My "new" Cloth Diapers

So, I made a big deal a while ago about how I "hated" my old cloth diapers. I even asked for opinions ... and was told to go to disposables -- HA! Never. Anyway, that being said, I thought I would mention that I found the best cloth diapers ever -- FuzziBunz!! (Isn't it a cute name?)

1. It only takes one cycle to dry these (as opposed to 3 with the bumGenius and Kissaluvs).
2. They come with two inserts so I don't have to buy any extra if I need more absorbency. I do have to stuff them ("insert" the inserts), but that's why they dry so fast, so I don't complain about that part.
3. They go on with snaps instead of velcro - so now I don't have to worry about velco tabs staying closed in the washer/dryer and they also don't have the stiff velcro piece across his stomach which I felt was hurting his stomach when he was sitting and would be even more of a pain when he started leaning over like he does now.
4. They are "one-size" which I was totally against because I thought all the snaps to change the size looked tacky ... but my favorite part (the number one reason I love these so much) is that you change the elastic to make these looser/tighter (instead of snaps on the front).

See ... there's buttonholes in the elastic and to make it shorter/tighter around the legs you would pull the elastic through and "button" at a higher number. Which means that I can make the legs loose -- something he greatly needed with his little "chunk" thighs! (There's also elastic around the back that you can change.)
5. They are softer than the bumGenius and other cloth diapers that I tried (Kissaluvs, Thirsties).
6. I have only had one or two leaks with these diapers since I bought them in September.
7. Just to add another reason - I love these colors. They are so bright and vibrant compared to the other brands I've seen out there.

So, with all these reasons to love them, I wasn't opposed to the fact that they are one of the most expensive cloth diapers out there! (There are a couple brands that I saw were more, but not by much.)

GO FuzziBunz!!!!!

Diaper Order

I can't wait for Benedict to be here - one of the things I can't wait to "try out" is the cloth diapers! I love the BumGenius - sized diapers and have heard nothing but good things about them on all the reviews and blogs that I've read. I just got done washing everything. So here's my stack of all the diapers I just washed! Yes, there's a lot - actually 48 to be exact ... and these two sizes will only last for about the first 4-6 months. (Hopefully, he doesn't grow too quickly!!) I'm waiting to buy the next sizes until he's older and closer to using them so that I know how many to purchase.

I've been saying that I'm ready for him all this time, but really I haven't been completely ready until today, because I had to wash the diapers before we used them. I was waiting for my next order from this website so that I didn't have to pay for shipping on the laundry detergent. Cloth diapers require a special kind of detergent but you don't have to use a whole lot, so it lasts a while.

And wow! The hassle of getting them dry! I'm so glad they're not made of cotton; I heard those were even worse. I think it would've been much easier for me to get the "classic" cloth diapers - using traditional prefolds. But I still like that they're "identical" to disposables in the way you use them. It'll just take more time during washings.

We're Out of Debt!!!!!

Today, the last check is being delivered (via online bill pay) to the credit card company which means we are DEBT FREE!!!!!

I was so excited when I discovered a way to pay it off a month early. Now we can start building our emergency fund and we (God willing) will not have to worry about paying bills or not having enough money again.

This means we will also be able to have money for Robert's birthday and Christmas (which like I said here, is a big deal for us).

So, we will be able to accomplish all of our financial goals for this year. Which is so wonderful, because with the past few months getting so far off budget, I thought we were "doomed" for sure!

Frugal Chicken

Last Sunday, I cooked a whole bird for the first time in my life. I've never had people over for Thanksgiving, so I always just cook those little turkey breasts. I didn't know if I could handle doing it at first because I have this thing about not eating/looking at food that I can "tell" was alive once. Like oysters, squid, calamari, crab or lobster still in the shell, or a whole bird. When I started picking out the bones, I got a little freaked, but I kept at it and thought to myself, "what about those women who used to have to kill the chicken before they could cook it?" After that, I had a new-found sense of "I can do it".

It was easy, cheap, and not too time consuming. I paid $4.10 for a 5-lb bird at the commissary. The price was the kicker for me. When I saw it I almost didn't believe it. I've paid over $11 for 3-4 lbs of chicken breasts before!

I used this post (but she just recently posted a better "version" on her own site), plus some Q&A with my mom to cook it. Plus we get fresh, no-preservative chicken broth out of it too! I got about six-seven cups of broth total after I simmered the bones (wish I would've read that second post before I cooked it!). I got about three cups from cooking the chicken itself. I got about six cups of chicken meat out of it too! The worst part, if you want to call it that, was that by the end of the eight hours in the crock-pot, I couldn't take the chicken out in one piece. It completely fell apart on me! And the best part? Now my whole house smells absolutely wonderful!

No Spend Month

Well, I told you I would give more details, so here they are. A "No Spend Month" is a month where you set a goal, mine will be somewhere around $250, and you try not to spend ANY money over and above that. The $250 is for groceries and miscellaneous things that may pop up. But we can't spend on any frivolous items or entertainment. This helps you get back to frugality and really take a look at your spending patterns (because you won't be able to spend money like you usually do!). It can also help save money and reduce spending in the future. If done on an annual basis (or more frequently) you can really help to make these "frugal ways" a habit.

I got the idea for this "weird" adventure from these two blogs:
** Owl Haven: $75 a week Challenge
** Getting Ahead: The Month of No Spending

But I have since decided that I should wait until after the holidays to try to achieve my lofty goal, since it will be pretty hard not to spend any money during Robert's birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! It will also be "easier" not to spend if Robert is underway so I will probably have this challenge a lot next year!

No Cable: Update

Well, I was gone for a week, and wasn't watching hardly any TV while I was gone. When I got home, it was still on (for some reason - they turned it off yesterday), but I wasn't watching it then either. I've started watching my Golden Girls - Season 1 DVD. I received my Army Wives - Season 2 DVD while I was gone, so I have that to look forward to also. (I buy one DVD set with my spending money each month.)

But so far, I'm not craving TV, and I'm not feeling deprived. I think it's because I can now watch all my "regular" shows (NCIS, Law & Order: SVU, Army Wives, FlashForward) online - for free! And I won't have the temptation to sit and watch TV for hours anymore. I'm just happy to be saving $360 per year!

Money Savings: Birthdays

I'm switching my days this week since payday isn't until Tuesday - my menu plan will be up Wednesday. And I'll have a Going Back to Nature post on Friday.

Sometimes when you're trying to save money, you have to get creative with everything! So how do you save money on brithdays? Glad you asked! ...

**Make your own birthday cake - either from scratch or with a mix. There's plenty of blogs and websites with tutorials or ideas for decorating ideas. Here's a few to get you started: Barbie Cake video, Drive-in Movie Theater, Star Wars, Lego Cake.

**Forgo the decorations - they're expensive and unnecessary. Most younger kids won't even notice and you can explain to older children why you're not using them.

**If the birthday is around a holiday, you can buy decorations when they are deeply discounted and use them as decorations for the party. This could work for holidays such as Valentine's Day, Halloween, Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, etc.

**Use comics or brown paper bags for wrapping paper. You can decorate it with stamps, stickers, markers, etc. or just wrap with ribbon for a classic look.

**Serve only cake and punch in the afternoon instead of a big meal around lunch/dinner time.

**Invite only family and/or close friends instead of everyone you know! Less people = less money.

**Combine birthday parties if they're close together. This cuts your costs in half!

**Make your own invitations on the computer or with stamps (if you have them already - stamps are a big investment if not).

**Don't spend money on activities for kids. They're just as happy playing at the playground or running through the sprinkler.

**Buy second-hand gifts. There are great finds on e-bay, Craigslist, thrift shops, etc.

**Any other ideas? Leave a comment.

Going Back to Nature: Reduce Consumption

I've been running a weekly "column" called Going Back to Nature. This week I'm talking about reducing consumption.

I still get amazed by the fact that Going Back to Nature (sometimes "going green") can save so much money! There are so many ways to reduce consumption - because there's so many things that could be/need to be reduced!

**Water - Wear clothes more than once so you're not washing as often; most of the time, they're not dirty anyway. Only wash full loads of clothes. Take showers instead of baths. Cut your shower time. Use only one glass (to drink from) all day so you're washing less dishes. Run the dishwasher only when it is full.

**Packaging - Buy in bulk (if you'll use it all) to reduce packaging. Drink filtered water from the tap instead of buying bottled for home. Buy a reusable bottle to take when on-the-go ... there's times when I get a soda or water when I'm away from home and end up throwing it in the trash because there's no recycling area around.

**Electricity - Use a clothes line to dry clothes; it can actually help whiten whites too! Use CFL or even LED bulbs instead of incandescent. Lower the temperature on your heater in the winter and turn up the temp on your a/c in the summer.

**Paper - Reuse paper that only has writing on one side; I use it for my grocery lists and random notes (thanks mom!). Bank online and use e-bills. Opt-out of credit card offers and junk mail.

**Gas - Carpool. Don't drive aggressively. Observe the speed limit. Properly inflate your tires; check them once per month. Empty your trunk.

**Other - Make or buy reusable shopping bags. Use rechargeable batteries.

My Library List 8/1 - 8/7

I have started getting back into reading. Lots of reading! Remember when I said the library was a great resource for books? Well, we've been utilizing the library quite a bit lately and saved TONS of money over what it would've cost to buy all these books - plus it keeps our home "clutter-free".

Good books I've read from the library lately:

Non-Fiction, Financial
-Dave Ramsey
-- The Total Money Makeover
-- The Money Answer Book
-- Financial Peace Revisited


Fiction, Christian
-Paul Robertson
-- According to Their Deeds

Hopefully, I will be going back to the library soon as I have finished these books already (in about a week)!

More Ways to Save

Saving money is becoming a big part of my life. Right now it's because we're paying off our debts and in the future it will be for setting up an emergency fund and saving for retirement and other things. So I'm always looking for and thinking about ways to save. It's almost become my "job" - Robert makes the money and I save it!

Here's some ideas I've come across recently:

1. Reuse items instead of trashing them (or buying new). You can use a gallon ice cream bucket for soaking small stained items and plastic food containers for leftovers or to organize your desk supplies. Also, we were going to throw away our nightstand that got broken by the movers but we really needed a nightstand and decided to fix it (just needed some glue) instead of spending money on a new one.

2. Take advantage of the library. This can potentially be a huge money saver. If you buy books or movies, or rent through Netflix or at Blockbuster - why are you wasting your money? The library has tons of resources at your disposal for free.

3. Use cash (if you can't, it means you're spending above your means). This is huge. Not only because it has been statistically proven that you spend 12-18% more when you use plastic, but because it also shows you when you need to stop spending. Use envelopes. If the money is gone, you can no longer spend from that category anymore (if it's groceries ... either make do with your pantry items or take money from another category).

4. Make a few meatless meals a week. Meat can be expensive depending on what type you're buying. Beans, rice, and pasta are very inexpensive in comparison and you can make great meals with those ingredients. Another way to save with meat is to make meat a "side dish" instead of the main course of the meal or half the amount you put in casseroles, etc.

5. Make a meal plan. If you just buy food without a plan for that food that's the same as spending money without a plan for that money (most of it will go down the drain i.e. the garbage disposal). Make a plan of what meals you will serve throughout the week (or two weeks or month) and make a grocery list for those meals based on what you will need. This can save you tons of money in no last minute trips to the store, no food expiring before it's used, etc.

6. Stick to that grocery list. When you're at the store keep your eyes on what you need. If it's not on your list, it doesn't go in the cart! Even if something is a "great deal" who cares. You're buying more than you need and could potentially be throwing it away!

7. Combine all your errands. Save gas and time by running all of your errands at once. No quick trips to one place everyday. Try making one "errand trip" per week instead.

8. Stay home. The more you go out (trips to the grocery store, movies, mall, "browsing", "window shopping") the more likely you are to spend money.

9. Turn off the lights. I hardly ever use the lights when I'm at home during the day. The sun is bright enough (even with the blinds closed) that I don't need any extra. Also turn off lights when you leave a room. Even only a few minutes of the lights being on is costing you more in electricity than turning them off and back on when you return.

The Total Money Makeover

The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey was so wonderful and uplifting. I enjoyed reading the debt and money myths and the encouraging stories of others. Even though we have already started our "money makeover" without realizing that's what we were doing, I still learned a great deal about where to go from here.

Before reading this book, my favorite financial author was Mary Hunt, but I think, no I know, Dave Ramsey has surpassed my expectations, become my favorite, and his is one of the best books I've ever read.

Now that I have read this book, I'm looking forward to reading other books by Dave Ramsey. I also started listening to his radio show on the internet.

This was the first book I checked out of the library in a long time. And I'm certainly glad that I did. I definitely recommend this book to anyone with any kind of debt.

More Money Savings

One thing that I've learned through reading all the "tips and tricks" from others, is that, when saving money, not everything applies. So here are some tips that apply to us, hopefully some of them apply to you too!

**Lowest cell phone plan - Make sure that you're not spending more money that you have to. Check your bill and see if you can cut your minutes, text messages, etc.

**No home phone - For the most part, there's no reason to have a home phone. If you do need one, shop around and make sure you're getting the best plan. There is so much competition with plans, it's not worth it to stay with your current plan just for convenience.

**No cable TV - There are so many other things you can do with your time. Having a TV on can be distracting and dissuading. Sometimes I felt I "needed" to finish watching a TV show instead of finishing laundry or dusting the furniture. We've started collecting TV series DVDs so that the shows we love, we can watch anytime. It's much cheaper than cable. - Just to be fair, we haven't given it up yet, but I have a plan (in my budget) to cancel it in September.

**Budget - I've talked about this before, but I'll say it again, "If you don't know where you're money is going, you'll never get ahead."

**Give 10% - Giving to others is a wonderful way to save money. If you're focused on others, you don't need as much for yourself.

**Save 10% - Giving to yourself is important also. You have to save to get ahead. If you keep living paycheck to paycheck and have no way to deal with emergencies that come up, you'll just get into (more) debt.

**Lessen eating out - We're still working on this one, but I'm trying to get us down to just one meal out a month. The more you eat out (even fast food costs $3-10 per person) the more money you're wasting. I can make our meals at home for less than $1 to $2 per serving.

These final tips are more about being healthy than they are about saving money but I thought I would share anyway.

**No/less convenience food - Don't buy boxes, mixes, fresh or frozen doughs, or already made corn bread, oatmeal, cookies, tomato sauce/pizza sauce, bread, rolls, muffins, pizza dough. This can sometimes be more expensive because with coupons and sales processed, convenience foods can be next to nothing or even free. But it is healthier to know (and control) exactly what goes into what you're making.

**Make food from scratch - Use more fresh ingredients and whole foods. If the label has more than five ingredients or you cannot pronounce an ingredient on the label, the item is most likely not healthy and highly processed.

**Using organic - This is definitely far from saving money (as a note it is four times the price for organic milk than for non-organic milk), but eating less pesticides, herbicides, hormones, and antibiotics is better for your body. It is more natural and healthier to eat certified organic food. Think about this, if you were making this food yourself in a garden or on a farm, would you use these things (pesticides, herbicides, hormones, and antibiotics)?

Check back for more tips in the future.

Baking News

With my changes this week, I also thought it was time to start making my own breads. I think spending roughly the same amount on one loaf of bread ($2) as I would on a whole 5 lb bag of whole wheat flour ($2.50) when we buy 1 loaf per week plus tortillas, buns, and occasionally English muffins and french bread is grounds for termination of my financial duties!

But alas, I have found my money sink whole and will soon start to fill it in with all that we will be saving! Also with making my own bread comes knowing/controlling exactly what goes into it and becoming healthier for that.

Next week I think I will begin making spaghetti and pizza sauce!

Saving Money & Financial Goals

I've read a lot of books, taken classes, and read advice from other blogs and websites about how to save money. If you want to find it, there's tons of information floating around out there. My favorite "financial guru" thus far is Mary Hunt - and truth be told, she doesn't even have a degree in finance or accounting. She's just been there (in debt), and I think that's one of the most important things!

Since we've been working on getting out of debt, I thought I would share a few of the ways we save money and still live well on one income.

1. We cut our cell phone bill by 30% by making sure we got all available discounts and cutting our text message plan to the smallest one available.

2. We cut our grocery bill by 25% by planning our meals and buying less (or no) convenience foods. The only convenience foods I buy are trimmed and ready chicken breasts, spaghetti sauce, and pizza sauce. I'm going to start making our own sauces though as soon as we use up what's left in the cabinet.

3. We use our programmable thermostat and we don't have an air conditioner (we would have to buy/install a window unit ourselves). In winter, we keep the house at 70° during the day and 60° at night (the furnace doesn't even come most nights).

4. We have a budget!!! -- This is the most important thing. If you don't know where your money is going/supposed to go, you'll never get ahead.

5. We're working our butts off, more like "sacrificing our butts off", to pay off all our debt by November. We definitely made some poor choice last year and now we have to pay for it (literally)!

Goals -- by the end of the year I would like to we will have:
* All debts paid off!!!!
* Start an emergency fund
* $200 for Christmas presents ... this is kind of a big deal for me because Robert and I didn't buy Christmas presents for each other last year.

Feel free to give any advice of your own ... I'm always open to new ways to save.

Save Money - Use Cloth!

I made pizza tonight for dinner. It sure sucks having to eat it alone. I stuck the leftovers in the freezer so they'd last longer. The artichokes weren't as good the second time around. They got a pretty hard in the refrigerator.

I started researching cloth diapers today because I was reading someone's post about them last night. You know, besides the environmental problems and the diaper rash issues - did you know that you can save more than $2000 over 3 years by using cloth over disposable diapers?! And you can still save that much buying the AIO (all-in-one) one size diapers (which fit just like disposables).

I did my own price checking and used some numbers from The Cloth Diaper Whisperer. The total cost of disposable diapers and disposable wipes for 3 years is $2536. Even potty training by 2 1/2 only saves about $400 and some children aren't trained until 3 1/2! The total cost for prefolds, covers, and doublers is $326. The total cost for a starter pack (24) of AIO one size diapers and 12 doublers is $451. It's about $44 for washcloths (used for wipes), a small wet bag for the diaper bag, and a large wet bag for home. So basically even if you have to replace all your cloth diapers after one child, you're still saving $2041. These numbers do not include laundry costs (which are pretty minimal).

bumGenius products are manufactured and distributed by Cotton Babies Inc.

Day 1 (supposedly)

Not much went on today, but I did decide to start making my own peanut butter (if it's cheaper than store brand). And I'm going to make our pasta sauce too. I made it once last year and Robert and I really liked it. I don't have an excuse for why I haven't made it again - especially since we buy a jar or two almost every time we are at the grocery store. I also made a two-week meal plan - so we can lessen our grocery shopping. (We normally go every 7-10 days now).

Peanut Butter
Makes: ½ cup

1 c	dry roasted unsalted peanuts
½ - 1 T	EV olive oil
1 T	honey

Place all ingredients in food processor and blend for 3 to 5 minutes, or until desired consistency. Store peanut butter in fridge in an air tight container.

NOTE: You must have a fairly good food processor for this. When I made this, I could smell mine starting to smoke, because you have to run it for so long. Be safe!! : )

UPDATE: You can definitely add more oil or honey to your liking. Also, you could add salt since you're using unsalted peanuts. As a variation, you can make peanut butter using just peanuts by themselves (without any additions).

I'm always looking for ways to save money but it seems that we do everything suggested or it's not relevant. Sometimes we even do more than what's suggested already. The only way I think we can cut back now is if we got rid of cable TV and used The Grocery Game. - The only problem with that is I look at the coupons each week and we never use anything that's in there! If you can think of any creative ways to cut money besides the usual ones listed everywhere, let me know - leave a comment or email me.