Monthly Archives: August 2011

Cloth diapers: reconsidering expensive pocket diapers

I’ve raved about inexpensive prefold diapers in the past, and I still think they’re a great entry into cloth diapering. They don’t require a huge financial investment, they’re easy to use, durable, and a snap to keep clean.

However. As many of you seasoned cloth diapering moms warned me, prefolds have become cumbersome as Judah is getting more mobile. I don’t think they’re interfering with his ability to move around (obviously), but I do wonder if they’re as comfortable for him now that he’s moving. And let’s be honest, wrestling a mobile baby into a prefold, Snappi, and cover while he twists and turns and moves is a lot harder than snapping him into a single diaper.

One other slightly TMI confession: I am not as wild about cloth diapers since we introduced solids. Prefolds were simple for an exclusively breastfed baby. Now not so much. I’ve tested some of the pockets I already have on hand, and I was amazed at how much easier it was to deal with solid waste with the fancy microfleece lining compared to the cotton prefolds that are folded to fit him. Let’s just say all those folds and creases make it a lot harder to dispose of the waste before washing. Moving on.

I don’t want to discourage anyone from prefold diapers. They have worked fabulously for me, and I will continue to keep them on hand and probably continue to use them under certain circumstances. I don’t regret buying them. I didn’t want to invest hundreds of dollars into a cloth diaper stash before I knew if it would work for us, and the initial investment to use pocket diapers full-time for a newborn who needs 10-12 diapers changes a day was just too much for me.

I’m just starting to wonder if I should add a few more pocket diapers to my stash to make things a little easier on all of us (and future babysitters). Now that we’re past the newborn phase of 12 diapers a day, I could probably make a dozen diapers last two days, especially if I had some prefolds on hand to fill in the gaps if he needs a few extra diaper changes on some days.

I have a BumGenius 4.0, a FuzziBunz Hemp Organic, a BumGenius all-in-one, and a SmartiPants pocket diaper. I like all of the pocket diapers a lot, but I haven’t used them enough to develop a preference.

I wanted to get opinions from my cloth diapering readers: do you have a preference for a certain pocket diaper? Which works best for toddlers? Judah is slim and small for his age (10th percentile for weight, 50th for height at his last appointment three months ago), so I suspect he will stay that way for the foreseeable future. He’s probably around 18 pounds now, so I don’t think fit will be a problem for a while. We hope to use cloth until he potty trains, so I want to make sure they diapers I buy now will fit a 3-year-old if necessary.

I like the idea of FuzziBunz hemp diapers, because they’re made from organic, natural materials. But they’re more expensive. I’ve also developed some brand loyalty toward Cotton Babies products. My favorite covers are Flips and Econobums, so I’m thinking I’ll be just as happy with the BumGenius. So I’m torn. Tell me what you think!

Are pot roasts covered by car insurance?

My parents were visiting us all weekend, which means we didn’t have time to run the errands and do the chores that we typically do on the weekend. So my Monday was a little busier than normal. My to do list looked like this:

  • Grocery shopping
  • Post office
  • Return library books
  • Attend play time at library

It’s not a lot, obviously, but usually the only thing on my list on Monday is play group.

Last week, Judah skipped his morning nap, so he was crabby all through play group. I decided to go to the grocery store first yesterday morning in the hope that he would fall asleep in his car seat on the way there and sleep through most of my shopping so he’d be rested by the time we got to the library. (Ha! He did fall asleep on the way there, but woke up immediately after I shut off the car, so my plan didn’t even work.)

I was running late when I left the grocery store, but I thought I’d have just enough time to get home, unload the groceries, and make it to the library right around the corner just in time for play group.

I was driving up the center lane of the parking lot when an ENORMOUS monster-sized dump truck suddenly appeared on the other side of a parked school bus. I slammed on my brakes and laid on my horn. THUMP. The dump truck hit me anyway.

Thankfully, he wasn’t going very fast, so the impact was minor. If Judah HAD been sleeping, I doubt he even would have woken up. The air bags didn’t deploy, which is a relief for me since those things terrify me. I mean, I get that they’re helpful in a high speed crash, but they usually cause more injury than the accident itself in a minor collision.

You may remember, I just bought my car in February. My shiny new beautiful Toyota RAV4, the nicest car I’ve ever owned. Now it has a huge dent on the front thanks to the giant dump truck. Sigh.

Obviously, we missed play group as we waited in the parking lot for an hour for the sheriff, and he wrote out a police report. All while my $12 chuck roast sat in the back of the car probably spoiling. So help me, if that chuck roast spoils, I WILL SUE. For $12 plus pain and suffering caused by lack of dinner for the rest of the week.

Anyway, I’m clearly keeping things in perspective. I’m thankful that we’re both safe, and even if the damage had been major, it’s just a car. In this case, the damage is superficial. I was able to drive away from the scene with no problems despite the fact that my front side is dented in.

After posting about the incident on Facebook, Kacie reminded me that I should probably consider replacing Judah’s car seat. I did some quick research to see what the protocol is in the event of such a minor collision. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a car seat may still be safe after a collision as long as 1.) the air bags don’t deploy, 2.) no one is injured, 3.) the car is still drivable and 4.) there is no damage to the door closest to the car seat. All of those things are true in this case. However, the NHTSA says you should defer to manufacturer guidelines.

I called Chicco to see what they’d have to say. Surprise surprise, the corporation that sells car seats says the seat is now unsafe, and they want me to buy a completely new car seat no matter how minor the impact. Pfft. I’m annoyed, because I don’t think there’s any way the seat was damaged by such minor impact. I could probably shake my car more by bumping it with my hip. But I am a parent, and I’m not willing to take any risks with my baby’s safety, and they know that. So they’re using my parental fear to manipulate me to buy a brand new car seat.

Well, the joke’s on them, because I’m not even buying a Chicco! Judah’s probably getting close to the height limit for his Keyfit anyway, so I’m just going to go ahead and get him a convertible. The dump truck driver’s insurance better reimburse me, though, because now I won’t be able to use the Keyfit for a future baby. I’m pretty crabby about that.

Compare rates, find discounts, or get a quote for cheap insurance for your car in the UK. Customers save an average of 25% on their car insurance premiums with CarInsurance.org.uk.

Judah desperately needed a nap when we came home, but I couldn’t get him to sleep all afternoon, because they’re replacing the roofs on the condos next door, which is making a ridiculous racket.

All of this is to say, I had a bad day. But we’re okay. Any time you and your kid can walk (or crawl) away without a single bump after an accident, it is a blessing. My pot roast may not have been so lucky, and my pretty new(ish) car is all dinged up, but we’re okay. And that’s what matters, isn’t it?

Advertisements appear in italics.

Flip camera winner

The randomly chosen winner of the “Great Piggy Bank Adventure” Flip camera from T. Rowe Price is Kim with her comment:

I think its easier to talk about these thing rather than money because there are so many families struggling with their financials right now.

I feel terrible admitting this, but I didn’t consider that perspective. I can see how people who are struggling or feeling bad about their financial situation would have a hard time talking to their kids about it.

If that’s the situation you’re in, I really want you to know that it’s never too late! Despite the unsure economy, you can dig yourself out of any situation you’re in and help your kids avoid mistakes in the future.

Congrats to Kim, and thank you everyone for entering. Stay tuned for more contests and prizes in the future!

Things I have seriously considered since my baby started crawling

This new stage of development does not agree with me. I much preferred the days when Judah would sit still, snuggled safely in my arms out of harm’s way.

It’s not that I wanted to keep him that way forever. I’m really looking forward to the fun stuff that comes along with having an older kid — the increased freedom, the family vacations, the conversations with my little person. But I am struggling with this in between time when he wants to go go go, but he’s not yet old enough to understand caution or danger or reason of any kind.

For a while, he was content to crawl around in the playpen if I needed a few minutes to get something done around the house, or you know, use the bathroom. But now he’s suddenly rebelling, and even the playpen is too much containment for his taste. He no longer plays contentedly in there. Now when I put him down, he stands up and screams at me until I take him out again and let him wander the house on all fours.

I realize this stage is crucial to his development, so I baby proof the house as best I can, do my very best to keep him safe, and chase him all day to prevent him from hurting himself. But on days like today when I’m exhausted and longing for the time when he snuggled safely with me, I start thinking crazy thoughts.

What if we converted the spare bedroom into a padded room so I could let him bounce around in there while I fold laundry?

What if we just padded the entire HOUSE? Then he could crawl around bonking into things to his heart’s content, and I wouldn’t have to worry.

Do they make rock climbing helmets and knee and elbow pads in size 6-9 months? They really should consider that for daredevil babies with absolutely no sense of self-preservation or caution.

Why on Earth don’t human babies learn to walk proficiently within hours of birth like colts and deer? Wait. That actually sounds worse. Scratch that. The LAST thing I want is a 1-week-old bonking his head on the coffee table.

I’m trying my hardest to relax and accept that I’m not always going to be able to protect him. The best I can do is prevent serious injury and hope that he’s designed well to withstand a few bumps along the way as he learns to get around. My dad always says, “They’re built low to the ground so they don’t have far to fall,” and I think he’s right. Mobile babies really are built tougher than we think and designed to handle the normal bumps and bruises that go along with learning to walk.

While this attitude helps my fear a little, it does nothing to help the exhaustion that comes with chasing him all day. Pfft. Slow down, baby! Mama needs a break.

Unplanning our menus

So at what point do you stop calling the postpartum pounds “baby weight”? Because my baby is almost 9 months old, and I’m still hauling quite a bit more around than I’m comfortable admitting. Methinks this is less about the baby and more about the absurd amounts of junk food I craved when I was pregnant. (Note: “Breastfeeding makes you lose weight” is a MYTH. Because homeboy is still nursing around the clock, and it’s not helping my waistline.)

In an effort to finally get serious about getting myself back to a comfortable weight, I joined a gym and met with a personal trainer for a free consultation. I told him about my diet, which honestly, is reasonably healthy. I cut out the junk food after Judah was born. We rarely eat out, and we never eat fast food. We cook fresh whole foods, lean protein, and lots of vegetables … but we also eat lots of carbs.

To keep our grocery budget down, we make a lot of big pasta dishes and sandwiches, and potatoes are usually featured pretty prominently in our menus. The trainer suggested I cut the carbs and focus on eating vegetables and lean proteins instead and see if that helps me shed the rest of this weight. That doesn’t seem tough to me. I’m not counting carbs. Just sort of leaving them off our menu.

Unfortunately, this makes menu planning tough. Most weeks our menu features at least one pasta dish and one sandwich night. Most days I also throw a sandwich together for lunch. On weeks when I’m having menu planning writer’s block, we’d even eat pasta or sandwiches twice. We usually bought potatoes in bulk and served them roasted or boiled as a side dish. Clearly, I’d have to rethink our entire menu planning strategy if I was going limit my carbs.

So we’re trying something new. We’re unplanning. In other words, we’re just buying one or two meats that are sale priced, and then loading up the cart with whatever produce is cheap that week. When we get it all home, we take stock of what we bought, and we build a menu around that.

Here’s an example of how it works. Last week, split chicken breasts were on sale for 99 cents a pound. We loaded up on a few pounds of chicken. Then we filled the cart with low-price produce — several heads of romaine, spinach, tomatoes, carrots, zucchini, squash, broccoli, sugar snap peas, onion and cauliflower. We have a ton of homegrown cucumber and herbs from the garden. For snacks, we bought fruit — peaches, pears, apples, and grapes. We also bought staples like milk, eggs, cheese, and some canned beans.

Surprisingly, because everything we bought was on sale, we stayed within our grocery budget. Tony basically shopped our produce selection each night and made something up. It turned out fantastic! Here’s what he came up with last week:

  • Roasted chicken breasts with squash and side salad
  • Chicken Caesar salad
  • Chicken stir fry
  • Chicken skillet with beans and vegetables
  • Chef salad with turkey
  • Grilled chicken and veggie kabobs

Yes, you end up eating a lot of the same meat all week, but you can change it up the following week. Pork and beef would work the same way. Or you could use beans instead of meat.

Of course, this method relies heavily on having an adventurous cook in the house. Tony is great at foraging the kitchen and throwing something together.

At the end of the week, we had a few items left — spinach and cauliflower mainly. We took stock of what was left, and we made sure we used up any leftover produce at the beginning of this week to avoid waste.

I really enjoyed everything we made last week, and shopping the sales motivated us to buy and use produce that we rarely eat — like zucchini and squash. It is a little harder control spending without writing an actual menu and grocery list, but as long as you stick to sale meat and produce and only buy about as much as you’ll eat, it shouldn’t get too pricey.

Now send me low-carb recipes! I doubt the planner in me will let this “unplanning” last too long.

Photo credit

Three years of blogging

Early in August, this blog passed a milestone, and it didn’t even occur to me until a few days ago that I missed it. As of August 3, this blog is three years old.

Normally when a birthday passes, people marvel, “Where has the time gone? It seems like only yesterday.” In this case, I don’t feel that way AT ALL. Instead, I’m all, “Seriously? It’s only been three years?! It feels like AT LEAST ten!”

My life is so drastically different now, it’s amazing to me that it was only three short years ago that I wrote the first post. For starters, just look at how skinny I was in the picture on the right — taken the night before my wedding a little over a month before I started blogging. Pfft.

  • My husband and I were newlyweds and child-free.
  • I was working full time while my husband was in grad school.
  • We lived in North Carolina.
  • We carried a large enough balance on our credit cards that we couldn’t pay it off in a month (though we were already well on our way to paying it off, and we’d drastically reduced our credit card debt in the year before I started blogging).
  • We were renters with no plans to buy a home for the foreseeable future.
  • We had no savings, no budget, and no financial plan.
  • The idea of saving money for an emergency fund, a down payment on a home, and our future was so overwhelming that I remember feeling like it was impossible.

I don’t feel like the same person I was when I started this blog. Probably because I’m really not!

  • I’m a mama now, which I suppose is the biggest change.
  • My husband and I have swapped roles, as I’m a stay-at-home mom while he brings home the bacon.
  • We live in Indiana again (and we couldn’t be happier about it!)
  • We no longer carry a balance on our credit cards.
  • We’re homeowners.
  • We have a healthy emergency fund.

Most importantly, the past three years have taught me that no financial goal is impossible. Sure, it can be overwhelming, but if we’ve been able to make it work on our income, you can, too!

We’re a single-income household earning pretty close to the median income for our area. And yet careful budgeting, prioritizing, and planning allow us to live comfortably — even afford some little luxuries — without living paycheck-to-paycheck.

It’s amazing how much can change in three years. I wonder what the next three years have in store for us! I have a few new goals:

  • Now that we’re homeowners, our focus is shifting to finally paying off our student loan debt.
  • We’d like to increase our emergency fund savings to provide extra protection now that we have a mortgage to pay.
  • We also have a list of home improvement projects we’d like to undertake once we’ve saved the cash.
  • Totally unrelated to our finances, I’d like to be that skinny again. Whether that’s possible remains to be seen. Oof.

I hope you’ll stick around to find out what the next three years brings. I plan to keep writing as long as you keep reading. Actually, for the first 6 months or so, no one was reading, and I kept writing anyway. So I guess I’ll be around as long as I’ve got something to say, whether anyone wants to read it or not. :)

Financial literacy, your kids & a chance to win a Flip camera!

Sorry, entries for this contest are now closed. A winner has been chosen, and I will be announcing as soon as I’ve received the prize from T. Rowe Price and contacted the winner. Thanks for participating!

When I was a kid, my parents were a pretty open book. We talked about money just like we talked about everything else. My parents never kept us in the dark. We understood the financial choices they made, and they shared things with my sisters and me candidly.

Now that I have a baby of my own, I’ve already put thought into how I’d like to educate him about money. I think it’s important for parents to talk to their kids about money from an early age. The lessons should be age-appropriate, of course, but I think we’ll start Judah’s financial education pretty early.

We plan to ask Judah to put aside a portion of birthday and Christmas money given to him by grandparents into a savings account. He’ll be allowed to make choices about how he’d like to use the money, but we’ll talk with him about the value of saving money and spending it responsibly.

I’m not sure where I stand on the topic of giving an “allowance.” My sisters and I were given an allowance off and on throughout childhood, and it was usually tied to completing certain household chores. I think kids should learn that contributing to the household by doing chores is part of their responsibility as a member of our family — not an incentive for money. However, I think there’s value in teaching kids that work = money, and if they want to earn an income, they have to work for it.

Most importantly, Tony and I plan to be open with Judah and future children about our financial situation and choices. When they’re old enough to understand, I’d like to teach them about paying bills each month and show them how much things cost. I’d like to go over the family budget with them to show them where our money goes and discuss our emergency fund, savings, and other financial choices in depth.

I want to encourage our children to work part-time after school when they’re teenagers, and give them financial responsibilities of their own like car insurance, gas, and spending money. I was given financial responsibilities as soon as I was old enough to work, and I think it taught me a lot about money management and responsible spending habits.

As part of their financial literacy campaign, T. Rowe Price asked me to write a post about talking with kids about money. According to a recent survey conducted by T. Rowe Price, they discovered that parents found it more difficult to talk to their kids about money than talking to them about dating, drugs, smoking, or alcohol. That sort of blows my mind. I think money is a topic that you can begin discussing with children at a much younger age than I would bring up those other topics.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as playing “store” or “restaurant” with a young child and teaching them to exchange play money for toys or play food. The lessons can grow with your child as you discuss more complicated financial issues like budgeting, saving, and investing.

To help parents start talking about money with their children, T. Rowe Price and Disney have teamed up to launch the Great Piggy Bank Adventure, an interactive website designed for children ages 8 to 14 to teach them about important financial concepts like saving, spending, inflation, and more complicated investing concepts. In addition to the website, T. Rowe Price is also the sponsor of the Great Piggy Bank Adventure experience at Epcot Center at Walt Disney World. There, children and their parents can learn more about financial planning in a hands-on, interactive environment.

I love the idea of the Great Piggy Bank Adventure, because I think it makes financial literacy fun for kids and parents. There’s no reason to feel overwhelmed about teaching your children about money. It can even be a game!

As part of their campaign, T. Rowe Price asked me to talk to you about how you talk to your kids about money. In exchange for your participation in the discussion, you’ll be entered to win a Great Piggy Bank Adventure Flip camera provided by T. Rowe Price. Here’s how to enter:

Write a comment answering one or more of the questions below. For each question you answer, write a separate comment. Each comment will be counted as a separate entry.

That’s it! It’s easy. The winner will be chosen randomly on Friday, August 12 at 9 p.m. EST, so you have until then to enter.

Here are the questions:

  • Is it easier for you to talk about drugs and alcohol than your family finances? If so why?
  • Why do you think it is easier for parents to talk about drugs and smoking than family finances with their kids?
  • Was the topic of money “taboo” in your family growing up?
  • What advice would you give to other parents talking to their kids about the family finances?

Good luck!

Disclosure: In exchange for writing this post, T. Rowe Price provided the Flip camera for this giveaway and also provided me with a gift card for my participation. T. Rowe Price is not involved in or responsible for the outcome of this giveaway.

Photo credit

Are you managing your money, or is it managing you?

budgetingWhile visiting my best friend last weekend, we had an interesting discussion about budgeting. She and her husband are in the same place Tony and I were when we decided to start living frugally. They’re looking for ways to cut back after moving to a new city and taking a pay cut. Like a lot of 20-somethings, they have a lot of aspirations for their money, and they’re looking to make their dreams come true faster by saving more and spending less. They’re definitely on the right track.

During the conversation, we came to a conclusion that I think explains proper budgeting more simply than any way I’ve tried before: The problem is that many people choose the lifestyle they want, and they try to earn enough or stretch their money so they can live that lifestyle. Proper budgeting is the other way around. You need to look at how much money you have, and determine the lifestyle you can live with it.

This is the number one mistake I see new budgeters making. If you’re trying to make your income match the lifestyle you want, you’re setting yourself up for a life of debt, paycheck-to-paycheck living, and constantly feeling behind financially. Proper budgeting is about finding the best balance for spending the money you have.

Controlling my budget this way also makes it easier to increase savings. Extra money shows up as a surplus in our budget. I’m already used to getting by on less, so I’m more likely to throw extra money into savings. If I was constantly working on a deficit, that money would just be eaten up by daily spending.

I’m not against working harder to increase your income if you can do that. But don’t budget for that lifestyle until the money is in the bank.

Zero-based budgeting is the easiest way I’ve found to do this. If you’re setting up your first budget, don’t look at expenses first; look at income. Zero-based budgeting forces you to divvy up your income based on exactly what you earn. It allows for greater flexibility in your income. Some months you may earn more. Some months you have extra expenses. Creating a budget every month based on the money you have allows you to stay in control.

Remember, budgeting is about controlling your money. If you feel like you’re not in control of your money, it’s time to reevaluate your budget.

This article from my partners at Debt Advisory Centre * provides a little more budgeting advice.

Photo by think panama

*This post includes a link from one of my partners.