Cheap Parenting

Probably about a month ago (maybe more) when I cam home from work there was a 23″ long 1″x5″ piece of wood sitting right in the middle of our drive. Instead of picking it up and tossing it in the trash, I decided to turn it into a work of art.  There really was nothing special about the wood, it was just scrap, but I think it turned out kinda nice

My supplies

Step 1: Jason sanded the board to take the rough edges off

(Sorry no pics of this he awesomely did it while I was at work.)

Step 2: Paint the borders

You can see how insanely picky I was about this being perfect.

I used some of mom’s old craft paints. The sides and back are ivory, the “border” is a tanish color.

Step 3: While the paint was drying I designed on the computer what I wanted to be on the wall hanging. I used Open Office’s Draw program. After I printed it I just cut out the wording/background.

Step 4: I taped the sheets together on the back so the text would line up.

Step 5: Then I used the Mod Podge. Painted a coat on the board, laid the paper on top of the board and put another coat of ModPodge. (The Mod Podge acts as a glue/sealer)

You can apply as many coats as you want or feel comfortable with. Just allow it to dry in between. I will probably end up doing about 3 coats total.

Step 6: Attach a wall fastner to the back. (Sorry no pics of this either because we still haven’t done it

Step 7: Enjoy your handy work!

The wording is “Beloved” “My dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and my crown, stand fast in the Lord” Phil 4:1

This was essentially a free piece of art. The only thing I had to spend money on was the Mod Podge (which will do many projects) and Brackets to hang it up (shouldn’t cost too much). Even the program I designed it in was free

~Hambergermama

I hate spending money…. no thats not true I enjoy spending money, I just don’t like to spend a lot of money all at once… unless I am getting a TON of awesome stuff

We never have lived a very extravagant lifestyle, but around December we decided to get REALLY serious about getting rid of some of our debt. We sold our house in Wisconsin (which is a whole post or 10 in and of itself) so we no longer had housing debt, but we did have a credit card and some student loans looming over our head.  The first priority was the credit card, we haven’t used it in I don’t know how long… but we were still paying for it. Highly annoying.  So we decided to do a major whack job on our budget and get rid of it.

Somehow we found enough stuff to cut (and God blessing us with a car accident that left a little money after we purchased a replacement vehicle) that we were able to knock out 2000.00 in debt in about 2 mos. Even with that debt gone, we continued to live on our tighter budget… and you know what? We are kinda enjoying it So how did what does it look like?

Once our bills are paid (we use our checking account/debit card for all of that) We have a set amount that goes into cash envelopes (I will talk more about those later) and that is our “spending money” for the whole month. I will tell you that my total monthly spending is probably what an average family of our size would spend in one month on groceries alone. So here is how we did it (do it)

1st things first – cut out non essentials.

For us this meant one of the things that went was cable (and Sat) TV. Instead of spending a truly insane amount on a bunch of channels you barely watch we spend about 10$ a month on NetFlix.  Netflix isn’t just movies though, they also have great TV show seasons and you can stream online so you don’t even have to wait for the next disk to come in the mail. Additionally for those shows you believe you really can’t live without (LOST anyone?) most shows you can stream from the networks.

Added benefit- my schedule doesn’t get dictated by what is on TV. I can do things on a Tuesday night without having to make sure I am home.  Wed becomes LOST night, or if we are really busy that week, maybe Saturday morning is when we catch up on a favorite show. AND I don’t have to pay the extra for TiVo

But Stacy, surely there is something that you miss from TV… I have to admit, I do miss watching Fox News.  (Yes I am a nerd) But mainly during election season. So every 2 years. Worth it to cut it. We also cant’ watch sports live at home.  1. Basketball… we don’t really follow. 2. Baseball (my fave) Tom Hamilton calls a REALLY good baseball game. 3. Football. NFL one day a week and College one other day a week. If there is a game we feel we just can’t miss… well we may or may not choose to visit one of our parents during those times

So long land-line… Ok probably most of you have already made this cut, but if not its something to think about. We never used it. We have wireless internet (so don’t need phone line for that) and why do you need a land line when you can have a cell phone

We cut some stuff out of our grocery budget as well.  So long Potato chips (I do get them if they are on MEGA sale… (I’m talking buy one get one) Say hello to air popped pop corn you can get an air popper for under 20$ I think. (about 5-6 bags of chips) and 2lb of pop corn kernels at Wal-Mart for $1.50.That will make a lot of snacks

We also cut out (for the most part) pop. If at the end of the month I have money left over, we get the off brand cans from Wal-Mart. (Note: some off brands are really bad, so you might have to play around a bit. And while the cans per oz are more expensive than 2liters, they do help control the portions so it lasts longer)

I have to give Jason MAJOR kudos for both of these items, because he really does love both pop and potato chips. But he has been content with popcorn and the occasional carbonated drink. I really appreciate it!!!!

Added benefit – healthier

I also don’t buy many pre-packaged convenience foods. If we want Mac N Cheese. I make it … from scratch. Not much added time if any, and it tastes a million times better than even Kraft. If we want buns for sandwiches… I make those too. That does take a little extra work (night before I spend 5 min mixing up dough, then about a combined 10 min of prep the next day) But Jason will tell you, my homemade bread is really pretty good.

I bet if you looked really looked at what you are spending on different convenience things every month, you would see more than a few things you could do without. I dare you to try it for 1 month. I bet you probably survive.

We don’t eat out as much. This one admittedly has been tougher, since we enjoy eating out. But trust me we still survive, and I have learned (am learning) how to try and make some yummy meals at home. Including making my own egg rolls something like under 15$ gives me 30 egg rolls. Which is a lot cheaper than buying them. And… Jason liked them better than restaurant egg rolls

There is probably other stuff we cut out, but I can’t remember what they are. Which just goes to show how much we really “needed” it anyway

Steps 2 and 3 coming soon to a post near you…

So I was figuring out last night if it was really worth it for me to cloth diaper (If you know me, you know that I cloth diaper for my budget, not for the environment.) If you are concerned about the environment the benefit will be even greater =)

FYI… OS = One Size cloth diapers. They generally fit between 8-35lbs. They can range in price from $4 – $20+. Pockets, are diapers that you don’t need a separate cover for. Fitted’s are diapers that do need a separate cover but are shaped and attach around the baby like a disposable. And Prefolds are probably what you are thinking when you think about a cloth diaper. Flat that you have to kinda fold around the baby. You need to either use pins to attach, or something called a snappi and a cover.

I spent $210 on my initial stash, which included 4 OS diaper covers (from cheeky diapers) 20 med fitted diapers (used from a second hand kids sale) 12 OS pockets (from e-bay) 3 OS Fuzzibunz pockets (I actually didn’t spend any money on these, b/c I won them from a blog. Its worth it to enter those giveaways!) and 24 med (or large can’t remember) prefolds (these are the only ones I haven’t used yet since Alex isn’t quite ready for them size wise.)

When I use Sposies (for going away and to the sitters or church nursery) I get the walmart brand since those are the cheapest I have found. The price for size 2 is about $0.15 a diaper. SO with the amount I spent on my CD I could have purchased 1400 diapers. (Or since I get the jumbo packs of 92…) 15 packs.

Now Alex is a heavy wetter so I have to change him every two hours (except at night) whether cloth or sposie to prevent leaks. So that is about 7-8 diapers a day (now I can’t remember what it was like when he was a NB) Using this number I came out with 200 days of Sposies (and this number is low balled) which is about 6 mo worth of disposable diapers. But almost everything I have (and use) is OS. So that means that I can continue to diaper my child for that same price… and the next one. I will be getting some more OS pockets from e-bay which are 30 for $120. That will bring my total for both kiddos to….

$330.00 = 2,200 sposies = 275 days of sposies = 9 mos of sposies.

So… bottom line for the cost of disposable diapering one child for 9 mos I will be able to Cloth diaper at least 2 children up to 35lbs.

This of course doesn’t take into account the decrease in diaper rash cream that I need, or diaper pail liners, or wipes (since I just cut up an old towel and reuse that). Yes we do do laundry more, but I usually hang the diapers up to dry so there is little added cost for the dryer.