My Two Cents

While I am definitely not a blogging expert of all things frugal, I have learned a lot about not spending money in my few years of being a wife and mother. So if you want to read any of the tiny ways I pinch pennies, read on. If you are already a money saving genius, then please, add your own tips in the comment section. Or maybe include a link to a post you wrote about a similar topic?

And now for my unsolicited advice.....

You can't save money if you spend it. So to start saving you have to stop spending. Early on into our marriage Ted and I had a meeting about the budget and realized it was out of control. Actually, it was nonexistent. Neither of us had ever been taught how to budget and we really had no idea what we were doing. Thanks to some suggestions and books from some great friends, we were able to come up with a doable budget that allowed us to save money while going to grad school and paying for medical treatments for infertility. Doable, but tight. Because, hello!, uncovered medical expenses cost a fortune. So even though we were in a pretty good financial position thanks to my job, it sure didn't feel like it when the bills started piling up.  I'm grateful for that time though. It taught me how to budget and save and be creative before having children and becoming a (mostly) stay-at-home-mom.

During that first budget meeting, when our eyes were opened to just how much money was going out every month, Ted suggested a "spending freeze". We decided to see if we could go an entire month without buying anything except gas and groceries. I was up for the challenge. The very next day, our spoon rest broke. Ted asked if I would pick up another one the next time I was at the store and I smiled and said, "Spending freeze." So instead of buying a new spoon rest, I filed down the sharp spots and used a permanent marker to hide the crack and put the spoon rest right back on the stove. Four years later, it's still working just great doing its job of providing rest for our spoons.

So that's my first tip. Just don't buy things. You really don't need a spoon rest with an intact handle. You don't really need a spoon rest at all. When things break or get worn, decide if you really need them before automatically replacing them. All but one of our glasses have been broken over the course of five years. While there have been times I've wanted to replace them, I could just never justify the expense on something we didn't really need. We had enough random plastic cups to get us through. Sure, I was slightly embarrassed when we had company, but if our friends cared about what kind of cups they used they probably wouldn't be hanging out with us. So just stop buying things. Don't go shopping. And when you do, only put food into the cart.

We do, however, finally have some really nice glasses. Thanks to my mom who bought us some for my birthday. That's the next tip, If friends and family want to get you gifts, ask for practical stuff that you really need instead of fun stuff you don't. It's kind of boring, but always incredibly appreciated. I keep a running list throughout the year of things I'd like to have for Christmas. I know my family wants to buy things for us and will ask for ideas around Christmas time. If I keep track and just do without for a few months, I can stock our home with all sorts of tools and kitchen items to get us through until the next year.

We do a lot of reusables in our home. If it can be used a second time, it will be. If it can be reused thirty times, well then that's thirty times better. I can make a role of aluminum foil last for over a year. I can go months on end without ever buying ziplock bags. We do cloth napkins and cloth diapers.  The only item I really need to buy on a regular basis is toilet paper. We're just not ready (nor will we ever be...) to switch to reusable that.

Groceries could be its own post entirely. So I'll just stick to my top tips. For a few months we utilized WIC and it put a small dent in the budget. But, for our family, working a few more hours, taking an extra job, and getting even more creative with an already creative budget was a much better option than using food assistance. To make it work, I buy almost all of our meat from Costco and only get what is on sale. Then I plan very simple meals around those meats. We usually only have two things for dinner. A meat and a veggie, for example, instead of a meat, veggie, and potato. I make big batches to use for leftovers so we avoid having to spend more money on lunch. We rarely rarely, rarely go out to eat. Which isn't really a big deal considering that eating out with two kids is no fun anyway and I can't eat 90% of every restaurant's menu.

The most important money saving tip I have for groceries is to use cash. It can be a huge pain in the butt when Ted runs to the store for me and forgets the cash or Hannah "organizes" my wallet and mixes all the cash budgets together, but it's still necessary. I've found that I just wont take the time to check my online banking and see how much money we have left for groceries. But when there are seven whole dollars staring you in the face and six whole days of the month left, well it forces you to figure it out.

Ok, one more then I'm making myself stop. We almost never buy something new. We check Craiglists before making any big purchases. We swap items with friends who no longer need stuff. We got Hannah's twin bed by trading our double with friends who needed a guest bed. Ted is a connoisseur of finding free wood and using it for all sorts of projects and shelving around the house. We gratefully accept kid's clothes from friends and family and buy the rest consignment. I do a clothing exchange with friends every few months and get to clean out my closet and get free clothes in the process. For other clothes we use gift cards from birthdays or wait until we find a good deal.

What am I missing? What are some of the things your family does to save money? I'm always open to ideas I've been missing out on.

Every once in a while Ted and I play the "Wouldn't it be Cool if We Won the Lottery" game. And while it's fun to imagine what types of things you could buy and do with millions of dollars, we are in complete agreement that we really wouldn't change much about our lifestyle. There still isn't any reason to buy kid's clothes new or throw away a ziplock bag after one use. And while I would probably spend well over a thousand dollars a month packing our cart full of delicious food, I would still check Craigslist for deals when we needed something. And one more thought about money (here's where my two cents turns into a very preachy two dollars). It's just money. Really. I think there is a temptation in some circles (read: Catholic families on a budget) to sort of idolize saving money. Just as the temptation to fall into materialism is there for the wealthy, the temptation to worship frugalness or thriftiness is there for the non-wealthy.

So while I do try very, very hard to save money for my family and make smart financial decisions, in the end, it's just money. And I don't let trying to earn it or trying to save it consume me or keep our family from enjoying the many blessings we've been given.

Hannah's Kitchen

Because we are devoted, generous, loving crazy parents-we made Hannah a play kitchen out of a set of old night stands that I found on the side of the road for her second birthday. It was supposed to be for Christmas-but hey, a month a half later isn't too bad. Instead of getting ready for this new baby, practicing relaxation techniques, or doing birth-prep exercises-we spent hours every evening perfecting these miniature appliances. I hope I don't deeply regret this when it comes to labor and delivery....

Tons of work. Way more work than we thought. But oh-so-worth-it.

Here's the before:

And the after:

Yes, it has a real oven light.

And a working oven door.

Raised burners and knobs that turn.

An oven drawer for all the dishes that I have yet to get her. 

A sink for washing hands and produce.

Shelves for all of her goodies. Fully stocked thanks to Christmas presents from the grandparents!

An adorable curtain that I admit I did not sew myself. (Thanks Karen!)

And best of all-world's cutest kid to enjoy it!

I have no idea how much the project ended up costing since we did it over the course of several months. Cheaper than if we had bought a new one for sure. We already had all of the scrap wood, fabric, and bowl. We had to buy the drawer pulls, oven rack, light, plexiglass, wooden circles for the burners, and paint.

So far, her favorite thing to do is sit in front of it and play with her blender or scoop ice cream. But I know that will change as she grows into it. Hopefully it holds up and last for years to come. Goodness knows we're not making another!

Happy Birthday sweet girl. We love you so much!

(and even though I definitely don't have cabin fever in the 70 degree weather we've been having....and Ted did almost all of the work-I'm linking this up here. Click to check out more creative projects!)

Poor Man's Water Table

I've been wanting a water table for Hannah, but buying one was just out the question. Even buying the materials to make one wasn't an option after we just spent money on materials to build her the Learning Tower. So I set out to make one for....free.  Here are step by step instructions.

Step 1: Relocate your husband's "garden" to the railing of the deck. Clean out old storage tub.

Step 2: Dump everything out of a crate in the back of a closet. (no picture for this step-as you can imagine, it was far too messy)

Step 3: Tape the heck out of em.

Step 4: Flip it over and fill it with water.

Step 5: Get wet

and have fun!

I could rename this blog "How to do stuff without spending a penny". I'm getting pretty darn good at it.

Green for the Green-Cloth Napkins

As I've mentioned in my other Green for the Green posts, most of the "green" things that happen in this household are all about saving cash. Sometimes it's for moral reasons. Sometimes it's for our health. But nine times out of 10-it's the pennies that I'm trying to pinch. 

Cloth napkins fall squarely into that category. With a little bit of "saving the environment" thrown in there too.

One way I try to save money is to not buy things that are just going to be thrown away. Diapers Wet wipes. Napkins. Paper Towels. A bulk package of paper towels costs $12 at my local Walmart. Twelve bucks! And yeah-it's a lot of paper towels. But it's still too much money. And you can't buy the really cheap ones. No paper towel is better than than a crappy paper towel.

We had a collection of eight store-bought cloth napkins, but when Hannah started eating solids we quickly realized that wouldn't be enough. We had two rolls of paper towels still in the cabinet from our pre-cloth days. (We would use them occasionally to soak up the grease from bacon. We love our bacon.) But we soon found ourselves grabbing for a paper towel to wipe down Hannah's hands and face.

When we ran out of paper towels, I refused to buy more. I'm keeping my twelve bucks and spending it on something better, like more bacon. Thankyouverymuch!

I originally got the idea to start using cloth napkins from this frugal friend. Then I got the idea of making them myself from this crafty gal. And I got the idea to use old t-shirts that were destined for Goodwill from this creative genius.

I just cut up the old t-shirts with pinking sheers (to prevent fray-although jersey doesn't really fray anyway) and threw them in the drawer. And it took me less time than it took Hannah to take a crappy nap!

21 napkins.

0 dollars.

We still have the store bought ones for when company comes over. We're not total cheapos ;)

And you know what? We kinda like our bacon greasy.

More on Cloth Diapers

I got several questions in the comments section of this post. I thought it would be easier to address them in another post...so this is that post. It'll probably be all over the place.

First-a thank you to these three ladies, without whom cloth diapering would have been a lot scarier.

Sunshine-We started using cloth diapers around two weeks. I didn't want to mess with the meconium and thought it might be a little overwhelming. Plus-we got a box of disposables from our shower so I figured we might as well use them. I would probably do the same with another baby.

Time per week?? That's a tough question because I put them in the wash and then forget about them for 45 minutes. Here is a play by play:

I throw them all in and turn on a cold water rinse cycle and then set a timer for 20 minutes (this takes about two minutes). No sorting-just dump them all in, bag and all. When that's finished, I add detergent and turn on a hot water wash cycle and set a timer for 45 minutes (this takes one minute). Then I do one more cold water rinse (less than a minute). If you had a washer with fancier settings-it would be much easier. Then I throw them in the dryer (one minute) and let them dry. They take around 40 minutes to dry. The covers are dry pretty quick-it's the inserts that take forever. If I wasn't so lazy I could take the covers out after 10 minutes and the inserts would dry faster.

The most time is spent stuffing them. I have the kind of diapers that come with microfiber inserts (Microfiber absorbs quickly-so no leaks). I stuff one insert into each diaper and add the hemp doublers to the nighttime diapers. (Hemp is super absorbent and holds liquid for a really long time-great for night.) This takes about 7 or 8 minutes. Five if my husband is helping.

I do that 2-4 times per week. In total, only a few minutes washing them and a few minutes stuffing them

When I am actually changing her diaper it takes an extra two seconds to take the insert out and drop it in our wet bag, rather than just throwing a disposable in the trash. But we save time on diaper rash cream. So it probably balances out.

Eighteen diapers is plenty for us. I've never had to wash more often than every other day. I have a friend that gets by on less.

I decided on bumGenius because there was a sale :) I knew I wanted a pretty convenient diaper-nothing too complicated. A friend of mine has and I liked the way they work. bumGenius were cheaper-so that's what I got. The Rumparooz claim to fame is an internal gusset-but I don't have any leak problems with the BumGenius. I also knew I wanted an adjustable diaper-I didn't want to buy new ones when she's grew bigger. I like the snap-down feature better than the elastic feature of the FuzziBunz. I bought one of each so I could see which I liked better. I chose snaps over velcro because I thought they would hold up better in the wash. I'm VERY glad I did.

Mandi-What's your detergent recipe? Our water is through Ista. I don't have any problems with the detergent-I've added vinegar to the rinse just once or twice since we've had them. (Vinegar softens the water, which helps get rid of build up. And yes, I know you know that Mandi-that's for other readers.) bumGenius says you can use 1/4 cup of bleach once a month. I did that once and it worked AMAZINGLY!

Christine and Emily-I hung them on the line when I was at my parents' a few weeks ago. Everything dried great except the hemp inserts-those would have to be dried in the dryer. (And a bonus-the sun bleaches the poop stains out!)

Sarah-Congrats!! I had to hunt for Borax and Washing Soda too. I did find Borax at Walmart-it was near the OxyClean. It's in a big cardboard box. The Washing Soda I found at Kroger, a local grocery store. It wasn't with the other laundry detergents-it was with the dish soup. Both cost around 3 dollars. The only other detergent I've tried is the bumGenius one because a sample came with the diapers. It worked really well-I would probably buy that if my mix gave me any problems.


Jenelle and Laura- The only rinse I do is in the washing machine. I dump all the diapers into a wet bag (which is a bag designed to keep the wet stuff in) after I change her and leave them there until I was them-poo and all. I just do a pre-rinse before I wash the diapers. I have NO issues with poo in my washer. Some people think that's an issue but it's absolutely not. The washer is designed to clean itself!

Allie-I'm still so excited about the possibility of you having two babies! Any readers use cloth diapers with twins? Or two kids at once? Advice for Allie? I would still do cloth with twins-double the diapers mean double the expense, and double the savings! It really isn't THAT much extra work. Maybe you could hold off on buying them until you got into some sort of groove (if that's even possible..) and then decide?

Awaiting-When we're out I still use cloth. I have two medium sized wet bags (small are way too small) and I just throw the dirty diaper in them until we get home. I have some cloth wipes in my diaper bag and a little 3 oz squirt bottle. The bags get washed with the diapers. It's no big deal at all.

Grace-Don't stop googling! You can do it! Two friends wrote about cloth here and here. I like this website. It's a lot of info at first-just wade through it. Also, go to YouTube and search FuzziBunz Review or bumGenius Review. It helped me to see the diapers "in action".

And if you're still left in the dark check this out. You can buy a sample pack of all sorts of diapers and then return them. It'll only cost you 10 bucks in the end. Maybe you could even wait until after the baby is born and take it as slow as you like!

And feel free to ask me more questions.

Any other questions out there?

Green for the Green-Cloth Diaper Edition

Call it what you will-crunchy, granola, green. I really don't care. There are aspects of our life that definitely fit this hippy, earth loving category and other aspects that fall far from the green tree. More often than not, my motivation for doing something seemingly "green" comes down to money.

I'm a pretty frugal person. Like, really, really frugal. Exceptionally frugal.

Ok. Ok. I'm cheap.

How cheap? Ted texted my dad a picture of Hannah. My dad replied, "It looks like she's storing peanuts in those cheeks!". Ted responded, "Ha. She's sneaking them into the ballpark because they're too expensive inside." To which my dad said, "Oh, so she doesn't just look like Katie...."

Ouch.

But when all three years of our marriage have been spent with at least one spouse in graduate school, cheap isn't an option-it's a necessity. In an effort to help others who may not have access to that ever elusive money tree, I'm going to lay out some of the things we do that could be considered green. A few might surprise you. And not all of them are done for the savings.....


The most obvious aspect of our so-called crunchy life would have to be cloth diapers. When money isn't readily available, we try to save as much as we can by not buying things that are just going to be thrown away. Using disposable diapers just feels like pouring cash directly into the trash can. A very poopy trash can.

We spent a few hundred dollars (about 350 I think) on our entire cloth stash. Almost all of that was money we got from baby showers. We definitely could have done it for cheaper (by buying a different kind of diaper or buying used) but I wanted to get something that would hold up should God choose to bless us with more butts to diaper.

We have 18 BumGenius 4.0 with snaps and one Fuzzi Bunz that we use for a swim diaper. All of them are adjustable-we will never need to buy another diaper for Hannah as they will grow with her until she's potty trained. We stuff them with an extra hemp insert at night and rarely have to change a diaper in the middle of the night.

We also use cloth wipes, which just make sense if you're already using cloth diapers. Our wipes are a collection of BumGenius wipes and random baby washcloths. We have a water bottle by the changing station that we use to spray the wipes before we use them.

All of it gets thrown in the wash every two to three days. Some might argue that the increased water bill offsets the savings from using cloth diapers, but I would have to disagree. Our water bill increased about four bucks a month since having Hannah. Even if all of that was cloth diapers-it would still be a dramatic savings. But we do double the laundry now even if you exclude the diapers! Just washing burp rags and onesies alone would have increased our water bill, so the expense for washing the diapers is negligible.

Regular detergents are harmful to cloth diapers, so special soap must be used. I make my own detergent, again, because I'm cheap. It's a combo of borax, washing soda, and Oxy Clean. Works great. Costs pennies per wash. Score.

Since diaper rash is rare with cloth babies, we don't have to spend money on yucky diaper creams!

The only aspect of cloth diapering that we don't do is line drying. But you better  believe that as soon as I get a clothes line these puppies will be hanging from it every other day!

Is it extra work? Yes. Is it worth it? You bet. Other benefits of cloth: it's obviously better for the environment and arguably better for baby. And while I'm glad these are benefits-they're definitely not why we chose cloth. When it's all said and done, it comes down to saving money.


Do you use cloth diapers? Do you have any questions about how to make it work?