eat! craft! live!

:: photo friday :: last year's tulips

saving money: baby

Everybody wants the best for their child. Of course. But the best doesn't have to be the most expensive. Sometime it is, true, but not always or even, dare I say, often. Here I'm going to share just some of the ways we've managed to keep costs down with our kiddo(s).

We cloth diaper. You knew I was going to lead with that one, didn't you? Smartypants. If you are interested in cloth diapering, I did a whole little series on it a while back, so I won't go into all the details again here. Cloth diapering can, if done frugally, save you a ton of money. (You could, of course, buy all very expensive, beautiful, handmade, coveted-by-all cloth diapers and spend an absolute fortune. But we won't get into that.) We use mostly prefolds at home, with Thirsties covers. For daycare and others who aren't as familiar with cloth as we are, we use almost exclusively Fuzzibunz pocket diapers. They're easy as pie to use and fit our girl just fantastically. We used a few other brands of pockets diapers, but always come back to the Fuzzibunz - they just work best for us! I've kept track of every penny we've spent on diapering - actual diapers of all kinds, cloth purchased to make diapers, wet bags, pail liners, snappis, everything. (I have not included any of the washing costs, because I wouldn't really know how to separate that out...but we don't have a dryer, so the washing costs are minimal.) The grand total (so far) for just over 25 months now of cloth diapering is a bit over $700. I bought used diapers and accessories, made my own diapers, took advantage of sales, seconds and other special offers when I did buy new things and picked up more than a few things off Freecycle. The only downside to cloth diaper expenditures is that they do largely come all at once, near the beginning of baby's life, or before they're even born, if you're a planner like me. One major bonus now is that once baby #2 makes his arrival in July, we will have next to nothing in diapering costs for the rest of the time he's in diapers! (We may need to replace a few...we'll see!) Another bonus is that there are a few diapers I already know I'll be selling, so not only will we not be buying anything (or much) new but we might also be able to make some money! $700 (give or take a bit) to get two kids from birth through potty training? I'll take it.

We buy used/get hand-me-downs. For an outfit a baby is going to only wear a few times before they outgrow it, why buy brand new? If it's something you particularly love, go ahead. Splurge. But an entire brand new baby wardrobe? Do people actually do that? We got most, and by most I mean probably upwards of 90%, of our baby clothes/accessories and gear used. Second hand children's shops can have great deals - we got a $60 playmat for E for $7. I think the only new baby gear we bought was the carseat - and a carseat is not something to mess around with. They expire and there's no way to know if it was in an accident, so a carseat is one thing that I never recommend buying used. (I'd make an exception for buying one from someone you know really well - close friends or family. You'd probably have known if they were in a car accident, right?) We have second hand nearly everything, and it all works just fine.

We make things. I'm including a lot of "things" here - diapers, clothes, plaything, etc. Yes, I made diapers. Clothes for babies, especially girls (dresses!), can be pretty easy and cheap to make. It's easy if you pick the right (simple) pattern and it's cheap because, well, they're still little and don't need much fabric to adequately cover them! At some point, probably soon, the cost of store-bought clothes will be less than the cost for me to make my own for E and that will be a sad, sad day indeed. I made several of my own stretchy wraps - for the price of a couple yards of discount jersey fabric, I have 3 lovely wraps that would have cost me an arm and a leg if they were all brand name Mobys or Sleep Wraps. (Bonus: No sewing involved!) There are a variety of other things that can be handmade, depending on what skills you and/or your loved ones have - tag blankies, wooden teethers or rattles, soft blocks and other small games and toys. And related to this...

...tissue boxes make great toys. Have you ever given a kid a nice gift only to have them be much more interested in the wrapping/box/bow? Not only can you make your own toys but you can probably repurpose lots of things in your house for a baby or small child to play with. I keep a canister of the safest kitchen utensils on the lowest shelf in the kitchen for E to play with. Rubber spatulas, wooden spoons and the like. She loves it! (Of course, I invariably end up finding kitchen implements all over the house...) Pots and pans, cardboard boxes, there is no end to a child's imagination...

We made our own baby food. E is past the age now, but for a while, I would simmer some pears, whir them with the blender and pop them in ice cube trays to freeze every week or so. Making baby food, especially simple fruit and veggie purees, is really, really easy and so much cheaper. Plus, you have the added warm fuzzy of not buying a million little jars and packages that might end up in a landfill.

These are just a few of the ways that fit with our lifestyle to save money with a baby. There are tons more! Do you have a favorite? Share in the comments!

cooking and food blogs!

My last money-saving post was about cooking and eating, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorite resources here. I tend to stick to only a few basic books and websites, because I usually find what I need there and/or just can't handle information overload. I used to subscribe to a whole bunch of beautiful food blogs, but found that they weren't practical in terms of actually cooking and eating. Some of them had beautiful photography or wonderful witty writing, but when it came to the recipes, I either didn't like them much or the ingredients were too expensive or hard to find. This (short) list is a few that I have found over time to be reliably inexpensive (at least most of the time) and suit my taste in food:

Budget Bytes - This is my newest addition to the bunch. It is what it says it is - budget conscious eating! I've tried quite a few of the recipes here and found them all to be tasty and not too difficult/time consuming to make. Plus, it gives you a cost breakdown for each one. Your costs may vary, of course, depending on where you live, what substitutions you make and a variety of other factors, but you get a general idea.

Catherine Newman - I've been following her writing/blogging progress for years. I started reading her blog over on Babycenter, back in the days before I was even contemplating having kids of my own. I followed her over here and then on to her own blog. Hers is one that I don't go to solely for recipes, though they are always good and simple and cheap. I love her writing, and always have, so check out not only the food, but the thoughts as well!

smitten kitchen - Do I even need to talk about this one? If you haven't read any posts over at smitten kitchen, just go. Do it right now. (And, um, where have you been?)

Food in Jars - For the canners and preservers among us, this is a nice resource for canning recipes. Yum!

As far as cookbooks go, I tend to stick to a few that have reliable, basic recipes. I use the Joy of Cooking to look up most anything I need to figure out. Usually they have it in there, sometimes they don't. I have several King Arthur flour cookbooks that I use for most of my baking needs. And for canning, I love this Ball book on canning.

That's just a very few of the (probably) millions of resources out there for home cooks, bakers, canners, etc! Do you have a favorite budget-friendly source of recipes? Share it in the comments!

:: photo friday :: yarn, yes yarn!

:: photo friday :: last year's spring

saving money: food!

Now this is a post that could go on and on...but I will try to refrain and stick to the basics.

Food is something that is very adjustable for most people. If there's wiggle room in a budget, it tends to be here. It's a necessity, for sure, but there are a million ways to reduce your food costs. I'm going to go over a few of the ways we save money (and don't!) in the food realm.

Please note: I feel like I need to confess that I haven't been doing many of these things since getting pregnant. While I don't feel sick exactly, I still almost never want to deal with food. I have food aversions to, well, nearly everything. *sigh* So lots of these suggestions are best case scenarios right now but I've done them all at one point or another!

We garden. This is not necessarily a money saver, but can be. We have two 4x6 raised beds in our (rented) backyard and over a dozen large pots or buckets on the porch. There is definitely skill, and a lot of luck, involved in making a garden come to life and produce edibles but if you have that skill (and good luck!) then it can make it all worth it. Last year was our first year here and if you factor in the cost of the wood to construct the raised beds, the soil, the seeds, etc. then we certainly didn't come out ahead, financially. But it is an investment. This year, we have virtually none of those costs - the beds are constructed, the soil is in place, we composted over the winter and are still using many of the seeds we bought last year. (We did need to replenish a few and of course I ordered some more because it wouldn't be my garden if I wasn't trying to fit too much into it...) But you never know how things are going to produce - our tomatoes, for example, didn't do well last year. Some of them caught early blight and others just didn't flourish. Luckily, the seedlings were a gift from a farmer friend, so we hadn't wasted any money, only garden space. On the other hand, I bought two tomatillo seedlings for a couple bucks in the spring and by fall we had baskets full of tomatillos. So many! We're still eating salsa verde I canned from those fruits.

We cook. Yes, we cook. Shocking, I know. In a world where there's a drive thru fast food joint on every corner, we make most of our meals at home. We use simple ingredients - beans, rice, pasta, veggies - and are able to keep our food costs down that way. Cooking at home can be super expensive, if you choose to cook filet mignon and out-of-season asparagus at every meal. But it doesn't have to be. And again, there is some skill involved. But with all the food blogs, cooking shows and cookbooks out there, there's really no excuse for not being able to learn. And you really don't need to stick to Kraft mac 'n' cheese and frozen food either.

We bake. I (used to) bake all our own bread products. Every loaf of bread, every tortilla, all the English muffins, any necessary cakes or pies. Recently, we've taken to buying that cheap fluffy wheat bread because I just can't seem to make a good fluffy PB&J-worthy sandwich bread at home and, well, I have a toddler. So there you go. (But that stuff is terrible for any other type of sandwich...blech.) If I have time, I make regular loaf bread - I usually use a recipe from the Joy of Cooking. And if I'm busy, but don't need the bread immediately, I make no-knead bread, which is excellent for hearty ham sandwiches and takes mere minutes to mix up. Yum. I refuse to buy store bought tortillas anymore - homemade ones are so! much! better! Seriously. If you've never had a hot, fresh, homemade tortilla...GO. Make them. Now. I'll wait.

So anyway, now that you've had some tortillas...I also make our own burger buns, for the relatively rare occasion we eat burgers, and have made our own English muffins but don't do it often as the cooking process is a bit time-consuming. Cakes, pies, cupcakes, cookies...those all are homemade too. I admit to having a weakness for boxed brownies though. Ghirardelli...yum. I also have to admit my weakness for toaster waffles. I hadn't had one in years and recently bought some and I love them. Why don't I make our own waffles and freeze them? Well, largely because we don't have a waffle iron and I don't need one more large-ish specialized kitchen gadget taking up space in my house.

We buy in bulk. Sometimes. Buying in bulk can be cheaper. But not if you buy too much of something perishable and end up throwing most of it away before you can eat it. Also, check the unit price - sometimes bulk items are not actually cheaper! For instance, at our local grocery store, organic white rice is $2.99/lb from the bulk bins but when you buy it packaged it's half that. We particularly benefit from buying larger bags of flour (for baking) and, if you ever make bread, don't ever buy those teeny packets of yeast. We buy 1 lb bricks that last most of the year in the refrigerator but even if you can't find those, buy a jar. Trust me on this. The price difference is astronomical.

If you have a co-op in your area, look into joining. Sometimes they can be very beneficial. We briefly joined our local co-op, but found that it actually wasn't cost effective, so we stopped using it. Oftentimes, it will depend on precisely what you buy from them so check it out and see if it could help your budget!

We don't eat a lot of meat. Meat is expensive. We're not vegetarians but our meat intake is low and what meat we do eat is a treat. I'll often get meat when we're out for something special (added bonus - not having to cook it!) or if we do have it at home, we buy larger packages, split it up and freeze it into smaller portions. Where do we get our protein? Lots of other places - dairy, eggs, beans, etc.

We use dry milk when we can. I know...what? Are we in the depression here? Seriously though - I buy a big box of dry milk and store it in an airtight container. When I need milk for baking or cooking, I reconstitute what I need. In situations like that, where taste isn't really the issue, it works just fine. We save our "real" milk for drinking and other occasions where it's needed. (We still go through a ridiculous amount of milk but it cuts down a little!)

We buy generic. Mostly. Through some trial and error, it's pretty easy to figure out what stuff your local grocery store stocks that's just as good (or better!) in a generic version than "name brand." Most of what we buy is generic, unless there isn't a generic option or we've discovered that the generic version is really awful. (Our local store's generic pudding for example - blech.) This comes in particularly handy at Whole Foods - I've found that many of their generic products are really good and often quite inexpensive, less than our regular grocery store often!

We rarely eat cereal. (Um, except while I'm pregnant...) Boxed cereal is expensive and much of it is highly processed and sugared and not necessarily all that good for you. It's easy, this much I admit. (And I actually love cereal. Especially right now in my lazy, food-averse, hungry-at-odd-hours pregnant state. Lately, I've been buying big bags of this all-natural Lucky Charms-type cereal and loving it. I'm embarrassed.) Usually, I make our own granola and instant oatmeal. I've blogged this granola recipe, but the one I find myself defaulting to lately is from this book - there's a honeyed granola in there that I am absolutely loving. And I can't recommend the oatmeal enough - it's super easy to whip up and if you do two batches at once, it saves even more time.

We (sometimes) make our own yogurt. It's really incredibly easy. (Just Google it - I've cobbled together a method from various blog posts and this pamphlet, which I picked up at a general store in rural Texas.) Making yogurt is very inexpensive - all you need is milk and a little bit of starter (yogurt). It sure beats paying big bucks for quarts of yogurt at the grocery store, let alone the little single serving cups. 

We can. Can! Canning, again, is one of those things that can (heh) be cost-effective, but isn't necessarily. I generally only can in-season fruits and some vegetables that I can get for relatively cheaply at our local farmers market or from my own garden. For instance, I desperately wanted to make raspberry jam last year but with raspberry prices the way they were, there was no way it would be worth it. (Financially speaking, my tastebuds think it's always worth it.) But I made blackberry jelly instead because we have blackberry bushes in our yard and thus the fruit was free! Check out my little series on canning here.

If you need some recipe ideas, feel free to follow my food board on Pinterest. I intend to pull together a list of my favorite budget-friendly food blogs, recipes and cookbooks in the near future.

So there you have it. There are probably more things that we do that I don't even think about, but these are the ones that my poor addled brain can come up with at the moment! Feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments!

:: photo friday :: someone is 2!

:: photo friday :: green and growing

saving money: cleaning, part 2

Aaaand I'm a scatterbrained blogger these days - I forgot one of our key money-saving lifestyle choices, with regards to cleaning!

We don't own a dryer.

I know. Most of you probably already hate doing laundry, why make it more difficult and time consuming? Well, the irony is that once I stopped using a dryer and started hanging all our clothes to dry, I found it a much less bothersome task. Crazy, right? I think it has something to do with everything already being all neat and tidy and separated. I don't know for sure, I only know I hated folding laundry from the dryer. Now? I totally don't mind. (And it really takes a surprisingly small amount of time to hang a load of laundry. I swear.)

Now, I don't want you thinking I have an easy time of it with this no-dryer thing. We live in Maine. For large parts of the year it is too cold to dry outside. We have several drying racks that we use inside, when that is the case. When it's nice, we have clotheslines strung across our porch and use those instead. We have a small child (soon to be 2 small children!) so I generally do a load of laundry every day, between regular laundry and diapers. Because, oh yes! We cloth diaper too! And those all get hung to dry as well. (We have separate drying racks for those that take up less space.) So it's not like I'm a single person in a warm climate where air drying would be incredibly easy. But still, I do it. It saves us money, saves electricity and as an added bonus, saves our clothes as well. Less fading, virtually no shrinking.

But I do need to plan my laundry carefully to avoid having nowhere to hang wet clothes. We have a washing schedule that I stick to religiously that allows for everything to dry fully before doing the next load. (Depending on the weather that can take anywhere from an hour or two to over a day.) We do diapers 3 times per week (MWF), then a load of whites, a load of darks and a load of baby clothes on the other days. The remaining day (Sunday, as it happens) we do whatever is left - delicate wool things, comforters, whatever is needed, though usually we don't need to wash anything on Sundays at all. It works for us!

I admit - we do on occasion bring laundry to the laundromat or my parents' house to dry, if needed. Sometimes, in January, when the baby spits up on the comforter, you just have to have it dry quickly. But do I wish I owned a dryer just for the handful of occasions every year when we actually need it? Nope.

Some interesting statistics on air drying and energy consumption by tumble dryers over here...

I know it's not for everybody but give it a shot sometime this summer, if you haven't already!

saving money: cleaning

Because I blogged our little financial history here, here and here, I thought I'd start a wee mini-series about how we make ends meet, just in case the info would be helpful to any of you out there!

We scrimp and save in a variety of ways and splurge in others. To each his own - we all need something we don't have to worry about spending money on. But I'm going to share with you some of the ways we save. This first post will be about cleaning. Household cleaning, that is.

We use cloth. We use mostly cloths that we wash and reuse to clean up basic spills and stuff around the house. Generally, they're made from old towels and whatnot that were getting too threadbare or torn to be functional anymore. We cut them up into whatever size suits us and store them under the kitchen sink. We do still buy paper towels to use for a few things, but largely we use cloth. (I really like paper towels for cleaning up at least the first pass at particular disgusting and/or greasy messes. Also, for draining bacon. *ahem*) We also use some sponges, particularly the Magic Eraser type sponges, which are awesome.

We make many of our own cleaning supplies. While we don't make everything, there are quite a few that we do. Lots of stuff can be cleaned with very hot water, castile soap (like Dr. Bronner's), borax, vinegar and a host of other simple, inexpensive ingredients. I have a Pinterest board dedicated to DIY cleaning solutions, if you'd like to check it out. There isn't a ton of stuff there yet, and I have not tried all the recipes, but the ideas are great to have! Two of the pins I use regularly are the one for dishwasher detergent and the one for the four separate cleaners, of which I am most fond of the grease cutter. (Spray that stuff on the dirty stove top, wait a few minutes, then wipe with a Magic Eraser sponge? Miraculous.)

We go natural. Some of the main cleaning ingredients we use are essential oils that have antibacterial properties. And while a small bottle of an essential oil may be fairly expensive, you generally only need a few drops of the oil in a whole container of cleaner for it to be effective. (A side note - M bought some all-purpose cleaner today, mainly because all of our spray bottles happen to be broken at the moment. The active ingredient? Thyme oil. I'm entirely sure we could have made something similar at home for a fraction of the cost.)

We don't buy things that need special cleaning. For instance, I make a point of avoiding dry clean only clothing. Not only do I not have the money to spend at the dry cleaners, but with a toddler in the house and my own tendency to spill things on myself, I don't need the hassle of running to the dry cleaners every other day. Also, chemicals. Ick.

We don't clean obsessively. This may sound like an odd one, but hear me out. By cleaning only when needed, we save on cleaning products and we save on effort. (If you're using conventional cleaners, not cleaning all the time can save you money and exposure to chemicals! Win!) Which is not to say that we leave our house dirty, we certainly don't. (Usually.) But frankly I'd rather my child(ren) be exposed to some small amount of dirt and dust than the constant presence of chemical cleaning products. (We generally don't use chemical cleaning products anyway. But you get the picture.)

And those are just a few ways that we save around the house! If you have any favorite cleaning supply recipes, please leave a comment to share, I'd love to see some more!