As of today, I am 12weeks along with my second pregnancy. This baby was "kinda" planned. Literally the day after we decided to start trying to conceive baby#2, I changed my mind. I wanted to focus on Bikini season (not that I would have been wearing one lol). So 4 weeks later, I took a pregnancy test just to be completely sure that I wasn't pregnant...Well I am.
So now it's time to revisit the conversation about the cost of having another baby. Because we kept everything from our first son, there isn't much we have to buy. We kept the infant car seat, all of Connor's clothes. We still have a bassinet. We have cloth diapers that are still in perfect condition. We kept the bottles and pacifiers. Infant tubs, changing table, infant carrier.
The things we do need to purchase, to accommodate a growing toddler, is a Toddler bed frame, a new crib mattress, a double jogger stroller. And a booster seat for when Baby#2 grows out of the infant carrier and moves up to Connors Car seat.
I am a huge fan of Hand-me-downs. All of Connors clothes come from children thrift stores. With baby #2, it won't be any different. except they will be hand down from big brother Connor. And with the babies being close together in age, All of the baby items we have are still in excellent condition.
When i was pregnant with Connor, buying all of the things we needed for a baby was so expensive. But now with baby#2 coming, I can look forward to the new addition and not worry about buying expensive baby furniture.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
"Upgrading" to a one car family
Before I had my son, I worked full time. Having two cars was a must!! Since then, I decided to stay home with our son, but being down a paycheck and still paying two hefty car notes with double the insurance, things become consistently tight around the household.
A year later after giving birth to our son, I find myself never leaving the neighborhood. My family lives on a military station. There are playgrounds for my son every corner, the Commisary and NEX is a short walking distance. The gym is a power walking distance away. Everything I need is already stocked at home.
My beloved car is parked in the garage, where I only take her out maybe once a week for a night time joy ride with our son.
I don't like to imagine selling my car, she's a really sexy ride. A sleek black sporty car fit for a car lover. But selling my car will be the smartest financial decision my husband and I will have ever made. We will be saving over $500 a month! We will be so much better off as a one car family.
My husband and I can go out on dates night more often. I can get my hair and nails done regularly.
Buy more sewing supplies, buy even more toys for our son. Finally decorate our very bare home! And most importantly, put money into a savings account and finally have piece of mind. Sounds like an upgrade to me!
We Practiced. My husband works almost 10 minutes away. I got our son ready and buckled him in the truck, I put on my mommy pants and a jacket over whatever T shirt I was wearing that night. And drove my husband to work for his overnight shift. My son Connor and I got up 6am in the morning, put on whatever we had on last night, and very sleepily picked up my husband from work. We made it there 5 minutes after his shift ended and he was standing outside in the freezing cold like an abandoned puppy.
"Can you at least try to be early!?" What a whiner he was....
And then on our way back home, I ended up getting pulled over by the military police for going 21mph in a 10mph zone. Who the hell drives that slow! I got a freaking citation, and a wag of a finger.
So we finally make it home. I asked him how our one car practice went. "Minus the speeding citation, it wasn't that bad."
We already have a buyer for my car. It will be sold this Friday. Being a one car family is not doable for every family, but I think it's a conversation every family should consider. And practice for a day!
A year later after giving birth to our son, I find myself never leaving the neighborhood. My family lives on a military station. There are playgrounds for my son every corner, the Commisary and NEX is a short walking distance. The gym is a power walking distance away. Everything I need is already stocked at home.
My beloved car is parked in the garage, where I only take her out maybe once a week for a night time joy ride with our son.
I don't like to imagine selling my car, she's a really sexy ride. A sleek black sporty car fit for a car lover. But selling my car will be the smartest financial decision my husband and I will have ever made. We will be saving over $500 a month! We will be so much better off as a one car family.
My husband and I can go out on dates night more often. I can get my hair and nails done regularly.
Buy more sewing supplies, buy even more toys for our son. Finally decorate our very bare home! And most importantly, put money into a savings account and finally have piece of mind. Sounds like an upgrade to me!
We Practiced. My husband works almost 10 minutes away. I got our son ready and buckled him in the truck, I put on my mommy pants and a jacket over whatever T shirt I was wearing that night. And drove my husband to work for his overnight shift. My son Connor and I got up 6am in the morning, put on whatever we had on last night, and very sleepily picked up my husband from work. We made it there 5 minutes after his shift ended and he was standing outside in the freezing cold like an abandoned puppy.
"Can you at least try to be early!?" What a whiner he was....
And then on our way back home, I ended up getting pulled over by the military police for going 21mph in a 10mph zone. Who the hell drives that slow! I got a freaking citation, and a wag of a finger.
So we finally make it home. I asked him how our one car practice went. "Minus the speeding citation, it wasn't that bad."
We already have a buyer for my car. It will be sold this Friday. Being a one car family is not doable for every family, but I think it's a conversation every family should consider. And practice for a day!
Monday, February 3, 2014
Rocket Bottoms In a Snap Cover Turn and Topstitch Tutorial.
This is a partial tutorial on how I did the Leg casing using the inner gusset material. The pattern I used for this diaper cover is In a snap Cover OS -by Rocket Bottoms. For more detailed instructions on how to sew this diaper cover, the pattern can be purchased on their website.
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This smiley face piece is the inner gusset, cut out 2.
**Repeat!!
Leave a FOE tail, you can snip it later, it helps when you need something to pull the elastic through the machine.
I have already sewn the "flaps" right sides to the diaper cut. Here I will sew the inner gussets to the diaper cut.
Excuse the wrinkly fingers! I do a lot of bare handed gardening :)
Here I use a Longer 3-Step Zig Zag so it won't take away the elasticity long term. Increase the length of the stitch.
I really hope this was detailed enough to follow. This is by far my favorite diaper covers in my son's rotation. They are a perfect fit! It is high enough in the front and back to completely cover flats, prefolds, and fitteds. My husband loves that he can use the flats to lay in prefolds so he doesn't have to try and Snappi a wiggly toddler. And best of all, they are mommy made :)
The Staple of my household. Cloth diapers for $80!
Making the decision to cloth diaper was not an easy one for me. I already had a laundry pile mountain high waiting to be folded. And I couldn't imagine cleaning poop! eeewww!
But the money savings was something I could simply not ignore. People spend on average $3000 on disposables per child. Cloth diapers would cost as little as $200 and can be used for multiple children. I am no environmentalist, saving money is my motivation! With my son being 2 months old, I dived right in!
I started off with flats and covers! I purchased 25 flour sack towels from wal-mart at $1 a piece. Two days worth of diapers for only $25! I was lucky enough to have a cloth diaper store in my area where I purchased 6 diaper covers for $54. So far, that's about $80 bucks for two days of diapering!
I have been an intermediate seamstress for about 8 years so I began to sew cloth diapers for my son. I made everything from pockets, fitteds, All-in-twos, covers, Hybrid Fitteds, and many others. But my favorite most reliable diaper till this day is Flour sack towels "stuffed" with a microfiber towel.
I sew my own diaper covers now. The material for each cover come up to about $2. So If I had to restart my entire diaper stash. I wouldn't spend more than $70!
But the money savings was something I could simply not ignore. People spend on average $3000 on disposables per child. Cloth diapers would cost as little as $200 and can be used for multiple children. I am no environmentalist, saving money is my motivation! With my son being 2 months old, I dived right in!
I started off with flats and covers! I purchased 25 flour sack towels from wal-mart at $1 a piece. Two days worth of diapers for only $25! I was lucky enough to have a cloth diaper store in my area where I purchased 6 diaper covers for $54. So far, that's about $80 bucks for two days of diapering!
I have been an intermediate seamstress for about 8 years so I began to sew cloth diapers for my son. I made everything from pockets, fitteds, All-in-twos, covers, Hybrid Fitteds, and many others. But my favorite most reliable diaper till this day is Flour sack towels "stuffed" with a microfiber towel.
$25- Flour Sack Towels x25
$30- Microfiber Towels x30
$12- Mommy made diaper covers x6
$69 for 2 days worth of diapers!!!
$70+ on cloth diapering vs $3000 in disposables. For that amount of savings, I can handle scrubbing poop!
No need for intro's!
My name is Oliver. I am another blogging mommy with ideas that I want to share. I am constantly finding new ways for my family to save money. When I come up with new ideas, I will share them with you.
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