Making ends meet

So things are pretty tight financially speaking. I am just grateful that Dan the man is still employed. Others have not been so fortunate and are still trying to dig out. Its grim ya know? Being the optimist that I am I have been trying to scrimp and save. I have been cutting corners and it has been stressful and just not fun. I decided I needed a different perspective on things.

I made up my mind that this frugal new life style was not going to be a burden or a panic inducing. It could be fun. It could be a challenge! I like a challenge. I would see how many things I could do on my own. How much could we support ourselves the old fashioned way? I already do a lot of cooking but there were still things that I could do in that area to pinch a few more pennies. So I decided to take some of my favorite eat out meals and make them at home. I learned to make our favorite Indian dish, some Chinese, and make a pretty good homemade pizza. I decided to whip up some bean and cheese burritos with my own cheese sauce to compensate for Dan's love of Taco Bell. I froze them and the kids and Dan have really devoured them. Tomorrow I am going to do the same with breakfast burritos.

I also learned how to make homemade laundry soap. Now I saw the Duggars make it on tv and I saw some interesting methods on pinterest, but honestly I am too dang busy cooking all day to be melting soap on my stove top. Not gonna happen. Then I came across a powdered version that is just as cheap and takes minutes to throw together. I have been washing my clothes in it for a few weeks now and I am convinced it works just as well as the store bought liquid I was using before. Cha-ching.

The biggest leap by far has been in the area of diapering. I would cringe every time I picked up that huge case of diapers from Costco and those packages of pull ups from Wally world. In case you don't have a little one in diapers or disposable pants of some sort, THEY ARE FREAKIN EXPENSIVE! And the biggest shame of it all is they just go in the trash. I felt like I was literally throwing my money in the trash because mostly I was. Then a saintly friend of mine posted pics of her cloth diapers. I had always thought the whole notion was ridiculous and pretty gross, but after a trip to the diaper store and a walk through of my options I was sold. It is nothing like I imagined and I don't have to touch poop. Well, not on purpose anyway. It was a sizeable up front investment, but I think it has been well worth it to be done with the worry of running out and making a late night diaper run. I have also noticed that there have been zero rashes since we switched to cloth.

Since it was working so well with baby I decided to ditch the pull ups for cloth trainers. I have 2 that still wet at night so this was also a big time cost. I have been very pleased with the cloth trainers and the kids don't seem to mind. I wash a load of diapers and trainers with inserts every day since I don't have enough to last more than about a day and a half. I already do 2-3 loads a day anyway. So what's one more? I am happy to not spend the money and honestly the gross factor in almost nonexistent. Its really not much different that changing a disposable. They are super cute and better for baby and my wallet. They have really come along way. I only wish I had known about them with baby number 1. We could have saved thousands already. We could go to Hawaii.

Anywho, that is what I have been up to lately. Warshing diapers and making as much as I can from scratch. I thought I would try gardening, but that is not likely when I can't even keep a house plant alive. I really can't picture myself in gardening shoes......unless they were all blinged out. Now there is a strange mental image.....