, but I wish.  I've tried some other brands of prefolds and this one comes highly recommended by me.)Snappi Diaper Fasteners (Instead of safety pins.  These things are amazing.  Bought them from the same local boutique for who knows how much.  We have been using the same pack the whole time.)

• Dappi Nylon Diaper Pants (Bought online through this link.  They are a little more expensive than vinyl diaper pants, but they don't shred into pieces if you accidentally put them through the dryer (or on purpose, I did a lot of experimenting at first).  Totally worth the extra $1 or whatever it is.  You need different sizes.  We have 8 for each size.  I think you can get away with 4 pretty easily though.  I just like to be overstocked.)

• Flat Diapers (I use the ones from Mandalay International.  $0.75/diaper.  I've cut some up and used them as wipes.  Sometimes I use them as a changing pad when I forget mine.  We currently use them as extra absorbency in her diapers.  We didn't always, but it became necessary.  There are stores in Ogden, Provo, and China or you can order them by phone (I don't think online.)  I used these ones because I used to work for these people and they are super cheap.)
• Ecover Fabric Softener (completely unnecessary.  I use it because the diapers were getting rough and it bothered me, but the baby didn't seem to care and it wasn't making her body raw.  It was simply to appease my conscience.  Oh and p.s. never use ordinary fabric softener on your diapers.  It apparently destroys them.  I didn't even experiment with this one, it seemed like I would be super upset with myself if I did.)

• Wet Bag (a wet bag is good to go in the diaper bag.  You put your dirty diapers in it, zip it up or pull the drawstring closed, and you don't smell hardly a thing and there are no leaks.  This things are awesome.  They say not to dry them in the dryer.  Believe them.  You can make them out of PUL fabric and cotton fabric.  It would be super simple.  It's just a bag.  Note on making things with PUL fabric though.  I suggest running them through the dryer at least once to ensure no leaking.  I know I just said don't, but I have an untested theory that if you leave the bag zipped up, you won't have delamination occurring, which is what will ruin your bag.  This are kind of pricey, in my opinion, but totally worth it if you don't want to make one.)
• Small Garbage with lid  (I think ours came from target.  It was the cheapest small garbage with a lid they had.  It is plastic.  It works great.  In hind-sight I would get the same garbage; it is super easy to clean out.)

• FuzziBunz One Size Pocket Diaper (I was (and still am convinced) that I signed up for cloth diapers and babysitters did not.  As part of figuring out cloth diapering, we tried to figure this out too.  They have a pocket and you stuff it with your whatever you want.  These things are pricey $20/diaper new.  Used you can probably find much cheaper.  I have 2.  The one in the picture with the snaps and one I made out of PUL fabric and velcro.  The velcro is so much better, p.s.  This diaper is good because it is basically like using a disposable.  It's much easier.  I still think they are more prone to blow-outs than prefolds though (since you wrap that diaper around your individual babies little bottom).  If you want to use cloth diapers and husband isn't into it, this may still work.  People call these kind of diapers husband-friendly.  I'm telling you though, if you can make your own, you will save yourself probably $19/diaper.  Not exaggerating.  I stuff mine with prefold diapers.  They come with their own stuff, but I find it less absorbent.  I've never had a babysitter need more diapers, so the 2 have worked great.  I still think it would be wise to have more, just in case.)
• Old cotton clothes that were going to be disposed of.  (We cut them into squares and use them as wipes.  Cost us nothing.  I wouldn't suggest buying clothe wipes.  They are made from things like microfiber and although very soft, will not have much grip, if you can imagine what I'm saying.)
• Water + baby soap + baby oil = wipe solution!  (You actually don't even need to add the baby soap and baby oil.  I know people who don't.  Or you could add one or the other.  I use all three because I like to think I'm actually washing the baby's bottom and the baby oil is so nice to their skin.  I haven't always used the baby oil, but I will never go back now that I have.  You can also buy wipe solution.  I'm guessing at least $10/bottle.  My suggestion is don't.)

I like to have 24 diapers and 8 diaper covers of each size.  It's more than you need for one baby.  I don't know how many flat diapers I have, but way way more than I need and they only come in one size, as far as I'm aware.

Some (but not all) other options
I never tried most of these other options because I am cheap and they are not as cheap as me.

• fitted diapers (most similar to disposable diapers.  They come in sizes the same too.  NB, 1, 2, etc.)
• all in one diapers (as it sounds, all in one piece.  You don't need to add absorbent cloth.  They can be fitted or one-size fits all, I believe.  I would discourage these because I think you would have to dry them a billion times to get them dry.)
• all in two diapers (also as it sounds, has two pieces. similar to a pocket diaper, but you generally snap the absorbent stuff into it instead of stuff a pocket.  I think pocket diapers are better because you can stuff them with whatever you want rather then having to get another insert that snaps and fits your snap if you were to ever need to replace it.)
• so many other kinds of diapers and things.  If you are interested we can talk more or you can do some of your own searching.

P.S. If you decide to use cloth diapers, please talk to me.  Then you can take some of the things I've learned (dos and don'ts, because there are many) and not have to take forever learning what I've already learned.  And sorry...so many words.

P.P.S. I think it is unwise to invest in a lot of stuff upfront.  Figure out what works for you first, then invest in that.  You would hate to spend $100 on fancy diapers that don't fit your baby well and thus you hate them and never use them.  You could have figured that out for less.

Tentative Schedule for 2012

Okay, sorry I've kind of been AWOL on this for a while! January was kind of a crazy month with Luke deciding sleep was for squares, etc. etc. I'm glad we got a couple of "getting to know you" posts done--I think we should keep adding more/updates as we go too (like Melissa said--we can be comforters for each other as well as teachers).

I've made a rough outline below of what kinds of things we could look at month by month. Will you guys edit/comment with what you think so we can get rolling? We can of course modify or get rid of any topics that don't sound interesting. Let's try to figure out a good order for the rest of them since most of the order here is pretty arbitrary. Hopefully these topics are a mix of things that you see and think, "I'm already happy with how I'm doing that--I don't plan on searching for a lot of new ideas" (that's where you have to let the rest of us pick your brain!), and some that you see and think, "I'm terrible at that--I wouldn't even know where to start" (that's where we have to figure things out together). We're already almost a week into February--HOLY COW! I need a pause button on life sometimes!


January: Getting to Know Each Other. What are our lives like now? What is everyone up to? What's hard about life these days? What's going well?

February: Saving Money on Kid Stuff. Where do you save money on your kids' things and where do you splurge? How do you decide? What kind of alternative things have you tried or do you want to try (cloth diapers, making your own baby food, shopping consignment sales, etc.)? How do you budget with kids? What plans do you have for teaching kids about the value of money as they get older (allowance, etc.)?

March: Gardening. This is a pretty narrow topic compared to the others, but it's the one I'm MOST interested in and I know I'm going to need a lot of help! What do you know or what would you like to learn about growing your own food or beautifying your home & yard with plants? How do you grow things when you don't have a yard (window boxes, container gardening, etc.)? What memories do you have of gardening growing up? What has been successful about gardening in the past and what has been a flop (remember that herb planter box we had one summer at N109? Ha!)? Maybe we can get Rachel Dunn to guest-post for us a couple of times. I'm thinking the earlier in the year the better on this one, since I'd like to start some seedlings inside to get ready for spring planting.

April: Strengthening Personal Testimony. Melissa pointed out that we should have some spiritual goals in here, too. I think this is one we can all always improve on, especially since we find ourselves in kind of a new place mentally & emotionally than we were in even just 3 or 4 years ago. How do we build our faith as individual adults, not just as mothers/wives/etc.? I thought it might be nice to do this during April since it's right after Conference. We can talk about what Conference talks were especially powerful, etc.

May: Good Food on a Budget. Canning/preserving, baking (not just desserts!), freezer meals, budget shopping, cooking gourmet at home, eating healthy even when healthy food is more expensive than junk food, etc. How do you encourage your kids/husband/self to eat healthy?

June: Textiles. Let's get better at working with cloth. We can talk about crocheting, knitting, sewing, applique, embroidery, quilting, etc.--whatever fabric-esque projects we've done or want to try. Good place to post pictures of the things we've made already!

July: Building Righteous Traditions. Starting habits now when our kids are really little that will keep our families strong for years. How do you do FHE with really little kids? What about scripture study? How do you remember to do family prayer? How do you keep up spiritual habits with your spouse (temple attendance, couples prayer & scriptures, etc.)?

August: Beautifying on a Budget. What have you done to make your home more beautiful, comfortable, and organized without breaking the bank? I'm thinking this can span the range from crafts to make your home more pleasant to cleaning & organizing tricks worth passing on. 

September: School at Home. How do you teach your kids? I'm thinking of "school" as being very loosely defined here--just any way that we act as our children's educators. What ideas are out there for helping pre-kindergarten kids build academic and social skills at home? What are the rules in your house about responsibility and discipline, or what rules would you like there to be down the road?

October: ? Grab bag, maybe (just post about any cool ideas you've seen)?


November: Holidays and Thrifty Gifting. Maybe this is a silly topic, but I would love to hear all you guys know about fun things to do as a family during the holidays. How do you decorate? What to you cook or bake? How do you give the gifts you want without destroying your budget? What holiday traditions are you keeping from your childhood with your family now? What new traditions are you starting? How do you negotiate time with extended family?

December: Reflection and Recording the Past. I think it would be cool if we each did a quick post in December talking about how our lives have changed (for better or for worse!) in the last year, and what we've learned. I also think it would be a good month to talk about ways we record our personal and family histories. Do you keep a journal? What purpose do you see your family/personal blog serving? How are you keeping memory books for your kids? What experiences have you had with ancestors' journals, etc.?




That's just a start of course. Topics that aren't in there but that were mentioned: car maintenance, potty training, and photography. (They seemed more narrow than the other topics.) Do you want to add those to the schedule? What should we do for October?

About Cathryn

Okie dokie! I haven't blogged a bit since like November, so I'm a little rusty...

No, he doesn't still have the beard.

Scott graduated with his master's in Geography last May. He is currently working on some final revisions to get his thesis work published as an article in the journal Remote Sensing of Environment under the fascinating title "Evaluating the Effects of Spatial Resolution on Hyperspectral Fire Detection and Temperature Retrieval" (sure to be an instant bestseller, har har). He now makes maps for the government here in St. Louis and is loving the work that he does and the people in his office. He is basically the best dad in the world--Luke laughs his head off when he sees Scott in the evenings. They like to read books together, go for runs in the jogging stroller, wrestle around, make faces, tease Mom...

At church, he's the branch mission leader, which keeps him super duper busy. When he gets a spare second, he likes to read and watch movies. We're missing the free cable we had in Salt Lake, but we're kind of making up for it with shows like 30 Rock and The Office and even Parks & Recreation sometimes. (But holy cow, have you guys seen Up All Night? I think it's one of the stupidest shows I've ever seen.)

I'm seriously digging this stay-at-home-mom gig. Luke and I are little buddies. We love going to the zoo, the store, the park, the science center, the shops along the little main street in our town, and the library. Luke is still too young to appreciate what we're doing, of course--he'd just as soon check out the fence as the elephant behind it--but I love to see all these things and he's game to go along! I'm slowly falling in love with St. Louis. It's a cool city, and we live in a great neighborhood. We walk or ride bikes to all those places, which works out well since Scott usually takes the car to work. You would think I would be losing weight faster...the last 15 lbs of Luke's residency still haven't come off yet, but I'm (half-heartedly) trying to watch what I eat a little more closely and be more active and my jeans are slowwwwwly fitting a little better. 

At church, I teach the CTR B class in Primary (6, 7, 8, and 9 year olds) and am the Activity Days leader. Since there are only 6 of us that work in Primary, everyone helps out with everything: the secretary is also the pianist (she and I swap once in a while), the president is also the CTR A teacher, the counselor is also the Sunbeams teacher, the nursery leaders are also the Elder's quorum second counselor and the Young Women's first counselor, etc. etc. Most of my Primary students can't read, lots of them have learning or developmental disabilities, not much support at home, etc. Basically the branch is a lot of work and it's pretty draining. The few of us who kind of hold things together (the student families out here from Utah & Idaho for grad school, mostly) are all really close out of necessity, but we all talk about how we go home and cry every Sunday out of frustration & exhaustion. 

Really, I'm doing pretty well. I miss my family and friends more than I can put into words, and the branch is tiring, but I really do have a pretty charmed life. I get to play all day with my sweet little boy and, now that he's a little more consistent about taking solid naps, I can even read or work on some Pinterest projects while he sleeps. It's lonely sometimes (a lot of the time?), but I'm happy.

Luke is a little tornado. He's 10 months old now and kind of in between 12 and 18 month clothes--too big for his baby car seat anymore! We were gone for 3 weeks over Christmas (not quite 2 weeks seeing Scott's family in Texas & Louisiana, and then a little more than a week in Utah) and during that time he learned how to crawl, cut two teeth, learned how to pull himself up in his crib, quit eating baby food, got a nasty ear infection (took two kinds of antibiotics to FINALLY get rid of it), started saying "mamamamama," went from 5 or 6 feedings a day to about 4, etc. etc. And since we were traveling, he got used to sleeping in the same room as me. Basically January has been a miserable month of teaching this kid how to sleep again. He had just barely started sleeping through the night right before we left, and it's taken 4 miserable weeks to get back to where he can do that again. It's about half and half now--some nights he sleeps for like 12 hours straight, but last night he woke up 4 times before midnight. I think he might be teething again?

Besides all the sleeping hullabaloo, Luke is just the most darling little monster. He loves to read books--he'll turn the pages, open the flaps, point at the details in the pictures (especially anything that looks like a ball!), and turn back to the front cover when he's done if he wants to "read" it again. Thank heavens for libraries. He loves balls ("babababababa"), especially his beach ball, and especially when he can situate himself about a foot from the wall and bat the ball back and forth to himself. His favorite thing this week is walking (very slowwwly) around the house holding your fingers. He will eat just about anything (and eat a TON of it) as long as he can feed himself--today so far he has had scrambled eggs, cheerios, peas, raspberries, blackberries, peach slices, and a hummus & wheat bread sandwich. (Obviously he eats healthier than I do!)



Good grief, sorry this is getting so wordy! You guys know me. Okay, I'll try to be faster. Plans...we're definitely staying in St. Louis for the foreseeable future (sorry, Mom). Scott loves his job and I love that I can stay home. We are definitely moving this summer when our lease is up, though. Our house (duplex) here is great, but it's way too big & way too expensive for what we need--we pay over a thousand dollars a month just on rent & utilities. Hopefully we can find a teeny little 2-bedroom house to rent closer to where Scott works, since right now his commute is 45+ mins. each way. (We won't complain too much about being in a regular ward again, either.) No plans for kiddo #2 yet; ask me again in the fall. We are trying to save up to buy a house (which is the main reason we'll be moving somewhere cheaper soon!). People at work keep nagging Scott to buy buy buy right now since interest rates are so low, but we really want to be able to put down 20% so we don't have to pay escrow. So depending on how cheap of a place we can find to rent and what raises are like for Scott at work in the next couple of years, buying a house is probably between 2 and 5 years off. We'll need a second car before then too, so we'll have to see how that all falls out.

Routine...my life is pretty formulaic right now, and I actually really like it. Scott leaves for work about 6 every morning, and Luke and I sleep in until 7:30 or so. He nurses & then we both have breakfast & play for a little while, and then he takes a nap around 9:30 for either 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 hours. He nurses when he wakes up, and then our afternoons vary a little bit--some mix of walks, lunch, playing with toys, reading stories, making visiting teaching visits, etc. He usually goes down for his second nap around 2 or 3 and sleeps for about an hour and a half. Dad gets home around 3 or 4 most days, and then we just get to hang out as a family--maybe go on a walk, eat dinner, something like that. He goes to bed about 7 or 8, and then Scott and I watch TV or movies or read together for a while before we go to bed. It's a good life!

Speaking of sleeping, Luke just woke up from his nap. I'm hearing "bapbapbap wahhh bababap ewahh!" from the other room in between thunks of him hitting/chewing on his crib. Off to the rescue!

What now?

Hey all!

So...I'm thinking if we really want this to work, we need to pick some categories for at least a few months in advance.  We had a good list of ideas before.  How about everybody picks their favorite (or a different one) and that will be the next 4 months.  (February, March, April, May)  I picked January already, so I don't think it's my turn again until May.  You guys can divvy up February, March, and April.  Pick whichever month you want in the comments and whoever picks February, feel free to post your topic whenever and we'll get started.